What Does Philippians 4:14 Mean?
Nevertheless, you have done well, sharing in common my pressure.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction.THE KEY
“Communicate” means to share in common: care crosses into another person’s pressure instead of remaining words sent from outside it.
THE MEANING
Your shared care is good because you enter another person’s pressure and stand with them there. The affliction remains real, yet it is no longer treated as something one person must carry alone. Here, companionship means participation, not merely concern.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Support is not only words or sympathy offered from outside someone’s trouble; it can mean sharing in what they bear.
THE ROOT
συγκοινωνήσαντες
sygkoinōnēsantes
GROWS FROM
κοιν-
koin-
Common, shared; the core of words for sharing and partnership.
The Greek verb συγκοινωνέω (sygkoinōneō, share together) carries the sense of entering a share in something. The word rendered “communicate” here reaches beyond exchanging words: their care makes his affliction something they participate in with him.
ALSO GROWS
koinōnia: sharing in common
κοινωνία
This established word for shared participation makes clear that the verse describes a bond formed through sharing, not just communication.
koinōnos: partner or participant
κοινωνός
A partner has a share in what is happening; the Philippians stand in relation to the affliction as participants.
koinōneō: share or participate
κοινωνέω
This verb names the act beneath the verse: making a share in another’s condition.
θλίψει
thlipsei
GROWS FROM
θλιβ-
thlib-
To press, squeeze, or put under pressure.
The Greek noun θλῖψις (thlipsis, pressure or affliction) carries the image of being pressed. Against that concrete pressure, the sharedness of the first word matters: they do not merely hear that he is afflicted; they join him in it.
ALSO GROWS
thlibō: press, squeeze, or afflict
θλίβω
The verb names the pressing behind the condition called affliction.
thlipsis: pressure or affliction
θλῖψις
This noun names the pressure that the Philippians share with him.
THE PATTERN
Care becomes shared life when people enter another’s burden, suffering, or sorrow alongside them.
But Moses' hands were heavy. And they took a stone and set it under him, and he sat upon it. And Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on this side and the other on that side, and his hands were steady until the sun went down.But rejoice, as you share in common the sufferings of the Anointed One, so that when his weight is uncovered, you may also leap with exceeding joy.Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.THE THREAD
As it is aligned for me to think this of you all, because I hold you in my heart, all of you are sharing in common in my favor, both in my bonds and in the answering and steadying of the good news.“Partakers” here is κοινωνός (koinōnos, partner or participant), from the same shared-word family as “communicate” in Philippians 4:14. The bond includes his imprisonment and his work for the gospel: what is shared reaches both affliction and favor.
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