What Does Romans 14:19 Mean?
So then let us pursue the things that move toward wholeness, and the things that build one another up.
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
Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.THE KEY
Peace is something you pursue, and edifying one another carries the image of building a shared house.
THE MEANING
Right now, wholeness is a direction you can pursue, and another person’s strengthening belongs inside that movement. The word translated “edify” carries the image of building a house, placing peace and mutual strengthening side by side. The verse speaks of what moves between people toward a more whole shared life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Peace is not merely the absence of conflict or a private feeling of calm; here it is joined to active pursuit and to building another person up.
THE ROOT
οἰκοδομή
oikodomē
GROWS FROM
οἶκος + δομέω (oikos + domeō)
House + build; the work of house-building.
“build one another up” in this verse is oikodomē. The word translated “edify” carries a building image: strengthening another is like contributing to a house. Peace and mutual strengthening belong to the same shared work.
ALSO GROWS
oikodomeō: To build, build up, or edify.
οἰκοδομέω
This verb makes the building image active: another person is being built up.
oikodomos: Builder.
οἰκοδόμος
The word family can name the one doing the work, as well as the building itself.
διώκω
diōkō
GROWS FROM
διωκ-
diōk-
Pursue or press after; when hostile, persecute.
“pursue” in this verse is diōkō. “Follow after” can sound incidental in English, but διώκω carries the force of pursuit. The same word family can describe persecution when that pursuit is hostile; here its force is directed toward peace and mutual strengthening.
ALSO GROWS
diōgmos: Pursuit or persecution.
διωγμός
It shows how the same pursuit can become hostile when directed against people.
diōktēs: Persecutor.
διώκτης
The pursuer is named by the same word family, revealing the force carried by “follow after.”
εἰρήνη
eirēnē
GROWS FROM
εἰρην-
eirēn-
Peace, concord, wholeness.
Peace here opens toward wholeness, not only quiet. The word family includes the peacemaker, showing that peace can be enacted between people; this verse joins that wholeness to the work of building one another.
ALSO GROWS
eirēnikos: Peaceful or peaceable.
εἰρηνικός
It describes a quality shaped by peace, rather than peace as a passing mood.
eirēnopoios: Peacemaker.
εἰρηνοποιός
It names someone who makes peace, echoing the active pursuit in this verse.
THE PATTERN
Scriptural peace is pursued through concrete acts that strengthen the life shared with others.
Turn aside from evil and do good; seek wholeness and pursue it.Let no rotten word come out of your mouth, but whatever is good for building up where there is need, that it may give favor to those who hear.Therefore, comfort one another and build one another up, just as you are already doing.THE THREAD
Let no rotten word come out of your mouth, but whatever is good for building up where there is need, that it may give favor to those who hear.“Edifying” comes from the same Greek word family, οἰκοδομή (oikodomē), as “edify” in Romans 14:19. It makes mutual strengthening concrete: what passes between people can become part of the structure that builds another up.
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