What Does Romans 15:2 Mean?
Let each of us please the neighbor for the good, toward the building 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 every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.THE KEY
“Edification” is house-building: the neighbor’s good is where your shared life takes shape.
THE MEANING
Your regard for the person near you is directed toward their good, and that good strengthens what is being built in them. Pleasing them has a purpose beyond approval: it serves the forming of a life that can stand.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a choice is good simply because it satisfies you dissolves here: its direction matters, it turns toward the neighbor’s good and strengthens their life.
THE ROOT
οἰκοδομή
oikodomē
GROWS FROM
οἶκος + δέμω (oikos + demō)
House + build: to build a house.
“the building up” in this verse is oikodomē. “Edification” can sound like an abstract improvement, but this Greek word pictures a structure being built. The neighbor’s good is not just a pleasant feeling; it is what helps give shared life strength and form.
ALSO GROWS
oikos: house, household
οἶκος
The building image begins with a dwelling; the verse points toward strengthening life with others.
oikodomeō: build a house, build up, edify
οἰκοδομέω
This verb names the act of building up that the verse expresses as the purpose of seeking the neighbor’s good.
oikodomos: builder
οἰκοδόμος
The same word family pictures care as participation in something being raised, not merely approval given.
THE PATTERN
A choice reaches its full good when it strengthens life shared with someone else.
The living soul of blessing is made fat, and the one who waters is himself watered.So then let us pursue the things that move toward wholeness, and the things that build one another up.All things are open to me, but not all things bring together. All things are open to me, but not all things build up.THE THREAD
So then let us pursue the things that move toward wholeness, and the things that build one another up.“Edify” translates the same Greek word family as “edification” here: οἰκοδομέω (oikodomeō), meaning “build up.” The nearby verse makes the image communal: peace is pursued through what helps another person grow stronger.
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