Let me start off by stating that you do not need to know Greek to understand the Bible.
That is worth saying at the beginning because discussions about the biblical languages can unintentionally make ordinary Christians feel as though their English Bible is inadequate. It isn’t. Faithful English translations give us the Word of God clearly, and a Christian can spend a lifetime reading, studying, memorizing, and obeying the Bible in English without ever learning a single character from the Greek alphabet.
Still, knowing a little Greek can be helpful.
The New Testament was written primarily in Koine Greek, the common Greek language of the first-century world. Learning some important Greek words can help us notice connections, understand theological ideas more clearly, and appreciate some of the richness behind our English translations.
There is also a danger here. People sometimes treat Greek words as though they contain secret meanings hidden from everyone except scholars. You may have heard someone say, “The English says this, but the Greek really says…” Sometimes that observation is helpful. Other times, the person knows just enough Greek to make a bad argument sound impressive.
Greek words work much like English words. They can have a range of possible meanings, and their meaning in a particular passage depends upon context, grammar, how the author uses the word, and how it fits into the argument of the passage.
So I am not suggesting these twenty words unlock a “secret level” of Christianity. They do not.
Instead, I have divided this list into two parts. The first ten words help us understand some of the New Testament’s central themes. The final ten are different. These words frequently appear in theological disputes, and understanding what the Greek does and does not mean can help us read Scripture more carefully.
If I were encouraging a Christian to begin learning Koine Greek vocabulary, these are twenty words I would want him to know.
Part One: 10 Foundational Greek Words Every Christian Should Know
1. Logos (λόγος) – Word
Most Christians who know one Greek word probably know logos.
Logos can refer to a word, message, statement, account, or reason depending on its context. But Christians especially recognize it because of the opening of John’s Gospel:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).
John identifies Jesus Christ as the Logos, the Word. A few verses later, he tells us, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).
John’s point is enormous. The eternal Son of God entered His creation and took on human flesh. Jesus did not begin to exist in Bethlehem. He was already there “in the beginning.” He was with God, and He was and is God.
We also encounter logos throughout the New Testament in more ordinary ways, especially when the writers speak about God’s Word, the message of the gospel, or something that has been spoken.
For the Christian, this word should remind us that Christianity is built upon God’s revelation. We do not discover God by looking deeply inside ourselves. God speaks. He reveals Himself. Ultimately, He has revealed Himself in His Son and has given us His written Word so that we may know the truth.
2. Agapē (ἀγάπη) – Love
Agapē may be the most famous Greek word in Christian circles.
It is usually translated “love,” and it appears in some of the most familiar passages in the New Testament. Paul uses it throughout 1 Corinthians 13. John uses it when he writes, “God is love” (1 John 4:8).
We should be careful with a common oversimplification, however. You will sometimes hear that agapē always means “God’s unconditional love,” while other Greek words describe inferior forms of love. Actual Greek usage is more complicated than that. What matters is how the biblical writers use the word in context.
In the New Testament, agapē frequently describes the kind of self-giving love that should characterize God’s people because they have first been loved by God. John writes, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
Biblical love is more than warm feelings. It acts for the good of another person. It tells the truth, forgives, sacrifices, and serves. As Paul writes, love “does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6).
That makes agapē a deeply practical word. A man who says he loves his wife should be able to point to the ways that love shapes his patience, faithfulness, sacrifice, and speech. Christians who say they love one another should demonstrate that love through life together in the local church.
3. Charis (χάρις) – Grace
If you understand charis, you are getting close to the heart of the gospel.
The word is normally translated “grace” and carries ideas of favor or gift. In the New Testament, it becomes deeply connected with God’s gracious action toward undeserving sinners.
Paul writes:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).
Grace destroys any and all boasting.
The Christian does not stand before God because he cleaned himself up, became religious enough, performed enough good works, or managed to balance the scales. Salvation comes because God is gracious.
But grace should never be reduced to God simply overlooking our sins. God does not pretend sin does not matter. Christ bore the judgment our sin deserved. At the cross we see both the seriousness of sin and the greatness of God’s grace.
Grace also changes the way we live. Titus 2:11-12 tells us that the grace of God trains us “to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives.”
The grace that saves us also teaches us how to live.
4. Paraklētos (παράκλητος) – Helper, Advocate, Comforter
Paraklētos, often written in English as “Paraclete,” is difficult to capture with a single English word. Depending upon the translation and context, you may see it rendered “Helper,” “Advocate,” “Counselor,” or “Comforter.” The word describes someone who comes alongside another to help or advocate for him.
Most Christians who know the word Paraclete associate it with the Holy Spirit, and rightly so. Jesus uses paraklētos several times in the Upper Room Discourse as He prepares His disciples for His departure.
Jesus tells them, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever” (John 14:16). He later says, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things” (John 14:26).
The Holy Spirit is our Paraclete. He is not an impersonal force or merely the power of God at work in the world. He is the third Person of the Trinity, fully and eternally God. He dwells within believers, teaches us through the Word He inspired, bears witness to Christ, convicts the world concerning sin, strengthens God’s people, and remains with us forever.
But there is something in Jesus’ wording in John 14:16 that we can easily overlook. Jesus says the Father will give the disciples “another Helper.” Jesus Himself is also a Paraklētos.
John makes this explicit in his first letter: “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). The Greek word translated “advocate” is paraklētos, the same word John uses for the Holy Spirit in his Gospel.
The Son is our Paraclete before the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the “other Paraclete” whom Christ sends to dwell with His people.
This gives us a beautiful glimpse of the work of the Trinity. The Father has not saved us through the Son and then left us to finish the Christian life by ourselves. The Son intercedes for us before the Father, while the Spirit dwells within God’s people. Salvation from beginning to end is the gracious work of the triune God.
5. Metanoia (μετάνοια) – Repentance
This is a word the modern church desperately needs to understand.
Metanoia is usually translated “repentance.” Its related verb, metanoeō, means “to repent.”
Repentance involves a change of mind, but we should not reduce it to merely thinking differently. Biblical repentance involves a changed mind toward God and sin that results in a changed direction of life.
When Jesus began preaching, His message included the command, “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).
Repentance essentially means “I stop defending my sin and agree with God about it. I turn from rebellion and turn toward Him.”
That does not mean Christians reach sinless perfection in this world. We continue battling the flesh throughout this life. But repentance becomes part of the normal Christian life. A disciple of Jesus should increasingly become someone who is quick to confess sin rather than excuse it.
Christian maturity is not measured by how good we become at hiding our weaknesses. Mature Christians become better repenters. When Scripture exposes us, we submit to it. When we sin against someone, we confess it. When God reveals an area of disobedience, we seek His grace to change.
6. Dikaiosynē (δικαιοσύνη) – Righteousness
Dikaiosynē is usually translated “righteousness.” This word becomes especially important in Romans, where Paul explains our desperate problem and God’s gracious solution.
We need righteousness because we are not righteous.
Romans 3 removes every ground for human boasting. “None is righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). Yet later in the chapter Paul speaks about “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” (Romans 3:22).
This takes us into the glorious doctrine of justification. A sinner cannot make himself righteous enough to stand before a holy God. We need a righteousness outside ourselves. Through faith in Christ, the believer is declared righteous before God on the basis of Christ’s work.
This should produce tremendous humility and tremendous confidence. We have nothing in ourselves about which to boast, yet our standing before God does not rest upon how well we performed this week. Our hope rests upon Jesus Christ.
Our obedience flows from our acceptance before God rather than becoming the basis for it.
7. Hagios (ἅγιος) – Holy
Hagios means “holy” and carries the idea of being holy or set apart for God.
We see it in the title “Holy Spirit,” but the word is also frequently used to describe Christians. In fact, the word commonly translated “saints” is related to hagios. The New Testament’s saints are not an elite class of unusually spiritual Christians. Believers are God’s holy people, set apart as His possession.
That identity comes with a calling. Peter writes, “As he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct” (1 Peter 1:15). Holiness is not a side project for unusually serious Christians. Every disciple of Jesus is called to pursue it.
That includes what we watch, how we speak, what we do with our bodies, how we handle money, how we treat our families, and what we allow into our minds. Holiness reaches into ordinary life because Christ’s lordship reaches into ordinary life.
We belong to Him.
8. Koinōnia (κοινωνία) – Fellowship
Christians often use the word “fellowship” to describe hanging out and drinking coffee after church or sharing a meal. Those things can certainly involve fellowship, but koinōnia goes much deeper.
The word carries ideas such as fellowship, active participation, sharing, and partnership.
Acts 2:42 says the early believers “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Christian fellowship grows from our shared life in Christ.
This is one reason church involvement cannot be reduced to occasionally attending a Sunday service. Christians are joined to Christ and, therefore, joined to one another. We sing together. We worship together. We learn and pray together. We carry one another’s burdens. We serve one another and help younger Christians grow.
The New Testament knows very little of the isolated Christianity common in our modern culture.
You need the church, and your church needs you.
Koinōnia reminds us that following Jesus is personal, but it was never intended to be solitary.
9. Mathētēs (μαθητής) – Disciple
Mathētēs means “disciple,” “learner,” or “student.”
This word deserves much more attention because Jesus did not merely call people to make a “decision” about Him and then go back to their old lives. He called people to follow Him.
A disciple attaches himself to a teacher in order to learn from him and follow his way of life. When Jesus says, “Follow me,” He is claiming authority over the entire person.
Jesus later commands His followers: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).
Notice the mission. We are to make disciples.
Evangelism is essential to that mission, but discipleship does not end when someone professes faith. We baptize disciples and teach them “to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20).
That means churches should be thinking about more than mere attendance. Fathers should be thinking about more than getting their children into a church building. Christian men should be thinking about more than consuming sermons and podcasts. The question is whether we are actually learning to obey Jesus and helping others do the same.
10. Kyrios (κύριος) – Lord
Finally, in our foundational ten, we come to kyrios, usually translated “Lord” or “Master.”
The word can sometimes function as a respectful form of address, something like “sir,” but when applied to Jesus in many New Testament contexts it carries enormous theological weight.
The earliest Christian confession was not merely that Jesus could improve your life. “Jesus is Lord.” It was the way they addressed His divinity.
Paul writes that if you confess with your mouth that “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9). Calling Jesus Kyrios means recognizing His authority.
Jesus is not a spiritual consultant who offers suggestions for improving an otherwise self-directed life. He is King. He has authority over our marriages, families, sexuality, money, careers, churches, ambitions, and private lives.
Jesus Himself asked, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46). That question should search every Christian heart.
Part Two: 10 Controversial Greek Words Christians Should Understand
The next ten words require a slightly different approach.
I am calling them “controversial” because these Greek words frequently appear in theological debates. Some concern church leadership. Others involve baptism, sexuality, marriage, or the person of Christ.
Before examining them, we need to establish an important rule of Bible study: Knowing the Greek word does not automatically settle the argument.
One of the easiest mistakes in Bible study is what we might call the “dictionary fallacy.” Someone looks up a Greek word, discovers that a lexicon gives four or five possible definitions, chooses the definition that supports his position, and announces, “That’s what the Greek really says.”
That is not how language works.
Imagine someone looking up the English word “bank.” A dictionary might tell him it can refer to a financial institution, the side of a river, or the act of tilting an airplane. He cannot then insert whichever definition he prefers into a sentence.
We must remember that context determines which meaning is intended. Greek works the same way.
The better question is rarely, “What does this Greek word mean?” The better question is, “What does this Greek word mean here in this passage, in this chapter, in this book?”
With that in mind, these next ten words can help us think more carefully about several important Christian doctrines.
11. Doulos (δοῦλος) – Slave, Servant
Doulos is frequently translated “servant,” especially in older English translations. But the word commonly means “slave.”
Paul repeatedly describes himself as a doulos of Christ.
For example, Romans begins, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle” (Romans 1:1). The word translated “servant” is doulos.
Why is that important? A servant can easily sound to modern ears like an employee. He works for someone but retains his basic independence. A slave belongs to a master.
Of course, we need historical care here. Slavery in the first-century Roman world was not identical in every respect to the race-based chattel slavery practiced in American history. We should neither ignore those differences nor sanitize ancient slavery.
But we also should not soften Paul’s language until following Christ sounds voluntary in the modern consumer sense.
Christians belong to Jesus. Paul tells the Corinthians, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). That cuts against our culture’s deepest instinct: “My life belongs to me.”
The Christian says something very different: My life belongs to Christ.
12. Kephalē (κεφαλή) – Head
Kephalē means “head,” but its significance has become controversial because of passages dealing with marriage and male headship.
Paul writes:
“But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God” (1 Corinthians 11:3).
He similarly writes in Ephesians 5:23 that “the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church.”
Some egalitarian interpreters have argued that kephalē should primarily be understood as “source” rather than carrying the idea of authority. Complementarian interpreters have generally argued that Paul’s use includes leadership and authority.
Simply opening a Greek dictionary will not resolve the disagreement. We have to ask how Paul uses the word in these particular passages and how those passages fit his broader teaching.
In Ephesians 5, Paul’s explanation of headship is modeled after Christ’s relationship with His church. That certainly rules out domineering, selfish leadership. A husband who appeals to “headship” as an excuse to bully his wife has badly misunderstood Christ.
Biblical headship calls a husband to sacrificial responsibility. “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25).
The pattern is Christ Himself. A husband’s leadership should therefore look increasingly like the sacrificial love of Jesus, who uses His authority for the good of His bride.
13. Authenteō (αὐθεντέω) – Exercise Authority
Authenteō appears in one of the most disputed passages concerning women and church leadership:
“I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man” (1 Timothy 2:12).
Because the word is relatively uncommon, considerable debate surrounds its precise meaning.
Some interpreters argue that Paul is prohibiting abusive, domineering, or improperly seized authority rather than the ordinary exercise of authority. On that interpretation, Paul is addressing a particular abuse rather than restricting women from the pastoral teaching office.
That argument deserves to be considered from the text rather than dismissed with a dictionary entry. But the surrounding passage creates serious difficulties for it.
Paul connects teaching and exercising authority, and then grounds his instruction in the creation of Adam and Eve: “For Adam was formed first, then Eve” (1 Timothy 2:13).
Paul does not ground his argument merely in a local Ephesian problem or something that is only an issue with an individual church. He goes back to creation. That makes this command universal.
Whatever precise shade of meaning authenteō carries, we should be very cautious about assigning it a highly negative meaning simply because doing so removes the difficulty of Paul’s teaching.
The question must remain: What did Paul mean here?
14. Porneia (πορνεία) – Sexual Immorality
Porneia is commonly translated “sexual immorality.”
It is an important word because contemporary discussions of Christian sexual ethics sometimes attempt to narrow biblical prohibitions to exploitative or abusive sexual behavior.
But porneia functions broadly within the biblical sexual ethic. Jesus uses the term in His teaching about what comes from the sinful human heart (Matthew 15:19). Paul repeatedly warns believers to flee sexual immorality. In 1 Corinthians 6:18 he commands, “Flee from sexual immorality.”
The boundaries of porneia are not established by twenty-first-century Western assumptions about sexuality. They come from God’s revealed design for sex.
Scripture consistently places sexual intimacy within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman. Sexual activity outside those boundaries falls under the Bible’s condemnation of sexual immorality. That means biblical sexual ethics cannot be reduced to consent.
Yes, consent certainly matters, as sexual coercion and abuse are wicked. But two adults agreeing to something does not make the behavior righteous before God. Our bodies belong to the Lord, and what He says is the truth and is good.
15. Arsenokoitai (ἀρσενοκοῖται) – Men Who Have Sex With Men
Few New Testament Greek words have received more attention in recent cultural debates than arsenokoitai. The word appears in 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10.
Its construction is important. It combines arsēn, meaning “male,” with koitē, meaning “bed,” a word that can carry a sexual sense.
Even more significant is the likely Old Testament background. The Greek translation of Leviticus uses these terms together in its prohibition of a male lying sexually with another male. Paul’s terminology appears to draw upon that biblical language.
Some modern arguments attempt to restrict arsenokoitai to “abusive” homosexual relationships, prostitution, pederasty, or economic exploitation.
Those proposals face substantial difficulty, particularly when Paul’s language is read against the Old Testament background and alongside his broader teaching in Romans 1:26-27.
But Christians must handle this subject pastorally and in the context of all other sin. We should not treat homosexual sin as though it belongs to a uniquely wicked category beyond the reach of grace. The same passage that includes homosexual conduct also condemns other forms of sexual immorality, greed, drunkenness, theft, and other sins.
Then Paul tells the Corinthians: “And such were some of you” (1 Corinthians 6:11).
That is the hope of the Gospel! Christ calls sinners out of every form of rebellion. He forgives, cleanses, justifies, and sanctifies His people.
16. Baptizō (βαπτίζω) – Baptize, Immerse
Now we arrive at a controversy Christians have been debating for centuries.
Baptizō is the Greek verb from which we get the English word “baptize.” The word commonly carries the sense of dipping, immersing, submerging, or washing.
Baptists understandably point to the lexical meaning as one piece of evidence supporting baptism by immersion. But this is another place where we need methodological humility.
The meaning of baptizō contributes to the discussion, but a dictionary definition alone cannot settle every question about baptism.
We still need to ask who was baptized in the New Testament, what baptism signifies, how baptism relates to conversion and discipleship, and what the narrative examples show us.
From a Baptist perspective, the cumulative picture points toward the baptism of professing believers by immersion.
In Matthew chapter 3, we find John the Baptist baptizing people in the middle of the Jordan River; in particular, Jesus, in verses 13-17. Matthew 3:16 says, “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water…” The state of being in water and coming out does not imply a mere sprinkling or mild pouring of water over someone’s head.
In Acts, people hear the gospel, believe, and are baptized. In Romans 6, Paul describes baptism using the imagery of burial and resurrection with Christ. Full immersion in water fits this description perfectly; people are dying (being brought down in water) and being raised to new life in Christ (coming up out of the water).
That pattern fits the idea of immersion naturally.
If the New Testament writers wanted to impress that it could have been a sprinkling of water on someone, they could have used the word ραντιζω (rhantizo), which means “sprinkling.”
But we should make the argument from the whole biblical picture rather than pretending one Greek definition settles a centuries-old theological disagreement.
17. Presbyteros (πρεσβύτερος) – Elder
Presbyteros means “elder.”
The word has a broader range of usage and can sometimes simply refer to an older person. But in the New Testament church, it becomes a title for recognized spiritual leaders within local congregations.
Paul and Barnabas “appointed elders for them in every church” (Acts 14:23).
Peter similarly addresses “the elders among you” and tells them to shepherd God’s flock (1 Peter 5:1-2).
The word emphasizes the mature character and recognized leadership of these men.
But something particularly interesting happens when we compare presbyteros with our next Greek word.
18. Episkopos (ἐπίσκοπος) – Overseer
Episkopos means “overseer.” Older English translations sometimes render it “bishop.”
That English word can create confusion because later Christian traditions developed a three-tier structure consisting of bishops, priests or presbyters, and deacons. A bishop eventually became understood as a church officer above ordinary elders or pastors. Yet the New Testament itself presents a different picture.
Acts 20 is especially important in our understanding of the term. Paul calls for the elders, the presbyteroi, of the church at Ephesus (Acts 20:17). When these same men arrive, Paul tells them that the Holy Spirit has made them overseers, episkopoi, to care for or shepherd the church of God (Acts 20:28).
Therefore, elders are the overseers.
Titus 1 gives us a similar pattern. Paul tells Titus to “appoint elders in every town” (Titus 1:5). A few sentences later, while describing the qualifications for these men, Paul says, “For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach” (Titus 1:7).
Again, elder and overseer describe the same office.
Add the shepherding language of Acts 20 and 1 Peter 5, and the New Testament picture becomes quite clear: an elder oversees and shepherds God’s people.
This has practical implications for how we think about pastors. A pastor is not fundamentally a religious CEO, motivational speaker, or platform-building personality. He is an elder charged with overseeing and shepherding a particular flock entrusted to his care, and any elder/overseer, even if he is not on the payroll of the church, is a pastor.
19. Ekklēsia (ἐκκλησία) – Church, Assembly
Ekklēsia is normally translated “church.”
This word gives us an opportunity to correct one of the most common mistakes in popular Greek word studies.
You may have heard someone say that ekklēsia “literally means the called-out ones.” That sounds impressive, but it is a poor way to determine what a word means.
Words are not necessarily defined by taking them apart and adding up the historical meanings of their pieces. English gives us plenty of examples. A “butterfly” is not a fly made out of butter. A “pineapple” is neither a pine nor an apple.
Likewise, the meaning of ekklēsia is established by how Greek speakers actually used it. The word means an “assembly” or “congregation.” In the New Testament it commonly refers to the assembly of God’s people, the church.
This actually gives us something more useful than the popular “called-out ones” explanation. The church is a people.
The New Testament can certainly speak of the universal church, all those united to Christ. But ekklēsia repeatedly refers to identifiable local congregations.
That should challenge the increasingly popular idea that a Christian can faithfully follow Jesus while remaining disconnected from a local church. Christ did not merely save isolated individuals. He gathers a people.
20. Monogenēs (μονογενής) – Only, Unique, One and Only
Our final word takes us back to Jesus Christ. Monogenēs appears in some of the most beloved passages in the New Testament, including John 3:16.
Older English translations famously describe Jesus as God’s “only begotten Son.” Many modern translations use language such as “only Son,” “one and only Son,” or “only begotten Son.”
The translation question has generated considerable discussion. Older explanations sometimes treated monogenēs as though the word itself directly described the act of begetting. Modern lexical study generally understands it along the lines of “only,” “unique,” or “one and only.”
That has led some people to conclude that the historic Christian doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son was based upon a mistranslation. That conclusion goes too far, in my opinion.
The doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son does not stand or fall upon the etymology of monogenēs. It arises from the broader biblical revelation concerning the eternal relationship of the Father and the Son.
John tells us that the Son existed eternally with God and as God (John 1:1). He speaks repeatedly of the unique Father-Son relationship within the Godhead. The Son shares the Father’s glory before the world existed (John 17:5).
So better lexical work can correct a weak argument for a true doctrine without disproving the doctrine itself. That is an important lesson.
We should want our theology to rest upon what Scripture actually says rather than upon clever word studies, even when those word studies appear to support something we already believe.
Greek Is a Tool, Not a Trump Card
After looking at these twenty words, we should come back to where we started – you do not need to know Greek to know Christ.
Similarly, you do not need a seminary degree to understand the gospel, disciple your children, serve your church, grow in holiness, or faithfully read your Bible.
But learning some Greek can help us become more careful readers of Scripture. It can also protect us from bad arguments.
One of the dangers of knowing a little Greek is that we can begin treating Greek words as theological trump cards. Someone disagrees with our interpretation, so we pull out a Greek word and assume the discussion is over.
Sometimes the opposite should happen. Knowing Greek should make us slower to make careless claims.
A word can have several possible meanings. Etymology does not automatically determine current meaning. A dictionary gives us possibilities, not necessarily the meaning intended in a particular verse. Historical usage matters. Grammar matters. Context matters. The author’s argument matters.
Above all, Scripture interprets Scripture. That means the most important question is rarely, “What can this Greek word mean?” We need to ask, “What does this word mean here in this context?”
And then we need to ask an even more important question: “What does God require me to do with what He has said?”
Knowing that agapē means love is of little value if I refuse to love my brother.
Knowing that metanoia means repentance accomplishes little if I will not repent.
Knowing that doulos means slave means little if I continue living as though I belong to myself.
Knowing that mathētēs means disciple means little if I am not following Jesus.
Knowing that kyrios means Lord is useless if I insist upon remaining lord of my own life.
Knowing that ekklēsia means assembly accomplishes little if I refuse to commit myself to Christ’s church.
The purpose of studying Scripture is never merely accumulating information. God gave us His Word so that we would know Him, believe Him, worship Him, obey Him, and teach others to do the same.
So learn logos. Learn charis. Learn Paraklētos. Learn metanoia. Learn doulos. Dig into kephalē and authenteō. Study the biblical languages if God gives you the opportunity. But above all, open your Bible.
Read it carefully. Believe what God says. Bring your life under its authority. Get involved in a faithful local church where the Word is preached. Help another Christian follow Jesus. Teach your children the Scriptures. Repent when the Word exposes your sin. Trust Christ when you see your weakness. Depend upon the Holy Spirit as you seek to obey.
Knowing twenty Greek words can make you a more careful Bible student.
But tnowing, trusting, and following the Christ revealed in those words is what matters for eternity.
