6 Greek Words in the Bible and What They Mean: Metanoia, Agape, Ekklesia and More
The New Testament was written in Greek, the common language of the Roman world. Some of its words carry more than any single English word can hold. "Repentance," "love," "church" and "grace" are good translations, but the Greek behind them opens up their meaning. Here are six words worth knowing, and what they have come to mean to me.
Jump to a word: Metanoia (repentance) · Agape (love) · Ekklesia (church) · Koinonia (fellowship) · Charis (grace) · Parakletos (Helper)
Metanoia: Repentance as a Change of Mind
Metanoia, the Greek word translated "repentance," means a change of mind that leads to a change of direction. It joins meta, "after" or "change," with nous, "mind." When many people hear "repent," they hear "feel bad," guilty or ashamed. But metanoia is not mainly about feelings. It is turning: stopping, thinking again, and going a different way.
and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.”
Mark 1:15, World English Bible
Godly sorrow can lead us there, but sorrow and repentance are not the same thing. Paul says "godly sorrow produces repentance" (2 Corinthians 7:10). The sorrow is the doorway. The change is the point.
For a long time, I would have said God was real and Jesus was real, but I didn't live like He was real. I didn't live like He was Lord of my life. In my ignorance, I even believed there were many roads to the same God.
Then God radically encountered me. In a dramatic moment, I saw Jesus and felt deep in my heart what He suffered on my behalf. And God spoke to me: If there were any other way to save you, why would I have made My Son go through this? That was the moment I repented of the false idea that there were many paths. A wrong idea of who God is was corrected in my life, and everything changed direction.
Metanoia also happens in a thousand less dramatic ways every day. We notice where what we believe and what we do don't match, and we choose to change our minds and walk in integrity. That is why Paul calls us to keep being transformed in our thinking.
Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:2, World English Bible
He also tells us to "be renewed in the spirit of your mind" (Ephesians 4:23). Repentance is not a one-time event. It is a way of life with God. Read more in What Does It Mean to Be Born Again?
Agape: God's Self-Giving Love
Agape is the New Testament's great word for love: self-giving, sacrificial love that seeks the good of another. Greek had other words for love, like phileo for friendship and eros for romantic desire. The New Testament writers filled agape with new meaning by pointing to the cross.
By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
1 John 4:9-10, World English Bible
"God is love" (1 John 4:8), and His love is the kind that gives first. Paul's description of agape in 1 Corinthians 13 is often read at weddings, but it is really a portrait of Jesus: patient, kind, not seeking its own, never failing.
Ekklesia: The Church as the Called-Out Ones
Ekklesia is the Greek word translated "church." It means an assembly of people called out and called together. It comes from ek, "out," and kaleo, "to call." In the Greek world it described citizens gathered to do the business of their city. Jesus took that word for His people.
I also tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
Matthew 16:18, World English Bible
The church is not a building or an event. It is people called out of darkness and called together around Jesus, to carry His life into the city. Read more in What Is the Church?
Koinonia: Fellowship as Shared Life
Koinonia means fellowship, partnership or sharing in common. It is more than coffee after church. It is shared life: shared faith, shared meals, shared needs and shared mission. The first believers devoted themselves to it.
They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer.
Acts 2:42, World English Bible
Koinonia starts with God. John says, "our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:3), and that fellowship with God overflows into fellowship with one another.
Charis: Grace as Gift and Power
Charis, the Greek word for grace, means a free gift of favor, given not because it is earned. It is how we are saved.
for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9, World English Bible
But grace is not only forgiveness. It is also God's power at work in our weakness. When Paul begged God to take away his thorn, the Lord answered, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). Grace saves us and grace strengthens us. Read more in What Is Grace?
Parakletos: The Holy Spirit Who Comes Alongside
Parakletos, often written paraclete, means one called to come alongside. Bibles translate it Helper, Counselor, Comforter or Advocate. Jesus used it for the Holy Spirit on the night before the cross.
I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him, neither knows him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you.
John 14:16-17, World English Bible
Jesus said "another" Counselor, because He Himself had been that for His disciples. Now the Spirit would be with them, and in them, forever. John even uses the same word for Jesus, our Advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1). You are never left alone. Learn more about who the Holy Spirit is.
Go deeper. Discover how encountering Jesus changes everything in Transformed by Hazen Stevens, and watch the Transformed series free. To know the Holy Spirit better, read Manifest, watch the Manifest series, or start the free Preparing for Outpouring plan. And read the companion post, 9 Hebrew Words in the Bible and What They Mean.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (public domain).
