Reliance
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Πεποίθησις names confidence, trust, or settled reliance, but Paul deliberately contrasts worthy and unworthy grounds for it. In Ephesians 3:12, believers have bold access and confidence through faith in Christ.
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Full entry for πεποίθησις (G4006) · Open the biblical lexicon
Πεποίθησις names confidence, trust, or settled reliance, but Paul deliberately contrasts worthy and unworthy grounds for it. In Ephesians 3:12, believers have bold access and confidence through faith in Christ.
The BSB source-word alignment has 6 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include confidence (2), as bold (1), by [his] great confidence (1), Confident (1), such confidence (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at 2 Corinthians 1:15. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Corinthians (4), Ephesians (1), Philippians (1).
Πεποίθησις names confidence, trust, or settled reliance, but Paul deliberately contrasts worthy and unworthy grounds for it. In Ephesians 3:12, believers have bold access and confidence through faith in Christ. In Philippians 3:4, Paul exposes the credentials that could support confidence in the flesh, then counts them loss in order to gain Christ and know a righteousness from God.
In 2 Corinthians 1:15, confidence in the Corinthians shaped Paul's travel intention, though the surrounding chapter also shows the need for integrity and humility in human plans. The noun is therefore not automatically virtuous. Its spiritual character depends on its object and basis. Christian confidence rests finally in God through Christ; confidence in status, achievement, or personal control must be relinquished.
Paul uses πεποίθησις for settled confidence while testing its foundation. Confidence through Christ grants access to God; confidence in fleshly credentials is exposed and abandoned.
Confident of this, I planned to visit you first, so that you might receive a double blessing.
Paul's confidence about the Corinthians informs a pastoral plan, yet he submits his intentions to integrity before God and refuses to lord authority over their faith.
In Him and through faith in Him we may enter God’s presence with boldness and confidence.
Access to the Father is marked by boldness and confidence because it is in Christ and through faith, not because worshipers possess independent worthiness.
Though I myself could have such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more:
Paul names impressive covenant and moral credentials only to renounce confidence in the flesh and receive righteousness through faith in Christ.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Confidence grounded in persuasion or assurance; firm reliance on something or someone trustworthy.
Confidence grounded in persuasion or assurance; firm reliance on something or someone trustworthy.
(πείθω), [in LXX: 4Ki.18:19 (בִּטָּחוֹן)* ;] confidence: 2Co.1:15 3:4 10:2, Eph.3:12; before εἰς, 2Co.8:22; ἐν, Php.3:4 (the word is condemned by the Atticists, see Rutherford, NPhr., 355).
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
6 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
confidence, trust
Read verseconfidence, trust
Read verseconfidence, trust
Read verseconfidence, trust
Read verseconfidence, trust
Read verseconfidence, trust
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 2 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 6 lexical occurrence verses.
πεποίθησις is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
The New Testament does not cure misplaced confidence by making believers permanently hesitant. It relocates confidence. Ephesians 3 announces that those in Christ may approach God with boldness because access rests on Christ and is received through faith. Philippians 3 performs the necessary demolition: ancestry, religious zeal, and visible righteousness cannot become a secure ground before God.
Paul counts such advantages loss compared with knowing Christ and receiving righteousness from Him. Second Corinthians 1 adds humility to human confidence, since even sincere ministry plans must be handled transparently and under God's lordship. Pastoral teaching should therefore ask not merely whether a person feels confident, but what supports that confidence.
Gospel confidence is neither swagger nor self-esteem. It is settled reliance on God's grace in Christ that frees believers to confess weakness, plan honestly, approach God, and serve without constructing an identity from credentials.
2Cor.1.15
Πεποίθησις is related to the verb πείθω and the perfect-state idea of being persuaded or having come to trust. The noun denotes a settled confidence, while its modifiers and context identify whether that reliance is in Christ, in another person, or in the flesh.
Israel's Scriptures repeatedly contrast trust in the Lord with confidence in armies, wealth, princes, or human righteousness. Paul brings that contrast to its gospel center: believers renounce fleshly grounds and approach the Father with confidence through Christ.