To be a well-doer (as a favor or a duty)
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G15 describes doing what is good or acting for anothers benefit, with contexts that contrast life-giving action against evil, retaliation, fear, and passive complicity. The verb can name benevolent action toward enemies, public conduct that answers false accusation, or persevering in what is right under pressure; the passage defines the good rather than leaving it to personal preference.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἀγαθοποιέω (G15) · Open the biblical lexicon
G15 describes doing what is good or acting for anothers benefit, with contexts that contrast life-giving action against evil, retaliation, fear, and passive complicity. The verb can name benevolent action toward enemies, public conduct that answers false accusation, or persevering in what is right under pressure; the passage defines the good rather than.
The BSB source-word alignment has 10 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include to do good (2), [for] doing good (1), by doing good (1), do good [to them] (1), do good to (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Mark 3:4. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Peter (4), Luke (4), 3 John (1), Mark (1).
G15 describes doing what is good or acting for anothers benefit, with contexts that contrast life-giving action against evil, retaliation, fear, and passive complicity. The verb can name benevolent action toward enemies, public conduct that answers false accusation, or persevering in what is right under pressure; the passage defines the good rather than leaving it to personal preference.
In Luke. 6. 35, jesus commands disciples to love their enemies, do good, and lend without expecting repayment because the Most High is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. In 1Pet. 2. 15, peter describes doing good as Gods will and as an answer to ignorant accusations against believers. G15 opens teaching on goodness as concrete action shaped by the character of God, especially when reciprocity, fear, hostility, or social pressure would narrow whom believers serve.
It corrects sentimental goodness with no costly action and abusive appeals to doing good that demand silence, continued exposure to harm, or protection of a wrongdoers reputation. G15 makes goodness active and discerning: Jesus commands disciples to do good to enemies without expecting repayment, Peter describes good action as a public answer to foolish accusation, and Third John connects doing good with belonging to God rather than imitating evil.
For G15, responsible teaching keeps lexical meaning, passage context, canonical synthesis, and present application distinguishable. The verb does not require enabling abuse, surrendering legal protection, ignoring consequences, or accepting every request as though boundaries and justice were opposed to love.
G15 appears across passages that develop active goodness, enemy love, moral courage, public witness, perseverance, generosity, and freedom from retaliation. For G15, the immediate setting decides which part of the range is active, so the witnesses must remain distinct rather than being merged into one formula.
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
Jesus commands disciples to love their enemies, do good, and lend without expecting repayment because the Most High is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorance of foolish men.
Peter describes doing good as Gods will and as an answer to ignorant accusations against believers.
Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.
The elder tells the beloved recipient not to imitate evil but good and connects doing good with being of God.
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. To do good as moral duty or beneficial action, often toward others' welfare
To do good as moral duty or beneficial action, often toward others' welfare
to do good;
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
11 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I do that which is good
Read verseI do that which is good
Read verseI do that which is good
Read verseI do that which is good
Read verseI do that which is good
Read verseI do that which is good
Read verseI do that which is good
Read verseI do that which is good
Read verseI do that which is good
Read verseI do that which is good
Read verseI do that which is good
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 mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 9 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 10 lexical occurrence verses.
ἀγαθοποιέω 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.
G15 makes goodness active and discerning: Jesus commands disciples to do good to enemies without expecting repayment, Peter describes good action as a public answer to foolish accusation, and Third John connects doing good with belonging to God rather than imitating evil. G15 describes doing what is good or acting for anothers benefit, with contexts that contrast life-giving action against evil, retaliation, fear, and passive complicity.
The selected witnesses keep the teaching concrete: Luke. 6. 35 shows that jesus commands disciples to love their enemies, do good, and lend without expecting repayment because the Most High is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. , while 1Pet. 2. 15 shows that peter describes doing good as Gods will and as an answer to ignorant accusations against believers.. 3John.
1. 11 Adds that the elder tells the beloved recipient not to imitate evil but good and connects doing good with being of God.. G15 opens teaching on goodness as concrete action shaped by the character of God, especially when reciprocity, fear, hostility, or social pressure would narrow whom believers serve. It corrects sentimental goodness with no costly action and abusive appeals to doing good that demand silence, continued exposure to harm, or protection of a wrongdoers reputation.
A church teaching G15 faithfully will name both the promise and the boundary carried by these contexts, attend to vulnerable hearers, and refuse to make the lexical item prove more than its passages support. The verb does not require enabling abuse, surrendering legal protection, ignoring consequences, or accepting every request as though boundaries and justice were opposed to love.
Luke.6.35
G15 is a Greek verb formed from the language of good and doing; it can describe doing what is right generally or providing benefit to another person, and its objects and contrasts clarify the sense.
Israel is repeatedly called to seek good, practice justice, care for neighbors, and refuse vengeance. The New Testament sharpens that movement around Jesus, whose enemy-love teaching and self-giving goodness form a people who resist evil without reproducing it.