παραδέχομαι

G3858, paradéchomai, is a Greek verb for receiving, welcoming, admitting, or accepting. Its object changes the pastoral question. In Mark, good soil receives the word and bears fruit. In Acts, the Jerusalem church welcomes Paul and Barnabas and hears what God has done, Roman accusers reject unfamiliar customs, and the Lord warns Paul that Jerusalem will not accept his testimony. The verb does not mean that welcome is always wise or that refusal is always hostile. It asks what is being received, on what grounds, and with what result.

Acts 15 gives welcome a communal shape. The church, apostles, and elders receive the missionaries and their report, then the council addresses a serious dispute about Gentile belonging. Hospitality and discernment work together. Acts 16 shows the opposite social pressure: Paul and Silas are accused as Jews promoting customs Romans may not accept. Cultural power can label faithful witness unacceptable before examining it fairly. Acts 22 adds the grief of a true testimony that some hearers will not receive. Rejection alone does not prove a messenger right, but neither does majority refusal make the testimony false.

First Timothy applies G3858 to an accusation against an elder, requiring corroboration rather than casual reception. This protects fair process, but it must not be used to ignore an initial report, demand two eyewitnesses to private abuse, obstruct immediate safety, or override civil reporting duties. Hebrews uses the verb for the child the Lord receives while discussing discipline. God's fatherly formation must not be equated with a leader's violence or with every harm that occurs. G3858 opens a disciplined welcome: receive God's word toward fruit, welcome coworkers without abandoning discernment, test claims without shielding power, and recognize that divine reception gives belonging rather than permission for abuse.

G3858 receives the fruitful word, welcomes missionaries, names contested customs, describes rejected testimony, regulates the reception of accusations, and speaks of a child received by the Lord.