Exploring the Meaning of Choregeo in Greek

χορηγέω means “to provide,” and it appears twice in the New Testament: once in Paul’s appeal for generous giving and once in Peter’s instruction about speaking and serving in the church. In both settings it describes God as the one who provides what is needed for faithful action.

Root and Related Words

χορηγέω is linked with χορός (choros), “a dance” (Strong’s G5525), and ἄγω (ago), “to bring” (Strong’s G71). These related terms place the verb within a word-family that combines the ideas of an organized setting (χορός) and the act of bringing (ἄγω).

Occurrences

“Now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, supply and multiply your seed for sowing, and increase the fruits of your righteousness,” (2 Corinthians 9:10)

In this sentence Paul frames provision in deliberately concrete terms: “seed to the sower” and “bread for food.” The verb names God’s action of supplying what sustains life (bread) and what enables productive work that looks beyond the present moment (seed). By placing “supplies seed” alongside “bread for food,” the verse ties provision to both immediate necessity and future-oriented purpose.

The request then extends that same supplying action to the Corinthians: “supply and multiply your seed for sowing.” Within the imagery, provision does not terminate in private consumption; it equips further activity (“for sowing”). The verb thus supports the movement of the sentence from God’s pattern of giving (“supplies seed… and bread”) to the desired outcome in the community’s practice (“your seed for sowing”), culminating in a moral harvest: “increase the fruits of your righteousness.” In this scene, the word participates in a chain: God provides; what is provided becomes the means for continued giving and growth; and the result is pictured as “fruits,” something that increases over time.

“If anyone speaks, let it be as it were the very words of God. If anyone serves, let it be as of the strength which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 4:11)

Here χορηγέω describes God’s provision not in agricultural or dietary images but in the realm of ministry. Peter sets two spheres—speaking and serving—and assigns to each an orientation toward God. For speaking, the benchmark is “the very words of God.” For serving, the benchmark is “the strength which God supplies.” The verb therefore marks the decisive source of capacity for service: strength is not treated as a fixed personal store but as something furnished by God for the act of serving.

The purpose clause (“that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ”) shows why the supplying matters in this context. God’s provision of strength shapes the direction of glory: the servant’s activity is meant to result in God being honored, not the servant being highlighted. In the verse’s flow, the verb functions as the hinge between human action (“If anyone serves…”) and the stated theological outcome (“that… God may be glorified”). The supplying is the enabling gift that allows service to happen in a way that points beyond the servant to God, and the doxology that follows (“to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever”) reinforces that orientation.

Sense and Usage

Across these two passages, “to provide” is used with God as the explicit provider, and the object of that provision is tailored to the setting. In 2 Corinthians 9:10, what is provided belongs to an everyday material register—seed and bread—yet it is deployed to explain how God’s giving underwrites an expanding pattern of fruitful righteousness. Provision is portrayed as both sustaining and generative: bread meets “for food,” while seed enables “for sowing,” and the request is that the provided resource would be multiplied toward further action and visible increase (“fruits”).

In 1 Peter 4:11, the object shifts from material goods to the inward resource needed for ministry: “strength.” The verb still names provision, but now the focus is on empowerment for service so that the outcome is God’s glory. The supplying is not framed as a reward after service but as the means by which service is to be carried out (“let it be as of the strength which God supplies”). The same basic idea of provision remains, but its application shows the word’s flexibility: it can speak to tangible necessities and to the capacity required for communal work.

Taken together, these occurrences present provision as purposeful rather than merely distributive. What is supplied is not an end in itself. Seed is supplied “to the sower” and multiplied “for sowing,” and strength is supplied so that serving may be done in a way that leads to God being “glorified through Jesus Christ.” The verb thus regularly sits in lines of thought that move from God’s giving to human activity and then to an intended result—growth in “fruits of… righteousness” in one text, and the public honoring of God “in all things” in the other.

Imagery

The verb carries two complementary images in these passages. Paul’s use is visual and earthy: seed in a sower’s hand and bread on the table, both tracing back to the giver who “supplies.” Peter’s use is less visible but equally concrete in effect: strength for serving, provided in such a way that the community’s actions become a setting where “in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” Both images keep attention on provision as an enabling gift—whether for sowing that yields “fruits,” or for service that yields glory to God.

Sources: Lexical data from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and the Translators Brief Lexicon of Extended Strongs for Greek (STEPBible, CC BY). Occurrence data from the Translators Amalgamated Greek New Testament (STEPBible, CC BY). Scripture quotations from the World English Bible (public domain).