Kopiao: A Step Beyond Fatigue

Word of the Week

October 11,  2025

Kopiaō: A Step Beyond Fatigue

 

Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28 NASB

 

Those of us who work before a computer all day are tired when it’s time to go home.  But we are suffering from the effects of too little physical exertion, too many hours in the same position.  The biggest hazards in our workplace are boredom and carpal tunnel syndrome.

How different from the routine of a farmer or lumberjack!  When they call it quits for the day, their muscles are sore from hauling or chopping, plowing or weeding.

Labor in the first century was even more taxing.  You wouldn’t ride a tractor; you would walk behind an ox.  You wouldn’t harvest with a huge combine; you would use a scythe to cut the grain one swipe at a time.

That’s one reason why Christ’s hearers knew exactly what He was talking about when He announced, “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

We can share that understanding more fully by looking at the Greek word that He used for “being weary.”

Greek has several words for fatigue, and Jesus used more than one.  The target of our study today is the word kopiaō [kaw-pee-AH-oh].  This is the term translated “weary” in this verse.

It shows up 23 times in the New Testament, and it spins off from a noun (kopos) that originally meant “a beating” which left you exhausted.  It later took on the meaning of “physical work that produces tiredness.”

That’s why Paul used the illustration of a “hard–working farmer” who deserved the reward of a good crop (2 Timothy 2:6).  And when Jesus sat down by the well in Samaria for his conversation with the woman of Sychar, he was tired from a long trek – “wearied from his journey” (John 4:6).  If he began the journey from his usual headquarters around Capernaum, he would have walked over 60 miles to reach the town.  In another incident, Peter told Jesus, “Master, we worked hard all night [fishing] and caught nothing” (Luke 5:5).

Kopiaō could involve more than just physical labor.  Revelation 2:3 commends the church at Ephesus for their perseverance in the face of false teachers and persecution.  Despite the difficulties, they had “not grown weary.”

The apostle Paul promoted hard work in the service of the gospel.  He pushed himself to spread the message and nurture the churches.

• He toiled at tentmaking, working with his hands at the same time he poured his energy into his work as an evangelist and church leader (1 Corinthians 4:12).
• He worked to the point of weariness, trusting in God’s power to accomplish the tasks (Colossians 1:29).
• In fact, he claimed, “I labored even more than all o

He complimented others who showed the same tenacity and willingness to push hard in service:  “Mary . . . worked hard for you (Romans 16:6); Tryphaena and Tryphosa, workers in the Lord; Persis . . . who has worked hard in the Lord” (Romans 16:12).

Paul would say, “Don’t be afraid of fatigue if you have worn yourself out in serving the Lord!”

Sore muscles at the end of a hard day’s work can be a good thing if they result from a job well done.

With that in mind, let’s go back to Christ’s invitation in Matthew 11:  “Come to me, all who are weary . . . and I will give you rest.”

What kind of weariness was He talking about?

In the previous verses, He has just finished denouncing the people who refused to respond to His message, despite all miracles (Matthew 11:20-24).  In particular, He points to “the wise and intelligent” who have rejected Him (verse 25).  In a Jewish context, this reminds us of the scribes and Pharisees who so actively opposed Him.

These religious leaders demanded a scrupulous observance of all the minutia of the traditions:   don’t eat this, don’t touch that, don’t associate with that person.  Bring the offerings, tithe your crops, show up at the temple.  The Pharisaic version of spirituality was like the IRS tax code – so complicated that you could never master it.

Jesus was talking to people who were “heavy-laden” – they were carrying a load that had been dumped on them, one that was too heavy to bear.  As a result, they were exhausted from that unwarranted effort.

What a relief when Jesus invited them to exchange that burden for the “light and easy” load that He offered!

 

Study Hint:

Would you like to view the rest of the verses where this word is used?  Here are the references:

Matthew 6:28; Luke 12:27; John 4:38; Acts 20:35; 1 Corinthians 16:16; Galatians 4:11; Ephesians 4:28; Philippians 2:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:12; 1 Timothy 4:10; 5:17.

                Notice especially the Matthew and Luke passages that explain how flowers never toil.

 

Coming Up

The New Testament talks a lot about servants and slaves, and generally uses the same common words for these folks.  However, we are going to look next week at a different description for servers.  In the process, we will learn an important principle about word studies.

Ezra Project 2025