📖 Biblical Definition
"Unfeigned" — KJV for without pretense, without play-acting, without a mask — names the inward reality matching the outward show. The Greek anupokritos means literally "un-hypocritical." Paul prizes "unfeigned faith" in Lois, Eunice, and Timothy (2 Timothy 1:5); "love unfeigned" as a mark of true apostolic ministry (2 Corinthians 6:6); and "unfeigned love of the brethren" as the Spirit’s purifying fruit (1 Peter 1:22). The wisdom from above is "without partiality, and without hypocrisy" (James 3:17). The world masters the practiced sincerity — the polished performance of feeling. The Christian must be marked by the un-performed real thing. Whatever the world will fake, the saint must actually be.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Not feigned; not counterfeit; not hypocritical; real; sincere.
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UNFEIGNED, adj. Not feigned; not counterfeit; not hypocritical; real; sincere.
In KJV English, unfeigned renders the Greek anupokritos — literally not under a stage-mask; not acted; without hypocrisy.
📖 Key Scripture
1 Timothy 1:5 — "The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned."
2 Timothy 1:5 — "When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois."
1 Peter 1:22 — "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren."
Romans 12:9 — "Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Our culture is professionalized at performing sincerity; unfeigned is the New Testament word for the kind of sincerity that does not perform.
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The Greek behind unfeigned is built on the word for stage actor. To be not under a mask is the Christian standard for faith and love.
Modern social life rewards practiced sincerity — the right facial expression, the right caption, the right tear at the right moment. Recover unfeigned and the household's emotional life simplifies: love that is real, faith that does not pose, brotherly affection that does not depend on an audience.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
One Greek adjective covers all the KJV occurrences.
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G505 — ἀνυπόκριτος (anupokritos) — without hypocrisy, unfeigned, sincere — literally not stage-masked.
Note: same root as hypocrite — the actor under a mask. Unfeigned love is mask-off love.
Usage
"Unfeigned love is the only love worth having."
"Take the mask off: that is what the New Testament calls sincerity."
"A practiced sincerity is still a performance."