to keep/guard: observe
Phulasso means to protect or secure, to observe required instructions, and to guard oneself against what endangers.
The occurrences most often show protection or secure custody of people, possessions, and entrusted things; they also show observance of laws, words, and decrees, and self-protective avoidance of harmful influences or actions.
Senses in use
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Protecting or keeping in secure custody · dominant
In 2 Timothy 1:14, the second-person aorist active form occurs in the charge concerning the good deposit; the APB renders the clause "Guard the good deposit." In Acts 12:4 soldiers are assigned to a prisoner, while John 17:12 connects keeping and guarding those given to the speaker with none of them perishing; the APB renders "guard him" and "I kept them in your name."
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Observing instructions, words, or law · common
The verb marks compliance with what has been received or commanded: Acts 16:4 places it after decrees handed on for people to follow, and John 12:47 sets hearing declarations alongside not keeping them. In Matthew 19:20 and Romans 2:26, the clauses concern things or righteous acts of the law; the APB renders "kept" and "keeps."
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Guarding oneself against a threat or prohibited practice · occasional
Present middle forms direct the hearers to guard themselves: 2 Peter 3:17 warns against being led away by error, and Luke 12:15 warns against all greed. Acts 21:25 uses a present middle infinitive for keeping oneself from specified practices; the APB renders "they should keep themselves from" what is offered to idols, blood, strangled things, and sexual immorality.
In the Anselm Project Bible: Across these verses, the APB uses "guard," "keep," "preserved," and "observed," according to the surrounding clause. Because the APB is a whole-verse translation, these renderings indicate the verse context rather than a fixed English equivalent.