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For this reason
I say to you, do not be worried
about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will
drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on:
Dia touto lego
(1SPAI) umin, me merimnate (2PPAM) te psuche umon ti phagete (SPAAS)
[e ti piete,] mede to somati umon ti endusesthe:
(Mt 5:22-28;
Luke 12:4,5,8,9,22)
(Mt 6:31,34;
10:19;
13:22;
Psalms 55:22;
Mark 4:19;
13:11;
Luke 8:14;
10:40,41;
Luke 12:22,23,25,26,29;
1 Corinthians 7:32;
Philippians 4:6;
2 Timothy 2:4;
Hebrews 13:5,6;
1 Peter 5:7)
Related Resources
Anxiety (merimna),
Anxious, be anxious
(merimnao)
Fear, How to Handle It
See these RBC
devotionals: "Worry",
"Forget
Worry" & the excellent booklet "What
Can I Do With My Worry".
Therefore I tell you, stop
being perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life
what you shall eat or what you shall drink; or about your
body, what you shall put on. (Amplified)
Therefore I say unto
you, Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat, or what
ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.
(KJV)
That is why I say to you,
don't worry about living - wondering what you are going to eat
or drink, or what you are going to wear.
(Phillips)
On this account I am saying
to you, Stop worrying about your life, what you shall eat, or
what you shall drink, and about your body, with what you will
clothe yourself. (Wuest)
For this reason (1223)
(dia) can also be translated therefore, for this cause,
because or on account of. In this case "because of the fact
that" you cannot serve both God and mammon, stop being
continually torn in these two directions, toward God and
toward the necessities of life. Worry and/or anxiety is
the natural result when our hopes are centered in anything
short of God and his will for us. When believers make heavenly
treasure, light for our eyes, God as our Master, then, and
only then, can we stop worrying which is what Jesus
commands us to do.
Dwight Pentecost
explains that...
When a man sets aside the
God of righteousness and accepts the god of material things,
he soon conforms to materialistic standards. He becomes
greedy, covetous, and totally preoccupied with material
possessions. If a man becomes preoccupied with material things
and they become the goal of his life, he soon becomes
anxious about his physical needs. He becomes preoccupied
with what he will eat, what he will drink, what clothing he
will wear, where he will live. This anxious care
comes because of a lack of trust in God. When a man ceases to
trust God for his needs, he eventually becomes enslaved to
material things. Our Lord taught those who were concerned with
righteousness that one cannot serve God and material things at
the same time.
(Pentecost,
J. D. Design for living: Lessons in Holiness from the Sermon on the Mount. Kregel Publications)
(Bolding added)
Matthew Henry says
that...
There is scarcely any one
sin against which our Lord Jesus more largely and earnestly
warns his disciples, or against which he arms them with more
variety of arguments, than the sin of disquieting,
distracting, distrustful cares about the things of life, which
are a bad sign that both the treasure and the heart are on the
earth; and therefore he thus largely insists upon it...It is
the repeated command of the Lord Jesus to his disciples, that
they should not divide and pull in pieces their own minds with
care about the world... the thought here forbidden is, 1. A
disquieting, tormenting thought, which hurries the mind
hither and thither, and hangs it in suspense; which disturbs
our joy in God, and is a damp upon our hope in him; which
breaks the sleep, and hinders our enjoyment of ourselves, of
our friends, and of what God has given us. 2. A
distrustful, unbelieving thought. God has promised to
provide for those that are his all things needful for life as
well as godliness, the life that now is, food and a covering:
not dainties, but necessaries. He never said, "They shall be
feasted,’’ but, "Verily, they shall be fed.’’ Now an
inordinate care for time to come, and fear of wanting those
supplies, spring from a disbelief of these promises, and of
the wisdom and goodness of Divine Providence; and that is the
evil of it. As to present sustenance, we may and must use
lawful means to get it, else we tempt God; we must be diligent
in our callings, and prudent in proportioning our expenses to
what we have, and we must pray for daily bread; and if all
other means fail, we may and must ask relief of those that are
able to give it. He was none of the best of men that said, To
beg I am ashamed (Lu 16:3 "And the steward said to
himself, 'What shall I do, since my master is taking the
stewardship away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am
ashamed to beg."); as he was, who (Luke 16:21 "and
longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the
rich man's table; besides, even the dogs were coming and
licking his sores") desired to be fed with the crumbs; but
for the future, we must cast our care upon God, and take no
thought, because it looks like a jealousy of God, who knows
how to give what we want when we know not now to get it. Let
our souls dwell at ease in him! This gracious carelessness is
the same with that sleep which God gives to his beloved, in
opposition to the worldling’s toil, Ps. 127:2 ( It is vain
for you to rise up early, To retire late, To eat the bread of
painful labors; For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep).
(Matthew 6)
J Vernon McGee
introduces this section noting that...
Matthew 6 concludes with
our Lord talking about other things that are material. He
tells us that we are not to give much thought to our material
needs. (McGee,
J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Nashville: Thomas Nelson)
Worried (3309) (merimnao
from
merimna
from merizo = divide - draw
different directions - which is exactly what
anxiety does to most of us!)
(Click
for in depth word study of
merimnao
and
here
for word study of
anxiety =
merimna)
Note that Bible translations render (merimnao)
as "be anxious" and "be worried". Thus many English
dictionaries will define anxiety as worry and
vice versa.
With that in mind here is a summary of English dictionary
definitions of each word...
Anxious: Characterized by extreme
uneasiness of mind or brooding fear about some contingency
(Webster, modern). Worried and tense because of possible misfortune,
danger, etc. (Collins) Experiencing worry, nervousness, or
unease. (Oxford) Concern or solicitude respecting some event,
future or uncertain, which disturbs the mind, and keeps it in
a state of painful uneasiness. it expresses more than
uneasiness or disturbance, and even more than trouble or
solicitude. it usually springs from fear or serious
apprehension of evil, and involves a suspense respecting an
event, and often, a perplexity of mind, to know how to shape
our conduct. (Webster, 1828) A state of restlessness and
agitation, often with general indisposition and a distressing
sense of oppression at the epigastrium. (Webster, 1913)
Worry: feel or cause to feel
troubled over actual or potential difficulties. Expressing
anxiety. (Concise Oxford). To choke or strangle - to harass by
tearing, biting, or snapping especially at the throat. Mental
distress or agitation resulting from concern usually for
something impending or anticipated. Worry suggests fretting
over matters that may or may not be real cause for anxiety
(Webster) To be or cause to be anxious or uneasy, esp. about
something uncertain or potentially dangerous. To disturb the
peace of mind of (Collins)
Worry
has a fascinating etymology summarized below
Worrying may shorten one's life, but not as quickly
as it once did. The ancestor of our word, Old English wyrgan,
meant “to strangle.” (Ed note: Isn't this what worry
does to our joy?)
Its Middle English descendant,
worien, kept
this sense and developed the new sense “to grasp by the throat
with the teeth and lacerate” or “to kill or injure by biting
and shaking.” This is the way wolves or dogs might attack
sheep, for example.
In the 16th century worry began to be used
in the sense “to harass, as by rough treatment or attack,” or
“to assault verbally,” and in the 17th century the word took
on the sense “to bother, distress, or persecute.” It was a
small step from this sense to the main modern senses “to cause
to feel anxious or distressed” and “to feel troubled or
uneasy,” first recorded in the 19th century. (American
Heritage Dictionary)
Besides
anxiety (be anxious) another word that is synonymous
with worry is the verb fret (derived from Old
English word fretan meaning to devour or consume),
which literally means to eat or gnaw into and figuratively
pictures causing one to suffer emotional strain, be
distressed, or feel vexation. Again the etymology or origin of
the word fret so perfectly describes the detrimental,
destructive effect of the emotional state of worry and
anxiety.
David
gives an antidote for fretting, exhorting us to...
Rest (be silent or still in the presence of Jehovah) in the
LORD and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. (Psalm
37:7)
As
alluded to above (merizo = draw different directions), anxiety is a very picturesque word,
which means to be pulled in different directions. Our hopes pull
us in one direction; our fears (see topic:
How To Handle Fear)
pull us the opposite direction; and we are pulled apart! The
English word "anxious" has a very "telling" derivation
from the Latin word Latin anxius which is akin to Latin
angere which means to strangle (compare with "worry"
below)! Isn't that what anxiety does to most of us?
The
present imperative
with a negative is a command from Jesus calling for the
listeners (and readers) to
stop an action
already in progress.
As Harry Ironside
explains...
It
is the will of God that His children should live without worry
or anxiety. When Jesus said, "Take no thought," He did not
mean that His disciples should be careless or improvident. But
they are forbidden to be anxious, to become distressed and
perplexed as they face the future. He who has saved and cared
for us thus far can be depended on to undertake and provide
for us to the end.
The KJV rendering of
merimnao is "take no thought" which should
not be interpreted as a prohibition against planning for one's
future. (see Pr 6:6-8, 1Ti 5:8)
The Amplified Version renders it...
Therefore I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious
and worried) about your life,
Merimnao expresses a strong feeling for something or
someone, often to the point of being burdened. Although this
can be a "positive" concern, in most of the NT uses it refers
to an anxious concern, based on apprehension about possible
danger or misfortune, and so it means to be worried about, to
be anxious about, to be apprehensive (viewing the future with
anxiety or alarm), to be unduly concerned, to be burdened with
anxious care or cumbered with many cares and in simple terms
to worry.
Anxiety is an
overwhelming feeling of a combination of worry, dread and
fear.
Worrying about food and clothing should never take priority
over serving God. Food and clothes are less important than the
life and body that they supply. When we worry over lack of
food or inadequate clothing, we immobilize ourselves and focus
on the worry. We refuse to trust that God can supply these
most basic needs. Worry immobilizes us, but trust in God moves
us to action
Søren Kierkegaard (bio)
put worry and anxiety in an poignant perspective writing
that...
No Grand Inquisitor has in
readiness such terrible tortures as anxiety
Vine
writes that...
"merimnao denotes to
have a distracting care. This is to be absent entirely from
the believer. Anxiety harasses the soul; it enfeebles,
irritates, ruffles the temper, is a sign of mistrust and of
failing obedience, and distracts the mind from communion with
God." (Vine, W. Collected writings of W. E. Vine. Nashville:
Thomas Nelson)
Barclay gives some examples of use in secular Greek
writings explaining that merimnao means...
means to worry
anxiously. Its corresponding noun is
merimna
, which means
worry. In a papyrus letter a wife writes to her absent
husband: “I cannot sleep at night or by day, because of the
worry (merimna
) I have about your welfare.” A mother,
on hearing of her son’s good health and prosperity writes
back: “That is all my prayer and all my anxiety
(merimna).” Anacreon, the poet, writes: “When I drink wine,
my worries (merimna) go to sleep.” (Ed note: this is
not true in the Bible however!)."
(Barclay, W:
The Gospel of Matthew The New Daily Study Bible
Westminster John Knox Press)
J C Ryle sums up this section
writing that Jesus
forbids us to keep up an anxious spirit about the things of
this world. Four times over he says, “Do not worry” (Mt
6:25, 28, 31 and 34). About life, about food, about
clothing, about tomorrow, “do not worry.” Do not be
over-careful, over-anxious. Prudent provision for the future
is right; wearing, corroding, self-tormenting anxiety is
wrong. (Matthew
6:25-34 Expository Thoughts)
Ray Pritchard writes that
Worry is excessive concern over the affairs of life.
The key obviously is the word "excessive." Worry happens when
you are so concerned about the problems of life that you can
think of nothing else. It is an all-consuming feeling of
uncertainty and fear. And it is a sin. Worry is a sin
for two reasons: First, because it displaces God in your life.
When you commit the sin of worry, you are living as though God
did not exist. And you are living as though you alone can
solve your problems. Second, because it distracts you from the
things that really matter in life. As long as you are
worrying, you can't do anything else. You are strangled by
worry.
But how can we tell when the legitimate concerns of life have
become sinful worries? Here are three practical guidelines.
You are probably well into worry...
1. When the thing you are concerned about is the first thing
you think about in the morning and the last thing you think
about at night.
2. When you find yourself thinking about it during every spare
moment.
3. When you find yourself bringing it up in every conversation
you have.
Seen in that light, most of us worry a lot more than we would
like to admit! (Matthew 6:25-34 Three
Things Not To Worry About) (Bolding
added)
The more
you think about God's goodness, the less you'll think about
your worries (see
Mt 6:33)
Someone
has written that worry is a small trickle of fear that
meanders through the mind until it cuts a channel into which
all other thoughts are drained.
Worry is
like a rocking chair: It gives you something to do, but it
doesn’t get you anywhere.
Illustration of how worry affects one's sleep...
Today if you visit Thomas
Carlyle’s famous home in London, they will show you an almost
soundproof chamber that Carlyle had built so the noise of the
street could be shut out and he could work in silence. One of
his neighbors, however, kept a rooster that several times in
the night and in the early morning gave way to vigorous
self-expression. When Carlyle protested to the owner of the
rooster, the man pointed out to him that the rooster crowed
only three times in the night, and that after all could not be
such a terrible annoyance. “But,” Carlyle said to him, “if
you only knew what I suffer waiting for that rooster to
crow!” (Clarence Macartney, Macartney’s Illustrations
Nashville: Abingdon, 1945)
Worry and anxiety is the
plague of our modern age as observed by Time magazine
(in 1961) which said...
Not merely the black
statistics of murder, suicide, alcoholism, and divorce betray
anxiety … but almost any innocent everyday act: the
limp or overhearty handshake, the second pack of cigarettes or
the third martini, the forgotten appointment, the stammer in
mid-sentence, the wasted hour before the TV set, the spanked
child, the new car unpaid for. (Time Magazine, March 31,
1961)
Warren Wiersbe adds that
"From the spiritual point
of view, worry is wrong thinking (the mind) and
wrong feeling (the heart) about circumstances, people,
and things. Worry is the greatest thief of joy.
It is not enough for us, however, to tell ourselves to “quit
worrying” because that will never capture the thief. Worry
is an “inside job,” and it takes more than good intentions to
get the victory. The antidote to worry is the secure
mind: (Ed note: A mind that chooses to seek first God's
Kingdom and His righteousness) “And the peace of God... shall keep [garrison, guard
like a soldier] your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus”
(see notes
Philippians 4:7). When you have the secure mind, the peace of God
guards you (see notes
Philippians 4:7) and the God of peace guides you
(see note
Philippians 4:9). With that kind of protection—why worry?"
(Also see notes on
Philippians 4:6)
MacDonald writes
that...
In this passage Jesus strikes at the tendency to center our
lives around food and clothing, thus missing life’s real
meaning. The problem is not so much what we eat and wear
today, but what we shall eat and wear ten, twenty, or thirty
years from now. Such worry about the future is sin because it
denies the love, wisdom, and power of God. It denies the love
of God by implying that He doesn’t care for us. It denies His
wisdom by implying that He doesn’t know what He is doing. And
it denies His power by implying that He isn’t able to provide
for our needs. This type of worry causes us to devote our
finest energies to making sure we will have enough to live on.
Then before we know it, our lives have passed, and we have
missed the central purpose for which we were made. God did not
create us in His image with no higher destiny than that we
should consume food. We are here to love, worship, and serve
Him and to represent His interests on earth. Our bodies are
intended to be our servants, not our masters.
(MacDonald, W., & Farstad,
A.
Believer's Bible Commentary : Old and
New Testaments. Nashville: Thomas Nelson)
Charles Spurgeon
once said that...
"our anxiety does
not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but only empties today of
its strength."
Corrie Ten Boom
sage had several wise thoughts regarding anxiety and worry...
Look
around and be distressed.
Look inside and be depressed.
Look at Jesus and be at rest.
Think about it
- Never be afraid to trust
an
unknown future to a known God. Any concern too small to be
turned into a prayer is to small to be made into a burden.
A Strategy For Winning Over Worry =
(1)
Identify specific worries.
(2)
Work to change what you can.
(3)
Leave what you can't change with God.
When we put
our cares in God's hands, He puts His peace in our hearts. ( ODB)
I like
D L Moody's strategy for confronting worry...
Be careful for nothing, prayerful for everything, thankful for
anything.
Corrie Ten Boom also had some similar advice on worry
stating that...
If a case is too small to
be turned into a prayer it is too small to be made into a
burden.
Take
courage: if God doesn't choose to remove an obstacle, He will
help you plow around it!
Even
though you can't control your circumstances, you can control
your attitude.
Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the
mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all others
thoughts are drained. - Arthur Somers Roche
Never attempt to bear
more than one kind of trouble at once. Some people bear three
kinds—all they have had, all they have now and all they expect
to have. - Edward Everett Hale
Eat
(2068)
(phago, English phagocyte, phagocytic) means to eat, to
take in through the mouth as food, to ingest, chew, and
swallow in turn.
Drink
(4095)
(pino) means to take liquid into the mouth for
swallowing.
Life
(5590)
(psuche from psucho = to breathe, blow, English,
psychology) refers to whole person particularly inner,
immortal person who lives in the mortal body. Psuche
denotes life in two chief respects, the breath of life or the
natural life and the seat of personality.
Put on
(1746)
(enduo = to clothe from en = in + dúo =
to sink, go in or under) means to put on as a garment, to
clothe or dress.
Most people in Jesus' day
had little beyond basic necessities—food, clothing and
shelter. Because their acquisition of these necessities often
depended especially in rural areas on seasonal rains, they had
plenty of cause for stress even about food and clothing.
Is
not life more than food, and the body more than
clothing?:
(2PAMS) ouchi e psuche
pleion estin (3SPAI) tes trophes kai to soma tou endumatos?: (Luke 12:23;
Romans 8:32)
As David said "My times
are in Thy hand" (Ps 30:12a, KJV)
If God
has given us life (which He has), will He not take care of our
life? Jesus says He will. Food and clothing are necessary but
only the means and not the end, which is life
To worry
about our daily needs for food and clothing, both of which are important,
is not
the most important thing. God is leading up to His concluding
command to think about the big things (Mt 6:33 "Seek
first...") and leave the details about food, clothing, etc to
God.
Life
(5590)
(psuche
or psyche
from psucho = to breathe, blow, English =
psychology, "study of the soul") is the breath, then
that which breathes, the individual, animated creature. However the
discerning reader must understand that psuche is one of those Greek words that
can have several meanings, the exact nuance being determined by the
context. It follows that one cannot simply select of the three main
meanings of psuche and insert it in a given passage for it may not be
appropriate to the given context. The meaning of psuche is also
contingent upon whether one is a dichotomist or trichotomist. Consult Greek lexicons for more lengthy definitions
of psuche as this definition is only a brief overview. (Click an
excellent article on
Soul
in the Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology; see also ISBE
article on
Soul)
BAGD's lexicon makes the point that...
It is often impossible to draw hard
and fast lines in the use of this multivalent word. Generally it is
used in reference to dematerialized existence or being... Without
psuche a being, whether human or animal, consists merely of flesh and
bones and without functioning capability. Speculations and views
respecting the fortunes of psuche and its relation to the body find
varied expression in our literature. (Arndt,
W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New
Testament and Other Early Christian Literature)
Lawrence Richards adds that
as...
As with many biblical terms, the
basic meaning of psyche is established by its OT counterpart, rather
than by its meaning in Greek culture. "Soul" refers to personal life,
the inner person. Of its over one hundred NT uses, psyche is
rendered by the NIV as "soul(s)" only twenty-five times...While there
is much overlap in the NT uses of psyche and pneuma (spirit), there
seems to be some areas of distinction as well. Often the focus of
contexts in which these terms appear overlaps. Thus, both are used in
speaking of personal existence, of life after death, emotions,
purpose, and the self. But psyche is also used of one's p |
