Vincent Word Studies - Matthew 6:25 - 6:25

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Vincent Word Studies - Matthew 6:25 - 6:25


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Take no thought (μὴ μεριμνᾶτε)

The cognate noun is μέριμνα, care, which was formerly derived from μερίς, a part; μερίζω, to divide; and was explained accordingly as a dividing care, distracting the heart from the true object of life, This has been abandoned, however, and the word is placed in a group which carries the common notion of earnest thoughtfulness. It may include the ideas of worry and anxiety, and may emphasize these, but not necessarily. See, for example, “careth for the things of the Lord” (1Co 7:32). “That the members should have the same care one for another” (1Co 12:25). “Who will care for your state?” (Phi 2:20). In all these the sense of worry would be entirely out of place. In other cases that idea is prominent, as, “the care of this world,” which chokes the good seed (Mat 13:22; compare Luk 8:14). Of Martha; “Thou art careful” (Luk 10:41). Take thought, in this passage, was a truthful rendering when the A. V. was made, since thought was then used as equivalent to anxiety or solicitude. So Shakspeare (“Hamlet”):

“The native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.”

And Bacon (Henry VII.): “Hawis, an alderman of London, was put in trouble, and died with thought and anguish.” Somers' “Tracts” (in Queen Elizabeth's reign): “Queen Catherine Parr died rather of thought.”

The word has entirely lost this meaning. Bishop Lightfoot (“On a Fresh Revision of the New Testament”) says: “I have heard of a political economist alleging this passage as an objection to the moral teaching of the sermon on the mount, on the ground that it encouraged, nay, commanded, a reckless neglect of the future.” It is uneasiness and worry about the future which our Lord condemns here, and therefore Rev. rightly translates be not anxious. This phase of the word is forcibly brought out in 1Pe 5:7, where the A. V. ignores the distinction between the two kinds of care. “Casting all your care (μέριμναν, Rev., anxiety) upon Him, for He careth (αὐτῷ μέλει) for you,” with a fatherly, tender, and provident care.”