Care

Care, in biblical usage, names two things the English word bundles together but the biblical languages keep distinct: the anxious worry a person carries, and the attentive regard God shows toward those who trust him. Both senses meet in one sentence: “casting all your worries on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7), where the Greek noun merimna is rendered “worries” and the verb melō, “he cares.” The verb merimnaō stands behind “don’t be anxious” in Matthew 6:25, and the Hebrew root da’ag, “to be anxious, to dread,” lies behind “will not be concerned” in Jeremiah 17:8. Psalm 55:22 speaks of casting one’s “burden” on Yahweh — the Hebrew noun for what has been laid on a person — while Psalm 37:5 uses a verb meaning to roll one’s way onto him.

Scripture treats anxious care as a real weight and addresses it by argument and by promise rather than by denial. Jesus reasons from the Father’s provision — life, food, the body, clothing (Matthew 6:25) — and redirects his hearers from anxiety to pursuit: “But seek first God’s Kingdom and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33; compare Luke 12:31), adding the assurance, “Don’t be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom” (Luke 12:32). Jeremiah sets the trusting person beside a tree planted by water that “will not be concerned in the year of drought” (Jeremiah 17:8) — the drought still comes; what is promised is that it will not destroy. Paul’s instruction is equally concrete: “In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6), with the resulting peace described as a guard over heart and mind (Philippians 4:7).

The human counterpart to God’s care is therefore presented as an act of transfer — committing, casting, entrusting — not as the mere suppression of feeling. “Commit your way to Yahweh. Trust also in him” (Psalm 37:5); “Cast your burden on Yahweh and he will sustain you” (Psalm 55:22); “casting all your worries on him” (1 Peter 5:7). Hebrews 13:5 joins freedom from the love of money to contentment “with such things as you have,” grounded in the divine pledge, “I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.” Established historical observation: the biblical writers nowhere treat freedom from care as self-generated composure; it is consistently framed as reliance on someone else’s faithfulness. What the texts do not resolve is how the promises of material provision are to be applied — whether as a general rule of providence, a proverb, or a promise with conditions.

Christian traditions differ here in emphasis rather than in explicit contradiction. Some read anxiety primarily as a failure of faith to be confessed and repented of; others treat it as an affliction of body and mind to be met with compassion, patience, and ordinary means; pastoral and contemplative traditions tend to treat the casting of care as a repeated discipline rather than a single decision; and traditions differ over whether sayings such as “all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33) promise material sufficiency broadly or speak more narrowly of the Kingdom’s priorities.

AI-generated reference entry, grounded in the passages where this term appears — history and Scripture stated as such, interpretation labeled as interpretation. Not a substitute for the text itself.