What Does Matthew 6:31 Mean in the King James?
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Greek verb behind “take no thought” also names care for one another, so this verse exposes anxious self-rehearsal without condemning care itself.
THE MEANING
The questions keep returning to the body’s immediate needs: food, drink, clothing. The verse speaks to you now as a naming of anxious rehearsal, within the assurance that your Father already knows what you need. Your needs are real; repeating the questions is not what supplies them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that mentally rehearsing the necessities you lack can make you secure; the verse reveals that repetition as anxiety, not provision.
THE ROOT
μεριμνήσητε
merimnēsēte
GROWS FROM
μεριμν-
merimn-
To be anxiously concerned; to care.
English “take no thought” can sound as if all concern is being dismissed. The same Greek verb describes the members’ care for one another elsewhere, showing that this word can name both anxious preoccupation and care directed toward another.
ALSO GROWS
merimnaō: To be anxiously concerned.
μεριμνάω
It is the same verb used for the anxious questions surrounding this verse, making those questions an expression of the root’s concern.
merimnōsin: To care for one another.
μεριμνῶσιν
The same verb can describe relational care, showing that the verse names anxiety without making care itself the problem.
THE PATTERN
Need is sustained by God’s provision rather than by anxious rehearsal.
The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?THE THREAD
That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.The verb rendered “take no thought” here is also rendered “care” when it describes the members of the body. That shared word reveals a distinction English can hide: concern can turn inward as anxiety over survival, or move outward as care among people.
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