Worry, Care (Greek: merimná), verb; (Greek: mérimna), noun.

In Greek, the verb meríz, which means, "to divide" (either to separate into parts, or to distribute), is from where they eventually derived the noun, mérimna, (and from there, the verb merimná).

While at first it may seem strange that the word for divide is the root from which the Greeks got their word for worry, it does help us to understand the New Testament concept of worry: to have your attention or focus get distracted (divided) by the tugging-away at you of the various issues or problems you are worrying about.

The basic meaning is to "care" about someone or something. But because of the underlying root of "divided, cut into pieces", there is a strong sense of being "anxious" mixed in with the care.

More than half the times merimná is used, the King James Version of the Bible translates it with the phrase "take thought" (in the remaining 8 occurrences it is translated as some form of "care").

The use of "take thought" is significant here, because the English phrase doesn't mean negative or positive, it just means the taking of time to think about something. Most current English translations have gone with the more descriptive word worry. This helps the English reader capture the negative sense of the word merimná: the idea of not just caring, but doing so with anxiety.

(Note: The English word worry originally meant to "harass by biting", etc. –Webster. Since the King James translators finished in 1611, before our current use of "worry" as being anxious or fearful, they would not have been able to use that word. Douglas Harper, in his Online Etymology Dictionary, says the sense of "annoy, bother, vex," was not seen in written English until the late 17th century.)

The act of "taking thought" about something is neither good nor bad. It depends on how you do it. Our caring about people and things is not wrong. It is our worrying that God wants us to stop.

The difference between them is the difference between preparing and panicking, between fixing and fretting. It is a good thing for us to "take thought" about a person or a thing or an event. This is the responsible (and polite) way to act.

If someone is coming to your home and they have some dietary restriction, or some physical limitation, it would be inconsiderate if we did not take thought beforehand. Before we send our first-grader off to school, we should first take thought about lunch, and perhaps paperwork to be returned.

Planning ahead is good. If it might rain tomorrow, we put the umbrella by the door to not forget it. Worrying about the rain is not good. It hurts us to worry, and it doesn't help. So, preparing is positive; panicking is negative.

If we take thought about some problem, focusing on a solution, this is helpful. But worrying about the past is not helpful. Living in yesterday keeps us from doing what God asks of us today. So, fixing is positive; fretting is negative.

The verb merimná means to care in a worried way. But Greek has another word: the verb mélei means to care in a concerned way. God wants us to care. But he doesn't want us to worry. He wants us to mélei (be concerned), but not to let it deteriorate into merimná (be worried).

God makes an important distinction between the two. We are taught to live "casting all your mérimna [worry] on him, for he mélei [is concerned] for you" (1 Peter 5:7).

In the ten times that mélei is used, 4 of them are about people who are not concerned, the other 6 all describe the care that Jesus had. He is never described as sinking down to merimná; he is always elevated up to mélei.

We are called to be a church that is conquering with concern (not a church that is wallowing in worry). "The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not mélei about the sheep" (John 10:13).

Don't worry; be mélei.