Five-minute study · Day 190 · 1 Peter 5
1 Peter 5:7
A word worth stopping on: care μέριμνα merimna
Two different Greek words carry the weight of 1 Peter 5:7. Your 'care' is merimna, from the verb merizo, meaning to divide. Anxiety is a divided mind, pulled in two directions at once. The 'careth' that describes God is melei, a completely different word meaning to be a matter of concern, to be of interest. Peter builds a wordplay into his sentence: your divided mind (merimna) matters to God (melei). Throw one at the other.
Word study: care
- Greek
- μέριμνα
- Pronounced
- merimna
- Strong's
- G3308
- Definition
- Anxiety, worry, care. From merizo, 'to divide, to split.' An anxious concern that divides the mind and pulls attention in multiple directions.
Merimna appears six times in the New Testament. BDAG defines it as 'anxiety, worry, care.' The etymology is the key: merizo means to divide, to distribute, to split into parts. Merimna is the state of having a split mind, a consciousness pulled apart by competing concerns.
Jesus uses merimna in the Sermon on the Mount: 'Take no thought (merimnao, the verb form) for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink' (Matthew 6:25). The parable of the sower identifies merimna as one of the forces that chokes the word: 'the care (merimna) of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word' (Matthew 13:22). Martha is 'careful and troubled (merimnao) about many things' (Luke 10:41). In every case, the word describes a mind fragmented by competing worries.
The verb Peter uses for 'casting' is epiripto. It appears only twice in the New Testament: here and in Luke 19:35, where the disciples 'cast' (epiripto) their garments on the donkey for Jesus' triumphal entry. BDAG defines it as 'to throw upon.' The word is physical, even violent. You do not gently set your anxiety down. You hurl it.
Michaels' Word Biblical Commentary on 1 Peter notes the wordplay between merimna and melei. Peter writes: 'casting all your merimna upon him, for it melei to him concerning you.' The first word (merimna) describes the human experience of fragmented worry. The second word (melei) describes God's focused, undivided attention on you. Your mind splits into pieces under pressure. God's mind does not. He holds you as a single, whole concern.
The Septuagint background strengthens the connection. Psalm 55:22 (54:23 LXX) says: 'Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee.' Peter is drawing on this psalm, replacing 'burden' with merimna. The anxiety itself is the burden. The thing you throw onto God is the divided state of your own thinking.
Historical context · Mid to late first century AD, Asia Minor
A Letter to Scattered People Under Pressure
First Peter is addressed to 'the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia' (1:1). These are provinces in modern Turkey. The recipients are identified as 'sojourners and pilgrims' (2:11), a description that may be both theological and sociological. Many scholars believe the recipients were marginalized people, possibly including displaced persons, resident aliens without full civic rights, and converts whose new faith had cost them social standing.
The letter addresses suffering repeatedly. The recipients are experiencing 'manifold temptations' (1:6), 'fiery trial' (4:12), and reproach 'for the name of Christ' (4:14). The nature of the persecution appears to be social ostracism and legal harassment, not organized state violence. These believers had lost standing in their communities. Former friends and business associates viewed them with suspicion. Their refusal to participate in civic religious ceremonies marked them as antisocial.
First Peter 5:7 comes in a section addressed to elders and the community. Verse 5 instructs younger members to submit to elders. Verse 6 says 'humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God.' Verse 7 follows with the instruction to cast merimna on God. The sequence matters: humility precedes the casting. You cannot throw your anxiety onto God while simultaneously insisting on managing everything yourself.
Michaels notes that the participle 'casting' (epiripantes) is grammatically connected to the imperative 'humble yourselves' in verse 6. The casting is an expression of the humbling. To admit that your anxieties are more than you can carry, and to throw them onto someone else, is itself an act of humility. Pride holds the worry. Humility hurls it.
The communities receiving this letter were small, vulnerable, and geographically scattered across hundreds of miles. Peter's instruction was practical: the merimna of social persecution, economic uncertainty, and religious isolation was real. The response was physical, a throwing motion, directed at a God whose melei, whose focused concern, was equally real.
For reflection
Merimna comes from merizo, to divide. Anxiety splits your mind into fragments, each one pulling in a different direction. Name the three things currently dividing your attention. Peter says to throw all of them, every fragment, onto God in a single motion. The verb is violent: hurl, not hand. What would it look like to stop managing your anxiety and throw it?
The wordplay is the theology. Your merimna (divided mind) is met by God's melei (undivided attention toward you).
Sources: BDAG; Michaels, '1 Peter' (Word Biblical Commentary); Psalm 55:22 (LXX 54:23); Elliott, '1 Peter' (Anchor Bible)