What does the Bible say about anxiety?
Anxiety is one of the few emotions the Bible addresses with a direct command, and Scripture returns to it again and again — in the Sermon on the Mount, in Paul's letter to the Philippians, in Peter's letter to scattered believers, and in the Psalms. The commentators treat it as more than a mood: it is a burden we were never meant to carry, and a rival to the fruit God wants to grow in us.
"Do not be anxious about anything" is an order
Philippians 4:6 does not offer advice. One writer noticed that this changes everything about how the words land, especially when the trouble is serious. (Older translations read "be careful for nothing.")
The Christian's Friend"Do not be anxious about anything." I have found that word so often a real comfort. Even if it is a great trial, still "do not be anxious about anything." "Oh," you say, "it is not my small circumstances; it is a question of believers going wrong." Well, "do not be anxious about anything." It is not that you are careless, but you are trying to carry the burden, and so you are torturing your heart with it. How often a burden takes over a person's mind, and when he tries in vain to throw it off, it comes back and worries him. But "do not be anxious about anything" is a command; and it is a blessing to have such a command.
The verse then names its own remedy, and the scope of that remedy is total.
Hamilton SmithThe apostle faces the many things that in a world of change and need may give the believer occasion for care and anxiety. In the presence of these things he would have us to be care-free, for he says, "do not be anxious about anything." Then we learn that this is only possible by taking "everything" to God in prayer with supplication and thanksgiving. It is not simply "some things" or "difficult things" but "everything" is to be taken to Him — the small worries as well as the great trials. Whatever weighs on the spirit at the moment, whatever fills us with dread and foreboding as we think of tomorrow, all is to be poured into the ear of God.
Matthew 6 — anxiety borrows a tomorrow that may never arrive
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus forbids anxiety about food, drink and clothing, and then forbids it about tomorrow. One writer describes what worry actually does with the future.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinAnd there is another characteristic about anxiety. It looks ahead in unbelief. Unbelief draws dark pictures of despair and fills the mind with a day which may never come. How different it ought to be, and will be, if we simply follow His word, "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
The Greek wording sharpens it further. Commentators note that verse 34 is stronger than what comes before it.
The Bible TreasuryThe disciples were not to be anxious as a settled habit about food and clothing: a look at the birds, an observation of the lilies, however brief, might well correct it. They were not to be anxious at all, said the Lord — not for tomorrow. (Verse 34.) It is a stronger statement, excluding even a single instance.
1 Peter 5:7 — two kinds of care in one sentence
Peter's word for "casting" is not gentle, and the same root word appears twice in the verse with two different owners.
F. A. Hughes"Casting (or, having cast) all your care (every anxiety) upon Him." The word "casting" is an emphatic word — it really means "to fling" — to part company with entirely… If the first mention of care in the text refers to anxiety and difficulties, the second reference is to the wonderful love and concern of God Himself for His saints. He is interested in us; He is concerned about our every problem, they matter to Him, as the original word suggests.
Prayer can be offered and yet the burden never actually let go.
A J PollockMany bring their cares to God in prayer, but receive little or no benefit, because they carry them away again instead of leaving them in His presence.
The exchange God offers
The two halves of Philippians 4:6-7 form a trade, and what comes back is not a calm we manufacture.
J. N. Darby"Do not be anxious about anything." That is easily said. But what! not anxious about the state of the church, or about the pressure of a family? "Do not be anxious about anything." Whatever produces a care in us, produces God's care for us… So, "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus": not your hearts keeping the peace of God; but the peace that God Himself is in, His peace, the unmoved stability of all God's thoughts, guarding your hearts.
Anxiety left alone chokes the fruit
In the parable of the sower, cares are listed first among the thorns. That placement is deliberate.
William KellyThere are various forms in which the evil works, but it is worldly desire and real selfishness, in distrust of God and indifference to His interests, so that the heart gets either overwhelmed with anxiety or busy in the pursuit of present things. The very appearance of devotedness is lost… But you that are poor, watch against creeping cares; you rich, do not be lured by the deceitfulness of riches.
"Let not your hearts be troubled"
Jesus said this on the night before He died, to men who had every reason to be afraid.
The Bible Treasury"Let not your hearts be troubled." There was much to trouble them… and above all His own absence… "Let not your hearts be troubled." Trouble may be all around; let it stay there. Keep it out of your heart. "Believe in God" though you have not seen Him — you have His presence; "believe also in Me." In the middle of the trouble, He is on your side.
Psalm 55:22 says the same in older words, and one writer ties it to the very pressures that would pull us away from Christ — difficulties, illness, insults, division among God's people — turning each one into an occasion to draw near instead.
Hamilton SmithIf, however, instead of allowing all these things to come between our souls and the Lord, we make them occasions for drawing near to the Lord, we shall learn what it is to be strong in the Lord, while realising our own weakness; and we shall learn the blessedness of the word, "Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you."
Summary
- Carry — anxiety is you trying to carry a burden that comes back and worries you; "do not be anxious about anything" is a command, not a suggestion.
- Cast — the word means to fling it off entirely; the failure is not in praying but in picking the burden up again on the way out.
- Exchange — whatever produces a care in us produces God's care for us; His own unshaken peace then guards the heart.
- Everything — the small worries as well as the great trials; and never tomorrow, which anxiety paints in dark colours out of unbelief.
- Choked or fruitful — cares left unchecked crowd out the Word and leave a life unfruitful; taken to God, the same pressures become occasions to draw near.