Care
Care, in the scriptures gathered here, is anxious care: the inward fret over food and clothing, the sleepless watch over wealth, the cumbering of the heart with many things until the word is choked and the day comes as a snare. The remedy runs as a counter-current — committing one's way, casting one's burden, seeking the kingdom, putting trust in the kindness of a Savior who counts himself nourisher and father.
The Cares of This Life
The seed that fell among thorns names this trouble most plainly. In Mark, "the cares of the age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful" (Mr 4:19). Luke parallels: "they are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of [this] life, and bring no fruit to perfection" (Lu 8:14). The same phrase returns at the end of Luke as a watchword for the last day — "take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your⁺ hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day come upon you⁺ suddenly as a snare" (Lu 21:34).
The cares are concrete: a field, oxen, a wife. When the supper is announced, "they all with one [consent] began to make excuses" — "I have bought a field"; "I have bought five yoke of oxen"; "I have married a wife, and therefore I can't come" (Lu 14:18-20). Would-be followers along the way reveal the same divided heart: one will follow but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head; another asks to bury his father first; another to bid his household farewell; "No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God" (Lu 9:57-62).
Paul reads marriage and trade through this lens. "He who is unmarried is careful for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord: but he who is married is careful for the things of the world, how he may please the wife" (1Co 7:32-33). The soldier figure is sharper still: "No soldier on service entangles himself in the affairs of [this] life; that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier" (2Ti 2:4).
Anxious Toil and Sleepless Heart
The Psalter and Ecclesiastes set anxious care against the futility of labor. "Surely everyone among man walks in a vain show; surely they are disquieted in vain: he heaps up [riches], and does not know who will gather them" (Ps 39:6). "It is vain for you⁺ to rise up early, to take rest late, to eat the bread of toil; thus he gives to his beloved sleep" (Ps 127:2). Qohelet sees a man without son or brother whose eyes are not satisfied with riches: "yet is there no end of all his labor… For whom then, [he says], do I labor, and deprive my soul of good? This also is vanity, yes, it is an intense travail" (Ec 4:8).
Ben Sira presses the same point on the body. "Watching over wealth is a weariness to the flesh, and the worry of it disturbs sleep" (Sir 31:1). "The worry of [getting] sustenance disturbs slumber, and drives away sleep more than severe sickness" (Sir 31:2). "Do not give your soul to sorrow, and do not be worried in your own counsel" (Sir 30:21). "Envy and anger shorten days, and anxiety makes gray before the time" (Sir 30:24). The cost is reckoned in days, in greying hair, in slumber lost.
Sirach also names the deeper substrate: dread of death itself running under the surface of the anxious life. "[As for] their thoughts, and fear of heart, the idea of their expectation is the day of death" (Sir 40:2). "[There is but] anger and jealousy, anxiety and fear, terror of death, strife and contention. And when he rests upon his bed, the sleep of night doubles his trouble" (Sir 40:5).
The same picture surfaces in narrative. Antiochus, hearing of his reverses, "was struck with fear, and exceedingly moved: and he laid himself down on his bed, and fell sick for grief" (1Ma 6:8); "Sleep has gone from my eyes, and I have fallen away in my heart for anxiety" (1Ma 6:10). The king's bed and Sirach's bed are the same bed.
Against this, Sirach gives a quiet directive about ordinary work: "Do not be stressed in the service of work; for it has been allotted by God" (Sir 7:9).
Martha and the Many Things
The named instance is Martha. "Martha was cumbered about much service; and she came up to him, and said, Lord, don't you care that my sister left me to serve alone? Then tell her to help me. But the Lord answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and upset about many things" (Lu 10:40-41). The reproach is gentle but directly on the umbrella: anxiety about many things.
Forbidden in So Many Words
The teaching turns prohibition. Standing before hostile authorities, "don't be anxious how or what you⁺ will answer, or what you⁺ will say" (Lu 12:11). On the measure of life, "which of you⁺ by being anxious can add a cubit to the measure of his life?" (Lu 12:25). And in the long Lukan remedy passage:
"Don't be anxious for [your⁺] soul, what you⁺ will eat; nor yet for [your⁺] body, what you⁺ will put on. For the soul is more than the food, and the body than the clothing. Consider the ravens, that they do not sow, neither reap; which have no store-chamber nor barn; and God feeds them: of how much more value are you⁺ than the birds!" (Lu 12:22-24).
The counter-image is the lily: "Consider the lilies, how they grow: they do not toil, neither do they spin; yet I say to you⁺, Even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these" (Lu 12:27). The argument from the grass closes the question — "if God so clothes the grass in the field… how much more [he will clothe] you⁺, O you⁺ of little faith?" (Lu 12:28). The pivot is to seeking, not to provisioning: "don't you⁺ seek what you⁺ will eat… For all these things the nations of the world seek after: but your⁺ Father knows that you⁺ have need of these things. Yet seek⁺ his kingdom, and these things will be added to you⁺. Don't be afraid, little flock; for it is your⁺ Father's good pleasure to give you⁺ the kingdom" (Lu 12:29-32).
Paul gives the prohibition in a single line: "In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your⁺ requests be made known to God" (Php 4:6).
Committing, Casting, Trusting
The remedy is a cluster of verbs — commit, cast, trust — drawn from the Psalter and Proverbs and answered in the apostolic letters.
Commit: "Commit your way to Yahweh; trust also in [his Speech], and he will bring it to pass" (Ps 37:5). "Commit your works to Yahweh, and your purposes will be established" (Pr 16:3).
Cast: "Cast your burden on Yahweh, and he will sustain you: he will never allow the righteous to be moved" (Ps 55:22). Peter takes up the same image: "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you⁺ in due time; casting all your⁺ anxiety on him, because he cares for you⁺" (1Pe 5:6-7).
Trust: "Blessed is the [noble] man who trusts in [the Speech of] Yahweh, and whose trust is [the Speech of] Yahweh. For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green; and will not be careful in the year of drought, neither will cease from yielding fruit" (Jer 17:7-8). The tree-by-water is the contrary figure to the man with no end to his labor.
Hebrews ties contentment to the same divine word: "Be⁺ free from the love of money; content with such things as you⁺ have: for he himself has said, I will never fail you, neither will I ever forsake you" (Heb 13:5).
The Philippians remedy completes the verb-cluster with a promise: requests made known to God, and "the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your⁺ hearts and your⁺ thoughts in Christ Jesus" (Php 4:7).
A Savior, Not Anxious Provision
Diognetus closes the umbrella by naming the alternative directly. The Savior, who has shown himself "able to save even the impossible," is to be counted "our nourisher, father, teacher, counselor, physician, mind, light, honor, glory, might, life; and not be anxious about clothing and food" (Gr 9:6). The list is the answer to the cares: where the anxious heart looks to field, oxen, riches, sustenance, sleep, and the day of death, the believer's accounting names the one who supplies each in person.