Caring for one another (NRSV, New Testament)

John 13.14: So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

John 13.34-35: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

Acts 4:32-35: Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

Romans 14.13: Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another.

Galatians 5.13: For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.

Galatians 6.2: Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

Other Quotes

Care is a state in which something does matter; it is the source of human tenderness.

—Rollo May

I feel the capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance.

—Pablo Casals

Determination, energy, and courage appear spontaneously when we care deeply about something. We take risks that are unimaginable in any other context.

—Margaret J. Wheatley

You really can change the world if you care enough.

—Marian Wright Edelman

Excellence is the Result of Caring more than others think is Wise, Risking more than others think is Safe, Dreaming more than others think is Practical, and Expecting more than others think is Possible.

—Ronnie Oldham

In a world full of people who couldn’t care less, be someone who couldn’t care more.

—Author Unknown

We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.

—Albert Einstein

Love is the hardest lesson in Christianity; but, for that reason, it should be most our care to learn it.

—William Penn

I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.

—Mahatma Gandhi

It is not enough to say that love of God is inseparable from the love of one’s neighbor. It must be added that love of God is unavoidably expressed through love of one’s neighbor.

—Gustavo Guitierrez

Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which is to look out Christ’s compassion to the world. Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now.

—Teresa of Avila

“Who is my neighbor?” The answer is: “You are the neighbor. Go along and try to be obedient by loving others.” Neighborliness is not a quality in other people, it is simply their claim on ourselves.

—Dietrich Bonhoeffer

In the face of suffering, one has no right to turn away, not to see. In the face of injustice, one may not look the other way. When someone suffers, and it is not you, he comes first. His very suffering gives him priority.

—Elie Wiesel

Human being is being with other humans. Apart from this relationship we become inhuman. We are human by being together, by seeing, hearing, speaking with, and standing by, one another as men (and women).

—Karl Barth

We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.

—Epictetus

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

—Dalai Lama

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.

—Samuel Johnson

Here in America, religious people often prefer to be right rather than compassionate. They’ve lost the Axial Age vision of concern for everybody.

—Karen Armstrong

Real charity doesn’t care if it’s tax-deductible or not.

—Dan Bennett

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

—Leo F. Buscaglia

Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you – not because they are nice, but because you are.

—Author Unknown

…what kindness is. It’s not doing something for someone else because they can’t, but because you can.

—Andrew Iskander

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.

—George Washington Carver

When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.

—Abraham Joshua Heschel

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.

—Mark Twain

About the author

Darla Dee Turlington wrote 34 articles for this publication.

The Rev. Dr. Darla Dee Turlington is an ordained American Baptist pastor who served twenty years at the First Baptist Church of Westfield, NJ, the last nine as Senior Pastor, retiring in June 2010. She has been an adjunct professor at New York City area colleges and currently is on the Governing Board of the Ministers Council of the American Baptist Churches USA, the Board of Visitors of the Divinity School of Wake Forest University, and the Advisory Team of American Baptist Women In Ministry.

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