We have before us the fiendishness of business competition and the world war, passion and wrongdoing, antagonism between classes and moral depravity within them, economic tyranny above and the slave spirit below.
Karl BarthRead
On the basis of the eternal will of God we have to think of EVERY HUMAN BEING, even the oddest, most villainous or miserable, as one to whom Jesus Christ is Brother and God is Father; and we have to deal with him on this assumption. If the other person knows that already, then we have to strengthen him in the knowledge. If he does no know it yet or no longer knows it, our business is to transmit this knowledge to him.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Every person is valuable and deserving of love, and we should treat them as such based on their divine connection.
Karl Barth's quote emphasizes the inherent worth of every individual, suggesting that each person, regardless of their flaws or sins, is viewed as a sibling in Christ and as a child of God. This perspective calls for compassion and understanding towards all, highlighting our responsibility to reaffirm this divine kinship in our interactions, especially with those who may have strayed from this belief.
Themes
LoveCompassionHumanityUnderstandingRelationship
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about kindness and inclusion, you could use this quote to emphasize compassion for all.
More from Karl Barth
All quotes →When we speak of our virtues we are competitors, when we confess our sins we become brothers.
Karl BarthRead
Conscience is the perfect interpreter of life.
Karl BarthRead
That the zeal for God's honor is also a dangerous passion, that the Christian must bring with him the courage to swim against the tide instead of with it... accept a good deal of loneliness, will perhaps be nowhere so clear and palpable as in the church, where he would so much like things to be different. Yet he cannot and he will not refuse to take this risk and pay this price... he belongs where the reformation of the church is underway or will again be underway.
Karl BarthRead
In the Church of Jesus Christ there can and should be no non-theologians.
Karl BarthRead
Christian worship is the most momentous, most urgent, most glorious action that can take place in human life.
Karl BarthRead
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