“Look for the poor, sick and all kinds of needy, help them and let your life’s energy appear in this, so that they may enjoy your kindness, helping wherever your help is needed, as much as you possibly can with your life, property and honor. Know that to serve God is nothing else than to serve your neighbor in love, whether he be enemy or friend, or whether you can help in temporal or spiritual matters. This is serving God and doing good works.”
Martin Luther, as quoted in Devotional Readings from Luther’s Works for Every Day of the Year ed. John Sander (Rock Island, IL: Augustana Book Concern, 1915) 439-440.