to be a care or concern to someone: for a matter to matter to a person
This verb almost always shows up in a fixed turn of phrase where the thing that matters is the grammatical center and the person it matters to is named alongside it. Where English says "you care about this," ancient Greek says "this is a care to you." So the plain force in every New Testament verse is the same: something either does or does not matter to someone.
The word carries no special religious weight of its own. It was one of the most ordinary verbs in the Greek language, used the same way from Homer down to everyday business letters written in Paul's own century. What makes its biblical uses striking is not the word but who is said to care (a personal God) and how often the New Testament frames it as an accusation.
Nine of its ten occurrences sit inside a denial, a pointed question, or a charge that someone who ought to care does not:
- the disciples asking whether Jesus cares that they are drowning
- the hired hand who feels nothing for the sheep
- Judas who did not really care about the poor
- the Roman official Gallio who could not be bothered
Only once, in a letter written to comfort a suffering church, does the word stand as a plain, unqualified promise the other way: God cares about you (1 Peter 5:7). Read together, the verses move from complaint and misunderstanding toward that single reassurance.