The work of Martin Luther King Jr. and his efforts towards love, unity and non-violence can teach us a thing or two about loving our neighbor — and loving our enemies.
The continue to inspire me towards a non-violent, pacifist, loving and gracious way of life.
“The black freedom struggle is the best example of bringing together the quest for unarmed truth and unconditional love in the face of American Terrorism for 400 years. Instead of a Black al-Qaeda you get Frederick Douglas and Martin Luther.†– Dr Cornel West
Just because someone is doing us wrong — whether violently or not — doesn’t give us the excuse to pursue redemptive violence.
In fact — Martin Luther King Jr. said in his great “I have a dream speech” that violence is not redemptive but instead unearned suffering is what’s really redemptive.
“…we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”
“But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
An insurgency of love will wear down our enemies — not insurgencies of hate and war.
After all, Paul reminds us that it’s God’s kindness and mercy that drew us to him — not his wrath and hatred. (Romans 2:4)
So may we come to realize that love wins. It’s the only thing that ever has.
May we come to find the Gospel of Peace and preach it’s message to the world.
May we come to find the Gospel of Love and share it with the world.
And may we come to realize grace, peace, hope and love are not only gifts we receive — but ones we’re called to share with others.
“I’ve seen too much hate to want to hate, myself, and every time I see it, I say to myself, hate is too great a burden to bear. Somehow we must be able to stand up against our most bitter opponents and say: ‘We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you…. But be assured that we’ll wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves; we will appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.‘†– Martin Luther King Jr.
Your post reminds me of another great quote by MLK “Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.” It's so easy to slip into hating people that I perceive to be unjust and unloving – to hate those who seem to be hurting others – he reminds me that I must be on guard against becoming what I hate.
Great quote – hadn't heard that one yet!