“We must in strength and humility meet hate with love.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Strength to Love, p. 50
“Hatred and bitterness can never cure the disease of fear; only love can do that. Hatred paralyzed life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illumines it.” Dr. King, p. 126
I grew up in Memphis, TN. There are a ton of things to be proud of having grown up in Memphis…basketball, barbecue, White Station High School, and of course…Gibson’s Donuts. However, one of the first things that always comes to mind when you mention that you are from Memphis is the fact that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated there in April of 1968 because he was making people uncomfortable with his agenda that tried to point people to love others just as Christ loved them. That April day in Memphis has caused my hometown to be divided in a way that is, still to this day, heartbreaking. The bullet that ended the life of Dr. King also snuffed out the light of hope for many in Memphis that will probably not be restored until Christ himself returns
This year at North Cobb Christian School, our theme verse is Matthew 22:39 “and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the second greatest commandment after we are told that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:37). It’s impossible to do the second without doing the first. In studying and reading this passage, I’m drawn to a greater appreciation for diversity in the body of Christ. How can we truly love God without fully loving and appreciating all of the people God created? God created all of us and those who know Christ should stand together under that banner of love in a unified message of love for others hoping to draw them to Christ by the love they see that we have for one another. Sadly that isn’t happening in most cases. We are wasting time and defeating the point of the gospel itself by making rules and regulations that only welcome some and force others to feel like they must stand on the outside looking in. That isn’t at all what Christ had in mind when he “demonstrated His own love for us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8). When Jesus proclaimed “It is Finished” on the cross…that was for all of us.
I found a copy of Strength to Love by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The book is a collection of sermons he delivered over the years and there is a chapter specifically titled “On Being a Good Neighbor”. This book is not a quick read if you use it as a tool to assess where your heart stands on loving others. I highlighted several things while reading and have posted them below. I hope you will consider picking up this book and setting it next to Scripture to evaluate how committed you are to truly loving others as Christ has loved us. I certainly have not reached that, but I’m grateful for the way that Dr. King’s message has pushed me to grow in this area.
- Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. Matthew 10:16
- It is pretty difficult to imagine a single person having, simultaneously, the characteristics of the serpent and the dove, but this is what Jesus expects. We must combine the toughness of the serpent and the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart.
- Soft mindedness often invades religion.
- There is little hope for us until we become tough minded enough to break loose from the shackles of prejudice, half-truths, and downright ignorance. The shape of the world today does not permit us the luxury of soft mindedness. A nation or a civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan.
- The greatness of our God lies in the fact that he is both tough minded and tenderhearted. He has qualities both of austerity and of gentleness. The Bible, always clear in stressing both attributes of God, expresses his tough mindedness in his justice and wrath and his tenderheartedness in his love and grace. God has two outstretched arms. One is strong enough to surround us with justice, and one is gentle enough to embrace us with grace. On the one hand, God is a God of justice who punished Israel for her wayward deeds, and on the other hand, he is a forgiving father whose heart was filled with unutterable joy when the prodigal son returned home.
- When days grow dark and nights grow dreary, we can be thankful that our God combines in his nature a creative synthesis of love and justice that will lead us through life’s dark valleys and into sunlit pathways of hope and fulfillment.
- Nowhere is the tragic tendency to conform more evident than in the church, an institution that has often served to crystallize, conserve, and even bless the patterns of majority opinion.
- If the church of Jesus Christ is to regain once more its power, message, and authentic ring, it must conform only to the demands of the gospel.
- Christianity has always insisted that the cross we bear precedes the crown we wear. To be a Christian, one must take up his cross, with all of its difficulties and agonizing and tragedy-packed content, and carry it until that very cross leaves its marks upon us and redeems us to that more excellent way that comes only through suffering.
- And who is my neighbor? Luke 10:29
- What constituted the goodness of the good Samaritan? Why will he always be an inspiring paragon of neighborly virtue? It seems to me that this man’s goodness may be described in one word—altruism. The good Samaritan was altruistic to the core. What is altruism? The dictionary defines altruism as “regard for, and devotion to, the interest of others.” The Samaritan was good because he made concern for others the first law of his life.
- Too seldom do we see people in their true humanness. We see men as Jews or Gentiles, Catholics, or Protestants, Chinese or American, Negroes or whites. We fail to think of them as fellow human beings made from the same basic stuff as we, molded in the same divine image. The priest and the Levite saw only a bleeding body, not a human being like themselves. But the good Samaritan will always remind us to remove the cataracts of provincialism from our spiritual eyes and see men as men.
- The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others. In dangerous valleys and hazardous pathways, he will lift some bruised and beaten brother to a higher and more noble life.
- In our quest to make neighborly love a reality, we have, in addition to the inspiring example of the good Samaritan, the magnanimous life of our Christ to guide us. His altruism was universal, for he thought of all men, even publicans and sinners, as brothers. His altruism was dangerous, for he willingly traveled hazardous roads in a cause he knew was right. His altruism was excessive, for he chose to die on Calvary, history’s most magnificent expression of obedience to the unenforceable.
- Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. Luke 23:34
- Jesus eloquently affirmed from the cross a higher law. He knew that the old eye-for-eye philosophy would leave everyone blind. He did not seek to overcome evil with evil. He overcame evil with good. Although crucified by hate, he responded with aggressive love. What a magnificent lesson! Generations will rise and fall; men will continue to worship with god of revenge and bow before the altar of retaliation; but ever and again this noble lesson of Calvary will be a nagging reminder that only goodness can drive out evil and only love can conquer hate.
- Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to alight already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. So when Jesus says “Love your enemies,” he is setting forth a profound and ultimately inescapable admonition. Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies—or else? The chain reaction of evil—hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars—must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.
- There will be no permanent solution to the race problem until oppressed men develop the capacity to love their enemies. The darkness of racial injustice will be dispelled only by the light of forgiving love.
- We must in strength and humility meet hate with love.
- Love is the most durable power in the world. This creative force, so beautifully exemplified in the life of our Christ, is the most potent instrument available in mankind’s quest for peace and security. Napoleon Bonaparte, the great military genius, looking back over his years of conquest, is reported to have said: “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have built great empires. But upon what did they depend? They depended on force. But centuries ago Jesus started an empire that was built on love, and even to this day millions will die for him.”
- Nothing in wealth is inherently vicious, and nothing in poverty is inherently virtuous.
- When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a great benign Power in the universe whose name is God, and he is able to make way out of no way, and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrow.
- Hatred and bitterness can never cure the disease of fear; only love can do that. Hatred paralyzed life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illumines it.