In honor of MLK day I wanted to do a post inspired by my favorite quote from the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This famous quote is taken from a sermon preached by Dr. King entitled: “Loving your enemies.” This is a topic that MLK claimed he liked to preach on at least once a year. When you examine his life it is easy to see why because his acts and beliefs created a lot of enemies. Many people hated MLK but he lived his life striving to never hate those people in return.
Dr. King preached this sermon using Matthew 5:43-44, primarily focussing on verse 44, which says: “but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Dr. King tells his congregation that there will be people that hate them for various reasons. After all, that was certainly true of King’s own life. Many people hated him because of the color of his skin, some hated him for his political views, and others hated him for his religious views. Regardless of the reason someone hated him, he vowed not to hate them in return. In his sermon, Dr. King states: “This morning, as I look into your eyes, and into the eyes of all my brothers in Alabama and all over America, and over the world, I say to you ‘I love you. I would rather die than hate you.'” This statement seems a little drastic at first. However, as you dig deeper into Dr. King’s beliefs you find that he not only prioritized the quality of love but that he despised the act of hate. He describes hate as “a cancer that gnaws away at the very vital center of your life and your existence. It is like eroding acid that eats away the best and the objective center of your life. So Jesus says love because hate destroys the hater as well as the hated.”
As I write this, over 60 years after Dr. King preached this sermon, I wish I could report that America heeded Dr. King’s words and is now a nation built on love. Unfortunately, it seems that in the year 2022 our nation is just as divided over racial issues, political issues, and religious issues as it was during MLK’s life. In recent years we have experienced shortages of many common items but there has been no shortage of hate. So how can we, as children of God, drive out this hate in a dark world?
This is where my favorite MLK quote comes in. The quote is: ”Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” If we are to rid this world of darkness and hate, then we must live lives of light and love. During his earthly ministry, Jesus made it clear that we are to love. When asked about the greatest commandment in Matthew 22:34-40, Jesus responds with two commands to love. First, to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. And secondly, to love our neighbor as ourselves. God desires us to love him and others, and to never hate even if we are hated. Jesus perfectly demonstrated for us what a life of love looks like and calls us to reflect His love in our lives today. Jesus did not respond to hate with hate, but with love (1 Peter 2:23.) Jesus came as a light to a dark world, full of love to a world full of hate.
The importance of love is displayed throughout the New Testament. Jesus instructs his followers multiple times to love. Love is listed as the first fruit of the spirit and love is identified as a key indicator of a person’s salvation. Jesus commands his disciples to love one another in John 13:34 then says in verse 35 that “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Jesus tells us that the identifying mark of his disciples is love. If we are to be a follower of God then we must love others, even those who hate us.
This world is filled with hate and as long as we return hate for hate then nothing will ever change. The only force strong enough to drive out hate is love. To end the chain of hate in the world someone must be different and choose to love instead of hate. God has called us to be those people. There is no one more suited for this task than the children of God. So.. let us make 2022 a year of love. Love not just for those who love us in return, but love even for our enemies. Dr. King described love as something “that builds up and is creative” and he described hate as something that “tears down and is destructive.” Love is the most transformative power our world knows, both God’s love for us and our love for others. Let us live a life of love and strive to build up those around us instead of tearing them down
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To close, I’d like to share a few more inspirational words from Dr. King’s sermon:
“Hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and so on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. It just never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that’s the strong person. The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of evil. And that is the tragedy of hate, that it doesn’t cut it off. It only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. Somebody must have religion enough and morality enough to cut it off and inject within the very structure of the universe that strong and powerful element of love.”
Loved your words! So true!