Martin Luther King Jr.’s way of peacefully bringing to light injustices and inequalities in our society by highlighting every single person’s equal worth, our interconnectedness while living in this world, and how both those things should encourage us towards unity and compassion instead of tribalism and division came from his close walk with, and faith in, God and Scripture.
So many of his quotes and the promotion of love over hate have close ties and similarities to Scripture, because the truth is God loves every single person He created, wants unity and love between every single person on earth, and deeply cares about injustices anywhere and people being treated without grace, mercy, and love because of preferences, biases, and other things not found in, and that often go directly against, the sacrificial love and truth modeled by Christ and promoted throughout the Bible.
Today as we honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, let’s also reflect on His willingness to peacefully and courageously shine God’s loving light, truth, and justice on some harder to face parts of our society by honestly looking inward at the intentions and motives of our heart personally and as a society so that we may continue to work on removing those things that break His heart and keep us from truly loving others as He loves us. How will you love someone differently, and more in line with God’s heart, this week than you have before? Whose story can you learn more about and when? Who can you extend God’s grace, love, and truth to by being a voice for them that you don’t normally?
For more about reflection on God’s heart regarding who (spoiler: it’s everyone😁) and how to love, and His view of truth and justice, check out these scriptures for just the tip of the iceberg:
John 13:34-35, Isaiah 1:17, Matthew 25: 34-45, Matthew 5:43-48, Romans 12:9-21, John 3:16-21, 1 Corinthians 13:1-7