Jack Woods's Reviews > Strength to Love

A collection of sermons by MLK, this book exemplifies the deep conviction and strong voice with which he spoke. I always come away from his work amazed at his resolute commitment to the philosophy of non-violence and love in the face of such extreme hate and bigotry. Of course, this was only possible through a corresponding belief and personal encounter with a divine presence in Jesus Christ that was with him in the midst of deep suffering and continuous trials.

There are a few themes that stuck with me throughout his many different sermons.

1. A firm commitment to the needs others and a refusal to return hate for hate is the hallmark of a true believer.

“We so often ask “What will happen to my job, my prestige, or my status if I take a stand on this issue? Will my home be bombed, will my life be threatened, or will I be jailed?” The good man always reverses the question. Abraham Lincoln did not ask “What will happen to me if I issue the Emancipation Proclamation and bring an end to chattel slavery?” but he asked “What will happen to the Union and to the millions of Negro people, if I fail to do it?” The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy” (p. 26).

2. A faith that cares only for one’s spiritual needs and future hope while rejecting his earthly body and the present injustices that entangle him is a weak and meaningless one.

“It (the church) has often been so absorbed in a future good “over yonder” that it forgets the present evils “down here”. Yet the church is challenged to make the gospel of Jesus Christ relevant within the social situation. We must come to see that the Christian gospel is a two-way road. On the one side, it seeks to change the souls of men and thereby unite them with God; on the other, it seeks to change the environmental conditions of men so that the soul will have a chance after it is changed. Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and yet is not concerned with the economic and social conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is the kind the Marxist describes as an “opiate of the people” (p. 104).

3. The destiny of any one group is inextricably tied to the destinies of the others. Injustice not only hurts the oppressed but twists and distorts the heart of the oppressor.

“In a real sense, all life is interrelated. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality” (p. 69).

4. Our response to injustice has to be an urgent one. We are not meant to sit back and wait for God to act. We are meant to be, like Paul, a “chosen instrument” of the Lord to bring his message to those in need while also relying on the Lord and being in constant prayer. It is meant to be both, not one or the other.

“No prodigious thunderbolt from heaven will blast away all evil. No mighty army of angels will descend to force men to do what their wills resist. The Bible portrays God not as an omnipotent czar who makes all decisions for his subjects nor as a cosmic tyrant who with gestapo-like methods invades the inner lives of men but rather as a living Father who gives to his children such abundant blessings as they may be willing to receive. Always man must be willing to do something. “Stand upon thy feet” says God to Ezekiel “and I will speak to you” (p. 139).