Every once in a while you come across a book that resonates with you so deeply that you feel the need to buy copies and give it out to every thinking friend you have. The Strength to Loveby Martin Luther King Jr. is one of these books in my life at the moment. Full of eloquent one- liners, powerful paradoxes, and simple gospel truth each chapter reinforces the profound calling on the Christian’s life to again season the earth with the costly and most precious commodity of love. One of the paradoxes King begins the first chapter with is that of Matthew 10:16 where Jesus calls his followers to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. King elaborates on this call in terms of a calling to have tough minds and tender hearts, emphasizing the distinct need to combine both, “ To have serpentlike qualities devoid of dovelike qualities is to be passionless, mean, and selfish. To have dovelike qualities without serpentlike qualities is to be sentimental, anemic, and aimless. We must combine strongly marked antitheses.� Following Jesus command to embrace in one life these two qualities would lead to a dramatic transformation of the Church.
Some of my favorite one liners in this book:
“Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.� [19]
“Never must the Church tire of reminding men that they have the moral responsibility to be intelligent.� [31]
“To our most bitter opponents we say� ‘We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because nonco-operation with evil is as much a moral obligation as co-operation with good. Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process and our victory will be a double victory. Love is the most durable ower in the world. This creative force so beautifully exemplified in the life of our Christ, is the most potent instrument in mankind’s quest for peace and security.� [40]
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