It’s nearly impossible to think about the Civil Rights movement in the United States without the booming voice of Martin Luther King Jr. ringing in one’s ear. Whether it’s “I have a dream,” or “Free at last,” the phrases uttered by King typify one of the most crucial moments in American history.
And yet as much as modern Americans love to quote King, it doesn’t quite compare with how much King, a Baptist minister, loved to quote the Bible. His rhetorical imagination was soaked with the Word of God. Consider a single paragraph from King’s 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail:”
But as I continued to think about the matter, I gradually gained a bit of satisfaction from being considered an extremist. Was not Jesus an extremist in love?—“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.” Was not Amos an extremist for justice?—“Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Was not Paul an extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ?—“I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” Was not Martin Luther an extremist?—“Here I stand; I can do no other so help me God.” Was not John Bunyan an extremist?—“I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a mockery of my conscience.” Was not Abraham Lincoln an extremist?—“This nation cannot survive half slave and half free.” Was not Thomas Jefferson an extremist?—“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” So the question is not whether we will be extremist, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate, or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice, or will we be extremists for the cause of justice?
Within the space of a few sentences, King quotes Matthew 5:44, Amos 5:24 and Galatians 6:17. King claims that his commitment to God’s Word required him to identify as an “extremist for love” and an “extremist for the cause of justice.”
King’s courage and leadership are a powerful example for us today, but so is his expansive biblical imagination. As we celebrate his life on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, consider signing up for American Bible Society’s Justice Scripture Journey. Spend some time every day ruminating on God’s Word, considering what acts of love and justice God might require of us in our own day.
