MARTIN LUTHER KING ON FORGIVENESS

Martin Luther King answered the question, “How do we love our enemies?”

First, we must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. The degree to which we are able to forgive determines the degree to which we are able to love our enemies.

Secondly, we must recognize that the evil deed of the enemy-neighbor, the thing that hurts, never quite expresses all that he is. An element of goodness may be found even in our worst enemy. We love our enemies by realizing that they are not totally bad, and that they are not beyond the reach of God’s redemptive love.

Thirdly, we must not seek to defeat or humiliate the enemy but to win his friendship and understanding.

He goes on to ask, “Why should we love our enemies?”

“Because hate is just as injurious to the person who hates. Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity. Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. When Abraham Lincoln was campaigning for the presidency one of his arch-enemies was Edwin Stanton. For some reason Stanton hated Lincoln. He used every ounce of his energy to degrade him in the eyes of the public. So deep rooted was Stanton’s hate for Lincoln that he uttered unkind words about his physical appearance and sought to embarrass him at every point with the bitterest diatribes. When Lincoln came to fill the all-important cabinet post of Secretary of War he chose Stanton. His advisors told him he was making a mistake, and that Stanton would seek to sabotage Lincoln. But Lincoln said that he thought that Stanton was the best man for job. Stanton went on to render invaluable service to the nation and to his President. When Lincoln was assassinated many eulogies were given, but of them all the words of Stanton remain among the greatest. Standing near the body of the man he once hated, Stanton referred to him as one of the greatest men that ever lived and said, ‘he now belongs to the ages.’ If Lincoln had hated Stanton both men would have gone to their graves as bitter enemies. But through the power of love Lincoln transformed an enemy into a friend. It was this same attitude that made it possible for Lincoln to speak a kind word about the South during the Civil War when feeling was most bitter. Asked by a shocked bystander how he could do this, Lincoln said, ‘Madam, do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?’ (Martin Luther King, Strength to Love, pp.48-53)

Napoleon Bonaparte is reported to have said: “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I have built great empires. But upon what did they depend? They depended on force. But centuries ago Jesus started an empire that was built on love, and even to this day millions will die for him.”

Why should we love our enemies? Because God loved us when we were his enemies. He did not give up on us but came in Christ, suffered rejection, shame and the cruelty of men, and died for love of us. “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us…For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled shall we be saved through his life!” (Romans 5:8,10)

Have you been reconciled to God? If you have, you can rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom you have now received reconciliation. You can now extend that reconciliation to others. This is why the Gospel of Christ is the only answer to the divisions and hatred in our culture.