Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on this day in 1929.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a peacemaker. He believed that as Christians we are called to love our enemies. During his lifelong mission to gain civil rights for African Americans, Dr. King advocated nonviolent and peaceful actions as a way of change. To this end, Dr. King advocated sit-ins, boycotts, and other nonviolent strategies to end segregation laws that discriminated against African Americans. For his efforts, Dr. King was named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year in 1963, and he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

Dr. King was well aware that this kind of love was difficult—impossible, even, if a person depends on his own efforts. Dr. King knew that love for those who hate you can come from only one source—Jesus. Dr. King called it “the love of God working in the lives of men. And when you rise to love on this level, you begin to love men, not because they are likeable, but because God loves them. You look at every man, and you love him because you know God loves him. And he might be the worst person you’ve ever seen.”

That, according to Dr. King, is what Jesus was talking about when he told us to love our enemies. For when we love like that, Dr. King said, that love has the power to change. He wrote, “We must discover the power of love, the power, the redemptive power of love. And when we discover that we will be able to make of this old world a new world. We will be able to make men better. Love is the only way.”

But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you (Matthew 5:44).

To Do

Think of someone you consider an enemy. Do something nice for that person today—give her a compliment, save him a seat on the bus, or do him a favor. And in obedience to Jesus, pray for that enemy.

Also on this day . . .

1777—The people of New Connecticut (now the state of Vermont) declared their independence from England.

1892—Rules for a brand-new game, involving attaching peach baskets to a suspended board, were first published in Springfield, Massachusetts. That game is now known as basketball.

1967—The first National Football League Super Bowl was played. The Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10.

From Betsy Schmitt and Dave Veerman, 365 Trivia Twist Devotions: An Almanac of Fun Facts and Spiritual Truth for Every Day of the Year (Cincinnati: Standard, 2005). Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted.