Faith, Jesus, Christianity And Spirituality Quotes – Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was President of the Southern Christian Leadership conference, a Powerful champion for the Civil Rights Movement and Co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist church, Atlanta, Georgia with his Father, Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. before becoming Pastor of Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama. He led the Iconic, Walk for Freedom, in Montgomery, which resulted in bus desegregation. In 1963, he was Time magazine’s Man of the Year and received the Prestigious Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
Dr. Martin Luther King was also deeply Spiritual and a staunch Christian who believed in the teaching of Jesus Christ. In the proceeding lines, I share some of his quotes on Faith, Christianity, Jesus and Spirituality.
“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“The God whom we worship is not a weak and incompetent God. He is able to beat back gigantic waves of opposition and to bring low prodigious mountains of evil. The ringing testimony of the Christian faith is that God is able.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’ ”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“If any earthly institution or custom conflicts with God’s will, it is your Christian duty to oppose it. You must never allow the transitory, evanescent demands of man-made institutions to take precedence over the eternal demands of the Almighty God.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Before I was a civil rights leader, I was a preacher of the Gospel. This was my first calling and it still remains my greatest commitment. You know, actually all that I do in civil rights I do because I consider it a part of my ministry. I have no other ambitions in life but to achieve excellence in the Christian ministry. I don’t plan to run for any political office. I don’t plan to do anything but remain a preacher. And what I’m doing in this struggle, along with many others, grows out of my feeling that the preacher must be concerned about the whole man.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“World peace through nonviolent means is neither absurd nor unattainable. All other methods have failed. Thus we must begin anew. Nonviolence is a good starting point. Those of us who believe in this method can be voices of reason, sanity, and understanding amid the voices of violence, hatred, and emotion. We can very well set a mood of peace out of which a system of peace can be built.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity, while one wise man forgets himself into immortality.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“A lie cannot live.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“The confidence that God is mindful of the individual is of tremendous value in dealing with the disease of fear, for it gives us a sense of worth, of belonging, and of at homeness in the universe.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the positive affirmation of peace.”
“The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Every man lives in two realms: the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms, and instrumentalities by means of which we live.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect, it has no personal being. It is part of the earth man walks on. It is not man.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Was not Paul an extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ?” “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail. If you can’t be a sun, be a star. For it isn’t by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts. Be careful, ‘brethren!’ Be careful, teachers!”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Jesus is not an impractical idealist; he is the practical realist.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“There is so much frustration in the world because we have relied on gods rather than God. We have worshiped the god of pleasure only to discover that thrills play out and sensations are short-lived.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Jesus reminds us that the good life combines the toughness of the serpent and the tenderness of the dove. To have serpent-like qualities devoid of dovelike qualities is to be passionless, mean, and selfish. To have dovelike without serpent-like qualities is to be sentimental, anemic and aimless. We must combine strongly marked antitheses.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“In that dramatic scene on Calvary’s hill three men were crucified.All three were crucified for the same crime-the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
When we see social relationships controlled everywhere by the principles which Jesus illustrated in life trust, love, mercy, and altruism then we shall know that the kingdom of God is here.”
Martin Luther King Jr
“I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the eighth century prophets left their little villages and carried their “thus saith the Lord” far beyond the boundaries of their home towns; and just as the Apostle Paul left his little village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to practically every hamlet and city of the Graeco-Roman world, I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“I’ll tell you, I’ve seen the lightning flash. I’ve heard the thunder roll. I felt sin-breakers dashing, trying to conquer my soul. But I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“We need to recapture the gospel glow of the early Christians who were nonconformists in the truest sense of the word. Their powerful gospel put an end to such barbaric evils as infanticide and bloody gladiatorial contests. Finally, they captured the Roman Empire for Jesus Christ.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“By opening our lives to God in Christ, we become new creatures. This experience, which Jesus spoke of as the new birth, is essential if we are to be transformed nonconformists. Only through an inner spiritual transformation do we gain the strength to fight vigorously the evils of the world in a humble and loving spirit.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Use me, God. Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do, and use it for a purpose greater than myself.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“If any earthly institution or custom conflicts with God’s will, it is your Christian duty to oppose it. You must never allow the transitory, evanescent demands of man-made institutions to take precedence over the eternal demands of the Almighty God.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Christianity affirms that at the heart of reality is a Heart, a loving Father who works through history for the salvation of His children. Man cannot save himself, for man is not the measure of all things and humanity is not God. Bound by the chains of his own sin and finiteness, man needs a Savior.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“In this world is a God whose matchless strength is a fit contrast to the sordid weakness of man.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“When we would yield to the temptation of a world rife with sexual promiscuity and gone wild with a philosophy of self-expression, Jesus tells us that ‘whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“If any earthly institution or custom conflicts with God’s will, it is your Christian duty to oppose it. You must never allow the transitory, evanescent demands of man-made institutions to take precedence over the eternal demands of the Almighty God.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“When I took up the cross I recognized its meaning. The cross is something that you bear, and ultimately, that you die on.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Like the early Christians, we must move into a sometime hostile world armed with the revolutionary gospel of Jesus Christ. With this powerful gospel we shall boldly challenge the status quo.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“In contrast to ethical relativism, Christianity sets forth a system of absolute moral values and affirms that God has placed within the very structure of this universe certain moral principles that are fixed and immutable.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“The God whom we worship is not a weak and incompetent God. He is able to beat back gigantic waves of opposition and to bring low prodigious mountains of evil. The ringing testimony of the Christian faith is that God is able.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“We need to pledge ourselves anew to the cause of Christ. We must capture the spirit of the early church. Wherever the early Christians went, they made a triumphant witness for Christ. Whether on the village streets or in the city jails, they daringly proclaimed the good news of the gospel.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“The early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the Church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“The gospel at its best deals with the whole man, not only his soul but his body, not only his spiritual well-being, but his material well-being as well.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“The end of life is not to be happy, nor to achieve pleasure and avoid pain, but to do the will of God, come what may.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. So I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“It is cheerful to God when you rejoice or laugh from the bottom of your heart.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“One day we will learn that the heart can never be totally right if the head is totally wrong. Only through the bringing together of head and heart: intelligence and goodness: shall man rise to a fulfillment of his true nature.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“God is not interested merely in the freedom of black men, and brown men, and yellow men; God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Oh, the worst of all tragedies is not to die young, but to live until seventy-five and yet not ever truly to have lived.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Don’t allow anybody to make you feel that you’re nobody.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“The words ‘I will forgive you, but I’ll never forget what you’ve done’ never explain the real nature of forgiveness.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“The belief that God will do everything for man is as untenable as the belief that man can do everything for himself. It, too, is based on a lack of faith. We must learn what to expect God to do everything while we do nothing is not faith but superstition.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“One who condones evils is just as guilty as the one who perpetrates it.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“There comes a time when silence is betrayal.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
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