50 Years Since “I Have a Dream”

Today, August 28, 2013, is the fiftieth anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech delivered on the mall in Washington, DC.

Fifty years later, race is still an issue in our country. It is an issue far too complex for my knowledge and experience, and far too complex for a simple blog article.

Today I encourage you simply to think about the image of God in man, and what that means for how to we think about and treat others.

As gospel-believing, Jesus-loving people, we should, no must, love everyone who is in the image of God, regardless of their outward appearance, their socio-economic status, their neighborhood, or any other outward thing.

We must love them in their sin and treat them with the dignity that the image of God deserves.

James wrote of the tongue:

But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. (James 3:8-10).

Should we merely refrain from speaking these things? Dare we think that because these thoughts never made it to the tongue that they are therefore acceptable? I highly doubt James would grant such an exception.

Brothers and sisters, do not look askance on those who have been made in God’s image while getting ready to worship God tomorrow.

You don’t have to agree with MLK, Jr.’s politics to embrace his dream of a world without racial divides.

After all, that isn’t just the dream of MLK, Jr.

It is the promise of God that looks forward to a day when, in a world freed from the curse, those who have been purchased by the blood of Christ from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation are unified is glad worship before the throne of God (Revelation 5:9-10).

At least part of those “other people” (whoever “other” is for you) is the body which Christ purchased with his own blood. Dare we love them less than the Savior does?