In the Bible, Jesus uses scripture to defend himself against religious leaders who were supposed to know the word of God the best. An expert in the law asked him what the greatest commandment was. “Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments (Matthew 22:34-40). In this quote, Jesus defended himself from religious leaders by quoting scripture, the commandments, that came from the Old Testament. The “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written by Martin Luther King Jr. in response to clergymen who had written a letter in the …show more content…
was accused of being an extremist. He chose to take an interesting stance on this label. Instead of casting the title off, he defended the title and embraced it. He stated, “Was not Jesus an extremist for love: ‘Love your enemies, Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you’... Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: ‘I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus,’” (King, 528). These were key figures in the Bible that Martin Luther King Jr. used to his advantage. Jesus was looked down upon by the religious leaders for his extreme views on love and God’s forgiveness. Paul was persecuted for sharing the gospel. King drew a line between his behavior and these figures to show his actions were rightfully extreme. King showed that in the Bible, key people took extreme stances to be a light of God’s true nature. The role these examples played, appealed to the clergymen of King’s time because they were figures that had spent their lives devoted to understanding. I believe Martin Luther King Jr. used these figures to open the clergymen’s eyes to the truth of his extreme actions. That truth being, King had to act in an extreme manner because children of God were being treated like they weren’t made in God’s