Seeing With Eyes of Faith
A Pastoral Devotional on one of my hero's, Dr. MLK Jr.
There’s a line from one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s sermons that doesn’t make it onto mugs or Instagram graphics very often.
He said “There will always be people who don’t like you—some because your skin is a little lighter than theirs, and others because it’s a little darker.”
And then he says something that feels both simple and devastating:
“When you can look at the face of another person and see deep down within them what the Bible calls the image of God, you begin to love them “in spite of.”
That’s not political rhetoric.
That’s pastoral theology.
Dr. King wasn’t just addressing a nation—he was shepherding hearts.
And if I’m honest, that line still exposes how much work we, as Christians, have left to do.
I Wish He Had Grown Old
I wish Dr. King had been given the chance to grow old.
I wish we could have heard him preach with decades more wisdom, scars, humor, and holy frustration.
I wish he had been allowed to keep leading this nation—not just toward civil rights, but toward deeper reconciliation.
Toward the kind of unity that isn’t rushed, shallow, or performative, but honest and hard-won.
But he didn’t get that chance.
And that means the baton didn’t disappear—it landed in the hands of the church.
Which brings us to an uncomfortable truth:
We have the Scriptures. We have the Spirit. And yet we still struggle to see one another clearly.
The Problem Isn’t Our Theology—It’s Our Vision
Most Christians don’t deny that all people are made in the image of God.
We just forget it when it becomes inconvenient.
We believe Genesis 1:27… right up until fear kicks in.
We affirm “all are one in Christ”… right up until assumptions take over.
We quote “love your neighbor”… right up until our neighbor doesn’t look like us, vote like us, or live like us.
Somewhere along the way, we started grading people by surface details—skin tone, accent, zip code, background—and calling it discernment.
Let me say this plainly and with love:
Melanin is not a spiritual metric.
The amount of pigment in someone’s skin does not tell you their worth, their character, their threat level, or their value to God.
Skin color is not a shortcut to truth—it’s just skin.
When Dr. King talks about seeing the image of God “deep down,” he’s inviting us to retrain our eyes.
Faith, after all, isn’t just about believing the right things—it’s about seeing the right things.
Partiality Wears Church Clothes Too
The book of James warns us about favoritism, and it doesn’t do it gently.
Partiality isn’t called a personality flaw or a social awkwardness—it’s called sin.
And the tricky thing is, partiality doesn’t usually announce itself. It hides behind phrases like:
“I’m just being cautious.”
“That’s not my culture.”
“I’m not comfortable with that.”
But discomfort is not a fruit of the Spirit, and caution is not the same thing as Christlikeness.
If we truly believe every person bears God’s image, then how we treat them is not optional—it’s theological.
When we dismiss, stereotype, or dehumanize others, we’re not just offending people. We’re dishonoring the God whose image they carry.
If we insult the image, we insult the Artist.
When We insult the image of another, we insult the Artists who created us all!
Love That Refuses to Dehumanize
One of the most powerful things about Dr. King’s preaching is that he never confused love with weakness.
Love, for him, was strong. Clear-eyed. Courageous.
Loving someone doesn’t mean ignoring injustice. It means refusing to become unjust while you confront it.
The goal isn’t to defeat people.
The goal is to defeat everything that degrades people.
That kind of love requires maturity. It requires humility. And it requires repentance—real repentance, not just reposting the right quote once a year and moving on.
Reconciliation doesn’t begin with a statement.
It begins with a changed posture.
Eyes of Faith for the Work Ahead
We have so much work to do.
Not just “out there” in the culture, but in here—in our hearts, our churches, our assumptions, our instincts.
And that work doesn’t start with shouting louder or pretending differences don’t exist.
It starts with asking God for eyes of faith.
Eyes that notice difference without assigning value.
Eyes that see humanity before history.
Eyes that recognize God’s image before fear has a chance to speak.
Because when we really see one another the way God sees us, love stops being abstract. It becomes embodied. Intentional. Costly. Real.
And that’s how we honor Dr. King—not just by remembering his words, but by living out the gospel he preached.
A Closing Prayer
God, give us eyes of faith.
Where we’ve judged by skin, culture, or comfort—bring repentance.
Where we’ve confused fear with wisdom—bring truth.
Teach us to see Your image in every face we encounter.
Make Your church brave enough to love deeply, humble enough to listen honestly,
and faithful enough to do the slow, sacred work of reconciliation.
We offer this day, this reflection, and our lives
as an act of worship.
The Best Is Yet to Come, as we live out the Dream MLK Jr had…
Rev. John Roberts
This is a wonderful message! To see with God’s eyes is something I pray for.