After studying a lot of philosophers and theologians, he used that knowledge to strengthen his understanding of and commitment to the Christian theology he was learning. (pp.117, 118).
MLK was at first convinced that Jesus' ethic of love was to be lived out in the context of individual relationships. However, upon examining Gandhi's writings on love, King began to envision how Jesus' call to love one another could be applied on a societal level. Through Gandhi's example, King began to see Jesus' primary teaching of love as the basic for action. King finished graduate school convinced that most powerful weapon for the oppressed against social injustice is nonviolent resistance, or noncooperation and passive resistance. He saw these commitments as modeled in the Sermon on the Mount. The intellectual commitment became the foundations of his actions as a civil rights leader. Just as King's commitment to nonviolence was based on the teachings of Jesus, so the rest of his participation in the civil rights movement was grounded in his Christian faith. According to King, nonviolence is simply Christianity in action, a way of life and not just a technique to fight social injustice. (pp.118, 119).
Kings speeches demonstrate again and again his reliance on faith. After Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give her seat on a bus, King was invited to speak to the crowd gathered for the first Montgomery Improvement Association mass meeting. King had less than Twenty minutes to prepare the "most decisive speech of my life." With the help of his religious knowledge, he was able to prepare a wonderful speech that everyone could listen to. According to King, love is the central teaching of Christianity and justice is inseparable from it. By going forward with the tools of love and justice, King sees the possibility of victory in his fight for civil rights. As a Christian, he fighting for freedom for all people, all of God's created beings.