So Jesus explained to his disciples that though the way of empire is to seek domination, “it shall not be so among you.” The kingdom of God is a kingdom of love, not domination. As followers of Jesus we are called to the practice of radical patience, because the kingdom of God is without coercion. We persuade by love, witness, Spirit, reason, rhetoric, and if need be, by martyrdom, but never by force. This is what Alan Kreider described as “the patient ferment of the early church.”
