at the heart of the Gospel
At the heart of Jesus’ gospel is the kingdom of God. This phrase sums up Jesus’ entire ministry and life’s work. The “kingdom of God” points to God’s active rule over human social relationships.
When we read the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we see that every thought and saying of Jesus was directed toward one thing: the realization of God’s reign—marked by love, compassion, justice, and peace—within human society.
a vision of transformation
The kingdom of God, as Jesus preached it, envisions a profound transformation of both human beings and human institutions—social, political, economic, and religious—so that they express the character of a God of love. It brings together personal and social transformation.
Through metaphors and stories, Jesus described the kingdom as the work of a social and political movement inspired by divine love, restoring what he believed to be God’s intention for humanity from the beginning. Rather than longing for a divine restoration of political and religious power, Jesus painted a vision of God changing the world from within—by creating a new community bonded by egalitarian relationships.
Jesus took the long-awaited dream of a just and compassionate society and made it a living vision that could transform the world.
a vision is like a seed
A vision is like a seed planted in the hearts and minds of people. When it takes root and is nurtured, it can grow to produce astounding results. Jesus used this imagery for the kingdom of God.
He asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? It is like a mustard seed”—the smallest and seemingly most insignificant of seeds—“that someone took and tossed in the garden.”[1]
Some scholars note that in first-century Judaism, a mustard plant—really just a common weed—was forbidden in household vegetable gardens because it spread rapidly and disrupted order. In Jewish thought, order symbolized holiness, while disorder symbolized uncleanness. Rabbinical law forbade mixing certain plants in the same garden. So, when Jesus said someone threw a mustard seed into a garden, his audience understood he was sowing disorder and subverting rule-based holiness.
Like an invasive mustard plant in a tidy garden, the kingdom of God takes root in the world’s domination systems, spreading its subversive message even today.
the enduring domination system
Throughout history, nearly every society has favored an elite minority at the expense of the majority. For thousands of years, economic elites have rigged systems for their own prosperity and control. They extracted wealth from the sweat of slaves, peasants, and laborers, while contributing little to the common good. Social control was maintained through violence and military might, often with religious support. Such societies were patriarchal, with men dominating the lives of women and children, and they often favored one race, tribe, or ethnicity over others.
Biblical scholar Walter Wink (1935–2012) called these societies manifestations of an enduring “domination system” that has shaped human history since civilization arose in the ancient Near East. Wink described it this way:
It is characterized by unjust economic relations, oppressive political relations, biased race relations, patriarchal gender relations, hierarchical power relations, and the use of violence to maintain them all. No matter what shape the dominating system of the moment might take (from the ancient Near Eastern states to the Pax Romana to feudal Europe to communist state capitalism to modern market capitalism), the basic structure has persisted now for at least five thousand years, since the rise of the great conquest states of Mesopotamia around 3000 BCE.[2]
We see the domination system in kingdoms, empires, and dictatorships. Patriarchy has been enforced through customs and religion. Even democratic societies, when controlled by the wealthy and powerful, reproduce the same injustice: massive tax cuts for the rich, bloated military budgets, corporate welfare, vast prison systems, and cuts to social services for the poor are all signs of a corrupt domination system.
overcoming the domination system
Walter Wink argued that Jesus’ teachings were a prescription for dismantling the domination system of his time. The kingdom of God is an antidote to its injustices—a vision that turns the domination system upside down.
In God’s reign, domination values are reversed: the first shall be last and the last shall be first; the greatest will be servants; the powerful will be brought low and the lowly lifted up; the hungry will be fed and the rich sent away empty.
The kingdom belongs especially to the poor, the hungry, and the grieving because they long for its arrival. The rich, entrenched in the domination system, find it nearly impossible to enter.
Every act of resistance against unjust laws, every effort to transform oppressive structures for the common good, is a sign of the kingdom that Jesus proclaimed.
a people and a task
The kingdom of God is more than a vision—it calls forth a people inspired to transform society through small daily actions. “Kingdom people” lead radically different lives that challenge injustice and disturb the status quo. Their actions form a conspiracy that persistently prods the powers and principalities toward social transformation.
The kingdom of God thus involves a VISION, a PEOPLE, and a TASK.
followers of the Way
Jesus called people to follow him in a new way of living. He did not demand adherence to a catalog of beliefs or rituals. Instead, he offered a radically different way to live daily life. Early followers were known simply as “followers of the Way”—a way of life dedicated to selfless love in a selfish, unjust, and violent world.
The way of Jesus puts love for others ahead of self-interest, leading to a lifestyle of compassion that contrasts with society’s norms of ego and greed.
an invitation to change priorities
God’s kingdom is not established by domination, coercion, or violence. It is offered as an open invitation, but entering it requires a profound change of heart and priorities—from self-interest (What will I eat? What will I drink? What will I wear?) to concern for the least among us (What will they eat? What will they drink? What will they wear?).
The kingdom involves feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting prisoners, caring for the sick, and welcoming the outcast. It calls people of compassion to transform themselves, their families, communities, nations, and the world.
John D. Caputo (b. 1940) writes:
What then is the kingdom of God? Where is it found? It is found every time an offense is forgiven, every time a stranger is made welcome, every time an enemy is embraced, every time the least is lifted up, every time the law serves justice, every time a prophetic voice is raised against injustice, every time the law and prophets are summed up by love.[3]
the radical love of Jesus
Jesus taught his followers to live out kingdom values: radical love, lavish generosity, extravagant forgiveness, inclusive hospitality, compassionate action, selfless service, a passion for justice, creative nonviolence, and simple living.
His love was dangerous—an uncompromising love for both neighbors and enemies, a call to nonviolent resistance, and a rejection of all reciprocity, good or evil. This love pulls us out of our comfortable shells, transforming us into agents of reconciliation and justice.
We need a deeper understanding and experience of love that reshapes our lives and helps us become truly human and capable of loving others.
Such a vision redefines greatness and rewrites the meaning of success. Rather than seeking status or security, followers of Jesus find fulfillment in humble service and solidarity with those at the margins. The kingdom grows quietly, not through grand gestures or dramatic conquest, but in the secret, often overlooked acts of everyday kindness and courage.
sowing seeds of transformation
It is in our willingness to challenge injustice, to forgive without expecting anything in return, and to see the divine image in each person—friend, stranger, or foe—that the kingdom takes root. Participation in the kingdom means embracing vulnerability, risking misunderstanding, and persisting in hope even when results are hidden or progress seems slow.
To walk in the way of Jesus is to trust that every small act of compassion and every moment of inclusive hospitality ripples outward, sowing seeds of transformation in a world hungry for healing.
If we allow it to be unleashed, the divine love within us will not let us remain the same. The radical love we see in Jesus pulls at us; it pushes and prods us out of our insular shells. It forces us to become more than we are, more than we are comfortable with, and ultimately all we are meant to be.
Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom is a call to action—a journey toward a hoped-for destination. If we choose to follow, we commit to making his vision a reality.
appearing in ordinary life
The kingdom will not meet the expectations of those who seek power or glory. It is not great or mighty. It will not arrive with trumpets. It appears quietly in ordinary life, often unnoticed except for the disruption it causes to the status quo.
Luke’s Gospel has Jesus say:
You won’t be able to observe the coming of the kingdom of God. People won’t say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘Over there!’ On the contrary, the kingdom of God is right here in your midst.[4]
The Gospel of Thomas echoes this:
It will not come by watching for it… The kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people do not see it.[5]
Such a vision redefines greatness and rewrites the meaning of success. Rather than seeking status or security, followers of Jesus find fulfillment in humble service and solidarity with those at the margins. The kingdom grows quietly, not through grand gestures or dramatic conquest, but in the secret, often overlooked acts of everyday kindness and courage.
re-imagining God
One remarkable document in the New Testament, written about 70 to 80 years after Jesus’ death, took early Christian theology to a new level: the First Letter of John. We don’t know who wrote it—some claim it was the same author as the Gospel of John, but there’s little evidence beyond tradition. Although the writing style differs, the author seems familiar with themes in the Gospel of John and may have come from the same community. Whoever he was, this writer developed an extraordinary theology near the end of the first century.
Tradition says the letter was written in Ephesus, an ancient Greek city (now in Turkey) that was part of the Roman Empire. The apostle Paul had lived there in the mid-fifties CE, and the Gospel of John may have been written there between 90 and 100 CE. Now, the author urges the community to remember what they have heard—especially to love one another:
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.[6]
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.[7]
God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in them.[8]
The author of First John tells us three powerful things:
- God is love.
- Love is the indwelling of God in humanity.
- We know and experience God through human love.
God and Love are identical words
When the New Testament declares God is Love, it means these two words are interchangeable. If God is Love, then Love is God. The word God names the spirit of selfless love found deep in our humanity and expressed in our relationships. For millennia, humans have projected this image of divine love onto a supernatural being. But the First Letter of John shows that God is not a loving being—God is Love itself.
Scholar Don Cupitt (b. 1935) puts it this way:
In the New Testament, in the First Letter of John, we are told that the words Love and God are convertible. You can’t slip a knife between them… The word God doesn’t designate a distinct metaphysical being; it is simply Love’s name.[9]
In Greek, “God is love” is theos ein agapē (THEH-ohs ayn ag-AH-pay). Agapē is one of four Greek words translated as “love”—alongside erotic love, brotherly love, and family love. Agapē means selfless, self-giving, often unconditional love directed toward others. This is the kind of love people saw in Jesus. For the early church, it described the God of Jesus.
God dwells in us
God as selfless, self-giving love does not exist as a separate, disembodied being in the universe. Love is not an entity or a force behind all things. Love is a human relationship—simple yet profound. The theology of First John teaches that in acts of unselfish love; we find the presence of God. There, in humble human interactions, we encounter ultimate reality.
When we say God is Love and Love is God, we shift from seeing God as an external supernatural being to an indwelling reality: within our hearts, minds, relationships, and actions.
Selfless love is a divine reality that animates, empowers, and transforms us from self-centered individuals into self-giving people. Love, embodied in human flesh, is the manifestation of God in the world—a new way to see divine incarnation.
incarnate love
For the early church, Jesus embodied the image of God’s love through his words and deeds—an incarnation of divine love on earth. Yet the radical message of the New Testament is that God does not dwell in heaven or only in Jesus; God lives among us, within each person.
God has always—and only—been part of humanity, hidden in our consciousness and projected onto the divine stage of our stories. God, in the form of compassionate love, lives within each of us. But this divine love remains dormant until we express it outwardly.
Even if you reject the idea of a traditional, supernatural God, you can affirm the transformative power of love. Whether God is real or imagined, acts of love make the God of love real among us.
believing in love
In the end, I believe the God of love is found in those who love and care for me. And I hope, in some small way, to embody that God of love for others. I pray that love will transform me from an introverted, self-centered, comfortable person into one who risks compassionate service and works for the radical change our world needs.
When asked if I believe in God, I now say: “Of course I believe in God, because I believe in love.” The God of ancient imagination is replaced by something real and tangible. I can feel love’s presence and see its power. Love soothes broken hearts, heals wounds, and brings life. Love—bound up in human flesh—is the manifestation of divinity in the world. God as love is simple—almost too simple. Yet perhaps it is the most profound understanding of God we can ever attain.
a fully-realized humanity
This vision of God can speak powerfully to modern and postmodern people. It is rooted in the Bible but does not limit God to a single tribe or religion. This God lives within and among all people, transcending every religious boundary. Perhaps this is a vision of God that does away with religion altogether—a foundation for a secular faith for all humanity.
To be clear: humans are not divine beings. “Divinity” is an ancient human construct. Walter Wink suggested that divinity is better seen as fully-realized humanity. The spark of love within each of us is real—whether it manifests fully depends on us.
Becoming fully human takes time and intention. That is why following Jesus matters. By living as he lived and practicing what he taught, we grow toward our full human potential. The first Christians called it the Way—a way to become fully human, to transform community, and to change the world.
a new metaphor
If we think of God as love, the “kingdom of God” becomes the kingdom of love. We can then ask: what would life look like if love ruled our relationships? What would families, societies, and nations look like if selfless love defined them?
But what if the term kingdom is redefined as well? A kingdom is increasingly out of step with our times. Kingdoms are fading, democracies rising—yet domination systems persist. We need a fresh metaphor that people can grasp today—language that conveys Jesus’ vision and our role as his followers in a postmodern world.
Brian McLaren (b. 1956) put it well:
When Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God, his language was charged with urgent political, religious, and cultural electricity. But today, if we speak of the kingdom of God, the original electricity is largely gone, and in its place, we often find a kind of tired familiarity that inspires not hope and excitement, but anxiety or boredom . . .
For many people today, kingdom language evokes patriarchy, chauvinism, imperialism, domination, and a regime without freedom—the very opposite of the liberating, barrier-breaking, domination-shattering, reconciling movement the kingdom of God was intended to be! . . . If Jesus were here today, I’m quite certain he wouldn’t use the language of kingdom at all, which leaves us wondering how he would articulate his message.[10]
German pastor, theologian, and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) spoke of a new nonreligious language nearly 80 years ago:
The day will come . . . when people will once more be called to speak the word of God in such a way that the world is changed and renewed. It will be in a new language, perhaps quite nonreligious language, but liberating and redeeming like Jesus’s language, so that people will be alarmed, and yet overcome by its power—the language of a new righteousness and truth, a language proclaiming that God makes peace with humankind and that God’s kingdom is drawing near.[11]
a conspiracy of love
I believe the conspiracy of love is a compelling new metaphor for the kingdom of God—especially given Jesus’ conspiratorial parables of the mustard seed and the leaven. This conspiracy is the subversive work of people who live out Jesus’ vision of a better world governed by love.
The word conspiracy comes from the same root as spirit—the Latin spirare (SPEE-rah-reh) means “to breathe.” To conspire literally means to breathe together. Those in a conspiracy are so united around an idea that they move and breathe as one.
a conspiracy of transformation
Jesus called his followers to a conspiracy of personal and social transformation that undermines the worldwide domination system—in every family, town, and nation. When even a few people engage in this conspiracy, they become co-conspirators in a countercultural network led by Jesus’ vision.
He said, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” In this kind of conspiracy, his presence is alive amongst his followers—a sign of resurrection, new life, and real change in the world.
a conspiracy for everyone
One need not be Christian to join the conspiracy of love. The peasants Jesus spoke to in Galilee and Judea were not “Christians”—they were simply invited to feed and heal those around them. The Jewish concept of tikkun olam—repairing the world—carries the same call to action. Many faiths call people to work for a better world.
Jesus’ vision needs people everywhere—people of every faith, and people of no faith at all. The church should point toward this vision and witness to it. But if the church refuses, tries to tame it, or misleads people about Jesus’ true message, the conspiracy of love will still move forward—church or no church.
a new mode of being
More and more people are drifting away from traditional church Christianity toward new ways of being Christian in the world—Christianity beyond church walls. Nearly eighty years ago, Dietrich Bonhoeffer anticipated this possibility.
Bonhoeffer saw that the church could not focus only on its own purity and survival. It must live for others and resist systemic evil.
Bonhoeffer’s conspiracy
Bonhoeffer himself joined a conspiracy to overthrow the Nazi regime, working within the German Abwehr (military intelligence) to plot Hitler’s assassination and negotiate surrender before Germany’s total ruin. Arrested in 1943 for his role in smuggling Jews to safety, Bonhoeffer spent two years in prison. After the failed 1944 plot to kill Hitler, he was executed at Flossenbürg concentration camp on April 9, 1945, just weeks before the war’s end. He was just 39 and had spent the last two years of his life as a prisoner.
what is Christianity today?
Nearly a year after his imprisonment, in a letter written on April 30, 1944, from cell 92 in Berlin’s Tegel penitentiary, Dietrich Bonhoeffer described his thoughts about the state of Christianity to his good friend Eberhard Bethge (1909–2000), who later edited Bonhoeffer’s writings.
You would be surprised, and perhaps even worried, by my theological thoughts and the conclusions that they lead to . . . What is bothering me incessantly is the question what Christianity really is, for us today.[12]
Faced with Nazi depravity and the horrors of a war waged by “Christian” nations, he asked why Christians did not protest the persecution of Jews or stand against evil. Why are Christians so unquestioningly captive to their culture? If religion only props up injustice, is there another way to live as a Christian in the world?
Christianity without religion
Bonhoeffer foresaw a time when religion would become irrelevant:
We are moving towards a completely religionless time; people as they are now simply cannot be religious anymore. Even those who honestly describe themselves as “religious” do not in the least act up to it, and so they presumably mean something quite different by “religious” . . . And if therefore man becomes radically religionless—and I think that is already more or less the case (else, how is it, for example, that this war, in contrast to all previous ones, is not calling forth any “religious” reaction?)—what does that mean for “Christianity?”[13]
Bonhoeffer was disappointed that religious people—lay and clergy alike—were not speaking out or taking a stand, and their social and political struggles were conducted without drawing on their faith—or more likely, that their faith had become so disjointed from social and political conditions that they saw no connection. If religious institutions in every nation were willingly transforming themselves into servants of the state, and not raising a prophetic voice for peace and justice, was there another possibility for Christianity in the world?
In his prison cell, Bonhoeffer questioned:
Are there religionless Christians? If religion is only a garment of Christianity—and even this garment has looked very different at different times—then what is a religionless Christianity?[14]
What troubled Bonhoeffer was that someone could hold correct beliefs and observe church practices while oppressing others. How could Christian practice be so easily divorced from loving one’s neighbor?
secular Christianity: contemplation and justice
Bonhoeffer believed Christianity’s future would focus on two things: contemplative prayer and doing justice among human beings.
In Jesus’ life, these two dimensions are clear. He often withdrew to quiet places to pray, then returned to the world with healing actions and a prophetic voice. Prayer and action for justice were at the heart of his ministry. Bonhoeffer saw this as Christianity’s path forward: caring for people and responding concretely to heal wounds and right injustices—not as a sideline but as the center of the faith.
the time to act is now
Today we live in very dark times. The current political party in charge of our domination system is making us poorer, weaker, less healthy, less safe, and less free. And so, I fear for the welfare of our nation. I fear for immigrants, non-citizens, people of color, the rights of women and LGBTQ+ people—especially trans people. I fear the surge of bigotry and violence unleashed by extremists who see Donald Trump as an avatar of their dark vision.
As John Pavlovitz (b. 1969) writes:
We are witnessing, in real time, a spectacular failure of the collective humanity of this nation: a defiant refusal to welcome our better angels, and a passionate embrace of the darkest recesses of our shadow side.[15]
Now is the time for secular Christians, religious Christians, people of other faiths, and people of no faith to join together in the conspiracy of love. Together we must build a society rooted in compassion, justice, and peace. Following Jesus calls us to become troublemakers, revolutionaries, seekers of change, and agents of transformation for justice and peace in the world.
The decisive time has arrived, for the conspiracy of love is rising up to challenge the unjust systems of the world. Change your whole way of thinking and living and risk everything for this radical message of hope.[16]
[1] Luke 13:18–19
[2] Wink, Powers That Be, 39–40.
[3] Caputo, What Would Jesus Deconstruct?, 138.
[4] Luke 17:20–21
[5] Thomas 113
[6] 1 John 4:7–8
[7] 1 John 4:12
[8] 1 John 4:16
[9] Cupitt, “All you need is love,” The Guardian, December 1994.
[10] McLaren, Secret Message of Jesus, 138–139.
[11] Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers, 381.
[12] Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers, 353.
[13] Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers, 354.
[14] Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers, 354.
[15] John Pavlovitz, “What the hell just happened, America?” johnpavlovitz.com, November 6, 2024.
[16] My paraphrase of Mark 1:14–15: “Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time has come, the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the good news.’”
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