If you know me, you know I talk a lot about the relationship of Jesus’s followers to empire. Here is my working definition of empire: any large-scale human social group, whether government, religious sect, or social movement (often a fusion of all three) that imposes the will of those in the group with power on those without power through means of force (e.g., violence, sanction, censure, or exclusion from the group). My deep study of the New Testament, theology, and church history primarily forms my definition and my perspective on these ideas. All that to say, this is not some political hot take.
The New Testament is full of subversive language about empire. In the original language of the New Testament, words like Lord, Gospel, and Evangelize all subvserted the notion of what real power looks like. There is no vision of Christian Empire in scripture; that is a myth. When we see powers and principalities of all categories doing the work of empire, we can know that Jesus is Lord. But we cannot make Jesus Lord in the way that Caesar is Lord. Jesus’ lordship will always be at odds with empire—at odds with Caesars of all ages. The good news must never wander far from the life, teachings, miracles, death (at the hands of powers), and resurrection of Jesus. When we decentralize the work of Jesus in the midst of empire from our definitions of what it means to follow Jesus, we end up embracing things that bear Jesus’s name but are nothing like Jesus. The center of my worldview and the practice of my faith is rooted in Jesus’ reading from the Isaiah scroll in Luke’s gospel, but more importantly, in how he lived and ultimately died for that reading:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
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Hidden in Plain Sight: Acts 15
Samuel Scalf April 10, 2026 8:27 PM