Transformation of society does not happen through Christians using force but through Christians having a Christ-focused attitude, that of humility and submission. Society changes for the better when Christians, acting within existing human institutions, reflect the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Such fruit of the Spirit makes (spiritually unborn) people sit up and take notice because such conduct contrasts starkly with works of the flesh such as anger, bitterness, and bad-mouthing. Christians are truly sojourners and exiles
(1 Peter 2:11) whose heart is not focused on changing society but on the inheritance of heaven (1 Peter 1:4).
Though he had the power, Jesus did not push back against the human institutions
of his day as illustrated in Pilate, the chief priests, and so on. He instead submitted to these human institutions,
even to the point of letting himself be made a slave (arrested) and treated as worse than an animal. Yet the result of his passivity in the face of human institutions
was radical transformation for the world—for he atoned for sin. The word of his power (foolishness and weakness in people’s eyes, 1 Corinthians 2:1–16) is the force that changes today’s world. Slavery became illegal in the Roman Empire not through force but through the growth of the gospel—and hence the spread of Christian principles. The same happened in Great Britain and in the United States.
18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.