In international relations, “hard power” and “soft power” represent two distinct approaches that countries use to influence one another. Hard power involves the use of threats, military force, or economic sanctions to force compliance from other nations. Alternatively, soft power refers to a nation’s ability to attract and persuade others through its cultural and political values by fostering a sense of admiration. It is a long-term strategy that uses attraction to lead countries to cooperate without using force.
An example of soft power is how American movies, television, and music are enjoyed around the world and have led to the “Americanization” of other cultures. For example, the fast-food restaurant KFC is now a cultural staple in many countries around the world, including Japan, where buying KFC is now seen as a “Christmas tradition.” While a Westerner may find that surprising, it’s evidence of how Western customs like Christmas and KFC have both managed to ingrain themselves in Japanese culture. Soft power makes others want to follow you because they admire your vision and values and aspire to your way of life, whereas hard power relies on domination through threats and force.
In the New Testament book of Acts, Luke records how, before returning to heaven, Jesus promised His followers “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). This Holy Spirit power was to enable His followers to continue His work and ministry of rescuing humanity from “the kingdom of darkness” and bringing them into His kingdom of light. “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves” (Colossians 1:13).
Jesus demonstrated soft power
Of course, when we think of power or a powerful person, we tend to think in terms of domination— hard power. But we need to be careful not to lay our cultural assumptions about power on top of the Bible. Jesus was not the Messiah His people expected. The story of Jesus’ birth, as recorded in the Gospel of Luke, is told in the context of empire. The Jews hoped and prayed for a Savior who would be a military leader—one who would free them from the oppressive yoke of the Romans. When the powerful king Herod learned of Jesus’ birth and supposed kingship, he used a hard-power strategy in an attempt to neutralize the threat to his kingship. He ordered the murder of all baby boys in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16–18).
Despite His royal origins, Jesus grew up in poverty and obscurity. His years of ministry were spent healing the sick, serving the poor, welcoming the outcasts, and teaching His followers not to seek wealth and honor but to humbly serve “the least” in the community. In a rare self-description, Jesus said in Matthew 11:29, “I am gentle and humble in heart.” He invites His disciples (and us) to take Hi “yoke”—His power and methods—and learn from Him. Jesus’ love and kindness became such a threat to the powerful elite that His people—the same ones who longed for freedom from oppressive Roman rule—sought that very power to assist them in killing Jesus. But it is through His humility and suffering on the cross that Jesus ultimately demonstrated His power. God crucified and wearing a crown of thorns was the ultimate act of meekness, humility, and self-sacrificing love. Jesus’ life and death were a demonstration of “soft power.”
Ellen White helps us understand why Jesus used soft power rather than hard power: “The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God’s government; He desires only the service of love; and love cannot be commanded; it cannot be won by force or authority. Only by love is love awakened.”1
Just as the Crucifixion was truly subversive, the Holy Spirit’s power is truly subversive too. The Holy Spirit is given to all who accept Jesus as King. The Holy Spirit is God’s presence and power within us.
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Ephesians 3:16, 17) “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5); “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22, 23).
the triumph of God’s love
All throughout the New Testament, in the life of Jesus and in the early church, the power of God looks like gentleness, patience, kindness, and self-sacrificing love. God’s power moves through God’s nature.
Perhaps one of the most insidious dangers facing Christianity today is Christians who receive Jesus as a hero but not as a suffering servant, and who imagine God wielding hard power rather than soft power. Like the Jews during the time of Christ, many miss His presence in their lives—His Holy Spirit power—because He doesn’t fulfill their Messianic expectations. Many Christians today mistakenly view God’s power as violent, harsh, and domineering, and this influences how they relate to the world.
When the church embraces hard power, it moves away from Christ crucified and toward human abuse. But when the church looks like crucified power, it maximizes the glory of God and increases attention to the nature of God by pointing back toward who Jesus is.
While we may not be able to prevent a church-empire hybrid from emerging from its lair, we can flood the world with the goodness of God so that we might, to some degree, stem the tide of evil. God gives the Holy Spirit power not to dominate but to demonstrate Jesus’ meekness, humility, and self-sacrificing love to the world. Jesus epitomized soft power, and His followers who receive His Holy Spirit will too.
We need to lean into the mystery of a God who triumphs through meekness, not domination; through suffering, not oppression. In moments of empire, God is raising up a church that will not be co-opted by hard power but remain a community of crucifixion-people—willing to suffer, serve, and defeat our enemies by loving them. Followers of Jesus filled with His Holy Spirit power will flood the world with a revelation of His character of love.
Emma Dyer writes from Upper Hutt, New Zealand, where she lives with her husband and two children. She teaches at her local primary school and serves at the Upper Hutt Seventh-day Adventist Mission Church Plant.
1. Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press®, 1940), 22.
