Hello my friends,

Many of the questions I receive revolve around the theme of what loving others well actually looks like in a world like ours today, especially those within our religious group who believe a coercive and forceful way is the way God is calling us to right now. So, today I want to ponder that theme through the lens of a conversation Jesus had with his peers over the very same topic. I hope you find it helpful.

Recommended Resources

-Broken Articulating Your Own Faith After Religious Control by Broken To Beloved Podcast. I recently had a great conversation with Brian Lee and host of this podcast. We discussed what it was like for those of us who have been taught black-and-white answers about Christianity to step into the gray and how it can feel unnerving because it calls us beyond the shores of certainty towards something more mysterious.

-The Narrow Way: Finding Hope & Humanity Amid Division by Honoring The Journey Podcast. Here is a recent conversation with my friend and host of this podcast, Leslie Nease. We dive deep into the challenges of navigating grief, polarization, and faith in today’s divided world.

-Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved by Kate Bowler. You may have already read if not heard of this book, but I'd like to recommend it here in case you hadn't. While not as much as I used to, I am still getting messages from fellow believers that use the phrase "everything happens for a reason" to justify not being concerned about all that is happening. It always makes me think of this book.

-Surviving Autocracy by Masha Gessen. I'm about to begin reading this book as it has been recommended to me often. I have been told that it is an inventory of many of the ravages we are currently experiencing and a call to account but that it is also a beacon to recovery and to the hope of what comes next. Feel free to let me know if you plan on reading it as well.

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The Freedom to Love in a World of Fear.

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​John 8:31–36

To the Judaeans who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

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​Hearing Jesus in His Own Context

Before we can understand John 8:31–36, we must first remember where this conversation takes place, who is speaking, and to whom he speaks.

Jesus is not speaking against Judaism here. He is speaking within it. He is a Jew addressing fellow Jews in the temple courts during the Festival of Booths (Sukkot), a holy time when the people of Israel remembered God’s faithfulness in the wilderness and longed for the fulfillment of God’s promises.

Those gathered around Jesus were not outsiders or enemies. They were his own people, some of whom believed in him, others who questioned him, all of whom shared the same Scriptures, the same festivals, the same story of Abraham and the Exodus. But like many of us today, they differed deeply over what liberation meant and how it should come.

The Gospel of John, written decades later in the aftermath of Rome’s destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, captures this painful internal debate within Judaism. It is a conversation about the nature of truth, freedom, and power under empire. Questions that still echo in every generation.

Unfortunately, through the centuries, this passage has been tragically misused and abused. Because the Greek word Ioudaioi was often translated simply as “the Jews,” rather than the accurate translation of "Judaeans," later Christian interpreters, most infamously Martin Luther in his horrible treatise called, On the Jews and Their Lies, many have twisted Jesus’ words into justification for anti-Jewish hatred, persecution, and even genocide. From the medieval pogroms to the Holocaust to the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, this misuse of John 8 has caused unspeakable suffering.

So, as followers of Jesus today, we must name this plainly: Jesus was not condemning his people, he was confronting the same temptations that confront every people of faith, ours included. The danger he exposes is not “Judaism’s sin,” but the perennial human sin of using religion to dominate rather than liberate.

Therefore, to read this passage faithfully is to turn the mirror toward ourselves. As is the faithful way to read all of scripture. It is to ask: how are we, today’s followers of Jesus, tempted by the same illusions of control, the same captivity to violence, the same inability to see what mentality holds us captive?

What follows, then, is a reflection not on their failure but on our calling: to live as people who embody the truth that sets all creation free.

A Word Spoken in a Time of Crisis

As I have already mentioned, this conversation between Jesus and the Judeans didn’t happen in a quiet village or a peaceful moment. It took place in the temple courts, the very center of religious, political, and economic power, during the Festival of Booths, a time when the Jewish people remembered their liberation from Egypt and wrestled with what freedom meant while still living under the shadow of Roman occupation.

The air was thick with political tension. The memory of violent revolts was still fresh. Many longed for a Messiah who would rise up and drive out Rome by force, a revolutionary king who would win their freedom through power and domination. It was in this setting that Jesus dared to speak about the categories of truth and freedom, words that landed like sparks in a room full of dry straw.

Truth as Liberation from Violence

When Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free,” he wasn’t talking about a set of doctrines or abstract moral principles. He was performing a kind of existential intervention. He was trying to disrupt false realities that justify domination and violence.

He was speaking against every “truth” that claims freedom can be achieved through control, that peace can be secured by the sword, that security requires an enemy. The Judeans who believed in him protested, “We have never been slaves to anyone,” despite currently celebrating their liberation from Egypt where their ancestors lived in 400 years of bondage. Despite currently living under Roman rule. I read this phrase as a phrase of a resilient people. As a way of saying, "even though those in power believe they have enslaved us, we are slaves to no one." As a way of saying, "our God will always come to our aid and liberation." Yet Jesus is trying to drive at something deeper here. The human impulse to refuse to see how our own desire for power can also be a form of bondage.

Jesus’ confrontation here points to a deeper captivity: the bondage of violence itself. He sees in their yearning for an armed revolt the same spirit that animates empire, a spirit that believes freedom comes by subduing others. And he names it for what it is: the offspring of the deceiver, the father of lies (John 8:44). The real bondage, Jesus insists, is not Rome’s chains, but the addiction to domination that causes such chains to exist in the first place.

When Religion Marries Power

This is where John’s Gospel becomes painfully relevant to our moment. The people Jesus confronts are not his enemies, they are his own people. They believe in him. They share his scriptures, his heritage, his longing for deliverance. And yet they cannot accept his way because it does not mirror the violent logic of empire.

Today, we see the same tragic pattern replaying itself. Many who claim God's name have once again confused divine truth with political control. In the United States, in Russia, in Israel, and beyond, religious movements have wrapped nationalism in theological language, calling it freedom and revival. They speak of “defending the faith” while wielding the same coercive tools that puts people in bondage and crucifies people like Jesus.

Like the Judeans in this story, they claim ethnic heritage, “We are descendants of Abraham,” or perhaps for our time, “We are defenders of Western Christian civilization.” Yet in their zeal for dominance, they betray the liberating heart of the Gospel. They wield the cross like it's a flagpole rather than a sign of self-giving love.

The Freedom Jesus Offers

True freedom, Jesus teaches, is not the right to rule others, it is the radical grace to love others without fear. It is not secured by conquest but born through "kenosis," a self-emptying, as Philippians 2:5–8 proclaims:

“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited for his own gain, but he emptied himself… becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

This is what the “truth that sets us free” looks like in the flesh. It is the truth of a God who lays down power to lift others up. It is the truth of nonviolent resistance, the courage to speak against injustice without mirroring its methods. It is the truth that refuses to dehumanize even our enemies, because it sees in every face the image of God.

This truth is not comfortable. It is costly. It calls us to unlearn the habits of fear and domination. It calls the church to repent of every time we’ve blessed the machinery of empire, justified war, or ignored the cries of the oppressed.

The Challenge Before Us

If Jesus were to stand among us today and say, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free,” how might we respond Would we, too, protest and say, “We are not in bondage to anything”? Would we deny our captivity to ideology, nationalism, and grievance? Or would we finally make room in us for his word (John 8:37), a word that dismantles false gods and frees us for love?

The choice before Christians today remains the same: Will we cling to the illusion of control, or will we walk in the liberating truth of Christ’s humility, courage, and compassion?

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​Action Steps for Living the Truth

1. Practice honest self-examination.​
   Ask: In what ways do I confuse my faith with my faction, my nation, or my ideology? What fears keep me from embracing the freedom of love?
2. Resist dehumanization in all forms.​
   Refuse to speak or act in ways that reduce others to enemies or labels. The truth Jesus embodied always begins with seeing others as beloved.
3. Engage in nonviolent truth-telling.​
   Speak up against injustice, not to dominate or humiliate, but to liberate. Truth in the way of Jesus always heals, never harms.
4. Cultivate solidarity.​
   Walk alongside those whose freedom is still denied, like migrants, the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, and the marginalized. Freedom is only real when it is shared.

Closing Prayer

God of truth and mercy,
You spoke freedom into a world bound by fear.
You revealed that real power is found not in domination but in love.
Forgive us when we mistake control for faith, when we weaponize your name to secure our comfort.

Empty us of arrogance and fill us with your Spirit of truth.
Give us the courage to speak light into deception,
to resist violence without becoming violent,
to seek justice without losing compassion.

Teach us the freedom that cannot be legislated or enforced, the freedom born of love, humility, and hope.
May the truth of Christ live in us,
until every chain of hatred and fear is broken.

Now I'd like to hear from you! Did you find this helpful? What thoughts came to your mind as you read? Feel free to respond to this email and share your thoughts with me. I look forward to reading them. New 30 Day Devotional: I recently wrote a 30 day devotional in hopes to provide a companion for people seeking to follow Jesus in our world today. You can read more about it here: $20.00 Following Jesus In A World Obsessed With Empires: 30 Days of reclaiming the hope, compassion, and justice of Jesus. Today, our world can often feel overwhelmed by darkness, division, and despair. I created this 30-day devotional to... Read more Get it now! ​ Ways to support: If you'd like to support this project, you can do so through one-time-gift of any amount you feel is right. You can also subscribe through a $5/mo, $15/mo, or $25/mo. Several others have also asked for a recurring gift option that is different from the ones offered here, like this one. If you'd like me to set up a different option for you, please just send me an email with the word "support" in the subject line. As always, I really want to thank all of you for reading and for all the ways you support me and this project every single week. I'm thankful for the ways we are building this together and hope it creates a lasting, positive change in our world along the way! I sincerely appreciate you all, Ben Remember, you can now view this and all previous newsletters as well as invite friends to join through this link: https://benjamin-cremer.ck.page/profile.

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Amen.