The Threat of a Good Example

“...true church law is exemplary law. For all its particularity, it is a pattern for the formation and administration of human law generally and therefore of the law of other political, economic, cultural and other human societies ....In the form in which she exists among them she can and must be to the human world around her a reminder of the justice of the kingdom of God already established on earth in Jesus Christ, and a promise of its future manifestation. De facto, whether they realise it or not, she can and should show them that there already exists on earth an order based on that great transformation of the human situation, and directed towards its manifestation. To those outside she can and should not only say, but also demonstrate by deed,...that things can be different, not merely in heaven but on earth, not just some day but even now...” 

Karl Barth, CD IV/2, 719, 721