As we finish out this year, I wanted to share some of the things I have learned from John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement. There are many things we can learn from him about the gospel. We have and will consider those as well. However, I wanted to share a few of the very practical things I have learned from Wesley.
1. We always need to read the Bible in context. In my earliest days as a Christian, I noticed that most people talked about the Bible a verse at a time. It gave the impression that each verse is totally self-contained and had nothing to do with what came before it or after it. It almost made it seem like it was silly for, say, the letters of Paul, to be so long because what really mattered were a few verses. The rest of the stuff was still there, but we never really looked at it.
By contrast, Wesley made it clear that we had to keep reading and make sure that we didn’t become blinded by our first impressions. Two moments stick out to me in a big way. First, in his sermon on “Christian Perfection,” Wesley points out that, just a few verses after Paul says that he has “not already obtained it or have already become perfect” (Philippians 3:12), he says, “Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect…” (Philippians 3:15). As such, he writes about how Christians, by grace through faith, can be made perfect, and in which ways they can not be made perfect in this life.
The other is how Wesley diffuses a criticism by a “Rev. Dr. Horne,” who accused him of pitting Paul, who says “Abraham was justified by faith,” against James, who wrote “Abraham was justified by works.” Of course, the real issue is not what Wesley says but what the Bible says, but Wesley’s point was that, if we read both arguments carefully, we find that Paul and James are making two different but complementary points. Paul says that we need a living faith to be justified before we can do our first really good work. James is saying that we cannot be justified by a dead faith that does not impact the way we live. On the surface, they seem contradictory, but if we keep reading the context, we realize there is no contradiction.
2. We must not confuse orthodoxy with living faith. This is especially important for me as the Global Methodist Church is determined to preserve theological orthodoxy. At the beginning of Wesley’s sermon on the Trinity, he writes, “Whatsoever the generality of people may think, it is certain that opinion is not religion: No, not right opinion; assent to one, or to ten thousand truths. There is a wide difference between them: Even right opinion is as distant from religion as the east is from the west. Persons may be quite right in their opinions, and yet have no religion at all; and, on the other hand, persons may be truly religious, who hold many wrong opinions.”
His point, of course, is not that theological convictions don’t matter (in fact, he is building up to the point that some, like the Trinity, are at the core of what it means to be Christian and indispensable), but that orthodox theology does not guarantee living faith. It would be best, of course, to have orthodox theology and a living faith, but we should always have humility about our claims to orthodoxy. Wesley’s warning is clear in his sermon on having a Catholic Spirit. “Although every man necessarily believes that every particular opinion which he holds is true; (for to believe any opinion is not true, is the same thing as not to hold it;) yet can no man be assured that all his own opinions taken together, are true.” I strive for orthodoxy, but I will not stake my salvation on my having gotten everything right. I stake my salvation on nothing and no one but Christ!
3. Faith is an issue of the heart as much as the head. Related to that last lesson, Wesley taught me, more firmly than anyone else in my life, of the importance that faith be lived and not merely thought. When I was in college, I saw the leading lights of the Christian community among the students arguing with each other as if what God wanted most for us was the ability to pass a rigorous theological examination. What Wesley showed me, in his writings and in his example, is that we must have what he called “heart religion,” a faith that transforms us.
This is essentially the Wesleyan emphasis on holiness in different words. In “The Nature, Design, and General Rules of the United Societies,” where Wesley spelled out what was expected of the Methodists, this is what we read (the full text can be found on page 21 of the 2024 Book of Doctrines and Discipline, PDF edition): “There is only one condition previously required of those who desire admission into these societies: ‘a desire to flee from the wrath to come, and to be saved from their sins.’ But wherever this is really fixed in the soul it will be shown by its fruits.”
Methodists have occasionally been accused of teaching salvation by our works because of the emphasis on holiness, but that is not how Wesley taught. For Wesley, all the calls to obedience and holiness were made on the assumption that the person has received the grace of God. The call is never, “If you want to be saved, you had better do this and that.” It is always, “If your life belongs to God, if you are following Christ, if you have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of you, it cannot help but impact your life!” It was always intended to be a reminder of the power and triumph of grace.
There are many things that Wesley can teach us, and it is worth learning all we can, but these are a few things that Wesley championed, not just once, but over and over again, that have made an impact on me. They have made me more committed to Christ, more committed to a life transformed by the Spirit, and more committed to submitting all of my life to the whole length and breadth of Scripture.
May this beautiful Wesleyan tradition be a comfort, encouragement, and challenge to you as one year draws to a close and a new one begins!
