As a young theology student, John Wesley earnestly desired to be an exemplary Christian. While at Oxford, he even founded a “Holy Club” which imposed a rigorous code of self-discipline and moral conduct for all its members. But despite his best efforts, Wesley still felt that his discipleship was inadequate.
Convinced that he was missing something, he and his brother Charles traveled across England to visit the great divine, William Law, who promptly told them that they were turning the blessing of faith into a complicated and burdensome task. “Christianity is the plainest and simplest thing in the world,” he said. “It is just this—we love because God first loved us.”
He was absolutely right, of course. When Christians do good deeds and reach out to help others, we are not doing those things to get anywhere. We are doing them because we have already arrived. In other words, there is a vast difference between the ethics of achievement and the ethics of response. The ethics of achievement has to do with trying to win God over. But we don’t need to do that. God has been on our side all along.
Neither are our Christian deeds simply a noble gesture of humanitarianism. The object of humanitarian love is humankind and it is usually based on what we perceive as the intrinsic worth and value of a person’s life. Christians, however, are called to love people even when they don’t seem to be worth the effort. This is why Christian love is often more persistent and radical than mere humanitarian love. Christians love first and foremost because of what we believe about God, not because of what we happen to feel about humankind.
Christian action starts with the incredible assumption that there can be no serious discussion of what a person ought to be doing without a prior discussion of who a person is. As the great preacher Harry Emerson Fosdick used to say, “Ought-ness …is essential related to is-ness.” And Christians are bold enough to declare that no matter how people sometimes behave, or how we may feel about them—we are all children of God.
Convinced that he was missing something, he and his brother Charles traveled across England to visit the great divine, William Law, who promptly told them that they were turning the blessing of faith into a complicated and burdensome task. “Christianity is the plainest and simplest thing in the world,” he said. “It is just this—we love because God first loved us.”
He was absolutely right, of course. When Christians do good deeds and reach out to help others, we are not doing those things to get anywhere. We are doing them because we have already arrived. In other words, there is a vast difference between the ethics of achievement and the ethics of response. The ethics of achievement has to do with trying to win God over. But we don’t need to do that. God has been on our side all along.
Neither are our Christian deeds simply a noble gesture of humanitarianism. The object of humanitarian love is humankind and it is usually based on what we perceive as the intrinsic worth and value of a person’s life. Christians, however, are called to love people even when they don’t seem to be worth the effort. This is why Christian love is often more persistent and radical than mere humanitarian love. Christians love first and foremost because of what we believe about God, not because of what we happen to feel about humankind.
Christian action starts with the incredible assumption that there can be no serious discussion of what a person ought to be doing without a prior discussion of who a person is. As the great preacher Harry Emerson Fosdick used to say, “Ought-ness …is essential related to is-ness.” And Christians are bold enough to declare that no matter how people sometimes behave, or how we may feel about them—we are all children of God.
posted by Dr. Robert Crilley at
2:52 PM
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