The Genuine Christian

As I await the next steps in my journey towards serving in the Methodist Church in Britain, I am  auditing a course at Duke Divinity School.  Ably taught by Dr. Randy Maddox, the class is called Wesleyan Foundations for Mission, Practice, and Belief.  As we look closely at Wesley's writings, it is inspiring and encouraging to see how relevant they are to the challenges of today.

One of the primary texts we have read is John Wesley's A Plain Account of Genuine Christianity (1753). In this excerpt from his long letter to Conyers Middleton, he addresses a number of issues including the question of just exactly how to identify or define a genuine Christian.

This is not a settled question even in our day, for there are some who gleefully define those with whom they disagree as "non-Christian" or worse.  Just this week, a well-known evangelist was in Fayetteville to hold a large rally meant to evangelize as many people as possible.  The advance publicity and marketing was breath-taking in its scope, and there were literally van-loads of people coming from all around.  It happens that I don't agree with many of the interpretations of Scripture and resulting positions he holds on any number of topics, so I joined a group of about 30 like-minded Christians from a number of denominations who stood across the street from his event, not to protest but to offer an alternative viewpoint.

We gave out bottles of water and hand-held fans to passersby as we sang hymns and held signs that proclaimed our belief that it is our job to love all our neighbors because of God's love for us.  It was a small way of saying that there are other ways of understanding how we ought to live and act in this world based on the same Scripture, worshiping the same God, claiming the same Jesus, being moved by the same Spirit.  Unfortunately, there are some folks who decided we must not be real Christians because we don't subscribe to the exact same formula of beliefs they hold.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Wesley discussed and yes, argued with any number of people on the major theological issues of his day, and he was sometimes quite sharp-tongued and sarcastic!  He was a keen debater with a gift for zeroing in on the matter at hand and getting to the heart of the matter with precision.  In disagreeing with Middleton, he writes with controlled passion, first framing, then addressing this question of who is a real Christian:

Section I.1. I would consider first, Who is a Christian indeed? What does that term properly imply? It has been so long abused I fear—not only to mean nothing at all but, what was far worse than nothing, to be a cloak for the vilest hypocrisy, for the grossest abominations and immoralities of every kind—that ’tis high time to rescue it out of the hands of wretches that are a reproach to human nature, to show determinately what manner of man he is to whom this name of right belongs.

As he builds his argument, he keeps coming back to the same theme that permeates his sermons, his letters, his journal entries, and his brother's hymns -- Love.  Wesley points to God's initial act of reaching out to us with love first, an act of prevenient grace that enables us to turn to God and begin to become more loving and therefore more like Christ through the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. He elaborates on this theme of love for ALL, not just those who look, act, or believe like us:

Above all, remembering that God is love, he is conformed to the same likeness. He is full of love to his neighbour—of universal love, not confined to one sect or party, not restrained to those who agree with him in opinions or in outward modes of worship, or to those who are allied to him by blood or recommended by nearness of place. Neither does he love those only that love him or that are endeared to him by intimacy of acquaintance. But his love resembles that of him whose mercy is over all his works.6 It soars above all these scanty bounds, embracing neighbours and strangers, friends and enemies; yea, not only the good and gentle but also the froward, the evil and unthankful. For he loves every soul that God has made, every child of man of whatever place or nation. And yet this universal benevolence does in no wise interfere with a peculiar regard for his relations, friends, and benefactors; a fervent love for his country; and the most endeared affection to all men of integrity, of clear and generous virtue.

Wesley is not arguing for a particular Church or movement.  He does not imply that the only true Christians are the Methodists who are in good standing in the Church of England; rather, he holds out the notion that it is those who are being shaped to live in a Christlike way who are genuine Christians.  Such persons cannot help but love EVERYONE out of this deep love that originates in and with God.  The depths of this love cannot be plumbed, and the resulting happiness felt by such a person comes from an assurance of that love.  A genuine Christian:

... is peculiarly and inexpressibly happy in the clearest and fullest conviction, ‘This all-powerful, all-wise, all-gracious being, this governor of all, loves me. This lover of my soul is always with me, is never absent, no not for a moment. And I love him. There is none in heaven but thee, none on earth that I desire beside thee!10 And he has given me to resemble himself. He has stamped his image on my heart. And I live unto him. I do only his will. I glorify him with my body and my spirit. And it will not be long before I shall die unto him. I shall die into the arms of God. And then farewell sin and pain. Then it only remains that I should live with Him for ever.’

The question for you and for me as we examine our own lives is how closely we conform to this understanding of a Christian as someone who is so completely shaped and formed by the love of God that she/he pours out that same love upon EVERYONE, freely, joyfully, generously.  Are you, am I, the kind of person who is so filled with the Spirit that we know that the lover of our souls is always with us, "is never absent, no not for a moment?"  And if the answer to that is "no," then why not?   I close with Wesley's words:

Do you (at least) desire it? I would to God that desire may penetrate your inmost soul, and that you may have no rest in your spirit till you are—not only almost, but altogether—a Christian!