Amos 7:7-17
Psalm 82
Colossians 1:1-14
Luke
10:25-37
The Action of Love
John Wesley described
the completion of a Christian's journey as being “perfected in love.” Yes, that's the term he used... perfect. Traditionally, the Church labeled this
concept as “sanctification,” or to be “sanctified.” Sanctification comes from the same root word
that saint comes from. A saint is one
who has been sanctified. Of course, how
many people use the term
"sanctification?" John Wesley
knew that the term "sanctification" was
not often used by most people in their everyday lives, and so described
the concept of “sanctification” as “perfection in love”... to
be made perfect
through God's loving grace.
Great, the Wesleyan understanding of
salvation is to be made perfect by God's grace.
But, what does that look like?
Wesley described this divinely inspired perfection as being seen in the
perfect love of God and neighbor. The
way God's grace working in our lives is made manifest, made visible, made
"real" so to speak, is through the perfect love of God and
neighbor. And where did John Wesley come
up with this idea? From scripture of
course! Our reading from Saint Luke's
Gospel this morning is one of those places from which John Wesley developed his
theology of sanctification, of being perfected in God's loving grace.
Jesus had just finished talking with
his disciples who had returned from their evangelistic mission that we read
about last week. He is then approached
by a lawyer who asks Jesus, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?” [Luke 10:25].
Despite the jokes we might make about lawyers today, this is really a
strange question for a 1st Century Jewish lawyer to ask. Not because lawyers were stereotyped as not
interested in religeous ethics, but because there was no distinction made
between civil law and religious law in Jewish society. Lawyers were well versed in religious law as
well as civil law because for Jews in 1st Century
It doesn't take much imagination to
see how this passage connects with John Wesley's advocating of striving for the
perfect love of God and neighbor. Of
course a close reading of this text does reveal that scripture advocates loving
three subjects while John Wesley only seems to advocate for two. Our reading from Saint Luke's Gospel
advocates that one love God, their neighbors, and themselves. "[L]ove the Lord your God with
all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with
all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." It’s important to note that the term “love”
is used here not as a noun, but as a verb.
That is, love is not simply something you are to have, but instead is
something you are to do. Jesus
emphasizes this concept of action when he tells the lawyer to “do this,
and you will live” [Luke
Since Jesus spoke of loving three
different subjects, let’s look at each one and how we are to love them. First, Jesus tells us to "love the Lord
your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
strength, and with all your mind."
Heart, soul, strength, and mind; this represents the totality of who
each of us are. To love God is to love
with your complete self. John Wesley
used the description “acts of piety” to describe the typical ways in which we
are to love God: Holy Communion, prayer, worship, hearing scripture read aloud
and preached upon, studying scripture, and fasting. Notice that in following these typical ways
of loving God, our whole being; body, mind, and soul, is utilized to love God.
Next, we are to love our
neighbors. John Wesley used the
description “acts of mercy” to describe the typical ways in which we love our
neighbors. He described things like
giving to the poor, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick
and imprisoned,and offering Christ to those who have never heard the good news. These acts care for the needs of others. The Samaritan in our reading from Luke loves
the man through acts that meet the man’s needs.
He bandaged the man’s wounds, he poured oil and wine on
the man’s wounds, he put the man on his donkey, he brought the
man to an inn, he took care of the man [Luke
Finally, we are to love
ourselves. How do we truly love
ourselves? There are healthy ways to
love ourselves and there are unhealthy ways.
Actually, since the unhealthy ways to love ourselves are inherently
unhealthy, they really are not ways in which we truly love ourselves. For instance, greed can sometimes be seen as
an unhealthy way to love ourselves.
However, we know that greed will eventually harm us and so it is not
truly love. So what are the correct, the
truly right ways to love ourselves as Jesus mentioned? Since he said “love your neighbor as
yourself,” clues to how we are to love ourselves can be found in the ways we
love our neighbor. When we love our
neighbor, we care for our neighbor’s needs and wellbeing – spiritually,
mentally, and physically. Each of us are
human just like our neighbors. We all
have the same type of basic needs. We
all have a body, mind, and spirit that need to be exercised and nurtured. Often when we think of faith development, we
focus simply on mind and spirit.
However, our bodies are very much a part of who we are and are most
definitely a gift from God. Just as many
of the acts of love for our neighbors involve addressing their physical needs,
so too with the acts of love for ourselves.
Although John Wesley’s statement about striving for the perfect love of
God and neighbor does seem to leave out self, Wesley did spend a lot of time
discussing self care. In our N.E.R.D.ly
Things class, we’ve been studying John’s life, writings, and theology. One interesting aspect that we’ve studied was
how much John addressed healthy living.
He suggested that each person should strive to get between seven and
eight hours of sleep a night, that vigorous exercise with a gradual worm-up and
cool-down was necessary, and that we should drink plenty of water – he called
this the “wholesomest beverage.” He
really was a little ahead of his time.
Because we are human just like our neighbors, love for ourselves involves
the care of body, mind, and spirit.
Love is not simply a noun, it’s a
verb. Love is action that we do for God,
each other, and ourselves. What I find
interesting is that love as action is not performed for a reaction. Whether it is love for God, love for
neighbor, or love for self, true love is not done for a reward. True love is done because that’s what we’ve
been created for.
How do you love God? How do you love your neighbor? How do you love yourself? We all can improve on how we love God, each
other, and ourselves. God has given us
each a lifetime to make improvements and God is offering us grace to move us to
the perfect love of God and neighbor.
So, how do you love?
SDG