later, Charles articulated this eloquently in a stanza from a lengthy poem remembering the faithful life of Mary Naylor.
Her Saviour in his members seen,17
A stranger she received him in,
An hungry Jesus fed,
Tended her sick, imprisoned Lord,
And flew in all his wants to afford
Her ministerial aid.
This one stanza about Mary Naylor is an eloquent lyrical summary of what Charles said in the sermon on Titus 3:8: “Is Christ, is he, an hungered? Give him meat. Is he thirsty? Give him drink. Is he a stranger? Take ye him in. Clothe him when he is naked; visit him when he is sick. When he is in prison, come ye unto him.”
This twofold service to Christ and others Wesley sees as a “blessed opportunity.” He then draws on two passages from the Gospel of Matthew to describe the nature of such opportunity: “For inasmuch as you do it to one of the least of these his children, you do it unto him” (25:40);18 and “whosoever shall give a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple, he shall in no wise lose its [sic] reward.”19 A holistic and integrated view of diakonia is at the heart of Charles Wesley’s theology and is central to his outreach to the poor and marginalized. Not only are Christ and those one serves seen as one, but he views charity as the noblest human gesture, for it integrates the body and soul of the Christian. Thus, it engages the whole person.
Charles says something very interesting about almsgiving, namely, there is a sense of priority that should dominate one’s charity. One should not think of doing something for someone else per se; rather, all acts of charity should be done as unto God. He states it this way:
Indeed whenever you do an alms, you should do it unto the Lord and not unto man. You should see and revere your Saviour in every poor man you ease, and be as ready to relieve him as you would to relieve Christ himself.
Many years after composing and preaching this sermon, Wesley wrote:
Members of his Church we know
The poor his body are:
All the goods he had below,
They should his garments share:
But the greedy soldiers seize
What should supply his people’s need,
Leave the members in distress
And neither clothe nor feed.20
The poor are seen as members of Christ’s body, the church. This is a perspective often ignored in discussions of ecclesiology, but for Wesley, such an understanding is fundamental to the nature of the church and to Christian ethical posture. It is at the heart of radical grace, for it claims for the church what the church often does not claim for itself. Historically, the church has set its own boundaries and requirements for membership, which often have excluded the poor.
The Sermon Based on John 4:41
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life.
Wesley preached this sermon based on a text from John’s Gospel in 1739, 1740, and 1742. It includes two important passages for this discussion:
if [the Christian] employ himself in any external acts of moral or instituted duty, he does it freely, not of necessity. In acts of charity, he gives from a principle of love to God, and man for God’s sake, and so cheerfully, not grudgingly. His alms are not wrung out of him, but proceed from him, as a stream from its fountain.21
In this first quotation, Wesley emphasizes the importance of free will in all “acts of moral or instituted duty.” No one is forced to act beneficently toward others. One is not required to aid others. Wesley says the determining factor is “a principle of love to God, and man for God’s sake.” This “principle of love” is central to Charles Wesley’s theology and all human action. If we do what we do for others merely out of a sense of duty, our actions may be well meaning but fraught with wrong intention. Furthermore, one does acts of charity with a joyous spirit, or “cheerfully,” and by no means “grudgingly.” Such acts are done out of free volition; they are not “wrung out” of someone. Wesley uses a wonderful metaphor to describe how acts of charity should proceed from everyone: “they proceed [from us], as a stream from its fountain.” Just as water freely emerges from a fountain, so good deeds toward others flow unendingly from Christ’s followers, who are filled, first and foremost, with a sense of love for God, all humankind, and all creation.
This “principle of love to God and man for God’s sake” is for Wesley the key to all human behavior. God is the author of this principle, and through it God has made all humankind partakers of the divine nature.
The author of this free principle is God himself, the free agent, the fountain of his own acts, who hath made it a partaker of his own nature. The uncreated life and liberty hath given this privilege to the religious soul, in some sense to have life and liberty in itself. In nothing does the soul more resemble the divine essence than in this noble freedom, which may therefore justly claim the free spirit for its author, (Ps 51:12; 2 Cor 3:17) or the Son of God for its original [sic], according wto that of S. Joh (8:36 ‘If the Son shall make you free, then shall you be free indeed’).22
It is interesting that Charles connects the function of this “principle of love of God and man” with the concept of theosis. He avers that God “hath made it a partaker of his own nature.” Through the fulfillment of the “principle of love,” one becomes a partaker in God’s own nature. In other words, there is an integration of faith and works inspired by love through which participation in God’s nature is enabled. This is a fulcrum of Wesley’s theology of outreach to the poor and marginalized. We are totally free to act on behalf of others, and we do so emboldened and enabled by the “principle of love.”
1. See Kimbrough, Lyrical Theology of Charles Wesley.
2. Newport, Sermons of Charles Wesley.
3. “Charles Wesley Theologos,” 264–65.
4. See Rattenbury, Evangelical Doctrines of Charles Wesley’s Hymns, 85–107.
5. Newport, Sermons of Charles Wesley, 52.
6. Ibid.
7. Charles Wesley, Evangelist and Poet, 111–54.
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