Practicing Love: A Methodist Difference

I grew up Baptist. My parents were Southern Baptist missionaries. We lived in Brazil, where the main religious affiliation was Roman Catholic. I noticed a major difference between Roman Catholicism and Baptists, especially with moving back and forth between Brazil and the US. Baptists were focused on a set of things to believe. While we talked a lot about the Bible as the only source of authority for faith and practice, there were a list of correct answers that went along with our reading of Scripture. Not all Baptists thought alike on the correct answers, but there was a certain foundation that was taken as immutable. If you believed these particular things, you could be or were saved.

Catholicism in Brazil, however, looked very different from Catholicism in the US or in Mexico. I understood that it pretty much adapted to what it found as it entered countries around the world. It was not so focused on a set of concepts one needed to believe, however. It could adapt, because what was essential for one’s salvation was participation in the sacraments of the church. These sacraments doled out grace in response to one’s failings. That was the immutable center for Catholicism.

While I grew up Baptist, it was with a certain Methodist or Wesleyan influence. My Dad had been raised Methodist. He brought some of that background with him on his shift to becoming a Baptist. Part of that was the way he looked at Scripture. He understood that it needed to be interpreted. He understood that reason and logic needed to work alongside one’s reading of the text. He understood that the primitive church had a closer tie to Jesus’ preaching that has often been the case since.

Like John Wesley, Dad understood that the central tenet of Christianity was love. His studies in the Hebrew Scriptures deepened that understanding. While most Baptists around me spoke of a system of beliefs, Dad spoke of a more responsible approach to the Bible that carried into applying Jesus’ teachings to one’s present reality. He was just as concerned as any other Baptist about questions of eternity and salvation, but his approach was much more nuanced than many, making more room for questions of scholarship and academic investigation. In the process, he pressed toward John Wesley’s emphasis on the practice of Christianity that went far beyond things like worship, prayer, Bible study, and devotions. He made room for the gospel applying itself to social ministries and concerns of justice as living out the realities of the gospel in everyday living.

While most Baptists were concerned with beliefs and the correct interpretation of Scripture and Catholics were concerned with the sacraments, Dad’s lean toward application of the gospel to this life stood out. On coming to the United Methodist Church, this is precisely what drew me in. I had recognized that having all the correct answers granted no power to save. Jesus never gave us a theological final exam for which to study for entrance into heaven. The thief on the cross went through no catechism at all, but Jesus assured him of paradise. He participated in no sacrament whatsoever, but Jesus promised to be with him in the beyond. Likewise, he had no opportunity to do all the right things. All he could do was place his trust in Jesus and Jesus’ promise.

The Wesleyan focus on the practice of Christianity is likewise not about this being the avenue to salvation or redemption. Rather, it is the result of placing our trust in Jesus and embracing God’s grace and love. It is what we do because of the love and grace we have received. Wesley was not seeing any real application of Jesus’ teaching on being holy, loving people, and working to transform the world around us through action in his day. He understood that Jesus’ teaching revolved around love. Love God, love your neighbor, love yourself. This concept was the foundation of his three simple rules: “Do no harm. Do good. Stay in love with God.”

It is this practice of Christianity, orthopraxis, or right doing, that takes center stage in a Wesleyan faith. Salvation is the work of God in Christ. Salvation is the product of God’s grace. Salvation is not dependent on anything we can do. We cannot make God love and accept us, God already does. Instead, we turn to the world around us, saying, “How can I become an envoy of God’s love and grace in my own community?” The deeds of the gospel, the following of Jesus’ teaching, is a result of redemption. It is the outflow of embracing what God has called us to become. It is the answer to the question, what is the purpose of our salvation? To what end have we been embraced and accepted by God? That is to be conduits of God’s love, living in love, and allowing love to lead all our words, attitudes, and actions.

This is the only fitting response to Jesus calling us to, “Love one another as I have loved you.” And it is by so doing that we are able to display before the world that we are followers of Jesus, “Because we have love for one another.”



— ©Copyright 2024, Christopher B. Harbin 



http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/

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