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Sermon 149: On Love

https://wesleyworks.ecdsdev.org/sermons/Sermon149

04:378 An Introductory Comment

1A complete text of this sermon was extant in 1797, when George Story published it, with some curious alterations, in the last volume of the Arminian Magazine.

XX.371-78.

There it appears with a curiously condescending preface:

“ An Original SERMON of Mr. Wesley’s

The following discourse, we hope, will be acceptable to our Readers. It was preached at Savannah in America, on Feb. 20, 1736 [i.e., 1737]. Mr. Wesley at that time was but imperfectly acquainted with the Gospel of Christ. We have, therefore, taken the liberty to add a few sentences in order to render it more agreeable to the doctrine he taught when it pleased God to illuminate his mind with a clear and full discovery of pardoning mercy, through faith in our blessed Redeemer. To distinguish these additions from the original text, they are inserted in the ‘italic character’ and included in brackets.

”

2At least two of Story’s emendations were retained by Joseph Benson and Thomas Jackson in their respective editions of the sermons. They also followed Story’s alteration of Wesley’s translations of ἀγάπη as ‘charity’ to ‘love’, presumably on the ground that this was the later Wesley’s consistent usage.

3In the confusions surrounding the custody of Wesley’s papers after his death, this particular manuscript became separated from the main collection and remained in private hands until 1938, when it was rediscovered by Edmund S. Lamplough and placed in the Methodist Archives. By that time, however, six of its twelve duodecimo sheets had disappeared and still remain so. This has posed some interesting problems in reconstructing a plausible text from portions of the original and from Story’s text. Two points in this reconstruction seem certain enough: the numbering of the subdivisions is the same as the original and, more importantly, Wesley’s differentiations in his usage of the terms ‘charity’ and ‘love’ are consistent.

4The question of an original dating is complicated. The Wesley manuscript is annotated, in his hand, ‘Preached, Savannah, Feb. 20, 1736/37’. This would have been Quinquagesima Sunday in 1737, and 04:379the Epistle for that day was 1 Cor. 13. But the preceding March 7, 1736, had also been Quinquagesima Sunday and there is an interesting entry in Wesley’s Journal to that effect: ‘I entered upon my ministry at Savannah by preaching on the Epistle for the Day, being the 13th of the first of Corinthians….’

Cf. Curnock’s note here, in JWJ, where he takes too much for granted.

Thus we have two possibilities: March 7, 1736, or February 20, 1737; but, granting that he preached both days on 1 Cor. 13, his actual notation on the manuscript would seem to link this particular sermon with February 20, 1737.

For further comment on these problems, see below, Appendix A (Frank Baker, ‘Wesley’s Text’).

Needless to say, in this present text the original manuscript has been followed, and all conjectures in Story’s text have been made as consistent as possible with the original.

5The sermon’s focus is on the question of a Christian’s valid motivations in ‘dividing his goods’ or in self-sacrifice, even to the extreme of self-immolation. The only such motive is ‘charity’.

Cf. the entry on caritas in J. F. Niermeyer, Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus (1954).

Wesley then defines ‘charity’ (II.2) as ‘the love of God and man: of God, for his own, and of man, for God’s sake’. He proceeds then to explain it in such a way as to allow for its medieval connotation of sacrificial giving, thus relating it to the special point of verse 3. This, however, is promptly enlarged so as to include the other dimensions of ἀγάπη as well: ‘to delight in [God], to rejoice in his will, to desire continually to please him, to seek and find our happiness in him, and to thirst day and night for a fuller enjoyment of him’.

6The remainder of the sermon is a commentary on the ‘effects or properties of this love’. For example, there is a comment on ‘charity suffereth long’, another on ‘charity is kind’, ‘charity envieth not’, etc. Thus one sees the young Wesley accepting the conventional usage of ‘charity’ but also as already straining toward the change to ‘love’ that would come later when he would also turn his back on ‘charity’ and even denounce it as a mistranslation.

7The records of his oral preaching from 1 Cor. 13:3, specifically, show twelve instances; his combined total for texts on the various characterizations of ἀγάπη in 1 Cor. 13:1-8 runs to almost a hundred times.

04:380 On Love

1 Corinthians 13:3

Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

11. There is great reason to fear that it will hereafter be said of most of you who are here present that this Scripture, as well as all those you have heard before, profited you nothing. Some, perhaps, are not serious enough to attend to it; some who do attend will not believe it. Some who do believe it will yet think it a hard saying,

John 6:60.

and so forget it as soon as they can; and, of those few who receive it gladly for a time, some, having no root of humility or self-denial, when persecution ariseth because of the word,

Matt. 13:21.

will, rather than suffer for it, fall away.

See 2 Thess. 2:3; see No. 1, Salvation by Faith, II.4 and n.

Nay, even of those who attend to it, who believe, remember, yea, and receive it so deeply into their hearts that it both takes root there, endures the heat of that temptation, and begins to bring forth fruit, not all will bring forth fruit to perfection. The cares or pleasures of the world,

See Matt. 13:22.

and the desire of other things (perhaps not felt till then), will grow up with the word, and choke it.

Ibid.

22. Nor am I that speak the word of God any more secure from these dangers than you that hear it. I too am to bewail ‘an evil heart of unbelief’.

Heb. 3:12.

And whenever God shall suffer persecution to arise, yea, were it only the slight one of reproach, I may be the first that is offended. Or, if I be enabled to sustain this, yet should he let loose the cares of the world upon me, or should he cease to guard me against those pleasures that do not lead to him, and the desire of other things than knowing and loving him, I should surely be overwhelmed, and, ‘having preached to others, be myself a castaway’!

Cf. 1 Cor. 9:27; this is one of the first of Wesley’s recorded accounts of religious despair; cf. JWJ, Jan. 23-26, Feb. 8, 1736; see also Nos. 2, The Almost Christian, I.13 and n.; and 33, ‘Sermon on the Mount, XIII’, I.1 and n.

304:3813. Why then do I speak this word at all? Why? Because a dispensation of the gospel is committed to me:

See 1 Cor. 9:17.

and though what I shall do tomorrow I know not, today I will preach the gospel. And with regard to you my commission runs thus: ‘Son of man, I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God—whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.’

Cf. Ezek. 2:3-5.

44. Thus then saith the Lord God: ‘Whosoever thou art who wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

See Matt. 19:17.

Forsake not the assembling together with thy brethren, as the manner of some is.

See Heb. 10:25.

In secret, likewise, cry to thy Father who seeth in secret,

See Matt. 6:6.

and pour out thy heart before him.

Ps. 62:8.

Make my word a lantern to thy feet, and a light unto thy paths.

See Ps. 119:105 (BCP).

Keep it in thy heart, and in thy mouth when thou sittest in thy house, when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

See Deut. 6:6-7.

Turn unto me with fasting

See Joel 2:12.

as well as prayer; and, in obedience to thy dying Redeemer, by eating that bread

MS orig. included ‘the sign of his flesh, and wine…’, deleted by Charles in the process of transcription; does this signify a substantive alteration? Did John, at this stage, believe in transignification, as many of the Nonjurors had?

and drinking that cup, show

The MS folio 2 ends here; folios 3-6 are missing. The brackets indicate the text as published in AM down to II.5, below, n. 37.

[ye forth the Lord’s death till he come.

See 1 Cor. 11:26.

By the power thou shalt through these means receive from on high, do all the things which are enjoined in the Law, and avoid all those things which are forbidden therein, knowing that if ye offend in one point, ye are guilty of all.

See Jas. 2:10.

To do good also, and to distribute, forget not.

See Heb. 13:16.

Yea, while you have time, do all the good you can unto all men.

See Gal. 6:10.

Then deny thyself, take up thy cross daily;

See Luke 9:23.

and if called thereto, resist unto blood.

See Heb. 12:4.

And when thou canst lift up thy hand to God and say, “All this have I done,”

See Luke 18:21.

then say farther (words at which not only such as Felix alone, but the holiest soul upon earth might tremble),

See Acts 24:25.

“Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.”’

04:382It concerns us all, therefore, in the highest degree, to know:

I. The full sense of those words, ‘Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned’;

II. The true meaning of the word ‘charity’; and

III. In what sense it can be said that without charity all this profiteth us nothing.

I. As to the first, it must be observed that the word used by St. Paul properly signifies, ‘to divide into small pieces, and then to distribute what has been so divided’;

Cf. Rom. 12:20; the only other instance of ψωμίζειν in the New Testament is in 1 Cor. 13:3; see also Wesley’s Notes on both texts.

and consequently it implies, not only divesting ourselves at once of all the worldly goods we enjoy, either from a fit of distaste to the world, or a sudden start of devotion, but an act of choice, and that choice coolly and steadily executed. It may imply, too, that this be done not out of vanity, but in part from a right principle; namely, from a design to perform the command of God, and a desire to obtain his kingdom. It must be farther observed that the word ‘give’ signifies actually to deliver a thing according to agreement; and accordingly it implies, like the word preceding, not a hasty, inconsiderate action, but one performed with open eyes and a determined heart, pursuant to a resolution before taken. The full sense of the words, therefore, is this—which he that hath ears to hear, let him hear:

See Matt. 11:15, etc.

‘Though I should give all the substance of my house to feed the poor; though I should do so upon mature choice and deliberation; though I should spend my life in dealing it out to them with my own hands, yea, and that from a principle of obedience; though I should suffer, from the same view, not only reproach and shame, not only bonds and imprisonment, and all this by my own continued act and deed, not accepting deliverance, but, moreover, death itself—yea, death inflicted in a manner the most terrible to nature; yet all this, if I have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.’

1II. [1.] Let us inquire what this charity is.

Cf. No. 17, ‘The Circumcision of the Heart’, I.2 and n.

What is the true meaning of the word? We may consider it either as to its properties or effects. And that we may be under no possibility of mistake, we will not at all regard the judgment of men, but go to 04:383our Lord himself for an account of the nature of charity, and for the effects of it to his inspired Apostle.

2[2.] The charity which our Lord requires in all his followers is the love of God and man: of God, for his own, and of man, for God’s sake. Now, what is it to love God but to delight in him, to rejoice in his will, to desire continually to please him, to seek and find our happiness in him, and to thirst day and night for a fuller enjoyment of him?

3[3.] As to the measure of this love, our Lord hath clearly told us, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.’

Matt. 22:37.

Not that we are to love or delight in none but him. For he hath commanded us not only to love our neighbour—that is, all men—as ourselves; to desire and pursue their happiness as sincerely and steadily as our own; but also to love many of his creatures in the strictest sense—to delight in them, to enjoy them—only in such a manner and measure as we know and feel not to indispose but to prepare us for the enjoyment of him. Thus, then, we are called to love God with all our heart.

4[4.] The effects or properties of this love the Apostle describes in the chapter before us. And all these being infallible marks whereby any man may judge of himself whether he hath this love or hath it not, they deserve our deepest consideration.

Charity suffereth long, or is long-suffering.

See 1 Cor. 13:4.

If thou lovest thy neighbour for God’s sake, thou wilt bear long with his infirmities. If he wants wisdom, thou wilt pity, and not despise him. If he be in error, thou wilt mildly endeavour to recover him, without any sharpness or reproach. If he is overtaken in a fault, thou wilt labour to restore him in the spirit of meekness;

See Gal. 6:1.

and if haply that cannot be done soon, thou wilt have patience with him, if God peradventure may bring him at length to the knowledge and love of the truth. In all provocations, either from the weakness or malice of men, thou wilt show thyself a pattern of gentleness and meekness; and, be they ever so often repeated, wilt not be overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

Rom. 12:21.

Let no man deceive you with vain words:

Eph. 5:6.

he who is not thus long-suffering hath not charity.

504:384[5.] Again, charity is kind.

1 Cor. 13:4.

Whosoever feels the love of God and man shed abroad in his heart

See Rom. 5:5.

feels an ardent and uninterrupted thirst after the happiness of all his fellow-creatures. His soul melts away with the very fervent desire which he hath continually to promote it. And out of the abundance]

Matt. 12:34; the bracket indicates where the MS text resumes, with folio 7; see above, §4 and n. 17.

of the heart his mouth speaketh. In his tongue is the law of kindness.

Prov. 31:26.

The same is impressed on all his actions. The flame within is continually working itself a way, and spreading abroad more and more in every instance of goodwill to all with whom he has to do. So that whether he thinks or speaks, or whatever he does, it all points to the same end, the advancing by every possible way the happiness of all his fellow-creatures. Deceive ye not, therefore, your own souls: he who is not thus kind hath not charity.

66. Farther, charity envieth not.

1 Cor. 13:4.

This, indeed, was implied when it was said, charity is kind. For kindness and envy are inconsistent: they can no more stay together than light and darkness. If we earnestly desire all happiness to all, we cannot be grieved at the happiness of any. The fulfilling of our desire will be sweet to our soul; so far shall we be from being pained at it. If we are always doing what good we can for our neighbour and wishing we could do more, it is impossible [that] we should repine at any good he receives; indeed, it will be the very joy of our heart. However, then, we may flatter ourselves or one another, he that envieth any hath not charity.

77. It follows, charity vaunteth not itself;

Ibid.

or rather, is not rash or hasty in judging (for this indeed is the true meaning of the word περπερεύεται).

The sole instance of this term in the New Testament; later in the Notes Wesley will translate it ‘acteth not rashly’. It is, however, a verbal form of πέρπερος, which in both classical and koine Greek means ‘braggart’ or ‘windbag’, with no special connotation of ‘rash or hasty’ judgment. See No. 22, ‘Sermon on the Mount, II’, III.6 and n., III.10.

As many as love their neighbour for God’s sake will not easily receive an ill opinion of any to whom they wish all good, spiritual as well as temporal. They cannot condemn him even in their heart without evidence; nor upon slight evidence, neither; nor indeed upon any, without first, if it be possible, having him and his accuser face to face, or at the least acquainting [04:385]him with the accusation, and letting him speak for himself.

A basic rule in English common law. See also John 7:51, Acts 25:16, and Wesley’s Notes thereon; see also No. 30, ‘Sermon on the Mount, X’, §12 and n. This rule would have been put to the full test in the scandals surrounding Wesley in Georgia.

Every one of you feels that he cannot but act thus with regard to one whom he tenderly loves. Why, then, he who does not act thus with regard to all men—friends and enemies—hath not charity.

88. The time permits me to mention but one more of the properties or effects of it. ‘Charity is not puffed up.’

1 Cor. 13:4.

You cannot wrong one you love: therefore, if you love God with all your heart, you cannot so wrong him as to rob him of his glory, to take to yourself what is due to him only. You will own that all you are, all you have, is his; that without him you can do no good thing;

See Rom. 7:18.

that he is your light and your life, your strength and your all, and that you are nothing, yea, less than nothing, before him.

See Isa. 40:17.

And if you love your neighbour as yourself, you will not be able to prefer yourself before him. You will not be able to despise, any more than to hate him. Nay, you will think every man better than yourself.

See Phil. 2:3.

As the wax melteth away before the fire,

Ps. 68:2.

so doth pride before love. All haughtiness, whether of heart, speech, or behaviour, vanishes away where this prevails. It bringeth down the looks of him that boasted in his strength, and maketh him as a little child, diffident of himself, willing to hear, glad to

Here is where the second gap in the MS occurs (with folios 9 and 10 missing); the bracketed text comes from AM; see below, III.4, n. 55.

[learn, easily convinced, easily persuaded. And whosoever is otherwise minded, let him give up all vain hope: he is puffed up, and so hath not charity.

1III. [1.] It remains to inquire in what sense it can be said that ‘though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, yea, though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.’

2[2.] The chief sense of the words is doubtless this: that whatsoever we do, and whatsoever we suffer, if we are not renewed in the spirit of our mind by the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us,

Rom. 5:5; cf. ‘The Character of a Methodist’, §5 (Bibliog, No. 57).

we cannot enter 04:386into life eternal. None can enter there unless in virtue of the covenant which God hath given unto man in the Son of his love.

3[3.] But because general truths are less apt to affect us, let us consider one or two particulars contained in this, with regard to which all we can do or suffer, if we have not love, profiteth us nothing. And, first, all without this profiteth not so as to make life happy; nor, secondly, so as to make death comfortable.

4[4.] And, first, without love nothing can so profit us as to make our lives happy. By happiness I mean, not a slight, trifling pleasure, that perhaps begins and ends in the same hour; but such a state of well-being as contents the soul, and gives it a steady, lasting satisfaction.

Cf. Richard Lucas, Enquiry After Happiness (1717), I.26, II.10.

But that nothing without love can profit us as to our present happiness will appear from this single consideration: you cannot want it in any one single instance without pain; and the more you depart from it the pain is the greater. Are you wanting in long-suffering? Then so far as you fall short of this you fall short of happiness. The more the opposite tempers—anger, fretfulness, revenge—prevail, the more unhappy you are. You know it; you feel it; nor can the storm be allayed, or peace ever return to your soul, unless meekness, gentleness, patience, or, in one word, love, take possession of it. Does any man find in himself ill-will, malice, envy, or any other temper opposite to kindness? Then is misery there; and the stronger the temper, the more miserable he is. If the slothful man may be said to eat his own flesh,

See Eccles. 4:5.

much more the malicious, or envious. His soul is the very type of hell, full of torment, as well as wickedness. He hath already the worm that never dieth, and he is hastening to the fire that never can be quenched.

See Mark 9:44.

Only as yet the great gulf is not fixed between him and heaven.

See Luke 16:26.

As yet there is a Spirit ready to help his infirmities;

See Rom. 8:26.

who is still willing, if he stretch out his hands to heaven, and bewail his ignorance and misery, to purify his heart from vile affections, and to renew it in the love of God, and so lead him by present, up to eternal, happiness.]

See No. 6, ‘The Righteousness of Faith’, II.9 and n.; the bracket indicates where the MS lacuna ends; see above, II.8 and n. 48.

55. Secondly, without charity nothing can make death comfortable. By comfortable I do not mean stupid, or senseless. I 04:387would not say he died comfortably who died by an apoplexy, or by the shot of a cannon, any more than he who, having his conscience seared,

See 1 Tim. 4:2. See Nos. 12, ‘The Witness of Our Own Spirit’, §19; and 85, ‘On Working Out Our Own Salvation’, III.4.

died as unconcerned as the beasts that perish.

See Ps. 49:12.

Neither do I believe you would envy anyone the comfort of dying raving mad. But by a comfortable death I mean a calm passage out of life, full of even, rational peace and joy.

An early echo of Wesley’s life-long interest in the ars moriendi.

And such a death all the acting and all the suffering in the world cannot give, without charity.

66. To show this, I can’t indeed appeal to your own experience; but I may to what we have seen of the experience of others. And two I have myself seen going out of life in what I call a comfortable manner, though not with equal comfort. One had evidently more comfort than the other, because he had more charity.

77. I attended the first during a great part of his last trial, as well as when he yielded up his soul to God.

A recollection of his own father’s death at Epworth, Apr. 25, 1735 (age 72); cf. John Wesley’s open letter to ‘John Smith’, Mar. 22, 1748; see also No. 82, ‘On Temptation’, III.5; and Charles’s moving description of their father’s death to his brother Samuel in Tyerman, Samuel Wesley (London, 1866), pp. 445-47.

He cried out: ‘God doth chasten me with strong pain;

See Job 33:19.

but I thank him for all, I bless him for all, I love him for all!’ When asked, not long before his release, ‘Are the consolations of God small with thee?’

Job 15:11.

he replied aloud, ‘No, no, no!’ Calling all that were near him by our names, he broke out: ‘Think of heaven, talk of heaven! All the time is lost when we are not thinking of heaven!’ Now, this was the voice of charity; and so far as that prevailed, all was comfort and peace and joy. But as his love was not perfect, so neither was his comfort. He had intervals of anger or fretfulness, and therein of misery, giving by both an incontestable proof that as love can sweeten both life and death, so when that is either absent from, or obscured in, the soul, there is no peace or comfort there.

88. It was in this place that I saw the other good soldier of Christ

A probable reference to Henry Lascelles; cf. E. Merton Coulter and Albert B. Saye, eds., A List of the Early Settlers of Georgia (Athens, Georgia, 1949), No. 897. See Wesley’s references to the last days and death of ‘Mr. Lassel’ in JWJ, May 28, June 1, 6, 7, 19, 1736; see also No. 144, ‘The Love of God’, Intro.

grappling with his last enemy, death.

See 1 Cor. 15:26.

And it was indeed 04:388a spectacle worthy to be seen, of God

Cf. Seneca, De Providentia (‘On Providence’), ii.9; see also No. 59, ‘God’s Love to Fallen Man’, §7, where the phrase is quoted in Latin.

and men and angels. Some of his last breath was spent in a psalm of praise to him who was then giving him the victory; in assurance whereof be began the triumph even in the heat of the battle. When asked, ‘Hast thou love?’ he lifted up his eyes and hands, and answered, ‘Yes, yes!’ with the whole strength he had left. To one that inquired if he was afraid of the devil, whom he had just mentioned as making his last attack upon him, he replied: ‘No, no: our loving Saviour hath conquered every enemy. He is with me. I fear nothing.’ Soon after he said, ‘The way to our loving Saviour is sharp—but it is short.’ Nor was it long before he fell into a sort of slumber, wherein his soul sweetly returned to God that gave it.

Eccles. 12:7.

Here, we may observe, was no mixture of any passion or temper contrary to charity. Therefore was there no misery, perfect love casting out whatever might have occasioned torment.

See 1 John 4:18.

And whosoever thou art who hast the like measure of love, thy last end shall be like his!

See Num. 23:10. In Oxford, Wesley had abridged Benjamin Calamy’s sermon on this text and had preached it to the prisoners at the Castle (see Appendix C). Much later, he would turn to this text for his own sermon, On the Death of George Whitefield (see No. 53). Note the absence of both a peroration and an ascription.

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