As If the Heart Mattered: A Wesleyan Spirituality by Gregory S. Clapper

Author:Gregory S. Clapper [Clapper, Gregory S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion, Methodist, Christianity
ISBN: 9781630871475
Publisher: Wipf & Stock, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers
Published: 2014-04-07T04:00:00+00:00

Notes

1. See his “Salvation by Faith,” sermon 1, 120.

2. Review chapter 1, “John Wesley’s Vision of Heart Religion-Orthokardia.”

3. Sermon 1, 120.

4. Sermon 5, “Justification by Faith,” 189. The scripture reference Wesley gives is Romans 3:25.

5. See “Suggestions for Further Reading” at the end of the chapter:

Chapter Four

The House of Religion:

The House of Holiness

We have seen that the Christian journey really begins when we have an encounter with holiness that leads us to see that we are not who we should be. This “porch” of repentance puts us in a position to accept in simple trust the forgiveness that Jesus brought into the world—to walk through the “door” of faith. We are not who we should be, but God has forgiven us! In this chapter we will try to understand the nature of the life whose center is the mystery of the forgiveness of sin, or to use Wesley’s image, the house of religion that we enter by crossing over the porch of repentance and passing through the door of faith. This house is “holiness.” In this chapter we want to see just how holiness is brought about in a human life and how it is connected to the “door” of faith. First, though, let us understand how Wesley understood this “holiness” that is to define our lives as believers.

Holiness as Love

In many places in his writings, John Wesley said that human beings are made for happiness and that the only way to achieve real happiness is to achieve holiness.1 While holiness might seem a daunting or even pretentious goal for human life, Wesley saw it as what scripture required of believers.2 So just what is this holiness that no believer shall attain heaven without? Wesley saw holiness as nothing more or less than love.3 Let us consider several scripture passages that illustrate Wesley’s belief that the biblical view of the final goal of life is a life of love.

Mark 12:28-34

(Parallels in Matthew 22:34-40 and Luke 10:25-28)

This passage contains the famous “great commandment.” Jesus is confronted by a scribe who asks him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” To this Jesus answers by quoting Deuteronomy 6:4, saying, “Hear, 0 Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12: 29-30). Jesus then continues by saying, “The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (v. 31).

This last commandment can be found in Leviticus 19:18. In just a few verses of Mark, Jesus quotes two different passages from the Hebrew Scriptures in order to sum up the Jewish law. Moreover, he is boldly addressing this summary to one who would be in a position to correct his views—a Jewish scribe. But the scribe does not correct him; instead the scribe says, “You are right, Teacher” (v. 32). This dual commandment to love God and love our neighbor, then, is the core of Jewish spirituality.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.