Everything Could Be a Prayer: John Wesley
From Everything Could Be a Prayer by Kreg Yingst
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
-Matthew 5:48
Perfectionists can be unhealthy. The critical gaze with which they pick apart their own flaws moves outward to judge others. So what is Jesus getting at when he tells us to "be perfect"?
The Greek word τέλειοι, translated as "perfect" in Matthew 5:48, can be defined as an undivided heart, or complete spiritual maturity. John Wesley, the founder of the renewal movement known as Methodism, understood Christian perfection simply as "loving God with all our heart." He acknowledges that "absolute perfection belongs not to man, nor to angels, but to God alone."
Wesley's definition of perfection was quite different, however, in his early years. He and his brother Charles were part of a group known as the "Holy Club" at Oxford. The group was required to perform all religious duties: praying, studying, community service, and communion.
One evening in May 1738, he walked into a worship service on Aldersgate Street. All his striving for perfection, as we typically define it, fell by the wayside. "I felt my heart strangely warmed," he confessed.
From that day, Wesley wasn't so concerned about fulfilling religious rituals for their own sake or to earn God's favor. God already loved him just as he was, he concluded. Echoing St. Paul, Wesley preaches, "By justification we are saved from the guilt of sin and restored to the favor of God. By sanctification, we are saved from the power and root of sin and restored to the image of God." The perfection he sought and wished for, for himself and others, started and ended with love. "Love is the highest gift," he proclaims!
What if we started and ended with love too? What if by loving God, we, too, could find our hearts strangely warmed?
Prayer
Son of a thousand suns, burn a fire in my soul that can't be extinguished: a fire of love that warms those around me and melts hardened hearts of ice. Fill me with a perfect love. Amen.
