John Wesley’s Investment Formula

“Money is like a muck, no good except it be spread.” (Francis Bacon)

John Wesley by George Romney, 1789

 I always confuse between Charles Wesley and John Wesley, only later that I knew that these two giants in Christian’s History are brothers’ flesh and blood. (The same confusion I had when I read about Williams’ sisters – Serena Williams and Venus Williams, the two world-class tennis players, pardon me) John Wesley (1703 - 1791) was an Anglican priest (until 1728), evangelist and founder of Methodism. After he became influenced by Moravian teaching, he experienced a conversion and devoted the rest of his life to preaching.

In his sermon, John Wesley often dealt with the topic about money and materialism. He sites that Christian’s materialism is a major cause of the ‘inefficacy of Christianity’. He always ask, ‘Why has Christianity done so little good?’ and knowing the cause, he was so vocal about the matter of materialism. One of the most well-known sermons by John Wesley on money was his ‘trilateral sermon’, titled ‘The Use of Money’. (Based on Luke 16:9) He set out three points about money:

1)    Gain All you Can

Keith Drury writes, ‘We ought to make money. It was an argument for industriousness, hard work, cleverness. Wesley thought Christians should work hard and long and the result would be gaining all the money they could. To him there was nothing wrong with making money. Indeed, he argued that Christians had a ‘bounden duty’ to gain all they could.’

Had you heard someone said something that contradict with their action? All talk and no walk? I’m sure you had. (And that’s what I’m scare the most) But Wesley, he followed his own advice. Keith explained that Wesley was one of the highest earning preachers of all times. In today’s dollars he earned the equivalent of 1.4 million in his best year. That mean he earned approximately RM4.2 Million per year! Mind you, there was no a cassette or videos or websites during that time okay! He wanted Christian to ‘gain all you can’. (Along with this, he cited five wrong ways of gaining money, click reference website below for more info.)

2)    Save All you Can

What he meant by ‘Save all you can’ was to be carefully how you spent it. It doesn’t mean that we should bank-in as much as possible into our savings accounts. He warned about extravagant spending on taste a.k.a. food, appealing and other showy thing which appeal to the sense of sight. Thus, Wesley called us for simplicity and plainness. But come on, so why need to ‘gain all you can’ and ‘save all you can’ but didn’t use it for the luxury of life? ‘Why should Christians be so thrifty?’ writes Keith. It is so we can give.

3)    Give All you Can

If John Wesley were to write an article about the topic of money in Motivate for Life, he would conclude his article by writing his utmost motivation of his entire view on money as ‘Give all you can’. We are to gain and save in order to give. Keith writes, ‘To Wesley money was for giving. You made it; you saved, so you could give it.’ Give to whom? Wesley outlines a list:

• First, give to yourself all you need for the basics. 
• Second, give to your family and employees their fair share or you are worse than an infidel 
• Third, give to the ‘household of faith’ – other Christians, which we assume includes the organized work of the Lord in churches. 
• Finally, we are to give to all men in need, which includes the poor, the needy, even if they are not believers.

 In summary, his trilateral are ‘Gain All you Can’, ‘Save All you Can’ and it base ‘Give All you Can’. And you know what; Wesley lived it and did it himself. What today RM4.2 Million per year income, his biographer said that he lived on only 2% of his income and gave 98% of it away. Keith Drury revealed that “In fact, during Wesley’s lifetime he earned the equivalent of $30 Million. When he died, he left behind only a few miscellaneous coins and a couple of silver spoons… He practiced what he preached.”

Jesus never said that we should give 98% of our income away. He is not even using the word ‘should’ but ‘if’. He never forces us to give, but He reminded us that we should give. I can recite dozens if not hundreds of His eternal Word about Giving, but this article could not contain it.  After all, isn’t all that we have is His’? Think about it.

THINK BIG. START SMALL.GO DEEP.

 Reference:http://www.drurywriting.com/keith/wesley.htm

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