The Almost Christian

Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. ACTS 26:28

On 25 July 1741 Wesley preached again before the University of Oxford, and chose for his text the words of King Agrippa to Paul. It is one of his most searching sermons, and one of his most personal, for the portrait he paints of the almost Christian is in large part a portrait of himself before 1738. He had been, he tells his hearers, that man for many years. He had done everything in the sermon’s first half and lacked everything in its second.

How far a person may go

Wesley’s method is to build up the almost Christian piece by piece, until the hearer is uncomfortable at how much it includes.

First, he says, there is heathen honesty: the ordinary justice, truthfulness and kindness that even pagan societies expected. The almost Christian does not steal, cheat or oppress the poor. He tells the truth and helps his neighbour when he can.

Second, there is the form of godliness, the whole outside of a real Christian. The almost Christian does nothing the gospel forbids. He does not take God’s name in vain, profane the Lord’s day, indulge in drunkenness or quarrel. He does good to all, feeds the hungry and comforts the afflicted. He goes to church and behaves there with seriousness. He comes to the Lord’s table. He prays with his family and alone.

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 2 TIMOTHY 3:5

Third, and this is the sting, the almost Christian has sincerity. He is not a hypocrite. He has a real design to serve God and a hearty desire to do His will. Wesley insists on this. A person may go so far as to mean it, and still be only almost a Christian.

The confession in the pulpit

At this point Wesley does something striking. He anticipates the objection that no one could go so far and yet fall short, and he answers it from his own life. He had gone thus far for many years, he says, as many in the room could testify: using diligence to avoid evil and keep a conscience void of offence, redeeming the time, using every means of grace, doing all the good he could, and all of it with a sincere desire to serve God. And yet his own conscience, he says, bore him witness that all this time he was only almost a Christian.

It is not hard to imagine the effect. Wesley had been a Fellow of Lincoln College, a leader of the Holy Club, and a missionary. His hearers knew his reputation for strictness. Now he told them that it had not been enough, and invited them to ask whether their own religion was any different.

What it means to be altogether a Christian

The second half of the sermon describes the altogether Christian, and it rests on three things.

The first is the love of God. Wesley takes the great commandment at full strength: to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and soul, and mind, and strength. Such love, he says, engrosses the whole heart and takes up all the affections. The one who has it rejoices in God his Saviour, and is crucified to the world.

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. MARK 12:30

The second is the love of our neighbour, which means every person in the world, including our enemies. Wesley describes it through Paul’s words in First Corinthians thirteen: it is longsuffering and kind, envies not, is not puffed up, seeks not its own, thinks no evil, and bears, believes, hopes and endures all things.

The third is the ground of both, which is faith. Here Wesley quotes the Homilies of the Church of England at length, insisting that the faith which does not bring forth repentance, love and good works is not a living faith but a dead one. True Christian faith, in the Homily’s words, is a sure trust and confidence in God that by the merits of Christ one’s sins are forgiven, and from it follows a loving heart to obey His commandments. Whoever has this faith working by love, Wesley concludes, “is not almost only, but altogether, a Christian.”

For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love. GALATIANS 5:6

The questions at the end

The sermon closes with a series of questions that Wesley plainly meant his hearers to answer in their hearts, and that still do their work. Do I practise even the justice and truth that the heathen require? Do I have the form of godliness? Do I have sincerity? And then the great question: “Is the love of God shed abroad in your heart?” Can you cry out, My God, and my all? Do you love your neighbour as yourself, and your enemies, as Christ loved you? Do you believe that Christ loved you and gave himself for you? Does His Spirit bear witness with yours that you are a child of God?

And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. ROMANS 5:5

Reading it without despair

This sermon has sent many people into anxiety, and it is worth saying how to read it well.

Wesley was preaching to an audience that was, for the most part, comfortable in a religion of respectability. He meant to disturb them, and he was right to. But the answer he gives is not more effort. The almost Christian already has plenty of effort. What he lacks is the love of God, and that is not something he can manufacture. It is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit, and it comes through faith in Christ. The sermon ends not with a demand but with an invitation: to cry to God day and night until you know in whom you have believed.

I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. 2 TIMOTHY 1:12

The tender conscience that reads this sermon and concludes that it can never be good enough has understood half of it. The whole of it says: you were never meant to be good enough. You were meant to believe and to be loved, and to love in return.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Read through Wesley’s three marks of the almost Christian — honesty, the form of godliness, sincerity — and ask which of them you rely on for your standing with God.

2. Ask yourself his great question slowly: is the love of God shed abroad in my heart? Write down what you honestly find.

3. Name one enemy or difficult person, and pray for their good by name this week.

4. If you have been comfortable in a religion of respectability, tell God so plainly, and ask Him for a living faith.

5. If you have been anxious that you can never do enough, read the last paragraphs of The Almost Christian and rest in the invitation rather than the demand.

A PRAYER

Lord, You know how far I have gone in the outward forms of religion, and how easily I can mistake them for the life of faith.

Search my heart. If I am only almost a Christian, do not let me rest there.

Shed abroad Your love in my heart by the Holy Spirit. Give me faith that trusts Christ alone, and let that faith work by love to You and to every person, even my enemies.

Let me not be content with good intentions, but bring them to good effect by Your grace. Amen.