I recently received the following article from a friend. John Wesley’s prophetic insight into the dangers of materialism, are certainly applicable to our day, and are especially relevant at this time of year when consumerism goes into over drive as a way to celebrate the birth of Christ. Your thoughts and comments on this article are welcome.

__________________________________

Thanks-giving Treasure
by Margaret Manning

Over 200 years ago during the heart of the Methodist revival in England, John Wesley spoke fearfully about the movement's ability to sustain itself. Even as thousands and thousands were joining his ranks, he spoke prophetically about the inevitable decline and dissolution of this revival. What would prompt his despairing prediction in the throes of revival's raging fires? Wesley feared the danger of wealth and its expected increase as a result of his "Methodist" renewal. He wrote in his journal: "I fear, wherever riches have increased, the essence of religion has decreased in the same proportion. Therefore, I do not see how it is possible, in the nature of things, for any revival of religion to continue long. For religion must necessarily produce both industry and frugality, and these cannot but produce riches. But as riches increase, so will pride, anger and love of the world in all its branches."(1)

The declining numbers in churches in the Western World seem to affirm that Wesley's fears were warranted. Indeed, Christian leaders speculate that if current trends continue in England, for example, Methodists will cease to exist in that country in thirty years.(2) And while the increase of wealth might only be one factor of many that has contributed to this decline, the decline has happened and is happening nevertheless. Corroborating this fear is the best-selling book by historian Philip Jenkins. Jenkins has documented the rapid rise of Christianity in the Global South in his book The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity. Could the growth of Christianity in the Global South be related to their relative poverty, and the decline of Christianity in the Global North be related to our wealth? Wesley seemed to think so.

But long before Wesley uttered his fears, Jesus warned his disciples: "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and riches" (Luke 16:13). Indeed, it is hard to read Luke's gospel and not be convicted about the dangers Jesus associated with wealth.

As riches increase, so will pride, anger, and love of the world in all its branches… Wesley's words haunt me, just as Jesus's warnings haunt me. For when I examine my checkbook, my time commitments, and where I set my heart's affections, I sometimes have the sneaking suspicion that I am serving another god. It is a god that tempts me to busyness and distraction; it is a god that wants me to sacrifice worship, commitment to my church, and devotion to the Lord in order to invest my time, treasure, and talents in the "love of the world in all its branches."

Sadly, as Wesley knew, the very blessing of wealth for Christianity, as a result of Christian frugality and diligence, can equally be a curse that would sell out its very soul. My own life is a microcosm of this struggle, just as the Western Church struggles with these issues closely related to wealthy societies: fragmentation of lives, rampant consumerism, efficiency over substance, and shallow, easy faith.

So, in this season of thanks-giving, how do we as rich, Western Christians escape the perils of over-abundance? Jesus instructed his disciples to "sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven....For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Luke 12:33-34). The answer is not necessarily in the abolition of wealth, but rather in wealth's proper use in our world--as a blessing for others, and not just for our own use!

John Wesley understood this, and in the spirit of Jesus re-iterates the same idea: "We ought not to forbid people to be diligent and frugal: we must exhort all Christians, to gain all they can, and to save all they can... What way then (I ask again) can we take that our money may not sink us to the nethermost hell? There is one way, and there is no other under heaven. If those who gain all they can, and save all they can, will likewise give all they can, then the more they gain, the more they will grow in grace, and the more treasure they will lay up in heaven."(3)

Margaret Manning is associate writer at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.


(1) Cited in an article by Philip Yancey, "Traveling with Wesley" Christianity Today, November 2007, vol 51, No. 11.
(2)Ibid.
(3) Cited from the The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, vol. XV (London: Thomas Cordeux, 1786).