In the Winter/Spring issue of MissionStrategy.org magazine, Nell Becker Sweeden reviews John Wesley’s three-part economic rule: Earn all you can, Save all you can, Give all you can (from his sermon “The Use of Money”). She notes that although Wesley’s formula is over two centuries old, it is still applicable to us today, and we must hold the three in balance.Earn all you can.
Christian gaining has everything to do with loving one’s neighbor as oneself. This means gain must be earned honestly and not at the expense of another person’s well-being and livelihood, or at the expense of one’s own life or health.
Save all you can.
Christians are to save all they can in the sense that they are called to be thrifty and live frugally, not wasting anything. The drive to “keep up with the Joneses” is not a call on the life of the Christians. What if our habits would be governed instead by the motto “live simply so others can simply live” - including knowing what we buy and where it comes from?
Give all you can.
Wesley found that the call to earn and save all one can would naturally lead to the gain of wealth. As Christians, we are not called to store up wealth, but to give all we can, not just a tithe (10%) of our earnings. To give all one can is to lift up one’s heart in compassion and love and give out of every area of surplus in one’s life.
What it means to be Rich
This formula sounds great if you have a lot of money to give. But what about those who cannot give? In his sermon “On the Danger of Increasing Riches,” Wesley offers this simple definition of what it means to be rich: “Whosoever has food to eat, and raiment [clothing] to put on, with something over, is rich.”
Nell Becker Sweeden responds by stating, with which I am in full agreement: “This certainly means that I am, indeed, rich and have that much more to give out my overabundance and surplus. Additionally, I have that much more to give out of God’s gratuitous love in Christ.”
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