John Wesley: The Use of Money (Part 1)

John Wesley was an 18th century evangelist who led a revival that ultimately spawned Methodism.

In 1760, he preached a sermon entitled “The Use of Money” where he articulated his oft quoted mantra:

“Gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can.”

— John Wesley

The sermon is powerful, and we can learn much from it. But with all due respect to Wesley, I think his framework is over-simplified and misses key components of a robust financial life. (Although, A+ for a clear three-point sermon!)

Moreover, like many great men, Wesley was also deeply flawed (in his case – an awful family man). We must take the good, acknowledge the omissions, and discard the bad.

In this post I’ll explore Wesley’s key messages from this famous sermon. In my next post, I’ll explain why I think Wesley is helpful but insufficient; and I’ll suggest a revised framework for how we might think about our financial lives.

Finance deserves our attention

**The virtue of money management**
Wesley opens by declaring the ‘right use of money’ to be a branch of Christian wisdom and one that Christians need to think more about.
“An excellent branch of Christian wisdom is here inculcated by our Lord on all his followers, namely, the right use of money – a subject largely spoken of…by men of the world, but not sufficiently considered by those whom God hath chosen out of the world.”
He goes on to describe money management as “an excellent talent” and asserts that a certain knowledge is required to “employ it to the greatest advantage”.

Money can be used for good

Wesley acknowledges that many “poets, orators, and philosophers” hate on money as the “grand corrupter of the world”, but he firmly disagrees with this cheap shot. Wesley asserts:

“The fault does not lie in the money, but in them that use it. It may be used ill; and what may not? But it may likewise be used well; it is full as applicable to the best as to the worst uses.”

Wesley sees money as a virtuous tool for Christians to use to take care of the ‘least of these’ here on this earth (as Jesus describes in Matthew 25:31-40). In his words:

“In the present state of mankind [money] is an excellent gift of God, answering the noblest ends. In the hands of his children it is food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, [clothing] for the naked. It gives to the [traveler] and the stranger [a place] to lay his head. By it we may supply the place of [a] husband to the widow, and of a father to the fatherless; we may be a [defense] for the oppressed, a means of health to the sick, of ease to them that are in pain. It may be as eyes to the blind, as feet to the lame; yea, a lifter up from the gates of death.”

Wow. That quote gives me chills. Money can be a powerful tool for the Kingdom.

The mandate

Given all this, Wesley ends his introduction with this:

“It is therefore of the highest concern that all who fear God know how to employ this valuable talent; that they be instructed how it may answer these glorious ends, and in the highest degree.”

Amen. This pursuit is precisely the mission of Theonomics.

Gain all you can

Wesley acknowledges that at first blush, the imperative to “gain all you can” sounds like how a non-Christian would behave. However, he says we must do so via “honest industry” and by using “all possible diligence in our calling”.

**Statue at Wesley’s Chapel in London.**

Wesley was highly prolific: he is said to have preached over 40,000 sermons and traveled over 250,000 miles on horseback.

Ethical Guardrails

Wesley spends considerable energy providing ethical guardrails for the type of work we Christians may pursue. In sum, these are to ensure our work (i) doesn’t harm ourselves or our neighbor, (ii) isn’t illegal or corrupt, and (iii) doesn’t led us into sin or away from God.

Wesley’s guardrails aren’t vague generalities. He pulls no punches and calls out entire industries out as “absolutely and totally unhealthy”. For example, those with excessively long hours, those that expose workers to dangerous substances, and firms producing liquor (or “liquid fire” in Wesley’s words.)

Work Ethic

Wesley calls for Christians to have incredible dedication to their work, demanding that they “lose no time” and “never leave anything till tomorrow which you can do today.”

While in some respects admirable, Wesley himself had no children, and his singular devotion to his own work led to a failed marriage. While I agree that a hard work ethic is a positive quality, clearly a more balanced view of work is needed.

Excellence

Next, Wesley insists on excellence: “And do [your work] as well as possible….put your whole strength to the work. Spare no pains. Let nothing be done by halves, or in a slight and careless manner.”

This rings true to me, and reminds me of one of my favorite Proverbs: “Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand before kings” (Proverbs 22:29).

How great would it be if Christians were known everywhere for producing great work?!?

Continuous Improvement

Finally, Wesley pushes us to strive for continuous improvement and innovation:

“You should be continually learning from the experience of others or from your own experience, reading, and reflection, to do everything you have to do better today than you did yesterday.”

Business school students study operations case studies on the Toyota Production System and Toyota’s commitment to *kaizen* – the pursuit of eliminating all waste through continuous improvement. Perhaps Wesley’s sermon should make the syllabus too!

Save all you can

John Wesley was an extremely plain man who saw no place for extravagance. He ridicules what many people spend money on:

“Do not throw [money] away in idle expenses, which is just the same as throwing it into the sea. Expend no part of it merely to gratify the desire of the flesh, the desire of the ye, or the pride of life.”

The flesh

Here, Wesley picks on the “pleasure of tasting”. Gluttony and drunkenness are obvious no-no’s. Beyond this Wesley condemns “a regular, reputable kind of sensuality, an elegant epicurism…[which] cannot be maintained without considerable expense. Cut off all this expense. Despise delicacy and variety, and be content with what plain nature requires.”

Wesley is pretty extreme. Don’t expect him to take you out for a nice steak dinner!

The eye

On the ‘desire of the eye’, Wesley pulls no punches. He says:

“Waste no [money] curiously adorning your houses in superfluous or expensive furniture; in costly pictures, painting, gilding, books; in elegant (rather than useful) gardens.”

It’s probably a good thing Wesley was away traveling on horseback so much of his life – I’m sure his house wasn’t particularly comfortable!

It’s jarring to see how direct his preaching is. And once again, he is extreme in his degree of self-denial. (Many of his fellow Methodists were unconvinced.)

*A picture of the side of John Wesley’s house*

The pride of life

This is often intertwined with the above, but here Wesley cautions us against spending money “to gain the admiration or praise” of others.

“Rather”, he says, “be content with the honor that cometh from God.”

Lifestyle creep

Practically speaking, Wesley was also very aware of what today we call “lifestyle creep”. He says, “Nothing can be more certain than this: daily experience shows, the more [our desires] are indulged, they increase the more.”

Wesley wisely understood that spending is a habit. It is easy for our “one-off” splurges to become repeat behavior. Once we experience something, we often want more of it.

Give all you can

Now is when Wesley hits his climax. The ‘gaining’ and ‘saving’ are merely the prerequisites for the main event. In fact, he says “all of this is nothing” if we stop after the first two directives.

In his finale, Wesley argues that God is the owner of ‘our’ money – we are merely the stewards. And that money must be used (“not to use, is effectually to throw it away”). I made similar points in my first blog post.

How to give to God

His order of operations for the use of money is:

Provide for your own basic needs
Provide the basic needs of your spouse, children, and others in your household
Give to care for the needs of those in the church
Give to care for all people (beyond the church)

Interestingly, to Wesley, all 4 of these are ways we “render to God what is God’s” – not just numbers 3 & 4. He wasn’t concerned about any particular charitable proportion. For Wesley, following this paradigm was a way to give all your money to God (not just 10%).

**A dollar spent is a dollar not given**
Wesley fundamentally understood the concept of “opportunity cost”. Every dollar spent on one thing, is a dollar that can’t be spent elsewhere or given away.
He encouraged Christians to ask themselves a series of questions about any expense they were considering. These included:
“In expending this…am I acting…not as a proprietor, but as a steward of my Lord’s goods?”
“Have I reason to believe that for this very work I shall have a reward at the resurrection of the just?”
Wow. Those are provocative and challenging words. I’ll be honest – these aren’t the questions at the top of my mind when I’m making a purchase.

The punchline

Wesley concludes with his ultimate charge: “But employ whatever God has entrusted you with in doing good, all possible good, in every possible kind and degree, to the household of faith, to all men.”

Conclusion

I love Wesley’s assertion that money management is a valuable skill that can (and should!) be used by Christians to further the Kingdom. His principles to gain, save, and give are undoubtedly important elements of the financial life.

That said, Wesley’s framework is overly simplistic and insufficient on its own. Stay tuned for my next post where I’ll discuss my view of Wesley’s shortcomings and propose a revised financial framework for the modern theoconomist.

Postscript

I found it interesting that one of Wesley’s guardrails on how we work condemns predatory pricing (i.e. selling your goods below market price to drive your neighbor out of business). Using predatory pricing to gain monopoly power violates US antitrust law (the Sherman Act of 1890). Wesley was ahead of his time!

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All of the Wesley related photos in this post were taken by my grandfather when he was visiting London. He was a lifelong Methodist and an avid photographer – thanks Grandpa!