The Almost Christian

Three years after his ‘Aldersgate Experience,’ Wesley is preaching at St. Mary’s Church in Oxford. He has returned to speak to the faculty and students of the most highly regarded seminary of the time. The people in the audience matter, as Wesley continues to feel frustrated by the gap between head and heart in the faith of those around him. John asks a room full of academic Christians what it truly means to be a Christian. Yet religion, especially, can erode into moralism: doing the right things and checking the right boxes to fill out one’s ‘Christian Card’ for the week.

In “The Almost Christian,” John Wesley asks whether someone can be morally upright, religiously observant, and sincerely committed to doing good, yet still fall short of the fullness of Christian faith. He describes the ‘almost Christian’ as someone who practices honesty, justice, mercy, self-control, prayer, worship, and other means of grace, and who may genuinely want to please God. Wesley takes these qualities seriously, even acknowledging that he once possessed them himself, but insists that outward conduct and sincere intentions alone do not make someone an ‘altogether Christian.’ Here’s the interesting part: you don’t have to be Christian to do most of these things. You can be a heathen and be just as good a person as an ‘almost Christian.’ I know several.

For Wesley, an ‘altogether Christian’ is defined by an inward transformation brought about by God’s grace. This life is marked by wholehearted love for God, love for every neighbor, including enemies, and a living faith in Christ, especially in difficult times. Faith means more than agreeing with Christian teaching: it is trust in Christ that brings forgiveness, assurance of God’s love, freedom from sin’s power, and a heart made pure by love. Genuine faith therefore shows itself in repentance, obedience, mercy, and holy living. Wesley ends by making this distinction a personal challenge: instead of settling for respectable behavior or outward religion, each hearer should ask whether divine love truly rules the heart and seek God’s grace to become an altogether Christian.