Why We Do What We Do —

By Tammie Grimm (March/April 2025) —

I require students in my Christian formation classes to read John Wesley’s Character of a Methodist as their first assignment. I want them to hear from Mr. Wesley himself that though early Methodists of the 18th century were considered particular and peculiar people, they were no more particular or peculiar than the earliest Christian disciples. Being a Methodist, as Wesley contends, is in fact to be Christian and to live out the Great Commandment — to love God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength and love their neighbors as themselves. But most of all, I want students to wrestle with the fact that the Christian life is first and foremost about being like Jesus — to grow in Christlike character and not merely do the things that Jesus did.

It is the way of the world to describe our life by what we do. Wesley confronted that reality in writing his tract. Yet, our identity as Christians doesn’t stem from the things we do. Rather, our Christian identity is grounded in a loving relationship with God made possible through the grace of Jesus Christ as we live in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. We can’t work to earn our place in God’s kingdom. It is God’s love and grace that accepts us and makes us his children. It is out of his love that we respond. For those claiming a Wesleyan-Methodist heritage, we believe it is the presence of God’s grace in our lives that initiates our faithful response to help us demonstrate love for God and neighbor by appropriate word, deed, and action in the world. Our ability to do Christian things flows out of our being Christ followers.

Certainly, there are particular activities Christians do. Whether we consider ourselves Methodists, Wesleyans, Nazarenes, Pentecostals, or Calvinists (gasp!), Christians are called to demonstrate our love for God and neighbor. And, some of the activities Christians do are peculiar by the world’s standards. Wesley and his people were called Methodists because others found them to be peculiar in the regular method by which they disciplined their lives. Not only did they regularly gather together to pray, worship, and study scripture, they sought to relieve the sick and impoverished as well as visit those in prison. Just as early Methodists sought to discipline their lives after Christ’s example, we in the contemporary church, embrace those practices of faith that are consistent and coherent with Christian witness throughout the ages.

It is not uncommon for Christians  to engage in classic spiritual disciplines because we are taught it’s necessary to do so. We believe these disciplines are good things to do! But, those reasons are not motivation enough keep us going for the long haul.

True inspiration to engage in the spiritual disciplines can only ever be out of loving obedience to God’s grace present in our life. No matter how earnest we are about practicing our faith or how well we perform the disciplines, there is simply nothing inherent in the performance of these disciples themselves that fosters spiritual transformation into Christlikeness. Any growth and maturity in Christ we experience is not and will never be a result of our doing Christian things. God is the one who does the transformative work in us, through the means he chooses.

Thankfully, God is not capricious. He does not dispense grace on a whim. It is the witness of the Christian faith that God uses spiritual disciplines to demonstrate his grace and goodness. The spiritual disciplines we regularly practice out of loving obedience become the means of grace that God uses to mature us further in grace and Christlike character. God’s grace does more than inspire us to Christian action: as grace matures in us, it fuels and sustains our continual engagement in the disciplines. We not only act out of Christlike character, the actions become imbued with Christlike character and are a means by with the fruits of the Spirit are known.

Wesley had several purposes for writing Character of A Methodist, just as I have reasons for assigning it. Yet for the thrill that it might be to see students of Methodist history catch Wesley sparring with his detractors in his writing, I’m far more grateful when my students recognize Wesley’s formational content that speaks across the ages. Christians aren’t only to be known for what we do, but how we embody the disciplines as a means to demonstrate God’s love and grace.

Tammie Grimm is Associate Professor at Wesley Seminary in Marion, Indiana. This article appeared in the March/April 2025 issue of Good News.