16. Neither the form nor the power of godliness?

WESLEY:

And what grievous stumbling-block must these things be to those who are without, to those who are strangers to religion, who have neither the form nor the power of godliness! How will they triumph over these once eminent Christians! How boldly ask, "What are they better than us?" How will they harden their hearts more and more against the truth, and bless themselves in their wickedness? from which, possibly, the example of the Christians might have reclaimed them, had they continued unblamable in their behavior. Such is the complicated mischief which persons separating from a Christian Church or society do, not only to themselves, but to that whole society, and the whole world in general.

PRAYER:

Jeremiah 29:1 - For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

REFLECTION:

Wesley refers to “complicated mischief” in describing the actions of “persons separating from a Christian Church or society”.  More profoundly, is the question what does it mean to take the “form of godliness” in a complicated environment. 

Is it simply a matter of declaring abuse, neglect, or injury to justify separation?  Ultimately it comes to declaring clarity of a real “harm”  (in part of mischief meaning)).  What if “the harm” is not real or is in effect the plans of God to help us proper?  Does the community of diverse consciousness cause harm?  This is the central question being asked by Wesley,  Each of us must arrive at an answer. Is our diversity harming us?  Or is our diversity part of God’s plan to help us prosper and give us hope for the future.

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