All Methodists are saved by faith through the grace of God. After that they divide into two sorts, the Jewish Methodists and the Gentile Methodists (which are technical terms). The latter think that Romans 13:8-10 and Romans 14 make up the constitution of a new realm of a spirit which is free from sin, and that to be pleasing to God means to seek diligently to comply with the Golden Rule and to look for and expect success in doing so through the Holy Spirit given to the believer.

The Jewish Methodists, on the other hand, think that while the Golden Rule indicates most of what God requires to be pleasing to him, there are other, supplemental regulations. There is then often disagreement as to what comprises a supplemental regulations; are blood sausages (a delicacy of many German Methodists) forbidden (per Acts 15:28-29), for example, and are romantic embraces among men sinful (per Romans 1)?

Two practical consequences arise from these differences in outlook. The Gentile Methodists tend to spend time in figuring out how to love their neighbor in the most effective way and then doing so, while the Jewish Methodists, who are equally concerned about love of neighbor, expend time and energy in search of these supplemental and sometimes illusive regulations. [There is, however, little or no fear on the part of the Jewish Methodist about missing what God requires to be pleasing to him, for they are convinced in faith that their diligent search for these requirements is all the same to God as the actual discovery and implementation would be; and that it is one of the tasks of the Holy Spirit in the Methodist to promote a sincere and meaningful search.]

Likewise, the Gentile Methodists, since they believe that the Golden Rule is the sole arbiter of conscience for the Methodist, have little interest in further revelations and tend to dismiss allegations of such (by cults, for example) in order to focus on the application of the Golden Rule in the here and now. The Jewish Methodists, on the other hand (and particularly youthful ones), since they accept the premise that supplemental regulations are needful, are more susceptible to claims that additional regulations are in fact given, either in the scriptures or even independently of them by means of new revelations.

The Gentile and Jewish Methodists get along for the most part because either, upon discovering that something is offensive to the other (even though compatible with the Golden Rule), will seek to shield that other from exposure to that something (per Romans 14). For example, a Gentile Methodist in Germany would not intentionally serve blood sausages in the presence of Jewish Methodist visitors who considered the infusion of blood from another being as sinful.