To the editor of the Wesleyan Christian Advocate.

If I were to comply with the Golden Rule in the expectation of an eventual reward, then while I would be doing good acts I would not be a good person but rather working for gain like the hired help. But how is it possible to want to comply with this demanding Rule absent some incentive?

The answer is provided by the Wesleyan conception: when we commit to Christ we eschew all claim to the least compliance with (the*) law and its concomitant self righteousness, and instead dedicate ourselves to the promotion of Christ’s spirit within us and trust entirely in him for our salvation. And so now when we act in compliance with the Golden Rule, we are using it as a guide for the manifestation of our new, Christ-like, second nature. Thus our acts are no longer mercenary, but rather the fruit of a good tree.

[* added by the editor.]

We Wesleyans can further declare that experience will prove this faith not to be vain, and that with enough time each of us will find evidence of the change in our desires which reveals this new disposition, itself a gift of the Holy Spirit through our unconditional surrender to Him, e.g., [the evidence of change perceived]* in happier giving.** Hence while the thief on the cross was blessed by the promise of Jesus, Zacchaeus was doubly blessed to have actually witnessed the fact of this promised, new disposition in his own experience!***

[* What appears in brackets here was added in this html version and was not included in the original, and which clarifies the reference; not, for example, that happier giving is our unconditional surrender. For while giving might be a willful act in compliance with the golden rule, happier giving would be a gift of the Holy Spirit, and its spectacle would always be a source of joy and further anticipation of positive change, which Wesleyans refer to as progressive sanctification.]

[** The italized words were deleted by the editor.]

[*** According to scripture there are only two people who we know for sure are with Christ in heaven, namely the thief on the cross and Zacchaeus, the licensed thief; and indeed both by the explicit pronouncement of our Lord. I have always been intrigued with these two examples and find many fruitful contrasts and similarities in them. (This footnote is original with this html page and was not included in the original draft sent to the WCA.)]

/s/ Philip McPherson Rudisill, Atlanta