John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, crafted three simple guides for Christian living. In Methodism, they became known as The General Rules.

The second rule simply states: “Do good.”

A two-word directive seems easy enough, but how much is ENOUGH? I mean, this doing good thing could quickly get out of hand! I’m willing to do my part, but I want to know exactly what my part should be.

The good news is that Jesus DID define how much we had to do. The Lord said: “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love your neighbor as you love yourself.” My guess is none of us is done yet!

John Wesley defined the scope of the Second General Rule in this way:

Do all the good you can,

By all the means you can,

In all the ways you can,

In all the places you can,

At all the times you can,

To all the people you can,

As long as ever you can.

ALL, y’all—that’s a lot of good! So we need to get our “cans” to work!

Next week we consider the Third Simple Rule: “Attend upon all the ordinances of God.”