“In 1731, John Wesley began to limit his expenses so he would have more money to give to the poor. One year, his income was 30 pounds and his living expenses were 28. Thus, he had two pounds to give away. The next year his income doubled, but he still lived on 28 pounds and gave 32 pounds away. Third year, his income jumped to 90 pounds, again he lived on 28 so he gave 62 pounds away. Fourth year, made 120 pounds, gave 92 pounds to the poor. Wesley preached that Christians should not merely tithe but give away all extra income once the family and creditors were taken care of. He believed that with increasing income, the Christian’s standard of giving should increase not his standard of living. He began this practice at Oxford and continued it throughout his life. Even when his income rose to thousands of pounds, he lived simply and quickly gave his surplus money away. One year his income was slightly over 1,400 pounds; he gave away all but 30. He was afraid of laying up treasures on earth so the money went out as quickly as it came in. When he died in 1791, the only money mentioned in his will was the miscellaneous coins that would be found in his pockets and dresser drawers. That’s all he had in his will. Most of the 30,000 other pounds he had earned in his lifetime he had given away. You put that in today’s wages, at one point he was making $160,000 a year, but he was living like he was making $20,000 a year. That’s weird.”
— David Platt, Radical
Love this!