The Nature of True Virtue

At a glance

Relevant Scripture

“For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

Galatians 5:14 KJV

UECF.NET summary

Finney sets out to define, with some precision, the love that Galatians 5:14 makes the fulfillment of the whole law, because a vague or sentimental idea of love produces a vague and sentimental Christianity. He works through a list of counterfeits: natural affection for kin, an involuntary complacency or esteem for admirable character, mere fondness toward God for benefits received, simple desire for good things, constitutional pity or compassion, spontaneous delight in others' happiness, and goodwill limited to friends and family. Each of these, he argues, is either involuntary, common to unconverted people as much as to believers, exercised only toward some rather than all, or otherwise incapable of being the deliberate, universal love Scripture commands. None of them, however warm, amounts to obedience to the law, because none of them is truly a matter of the will.

Having cleared the ground, Finney defines the love that fulfills the law as benevolence: a free, disinterested choice of the will to seek the good of every being according to its real worth, directed supremely to God and impartially to all others, including enemies. This choice, once made the ultimate governing intention of a life, is necessarily active — it drives out selfishness, presses aggressively against sin wherever found, and expresses itself in real effort rather than pious sentiment. On this basis Finney reinterprets several familiar Christian words: faith becomes a decisive committing of the will to God rather than mere intellectual belief, repentance a change of governing choice rather than an emotion of sorrow, and humility a willingness to be truly known rather than a felt sense of guilt. His larger claim is that every attribute of genuine Christian character is simply this one disposition of benevolent love, showing itself under different names and in different circumstances.

Main theological themes

• True love is disinterested benevolence — a deliberate choice of the will to seek the good of all being for its own sake — not any of the involuntary feelings commonly mistaken for it.
• Because only what is voluntary can be commanded, genuine virtue must be located in choice, not in emotion, desire, or outward action.
• Every Christian grace — faith, repentance, humility — is this same benevolent choice appearing under a different name, not a separate feeling to be cultivated on its own.

Key ideas

• Natural affection, complacency, fondness, pity, and mere desire for others' good are all involuntary states common to saints and sinners alike, and so cannot be the love the law commands.
• Benevolence is disinterested (willing good for its own sake), universal (excluding no being), and active (necessarily producing effort), which distinguishes it sharply from mere sentiment.
• Because virtue lies in the will's ultimate choice, a person's true character is revealed not by isolated feelings or acts but by the settled end they actually live for.
• Faith, repentance, and humility are not separate emotional experiences but expressions of the same benevolent choice — trusting God, changing one's governing aim, and being willing to be truly known.

Important concepts

• Benevolence — Willing the good of every being according to its real worth, for its own sake rather than for any return to self — the disinterested, universal, and active choice Finney identifies with all true virtue.
• Complacency (esteem) — The pleasant, involuntary emotion aroused simply by beholding admirable or virtuous character; Finney insists this delight, though real, is not itself virtue since even the unconverted and the wicked feel it.
• Ultimate intention as the seat of virtue — The principle that moral goodness belongs to a person's final, governing choice of an end, not to feelings or outward acts, which are simply its necessary and involuntary consequences.

Related Bible references

• Luke 10:27
• 1 Corinthians 13:4–7
• 1 John 4:9–11
• Romans 5:8
• Matthew 5:44–45

Practical Christian application

• The next time you feel warm affection toward God or fellow believers, ask whether it is producing any concrete action for their good, or remaining only a pleasant feeling.
• Choose one person you find it hard to love and practice willing their genuine good — in a specific, concrete act — regardless of what you feel toward them.
• Re-examine your own understanding of faith, repentance, or humility: are you waiting for a feeling to arrive, or are you ready to make the decisive choice these words actually describe?

Questions for study