Wesley at Whitefield's Grave

In 1770, George Whitefield died in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and thousands mourned the greatest evangelist of the age. Back in London, someone asked John Wesley — Whitefield's longtime theological rival — to preach the memorial sermon. The two men had clashed publicly and painfully over predestination and free will. Their followers had taken sides, some declaring, "I follow Wesley," others, "I follow Whitefield," splitting the Methodist revival down the middle.

Wesley climbed into the pulpit and could have settled old scores. Instead, he asked the congregation a disarming question: "What room is there for disputing about the things that were not essential to salvation?" He honored Whitefield's passion for the gospel, his tireless preaching, his love for the lost. Then Wesley laid bare the truth both men had always shared — that the cross of Jesus Christ was the only thing that ultimately mattered.

Paul faced this same fracture in Corinth. Believers were branding themselves by their favorite preacher — "I follow Paul," "I follow Apollos," "I follow Cephas" — as if the gospel were a franchise. Paul cut through the noise with one piercing question: "Is Christ divided?"

The cross does not come in competing versions. It is not improved by eloquent packaging or diminished by simple proclamation. Wesley knew it. Whitefield knew it. And when the church remembers that its unity is not built on any leader's name but on the foolishness of a crucified Savior, every lesser loyalty fades to where it belongs.