Devotions

Summary:  In 1384 Wycliffe published a tract called The Seven Deadly Sins. Among the sins John Wycliffe examines envy, anger, and sloth as they corrupt the three parts of the Church — priests, noblemen, and common laborers. He argues that envy destroys love and unity within the Church, that sinful anger (rooted in pride) leads men to war and violence in direct contradiction to Christ's law of patience and peace, and that sloth in God's service opens the door to every other vice. Notably, Wycliffe takes a bold pacifist stand, contending that warfare under the New Covenant is unlawful unless directly commanded by God, and that Christ's kingdom advances not through the sword but through love, suffering, and the faithful preaching of the Gospel. Devotion:   Wycliffe wrote these words more than six centuries ago, yet they cut with startling freshness against our own age. He saw clearly what we so easily forget — that envy blinds us, anger enslaves us, and idleness em...

Summary:  John Wycliffe was known as the "Morning Star of the Reformation". The biblical background of the title "Morning Star" — is it was applied both to Satan in Isaiah 14:12 and to Jesus Christ in Revelation 22:16. Wycliffe had a historical role in restoring the gospel to the church in the centuries before the Protestant Reformation. Devotion:  The same title — Morning Star — belongs both to the one who fell in prideful rebellion and to the one who descended in humble redemption. What a striking contrast Scripture sets before us. Satan grasped at glory and was cast down; Christ, who possessed all glory, poured Himself out to lift us up. John Wycliffe, called the "Morning Star of the Reformation," was a man who pointed others toward that true Light in a dark age when the gospel had been buried under tradition and corruption. Like all faithful servants, his greatness lay not in shining for himself, but in reflecting the brilliance of the true Morning Sta...