Two Famous Pastors Named John With Two Very Different Marriages (Sermon Illustration)

Both Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley left a huge impact on the landscape of Christian history. But only one of them had a positive impact on their marriage.

Steve Farrar explains it like this:

Jonathan Edwards had a marriage made in heaven.

John Wesley had a marriage that was living hell.

Both men were born in 1703.

Both men knew the Scriptures.

But when it came to choosing a mate Edwards used wisdom.
John Wesley didn’t. And he paid the price for such a foolish move.

Edwards was greatly used by God here in the States, and his writings were influential in many nations, as they are to this day. He was probably the greatest philosopher and theologian that America ever produced. He loved to write and study and pastor his church. He traveled some but always wanted to be home with his wife, Sarah. On most days in the late afternoon, they would take an hour and go horseback riding to simply enjoy one another’s company.

John Wesley also liked to ride horses. He traveled England by horseback for fifty-three years, often preaching four to five times a day. It was estimated that he rode close to a quarter of a million miles. But he often rode to get away from home. If you had a wife that was seen dragging you by the hair perhaps you would get on a horse and ride a quarter of a million miles too.

Jonathan and Sarah Edwards were friends and lovers. They had eleven children.

John and Molly Wesley were enemies, and one wonders if they were ever lovers. They had no children. There’s a reason for that. If you never have sex, you probably won’t have children. ( I think that’s known as cause and effect.) Some couples enjoy a wonderful sexual relationship but are never able to have children. One gets the strong impression that was not the reason John and Molly did not have children.

Four months after marrying Molly, John wrote a letter to his brother, Charles. In it, he made the statement: “Love is rot.”

That’s not the kind of comment that leads to conversation, romance, and intimacy.

On one occasion when John was in Bristol, he received an urgent message that Molly was near death due to an extraordinarily high fever. He immediately got on his horse and rode back home. By the time he arrived the fever had broken. An hour later he was on his horse headed back to Bristol. No wonder she was resentful.

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[1] Steve Farrar, How to Ruin Your Life By 30 (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2012) 90.

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