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Question 5

Bercot says standards “tend to become lax over time,” noting Methodists didn’t revise Wesley’s standards but “simply ignored them”; what mechanisms cause that kind of slow-motion disobedience in a church, and how could early Christians—who assumed obedience was normal—have responded differently?

Another way to ask: Why do churches slowly stop following their own standards without officially changing them? How might early Christians—who expected obedience—have handled that kind of drift?

Direct Answer Bercot attributes slow-motion disobedience to churches losing fervor and “first love,” which leads either to making standards more permissive or quietly ignoring them. The transcript doesn’t describe early Christians’ mechanisms, but it implies a different response would be renewed zeal and actual obedience rather than drift.

Support from Transcript:

“Religious movements tend to lose their initial fervor as time passes.”
“As movements or churches lose their first love, members typically make their standards more permissive. Or else they ignore their standards altogether.”
Example: “The Methodist societies never watered down the original standards… But over time, they simply ignored them.”
He insists standards cannot replace “a close, obedient love-faith relationship with Jesus Christ,” suggesting drift happens when that relationship weakens.
He says our conduct shouldn’t change when a church “decides to lower some of its standards” if our “compass is set on the Bible.”

Discussion Follow-ups The transcript doesn’t directly describe early Christian practice here. Still, Bercot’s logic suggests the antidote is keeping loyalty to Christ primary and treating standards as minimums, not ceilings.

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