The gospel alone is sufficient to rule the lives of Christians everywhere - any additional rules made to govern men's conduct added nothing to the perfection already found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Interpretation
The gospel is complete and does not need additional rules for governing Christian behavior.
In this quote, John Wycliffe emphasizes the sufficiency of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the ultimate guide for Christians. He asserts that the teachings of the Gospel are perfect and encompass all that is necessary for moral and spiritual conduct, implying that any additional rules are redundant and do not enhance the moral framework established by the Gospel.
In practice
In a sermon about faith, one might use this quote to highlight the completeness of the Gospel.
We should know that faith is a gift of God, and that it may not be given to men, except it be graciously. Thus, indeed, all the good which we have is of God; and accordingly, when God rewardeth a good work of man, he crowneth his own gift.
The New Testament is of full authority and open to the understanding of simple men as to the points most needful to salvation.
No man is to be credited for his mere authority's sake, unless he can show Scripture for the maintenance of his opinion.
By the law of Christ, every man is bound to love his neighbour as himself; but every servant is a neighbour of every civil lord; therefore every civil lord must love any of his servants as himself; but by natural instinct, every lord abhors slavery; therefore, by the law of charity, he is bound not to impose slavery on any brother in Christ.
The higher the hill, the stronger the wind: so the loftier the life, the stronger the enemy's temptations.
I shall not die, but live; and again declare the evil deeds of the friars.
It is not enough to be a member of the Church of Christ, one needs to be a living member, in spirit and in truth, i.e., living in the state of grace and in the presence of God, either in innocence or in sincere repentance.
If we want revivals, we must revive our reverence for the Word of God.
Help me, Lord, to remember that religion is not to be confined to the church... nor exercised only in prayer and meditation, but that every where I am in Thy Presence
The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose.
Being around a church culture, even leading a gathering of believers, I've gotten pretty good at predicting what's going to happen in a church service.
That the entire People of God, to whom Christ entrusted the mandate to go and preach the Gospel to every creature, may eagerly assume their own missionary responsibility and consider it the highest service they can offer humanity.
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