Chosen by God

Did God choose me or did I choose him? I might as well ask, "Did I choose my wife or did she choose me?" We both had something to do with it. The Scriptures clearly teach that God chooses us - and that we have freedom of choice too, and can choose to obey and choose to disobey. To choose to follow him or choose to reject him. Well, I chose my wife. I wasn't going to make do with second best. I waited until the perfect girl came along and I chose her. But that doesn't mean I go up to her and say (in a pious whimper) "God has called me to marry you." For a start, that's spiritual blackmail and deserves a sharp slap in the face or knee in the groin. Instead I behaved in such as way as to draw her to me. But all the time she had a choice. She might have chosen to keep well clear of that long-haired yob.

Anyway, enough about me. What does Jesus say: "You did not choose me; I chose you - to go out and bear fruit; fruit that will last." (John 15.16) OK, Jesus chooses those who follow him. Why does he choose folk? Not for pie in the sky when they die. Not for "salvation". But to bear fruit. God's fruit. And I will bear fruit if I remain closely attached to Jesus. That's what the first part of John 15 is all about - read it for yourself. Love is rather central.

In his book The Gospel in a pluralist society, Leslie Newbigin has a chapter entitled, "The logic of election". In it he writes, "[The chosen] are chosen not for themselves, not to be the exclusive beneficiaries of God's saving work, but to be the bearers of the secret of his saving work for the sake of all. They are chosen to go and bear fruit.

"To be chosen, to be elect, therefore does not mean that the elect are the saved and the rest are the lost. To be elect is Christ Jesus, and there is no other election, means to be incorporated into his mission to the world, to be the bearer of God's saving purpose for his whole world." (p86-87) Called to bear witness. Called to "be the bearers of [God's] salvation for all".

Am I executing my duties faithfully?

Michael