“Your Election Is Of God”

I Thessalonians 1:2-5

2) We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;

3) Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;

4) Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.

5) For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.

T

he word of God is replete with statements concerning “election” or “the elect” with the latter referring to those chosen to eternal life. Mistakenly some believe that God mad and makes arbitrary decisions about who is to be saved.

The truth of the matter is that God presents choices to Man because He allows him to exercise free moral agency—but in all instances, there is only one choice leading to salvation. The wants several things understood, amongst them that 1) man needs Him to guide his decisions and 2) he is incapable of making the correct decision on his own.

No matter what the Lord allows to be set before us, He makes it clear that He validates only one choice—the right one. As much as we hunger to put the “blame” for bad decisions on anyone but ourselves, ultimately as Men, we make our choices based upon what we believe that we know is “best” for us—and this changes only as God is in complete control of our lives. Therefore, the mind of God must envelop our mind that we then might indeed know what is truly best for us.

It is interesting that unredeemed Man can see clearly what is and is not in his best interest and once a decision has been made, will not deviate from it. Too often, the people of God seem not to know from minute-to-minute what they should and should not do. One minute, one listens to the Lord, the next, allows Satan to “steal” his blessing. One of the most modern examples is the in the example of Gen. Colin Powell. Though admired and courted for a high-profile, lucrative government position, he held fast to his commitment to his family and his decision not to run for the Vice-Presidency.

We can have great joy in knowing that when we are “elected” by God, our position is not dependent upon anyone “voting” (or “rooting”) for us. It is a great deception advanced by the devil who lives to get us from accomplishing something; “holding us back” as it is commonly called.

Perhaps no one is in a worse state than the one who is “self-deceived”—that is he believes that he knows everything that he needs to know. If one does not believe that he can be made better, it is unlikely that he will be able to advance. And if we could have made ourselves better by ourselves, the Lord would have allowed us to. You see, God’s “point” is not to educate us simply for the sake of education, but He works on us as He does that we might be useful and profitable to Him.

Though the promise of salvation is to all, no one is really “elected” until he does things God’s way. He has always made it quite clear that just tongue-talking, shouting and even His name, by themselves, are not enough. He is calling for the committed life. It is only one who possess a committed life who is able to relate not to human understanding, but to God’s mind and understanding and no one ever accomplishes anything in the Lord operating in his own understanding.

In that the “election” we have received ultimately leads us to His kingdom, it must first lead us to His life. Being a part of Him is reflected in the fact that we do things “His way.” This is as much a part of our “election” as our first affirmative response to the initial call. Now, granted, we did not always accept that in answering the call, we would be required to endure “through-thick-and-thin.” However, what might seem harsh to one, is a “breeze” to another. In that all is made “equal” through faith. Whatever I am willing to believe is what I will have in that “(my) election is of God.”