If you have been counting the blessings with me, then you might remember that the first blessing was that we were "chosen in Christ before the creation of the world to be Holy and Blameless in His sight."
Now Paul uses the word chosen again (Although the original Greek word is not the same as in verse 4.) There is a different nuance in this second "chosen"...
Being "chosen" in Blessing 1 had to do with our purpose and the idea that God choosing us had implications for Jesus (He would be crucified in the mind of God even before God made us.) Blessing 1 has to do with our past: "Before the creation of the world..."
Blessing 5 is "chosen" in a more contemporary sense: Paul is talking to the Ephesians who were the "first to hope" in Christ. From our background studies of Ephesus in Acts, we know that the Gospel spread from Ephesus all over Asia Minor. We saw how God's plan was that for Paul, a quick visit to a synagogue while he was passing through and a promise to return, worked out, in the economy of God, to spread the gospel throughout the province.
Blessing 5 is that God chooses people like you and me, like Esther and Paul and the Ephesians for "such a time as this." (Esther4:14)
God chooses us to bring praise to His glory by being those who "hope in Christ" and live for Him..
Do you realise that you have been born and born again for such a time as this? Do you realise that your life and the the people you influence can be for the praise of His glory? Do you realise that God has called and chosen you as you are and where you are to be agents working out His plan?
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
