Called

“But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 ESV). These two verses contain two action words that relate to our salvation. They are “chose” and “called”. The idea that God chose us is covered in the lesson from Ephesians 1:3-6 and thus will not be covered here. In this lesson we will focus on the idea of being called.

Are those chosen and those called the same? I believe they are, but then if we look at Matthew 22:13-14, we find the statement that “many are called, but few are chosen.” In that passage it is clear that the “called” are not always “chosen”. In the Matthew context, “called” is a general appeal to the world to come to a banquet. It is an invitation to come; a general call that goes out to everyone. But there is also a specific call like the call we find in John 11:43 when Jesus called Lazarus to come out of the tomb. That call was specific and resulted in a dead man receiving life. In the context of our verses from Thessalonians, those called are the same ones as those chosen. That call creates an obedience in the ones chosen and provides them with eternal life through being born again.

These are verses used by those who believe that God in his sovereignty, according to his will, not the will of man, selects those who will receive the gift of salvation. This is a view of salvation as seen from heaven.

Prayer

Father, like Lazarus was called from the tomb, we have been called by you from being spiritually dead and caused to be born again and given eternal life. Like that little child tucked away in some remote orphanage, you found us in the grips of the power of darkness and you chose us and called us out and turned on our lights and adopted us into your family. Clearly this was according to your will and love for us to which we are eternally thankful.