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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | many are called but only few are chosen | Bible general Archive 4 | DocTrinsograce | 213511 | ||
Hi, itiswritten... God's choosing for ministry is not a matter of merit. Rather He prepares those called by making them pure in heart (Matthew 5:8), grateful (Colossians 2:7), repentant (2 Timothy 2:25), obedient servants (Romans 6:17), and lovers of the Word (1 John 2:4-5). I'm unsure as to how you might derive the call to ministry as applying to Matthew 22:14. After all, those not chosen are bound hand and foot and thrown into outer darkness per verse 13! All is written in context, itiswritten. In Him, Doc |
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2 | many are called but only few are chosen | Bible general Archive 4 | itiswritten | 213513 | ||
Dear Doc, We are not saved by merit, but we must respond, repent and receive our salvation. He doesn't just drop it on everyone whether repentant or not. However, I do believe that He gives more responsibility as we are faithful with the little He starts us with. Case in point, look at Matthew 25:14-30. I believe this shows that the first two are given more responsibility in accordance with their faithfulness with what they were first given and the third is as you say, cast out. However for the first two, one is given more responsibility than the other according to what each has done with what he did receive at first. Also, verse 29, I believe speaks of gratitude. When it says "from him that hath not, what he hath...in other words the person thinks he has not... he is ungrateful for the little he has, and so loses what little he has. This, I believe, reveals ingrattitude. According to this parable, I believe the first two are examples of the saved, the third one is cast out, as far as I understand it. I could be wrong, but this is what I believe it means- Itiswritten |
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3 | many are called but only few are chosen | Bible general Archive 4 | Beja | 213515 | ||
I'm curious as to your understanding of the call to ministry and would like to clarify it with a question. Does it seem to you that depending on how faithful and repentent and responsive to God's grace a man is, that he can then be chosen by God for ministry at a certain point when before he wasn't? | ||||||
4 | many are called but only few are chosen | Bible general Archive 4 | itiswritten | 213517 | ||
I am not saying that. It is the condition of the heart...not the maturity. We are all called to ministry in one form or another. No part of the body of Christ is useless. However, the closer one keeps to the vine, the better the fruit, and the better the fruit (or character development, the more effective we can minister. Now we can do nothing without Him in any case. One can be called to minister to others early on but that ministry will expand and grow (not necessarily in numbers but in blessing, power and truth) as the person grows on the vine (so to speak)and matures. If you look at the life of the apostles. They were apostles immediately. But when you observe as time went on, as they matured and became more self-controlled and the fruit of their own personal lives matured, the power of the Lord was able to flow through them more powerfully than at first, simply because in their maturity they were more yielded. Near the end of their earthly lives, people were healed by standing in their shadow or receiving pieces of cloth that they had previously touched. This was not because they had their own power, but because the Lord was able to minister more powerfully through their yielded personalities. I believe we must realize that we know little and always be pliable and willing to learn until the Lord takes us home. I also believe, as our fruit begins to come in, and our character begins to develop, we are more and more useful to His cause. I also believe that there are some who are ever learning but never comeing to the truth because they think Jesus' words are great but they do not apply them to their lives and so every time they learn anything, they quickly forget and have to start all over again (II Timothy 3:1-7). For these, their fruit develops very little or not at all. Some may be saved, but they will enter in empty-handed...others are not saved at all. Those who go in empty-handed are those who never mature by disciplining themselves and never accomplishing their call, but they still enter in (See II Corinthians 3:11-15) but alone. (I Corinthians 11:31) Yes, we are saved by faith alone. But we are saved to do certain works (Ephesians 2:9-10). I don't believe we can do effective works unless we are developing fruit or character. Now as far as we limiting God to whether or not He can choose us. Absolutely not. I don't mean that at all. Paul is a perfect example of that. But the Lord also says that if we are lukewarm he will vomit us up. Someone in that condition, for example, is in danger of eternal damnation, never mind ministry. I hope this clarifies what I am meaning here. -Itiswritten |
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5 | many are called but only few are chosen | Bible general Archive 4 | DocTrinsograce | 213569 | ||
Dear itiswritten, The potter makes each vessel for the purpose to which he intends (Romans 9:21). The problem is this fundamental presupposition that God is either enabled or stymied by man's will. God is not only the author of our faith, He is the finisher of it as well (1 Corinthians 1:7-8; Hebrews 12:2). This thing of "yielded personalities" is not a Biblical concept. The Christian is one chosen by the Father (Ephesians 1:4), regenerated by the the Holy Spirit (John 1:13), made righteous through the substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 3:24-26). The image of God is restored in the believer (Colossians 3:10). Christ is not savior one day, and then becomes -- optionally -- Lord on some other day. That is false teaching called -- pejoratively, but I think, appropriately -- "easy believism." The church is being built actively by the Lord (Matthew 16:18). We aren't lucky because the disciples decided to toss in with Jesus. No, the Lord says, "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain..." (John 15:16a NASB) Redemptive history is all about what the Lord God has done. He has made dead men living (Ephesians 2:1) and brought estranged men together (Ephesians 2:15), building them together as a temple, made without hands, of which they are living stones, with Christ as the corner stone (Ephesians 2:20). This isn't a matter of man's doing, but entirely a matter of God's doing. In Him, Doc |
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