Loved, Chosen and Identified with God
1 Thessalonians 1:4 NLT
4 We know, dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people.
Growing up, I would occasionally hear people speak of how they would have loved to live during the times of Moses or David. Typically, people would reference how great it would have been to live during the time Jesus walked the earth. But as I read the New Testament, I don’t see any of the authors looking back to Old Testament days. Nor do I see them longing for living when Jesus was walking among the people. There are more than a few reasons for not looking back, and this verse gives us three.
We are loved by God. God loves us and sent Jesus to die in order to restore the fellowship that was broken when Adam sinned. The scriptures do not indicate that the people of Moses and David’s day were the ones loved by God. Paul, writing to the church in Thessalonica, wrote that this church, made up of predominantly convertedGentiles, was loved by God. We know that God is love and has not changed in terms of His character. So Old Testament men and women had no advantage over us who have believed in Jesus. We truly are loved by God.
Chosen by God. Those who receive Jesus are chosen. It’s not that we earned being chosen. We are chosen by God, just as the Jewish people were chosen by God. And the agreement or covenant we have with God through Jesus is better than the old covenant that Moses and David and the saints of old had access to. Paul wrote to the church at Rome and declared who the real Jews are. “A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.”Romans 2:28-29 NIV. Remember, the Old Covenant was focused on the outside. You could tell God’s chosen people by the circumcision of the flesh. But God’s chosen people now are not visible from the outside, but by the work the Holy Spirit does in the heart when Christ is received.
God has made us His own people. In line with being chosen by God, we are now His people. His chosen people called to live in the light with Him. Even stronger than our natural identity is our spiritual identity in Christ. In the Old Testament, God’s people were servants of God. In the New Testament, we are all sons and daughters of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Peter wrote that we are His own special people so that we might show others the goodness of God, for He called us out of darkness into His wonderful light.
We never have to be a people who look back. We are loved, chosen, and belong to God as His own people.
Prayer
Thank You, Father, for loving me and choosing me in Christ to be part of Your own special people. Thank You that I belong to You.