Called or Invited

November 14, 2024

“For many are invited, but few are chosen.” — Matthew 22:14, NIV is from Jesus’ parable of the KIng’s Wedding Banquet. It is intended to clue us in on the coming Kingdom of Heaven. (read the whole parable in verses 22:2–14.)

When I was growing up, I heard the standard King James Translation: “For many are called, but few are chosen.” The 17th Century readers probably understood that word differently than I did. Many who have read the same passage also understand it, but I thought of it in the sense of a noun and therefore meaning “someone special,” like it meant being a member in an exclusive club and elected to a special post.

Now, I am assured that the word simply means “invited.” I mean everybody is invited, but not everyone becomes part of the family. (Reference: https://biblehub.com/greek/4899.htm)

Another important aspect in the parable can be intrinsically tied to another precept about the character and nature of God.

It’s this: God keeps inviting more and more people to come to the Banquet, the Wedding Feast. It is a new table setting with people full of their new inherited character of God’s good nature of “love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (which I think of as people having even temperament). This comes from a Bible reference from the apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians, 5:22–23, Amplified Bible.

It is important for the purpose of this essay that I point out the fact of how, in the parable, people make all kinds of excuses not to attend. That’s on them and no one else.

The location of the Wedding Feast is not specified, but there’s no need for a Google map with directions, because the King has arranged transportation for everyone who responds. The Reception is going to be held in a new Heaven and Earth where people will live in a perfect physical world environment and with a completely sociable group where everyone has the qualities of the Father regarding His good nature (like in the Galatians list, above).

Still and all, anyone can choose not to respond and “bet their mortgage” on this world with its imploding physical environment and its collapsing social environment of “sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures… hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness..” and so on. Those often cruel and sordid characteristics are listed in Galatians 5:19–21, New Living TranslatIon.

At the same time, there is a human tendency to hold on to what is familiar and the things we know, but maybe, just maybe, those things aren’t as endearing as we think… It might be better to just let go of them… they just have a horrible existential result and the Bible warns also an eternal one.

All in all, here’s deal you might want to get yourself involved in, and in three relatively easy steps, you can be on your way to a positive and a much more favorable ending result:

1. “There is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” — Romans 2:22–24, ibid.
2. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him…” — John 3:16–17, ibid.,
3. “Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool. — Isaiah 1:18,ibid.

Be forewarned, however, these steps cannot be successfully completed with either a hard-nosed, stubborn, or flippant attitude.

Changes can be good for a person as in a change of venue or a change of scenery…

We have to get serious about God, Jesus, and the Bible.

What is your attitude when seeking employment in a job interview? Is it like a jokester? At a Job Fair, do you think the interviewer cannot tell whether you are serious about being chosen?

Do you presume God, the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, to be less perceptive?

So, in the end, are you, at least, hoping that God exists? Because “without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” — Hebrews 11:6, ibid.

Don’t get discouraged. This is good news! We should see it as such. It’s not punishment. It’s a feast of benefits for heaven’s sake! He rewards those who seek Him in earnest!

“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls…” — Matthew 11:28–29, ibid.

These precepts are the basis for making an intelligent and life-changing decision to call on God to come into your life.

Maybe you’ve never considered your life in the aspect of eternity. Maybe you’ve never made a serious assessment of your life. Maybe you think you’re no better or worse than anyone else. Maybe you think your good works balance out the hurt or harm you may have done in your life. On the other hand, you might be so depressed that you think God could never accept you.

Oh, there’s hundreds of reasons not to think of turning to God, Then, the problem would become the question, “Is ignorance really bliss?” Hundreds of my fellow Believers will tell you the same things which we have experienced in common. Please listen to us.

What? You can’t believe in God or Jesus or the Bible?!?

Certainly, it’s your choice, but I’m trying to explain to you what is the wise choice… and yes, it definitely is your choice.

You don’t believe what I’m telling you? You won’t listen to how God has been real in Patty’s life and my own?

I’m trying to tell you something as one man to another, person to person, as a brother should, as a brother to his sister…

You’re stuck in the muck but don’t realize it.

Try revving your engine until you run out of gas, spinning your wheels and burning rubber. Get some others to try rocking your way out of the rut that those spinning wheels have made… That will be a huge waste of time and energy — as I have experienced it, anyways.

I don’t know what else I might tell you that would convince you to change your mind to consider your ways and the path you are on…

Anyways, here’s my favorite artistic expression (I found a long time ago on the internet but lost the source to credit.):

Editor’s Addendum:

{Patty’s Say-so:}

“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls…” — Matthew 11:28–29, New International Version.

This Scripture above is such a welcome call from Jesus. What is it that can cause us to resistHis invitation?!?

Pride.

Most people think, “I’m a nice person, and I think that I am good enough that God approves of me. So, I’m pretty sureI’ll go to heaven.”

Also, right alongside pride is deception.

Whether we are deceiving ourselves or being deceived by someone or something.

There is no good deed you can do, and no matter how nice a person you believe you are, that path will never lead you to the doorway to eternal life.

You see, Jesus paid the highest price for everyone of us, and in a way purchased our tickets to travel away from all our wrongs, all the harm we have done, and all our disobedience and defiance to God.

In the cross, Jesus provided the right for our forgiveness, and to receive a truly new nature.