And you’ve heard me say that it is words such as these that give me pause. Well there is another word that gives me pause, and it’s the word “may”, when it’s associated with anything related to the called and or chosen. Take this passage for example:

Hebrews 9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were [committed] under the first covenant, those who have been called “may” receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. (NASB1995)

Notice the word “may” in the highlighted phrase. Words have meaning. Taking the word of God seriously is a given for all who love Him. It’s verses like this that make me think that I know what He meant when He said that: “many are called, but few are chosen”. The “may” in the above verse makes me think that being chosen is not necessarily a given for the called. It actually makes what Jesus said clear, or visa versa.

So we are called bond servants in scripture for a reason. There is an obedience factor attached to being chosen. Obedience doesn’t make one perfect, but it does make one receptive to what the master is asking of us at the time. So Jesus’ blood cleanses us from all sin, and that seems to have something to do with the Holy Spirits revelation to us of our need to be cleansed as we walk our walk in Christ.

Ephesians 4:30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 All bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice. (NASB2020)

The Holy Spirit is working on us to an end, and that end is the steady removal of sin, which this scripture says “must be removed”. And it could be sin that we may not even have known to exist when we were called by the Lord. He calls us to walk with Him.

My daughter-in-law Roxanne just this morning mentioned to me what a rebellious character Sampson was, and yet God loved him. But my thought is this: Sampson was a character who abused the gifts that God had given him. In other words he grieved God’s Spirit who called him. And by so doing he paid a great price. Yes, God’s Grace allowed him to come back to that same gifting that he had at the first, but his rebellion (his grieving of God’s Spirit) was not without paying that price, for he lived blind and in slavery for basically the remainder of his life or until he had learned his lesson and before God would see fit to use him one last time.

You see you and I the called out of God have been called out in Christ to remain in Him to learn of Him and to live for Him. And it is only in Him that we have the power of His Spirit and thus the promises that we do await.

Jesus said: “if you deny me, I will deny you before my Father which is in heaven”. You see we are not called to continue living as ourselves, but to live in Him that we will be both called and chosen.

If you have no understanding of what I’m stating here; then there could only be two reasons, well maybe three.

I’ll give you the third first: I suppose that you may never have heard any of this.

But if you have heard but don’t understand, the first reason could be that you have never asked God to give you the wisdom of his gospel that you might believe following your calling in order to receive the Spiritual rebirth needed to have the Holy Spirits direction in your life.

Or Secondly, you may have caused the withdrawal of God’s Spirit by grieving Him, in which case you need to repent and be restored to that relationship.

In either case Jesus stands knocking at the door to your inner self. Open up to Him while you still may. He loves us, and proved that love for us.

We commit to causes; to our friends; to our Spouse and children; to our jobs; Jesus calls us to commit to Him.