Elect, Not Elite

Elect, not elite. Elect, not elite. Those are two words that sound a lot alike, but they do not mean the same thing. God has a group of people who are very, very special to Him. In fact, they are the first of the elect. Elect just means chosen. They're the first of the chosen. Things can happen from week to week, sometimes even day to day, that have a way outsized impact on how we value our own self-worth.

We can ace a test on one day and just be on the top of the world. The next day, we can have a pipe leaking under our sink that we fixed three times and it's still leaking. We just feel like we can't do anything right. We can just be up, we can be down. I think one place where we really feel this more than just about any that I can think of, we may have all gone through this as kids. Some kind of scenario where you're playing a team sport and you get together to pick teams.

I was homeschooled, but we had a softball. It wasn't a league, it was just a softball activity every week during the summer. We would do this. We would do what you do. You pick two team captains and then they pick the rest of the team. You get a swift public appraisal of your worth when that happens. Everybody sees it. You know how that goes. They start picking teams. Each person picks, okay, this was the best remaining player at this moment. When that happens, the video camera, the video tape starts replaying in your head in hyper speed, reminding you of your past performance.

What did I do last week? Did I get some good hits in? Are they going to remember that really dumb mistake that I made a few weeks ago? Are they still remembering that? Am I as valuable as other players? It's a moment of truth.

Of course, sometimes we may not be picked. If you're last, you sort of aren't picked. What happens is the next to the last person gets picked and then usually the other team captain doesn't say anything. Everybody just expects you to just walk over to the other team at that point. That can happen. But imagine that you're picked near the front of that order and at some point, maybe early in the game, if it's a softball game, you go in the dugout to the team captain and you just ask why he chose you.

And before he answers, that videotape starts going in your mind again of all the things that he might say, things that you hope he might say about why you stood out to him. But instead, he just says, I like you. I like you. I like playing with you. I also didn't want to see you be picked last because I like playing with you. Now, maybe your heart would sink a little bit right at that moment because that conversation went in a different direction than what you were expecting. But it also can feel kind of good to know that the team captain does like you, which means that he likes you apart from how you did last week.

But then he continues. He says, now, there's a response I need from you. You've got to put in the work. You're going to be part of this team. You've got to put in the work. And that includes you treating other players with the same goodwill that you experienced from me. You know that feeling?

You've got to carry that on. And see Joe over there? He's new in town. He doesn't actually have any friends. In fact, where he comes from, they have no room to build ball fields. And so he's never even played before. He doesn't even know how to play. So I picked him, too. Now, you were new last year. And so you remember what it's like to be new at this. So during the game, I want you to especially help him learn and show him that we're glad that he's here. You were elected for the team not because you were elite, but because it pleased the team captain to play alongside you and because he has a plan for your success.

Jesus said in John 15-16, you said, you didn't choose me, I chose you. Your election says more about him than it does about you. Let's turn over to Deuteronomy 7. The Bible is full of reversals. That's one of the master themes of the Bible you could say as reversals. Second-borns favored over first-borns. Childless women conceive. Outsiders become insiders. The first to recognize Jesus' identity is an unborn baby. The greatest faith Jesus finds in all Israel is from a Roman citizen. A socially marginalized Samaritan woman is the first person to whom Jesus announces his Messiahship. We hear this reversal theme come out in Hannah's prayer, in Mary's prayer.

Three of the most important reversals in terms of their impact on the whole biblical story are an old man and old woman, Abraham and Sarah, being called out to go on an adventure with God.

Another is the deliverance of Israel from slavery to a homeland. And another is the calling of the Gentiles to be part of the people of God.

Deuteronomy 7 concerns the second of these three. In Deuteronomy 7, verse 6, 6 through 8, we read, For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love on you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any other people. For you were the least of all peoples. But because the Lord loves you, and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

Because the Lord loves you. Yes, there are other reasons. He'd made this promise to Abraham. He's going to keep that promise. He has this whole plan in mind that's going to lead to Jesus Christ coming from these tribes. That's all on track. And yet, despite that, he promotes this other reason in front of that. He says, Because the Lord loves you.

So this is a piece right here, and it's been given this pride of place in this explanation here.

God makes a point here that he's not merely rescuing Israel to fulfill obligations. It's because he loves them. They need to internalize that fact. If they do, it's going to... if they really chew on it, it's going to change how they see the world. Let's turn over to the New Testament. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 1, 1 Corinthians 1, 1 Corinthians 1, 1 Corinthians 1, 1 Corinthians 1, 1 Corinthians 1, 1 Corinthians 1, 1 Corinthians 1, 1 Corinthians 1, 1 When we're loved, we can respond in different ways. There's an old joke about dogs, that the way dogs see the world, they say, you know, you feed me, you pet me, you take care of me, you must be God.

Whereas cats, they say, you feed me, you pet me, you take care of me, I must be God.

There are two very different reactions to being shown love. 1 Corinthians 1, actually verses 17 through chapter 2, verse 2, is this really beautiful and intricate poem in Greek. I sort of collect these, these poetic framings that happen through the Bible. And this one is an interesting one. It's just about the most intricate one that I've ever come across. There was an academic paper that was published on it more than 50 years ago now by Ken Bailey, who later became famous for books like The Good Shepherd and Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes. But he's got, actually, if you ever want to look it up, it's pretty neat. It's called Recovering the Poetic Structure of 1 Corinthians 1, 17 through 2, 2, a Study and Text in Commentary from 1975. It's floating around the internet. I bring that up just to say, verse 17 down through 2, 2, is this very tightly structured crafted argument that Paul is making there. We're just going to read the last third of it here. But if you were in Corinth and you heard that letter read again and again, it would just become more and more obvious to you how much Paul had meditated on that and how much he cared to say what he did through that part. It centers on verse 23 at the center. We preach Christ crucified. But let's start in verse 26. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty and the base things of the world and the things which are despised. God has chosen and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that as it is written, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God, for I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. God continually calls the weak and the base things to put to shame the mighty. Now, one lesson we might take when we read something like this is, okay, I got it. I got to stay humble. Got to stay humble. God doesn't want us just becoming insufferable and big-headed about our calling. But it's much more than that. It's a sea change in our, the way that we see things. Because Jesus laid aside his power, his privilege, to come down and give up his life, to come rescue us while we were still in sins, to rescue us from death. Just like he did for all people. He did it for all people. The Father also chose you specifically, which he has only done for a few people so far, not because of who you are, but to demonstrate who he is. God is making us living examples. He's making us exhibit A in this generous goodness that he's pouring out on the world. We are the proof as we live our lives. We are the proof that where he plants, where he waters, fruit grows. That's where fruit grows.

It says more about him than it does about us. It is a sign. He will do it with anyone, anywhere, which proves his ultimate plan, his ultimate goal, which is to do it with everyone, everywhere.

Firstfruits provide a sign of something greater. They provide a sign of a greater harvest to come. So our response to that, to being the elect, to being the chosen, should always be gratitude and praise. God is revealing his glory through his astonishing grace to the lowly. By doing it this way, God wants us to catch that mindset. And it runs totally opposite to the one that we would develop if we saw ourselves as the few, the proud, the marines, the elect. God is giving us an elite training, but the elite mindset is not there. That would be dangerous. That would be coercive to us.

The fact that you are one of the elect says more about God than it does about you. When we take that God's eye view of ourselves, we can't help but start looking at other people that way through the same lens. When we do, we'll find that people disappoint us a lot of the time. But when you look for the potential in them anyway, it says as much about you as it does about them.

An elect, not elite mindset, is an essential job requirement of being an ambassador for Christ, of knowing the joy of being picked, knowing that feeling and being ready to give it to others. We need to see in others what he has already seen in us, which is future sons and daughters, made to be loved and made to be chosen, without knowing how soon that might be for any one of us.

So when you read through the Bible and you hit the word elect somewhere, be careful not to fill in the word elite in your mind. When you call something chosen, chosen is not a physical attribute something has. When something is chosen, that's just a description of how someone else decided to value it. God chose you. That says more about him than it does about you. He chooses his people because he loves them. Elect, not elite. We are the choice ones.

I'm sorry, we are not the choice ones. We are not the choice ones. We are the chosen ones.

God picked you and he wants you. We have a status that is far more wonderful than elite. We are his elect.