Chosen

You did not choose me, but I CHOSE YOU and APPOINTED YOU to go and bear fruit-fruit that will last.

John 15:16

Take a look at some Commentaries I found on these verses and use them for your own study this week.

Chosen–The pronoun is emphatic: “It was not ye that chose me.”

Ordained (ἔθηκα). Rev., appointed is better, because it divests the word of its conventional meaning. Ordain is from the Latin ordinare, and means to set in order. Thus, Robert of Gloucester’s “Chronicle:” “He began to ordain his folk,” i.e., set his people in order. Hakluyt, “Voyages:” “He ordained a boat made of one tree.” The Greek verb means to set, put, or place. Hence of appointing one to service. See 1 Tim. 1:12. Wyc., Matt. 24:47: “Upon all his goods he shall ordain him.”

Should go (ὑπάγητε). Withdraw from His personal society and go out into the world.

That whatsoever, etc. (ἵνα). Co-ordinated with the preceding ἵνα, that, as marking another result of their choice and appointment by Christ. He has appointed them that they should bring forth fruit, and that they should obtain such answers to their prayer as would make them fruitful.

Here is another one:

ELECTION: their election to their apostleship (ch.6:70): I have chosen you twelve. It did not begin on their side: You have not chosen me, but I first chose you. Why were they admitted to such an intimacy with him, employed in such an embassy for him, and endued with such powerfrom on high? It was not owing to their wisdom and goodness in choosing him for their Master, but to his favour and grace in choosing them for his disciples. It is fit that Christ should have the choosing of his own ministers; still he does it by his providence and Spirit. Though ministers make that holy calling their own choice, Christ’s choice is prior to theirs and directs and determines it. Of all that are chosen to grace and glory it may be said, They have not chosen Christ, but he had chosen them, Deu. 7:7, 8.

ORDINATION: I have ordained you; hetheµka hymas—“I have put you into the ministry (1 Tim. 1:12), put you into commission.’ ’ By this it appeared that he took them for his friends when he crowned their heads with such an honour, and filled their hands with such a trust. It was a mighty confidence he reposed in them, when he made them his ambassadors to negotiate the affairs of his kingdom in this lower world, and the prime ministers of state in the administration of it. The treasure of the gospel was committed to them, First, That it might be propagated: that you should go, hina hymeis hypageµte—“that you should go as under a yoke or burden, for the ministry is a work, and you that go about it must resolve to undergo a great deal; that you may go from place to place all the world over, and bring forth fruit.’ ’ They were ordained, not to sit still, but to go about, to be diligent in their work, and to lay out themselves unweariedly in doing good. They were ordained, not to beat the air, but to be instrumental in God’s hand for the bringing of nations into obedience to Christ, Rom. 1:13. Note, Those whom Christ ordains should and shall be fruitful; should labour, and shall not labour in vain. Secondly, That it might be perpetuated; that the fruit may remain, that the good effect of their labours may continue in the world from generation to generation, to the end of time. The church of Christ was not to be a short-lived thing, as many of the sects of the philosophers, that were a nine days’ wonder; it did not come up in a night, nor should it perish in a night, but be as the days of heaven. The sermons and writings of the apostles are transmitted to us, and we at this day are built upon that foundation, ever since the Christian church was first founded by the ministry of the apostles and seventy disciples; as one generation of ministers and Christians has passed away, still another has come. By virtue of that great charter (Mt. 28:19), Christ has a church in the world, which, as our lawyers say of bodies corporate, does not die, but lives in a succession; and thus their fruit remains to this day, and shall do while the earth remains.

CHOSEN is my Word for the year.

It is one I need to hear often from the Lord. I need to hear HIM tell me I matter. I need to hear HIM tell me that I am making a difference. I need to hear HIM tell me I am CHOSEN and appointed. Earlier in my life, I needed to hear those words from PEOPLE, but God has…little by little…lifted me from the miry pit of people pleasing and my constant needing tho have the approval of others to realize my value and my purpose. Oh, when I am honest, I see that I still WANT that all too often.

It is NOT THAT I HAVE ALREADY ATTAINED ALL OF THIS (March 3 SEED) but I am pressing on and pressing in.

When I am hit with that all too familiar place of neediness and desire for approval, I am far quicker to hear His voice again say, “Pat, I CHOSE YOU”.

How about you? Are you in the same boat? Do you sometimes forget it is Jesus we are longing to serve? to connect with? to walk with in unbreakable intimacy and fellowship?

I will be joining you this week my friend, as I plant some FRESH SEED truth—-I am CHOSEN and so are YOU! Do you know what for? Do you know the fruit you are called to nurture?

I would be honored, as always to hear from you as we DEPOSIT (aka PLANT) God’s Word in our hearts.