Divine Love and Election: Evidence of Faith

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We give thanks to God always for you constantly mentioning you in our prayers remembering three things this is what we saw last time remembering before our God and Father your work of faith faith giving rise to work and your labor of love love giving rise to labor and your steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ this hope in Christ giving rise to steadfastness. [00:01:09]

For we know brothers loved by God that he has chosen you literally this is knowing brothers loved by God that he has chosen you and this is probably a correct interpretation interpreting that participle knowing as a ground the question is how does it ground this is one of the main points I want to get across here whenever you see a four or a because like this it isn't enough just to point out in your mind or in your teaching or in your preaching this is a ground. [00:02:26]

So how is it that this right here how is it that this is a support or how is it that this is a support for this so let's circle this this supports that because he says four four we know brother is loved by God and the reason it it seems strange at least I'm stumbling is that it would seem as though our work of faith our labor of love and our steadfastness of hope would be the support for how he knows that we are chosen. [00:03:20]

And in fact when he gets here to this because which is what we'll look at next time he's going to argue that he does know they are chosen because of a certain kind of life they lived they became imitators of us and of the Lord and received the word in much affliction with joy and that's how he knows that they are chosen but we're not going to get to there yet I want to understand how this word is working. [00:04:33]

Brothers loved by God he has chosen you so let's ponder this this love and this choosing for just a minute before we try to answer the question what does this mean he has chosen you this is this is the doctrine of election and what is in what sense has he chosen them and it's good to go to 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13 where he says the same thing with similar words. [00:05:05]

We ought always to give thanks to God for you brothers beloved that's what we see back in first Thessalonians 1 beloved by the Lord because God chose you so you've got love and choosing just like you do back there he chose you as the first fruits to be saved through sanctification and ends and by the spirit and belief in the truth so believe in the truth sanctification by the spirit that's how you are going to be saved. [00:05:31]

Through work of faith through labor of love through steadfastness of hope that's how the salvation based on the election is going to come about it's going to come about through hope love faith producing a life like that what about this word loved here brothers loved by God I'm just so concerned that we Christians don't enjoy to the full the riches of what is meant here because so many of us have been taught that the only way to think about the love of God for us is a John 3 16 sense. [00:06:47]

And here are we to think of ourselves as well he loved the world I'm part of the world so he loves me that would be so diminishing to what is here because it would mean that love here holds out no promise for us except what it holds out for the world but many in the world perish they go to hell but these loved ones won't no I don't think so I think this loved here he means to be a special love which is expressed in election. [00:07:54]

Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her husbands don't love all women and the wives say well I'm a woman so he must love me then that's not the way it works husbands love their wives in a special way of course husbands love all women because they're Christians and you're supposed to love even your enemy husbands love all women but they love their wives in a covenant kind of love. [00:08:30]

I hope that every person who's a Christian will believe that God has a special covenant affection for you like like a husband does for a wife now having seen what the chosen means its full choosing to salvation and love in a covenant way to a peculiar people the church how are we to understand this for here and my answer is he's not arguing that our election and our being loved this way are the support. [00:09:30]

We give thanks to God for the work of faith we give thanks to God for the labor of love we give thanks to God for the steadfastness of hope because we know that you are chosen and thus God is the one who is to be thanked for the work of faith the labor of love and the steadfastness of hope that's the way the argument works and now next time we tackle this word right here how does he know they are chosen. [00:10:32]

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