Inspired by First Thessalonians 1:4-6, two friends in a coffee shop run into the word ‘election’ and admit it’s always sat funny with them. They work through the idea that nobody’s born on a list, that Paul knew because of what he could actually see in those people, and that joy showing up in the middle of trouble isn’t something a man works up on his own. Neither of them gets all the way to the bottom of it, and one of them ends up thinking about what his neighbor’s watched him do for eleven years.
Tom: Hey. Sorry, I was parked behind the bank.
Ray: Yeah, they got the lot tore up again.
Tom: They always do.
Ray: What’d you bring today?
Tom: Next three verses. Four through six.
Ray: Okay.
Tom: First word basically is election. He says he knows their election of God.
Ray: Oof.
Tom: What?
Ray: I don’t know, that word always kind of sits funny with me.
Tom: Same, actually. That’s why I brought it.
Ray: It sounds like a list somewhere with names on it.
Tom: Right? And your name’s either on it or it isn’t, and there’s nothing you can do.
Ray: And you sit around trying to figure out if you made it.
Tom: Which is a rough way to live.
Ray: Yeah.
Tom: But here’s the thing. He says he knows it, and then the very next word is for. Like, here’s how I know.
Ray: Huh.
Tom: So he’s not reading anybody’s mail. He’s looking at them.
Ray: Looking at what, though.
Tom: What happened when they heard it. He says it didn’t come in words only. There was power with it. And they came out of it just dead certain.
Ray: Okay.
Tom: And then they started copying him. And they caught grief for it right away, and they were happy anyway.
Ray: Happy.
Tom: That’s the word he uses. Joy. In the middle of getting run out of places.
Ray: Man, I don’t know what to do with that.
Tom: Me neither.
Ray: Because I’m not that. I get a flat tire, and I’m done for the day.
Tom: Ha. Yeah.
Ray: So does that mean something’s off with me or…?
Tom: I don’t think that’s where he’s going.
Ray: No?
Tom: He says the joy came from the Spirit. It’s not their personality. They didn’t grit it out.
Ray: Okay, that helps a little.
Tom: A little.
Ray: A little.
Tom: The other thing I keep chewing on. Nobody’s born chosen; you don’t come out of your mom already on the list.
Ray: I figured that’s what it meant, though.
Tom: I did too for a long time. But you’re born in the same shape as everybody. You become one when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
Ray: Then how’s it before the foundation of the world? That’s in there somewhere, right?
Tom: It is. Ephesians.
Ray: So which is it?
Tom: Best I can tell, it’s both, because God already knew. He’s not down here with us on Tuesday, waiting to see how it turns out.
Ray: He’s above it.
Tom: Yeah. Sees the whole thing at once. Like He has a helicopter view, so he knew before there was a world.
Ray: Knowing’s not the same as making somebody do it.
Tom: That’s kind of where I land. I know my boy’s gonna order the chicken strips. Doesn’t mean I made him.
Ray: Ha. That’s a small example for a big thing. Like, He gives us free will to choose Christ or reject Him. He already knows how it will turn out.
Tom: That’s what I got.
Ray: It works. Sort of.
Tom: Sort of.
Ray: I still don’t fully get it.
Tom: I don’t either. I’m not sure anybody does all the way.
Ray: But you don’t have to get it to be in it.
Tom: Right. That’s the part I keep coming back to.
Ray: Hmm.
Tom: The other thing I liked. He tells them, you know what kind of men we were around you.
Ray: Meaning he lived it in front of them.
Tom: Yeah. He wasn’t one of those guys passing through, working the crowd for money. They watched him.
Ray: There were a lot of those guys back then.
Tom: Apparently. Same as now.
Ray: Same as now.
Tom: So the words came with a life attached.
Ray: That’s the harder part.
Tom: Which part?
Ray: The life attached part. Anybody can say the words.
Tom: Absolutely.
Ray: My neighbor’s watched me for eleven years. I don’t know what he’d say he’s seen.
Tom: You want to know?
Ray: Not really.
Tom: Ha.
Ray: I kind of do.
Tom: Ask him sometime.
Ray: Nope.
Tom: Fair.
Ray: Maybe.
Tom: You eating? I’m gonna get the biscuit thing.
Ray: Get me one too. Hey, is it still four through six next week, or are you jumping ahead?
Tom: Five through ten, I think.
Ray: Alright.
Created by Steve
God’s Word…
Holman Christian Standard Bible
First Thessalonians 1:4-6
4 knowing your election, brothers loved by God. 5 For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance. You know what kind of men we were among you for your benefit, 6 and you became imitators of us and of the Lord when, in spite of severe persecution, you welcomed the message with joy from the Holy Spirit.