4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love
just as He chose us–God bestowed His first blessing on us before He even created the world. The elect were chosen before the earth was formed. He knew just when and where we would come into being in our mother’s womb, where we would be born, every moment of our lives, and just when and where we will take our last breath. Brothers and sisters, if God has planned our lives down to the minutest detail, then we can trust Him to take care of us. He knows what we need and when we need it. God has promised in Philippians 4:9 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
God’s spiritual blessings begin with Him. His election of us as saints, and these benefits continue with the redemption that Jesus has purchased for us, allowing us to live a life as free from sin as we will allow Him to guide us to be. He purchased a sin-free life for us, we just have to walk in it to the greatest extent we allow Him to help us to do, so God’s purposes are fulfilled in our lives. The Holy Spirit empowers us to be able to choose not to sin, we just have to cooperate with God’s sanctification of our lives.
He chose us We are comforted by the fact that God chose us, and God doesn’t make mistakes. God knows the end from the beginning, knows everything in advance, and if you’re His, He has chosen you. Many hear, and may even remain for a while, but then fall away. We know that Jesus died for the whole world. There is enough redemption, enough blood to wash the whole world clean, but so many will not allow God to apply it to their lives. It’s not that their sin is too great, the blood will cover and remove every sin, it’s that they will not apply the cure, loving their disease of sin more than the cure of God.
God wants to save us, but we must choose to be saved. And, choosing to be saved, we find that He already chose us before the foundation of the world.
Eph 2:5-7 5 even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the boundless riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Jesus didn’t die conditionally, saying I’ll do it if some believe, but died for the whole world, for whoever would believe, so that they COULD believe, and believing we would have eternal life. Jesus’s Life, Death, and Resurrection, enabled those who would believe to understand God’s plan of redemption so that we COULD believe on Him.
God chose us from out of the whole human race, so that everyone wouldn’t have to go to hell, because of sin. We wouldn’t have chosen Him, because of our love for our own sin. Romans 3:10-12 10 as it is written: “There is no righteous person, not even one; 11 There is no one who understands, There is no one who seeks out God; 12 They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, There is not even one.”
In Him–In whom? In Christ. This expression meaning “in Christ” has the sense of the intimate fellowship of the Christian with the living spiritual Christ. He abides with us, and we with Him, and since the Holy Spirit is Spirit, He can commune with our spirit. We are a New Creation in Christ. Christ is the Head, we are his body on earth. As Ephesians 4:15-16 reminds us 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is, Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together [l]by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. God chose us to be the body of Christ on earth, so that we could be salt and light to a dark world, so that we could do His will on earth, just as it is done in heaven. Our purpose is to praise God, and do His will by obeying and playing our part in letting people know about Jesus, and helping each other grow in Christ.
“before the foundation of the world.” means that before God laid the foundation stones for the entire earth, He chose us as His. And by the gift of faith, from Him, we were able to believe. Eph 2:8-9 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Jesus, who was loved before the foundation of the world wanted us to see His glory in heaven, and so God chose Us as His inheritance out of the world. John 17:24 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
And He chose us for a reason:
That we might be holy and blameless before Him
God is Holy, and Blessed, and we as His children are to be like Him. 1 Peter 1:14-16 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, 15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16 because it is written: “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” It has always been this way. In the Exodus, the mixed multitude didn’t make it out of the wilderness, but the ones who followed God. A nation that is holy is to be different from other nations, a place that is holy such as the tabernacle or temple is different from other places, God who is holy is different from other gods, and so people who are holy are to be different from other people. God not only chose the believer to be holy but also “blameless.” The word for “without blame,” is used eight times in the NT, is an alpha privative of μῶμος used only in 2 Pet 2:13 meaning “blame, defect, blemish.” It means “one who is without reproach” or “blameless” either physically or morally. In the OT the people were to offer animals for sacrifice that had no blemish. There is an expectation that we strive to live holy and blameless lives. Phil 2:14-16. 14 Do all things without complaining or arguments; 15 so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as [m]lights in the world, 16 holding firmly the word of life, so that on the day of Christ I can take pride because I did not run in vain nor labor in vain. what motivates us to live a life of holiness and blamelessness? Love.
In Love– The word for love is an important word in Ephesians. The idea of agape, as opposed to eros, is that agape love is a free choice toward someone to show them affection, whether they deserve it or not, where as eros was used with the idea that one was carried away with emotion, or impulsive, or trying to satisfy oneself. Agape has the good of the person loved in mind, while eros is selfish. Agape is self-sacrificial love, and eros is self-fulfilling love.
God’s own love is the example of love for one another. Paul describes love as not being jealous, boastful, arrogant, disgraceful, selfish, irritable, and unrighteous, but rather as patient, kind, righteous, and enduring (1 Cor 13:4–8). So, a correct concept of agape love is based on God’s love in that he extends it to the undeserving and unloving as seen in his continuing love for the sinner. Love seeks the highest good in the one loved. Ultimately, for us, as His Children, the highest good is the will of God for us.