Our Expected End

“For consider your calling, brothers and sisters, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;

but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the insignificant things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no human may boast before God.

But it is due to Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written: ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’” 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 NASB

It is enlightening to consider whom God has chosen through the ages to do His work. What can we learn by examining the Lord’s called and chosen? What was their expected end? Take a look at the lineage of Jesus Christ and you will see individuals who would not make the top 10 list in our present religious world. Sometimes it appears we have forgotten where we came from and all the imperfect people God uses in His Kingdom. After all, imperfect people are all He has to choose from!

In this passage from Corinthians, the Lord makes clear to us that He does not choose as humans do. We’re grateful that He sees the heart rather than demonstrations of outward ability, stature, prestige, skills or wealth. He chooses many who do not have the external qualifications to do what He has planned. He supplies everything needed to do what we are called to do. Therefore, the glory and honor is all His, not ours.

Jesus knew the plans Father God had for His disciples and chose each according to God’s leading. There are humorous anecdotes written about why each of the disciples would not make the position of elder in today’s churches. Peter would not be chosen because he had a quick temper. James and John were too hungry for power and position, plotting to manipulate their way to be on the right and left hand of Jesus. Judas would betray Him to the Romans, yet Judas was chosen, too. All of them were deserters who lied out of fear, denying that they knew Jesus when He was arrested.

These twelve men, honored disciples of the Christian foundation Jesus established, had obvious faults and made mistakes. He had to break up conflicts among them as they jockeyed for position. They frequently seemed slow to understand. More than once, Jesus had to explain things to them, correcting their assumptions about applying His Lordship to the earth instead of the spiritual kingdom of God. Remember, they did not have the Holy spirit to enlighten their minds until the Holy Spirit fell on that long ago day in the Upper Room.

The disciples were all Hebrews in the area, with differing occupations and family backgrounds, but He knew what was in their hearts, what their potential would be. Jesus occasionally sounds a bit weary of explaining the spiritual understanding of His ministry, particularly after all the intimate times of fellowship and teaching He had shared with them. He said there were too many things difficult to understand that they had no ability to hear before He died and rose again.

What has happened through the centuries to the churches of God? When you really think about it, it’s a sad commentary on how we have come to put so much weight on external things like education, including religious education, social status, political influence, wealth, age, profession, the details of dress, hairstyle, habits of food and drink, companions, church attendance, and on and on. It’s amusing for this child of the 60’s to remember how appalled adults were at the long hair (among other things) of the young men of that era while in an earlier era, buzz cuts were thought to be devilish.

Now, in the 21st Century, men and women wear their hair in many different ways that have little to do with what is in their hearts toward God. Such is the way society decides worth and qualification. It is not God’s way of looking at people. God cares more about a man’s heart than the length of his hair. God cares more about a woman’s heart than her outer adornment. Paul admonishes godly women about this:

“Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair or gold jewelry or fine clothes, but from the inner disposition of your heart, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in God’s sight.

For this is how the holy women of the past adorned themselves. They put their hope in God and were submissive to their husbands.” 1 Peter 3:3b-5 Berean

It is an attitude of the heart to which Paul is speaking in this passage. It is not forbidding outward adornment, though someone probably quickly made a law of it in the general assemblies of the time. Paul is saying that God’s way is to look at what is in the heart regarding the purpose He has for a woman. The beauty of the Lord is found in the inner disposition, in the gentle and quiet spirit of a woman at peace. Such is precious in God’s sight because it is costly. It is the work of the spirit creating an inner change, through a process that brings peace without fear.

There’s more in that passage, but the point is this: we absolutely cannot tell by outward appearance who belongs to Him. In fact, God loves the whole world, whether they know they belong to Him or not. In the Old Testament, He did not pay attention to signs of godliness before He called someone. He did not consider most of the qualities by which many, today, assess someone's worthiness to be used by God. The Lord looks at His plan and our potential, knowing the end from the beginning.

In His calling, some are led to excel in outward ways, become formally educated to open doors in work and professions that would otherwise be closed, excel in many and varied fields, and even garner wealth for His kingdom. But none are a requirement, none qualify them as eligible for service nor outward evidence of righteousness. He is the only necessary foundation, to be called and chosen as one of God’s faithful, used as a servant for His people. God has many counselors in His kingdom, whether in the field of professional counseling or not. God has many ministers and not all of them are called Reverend, Pastor, or Father.

Why would our Lord not call people in all kinds of walks of life? He needs people everywhere! God’s people in all walks of life have a purpose to reach others with His love. That cannot happen when we only engage with others who believe as we do and already share our faith. It also is not sufficient to leave the service of ministry to those who are called ministers by profession. How does H reach those who will never visit, even actively avoid, formal religious groups or gatherings called the Christian church.

We are not called to only care for our own, although it surely is more comfortable to gather with people just like us. But where’s that deep darkness out of which we are to shine? Isn’t it everywhere God calls us to go? We are to be a light in the darkness of this world, to be in it but not of it. When Jesus was nearing the time of His crucifixion, He prayed for His disciples this way:

“I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.

While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.’” John 17:11-12; 14-16 NIV

Jesus left this world, but even when He was here, He was not “of the world” nor were His disciples. Jesus did not ask Father God to take us out of the world, but to keep us from the wicked one while remaining to fulfill God’s calling in Christ Jesus. People are vitally needed in the world to do the great work of bringing the news of our Savior to all. The disciples were not taken out of, but instead, left to do the work they were called to do. They had an expected end in Him, much more than they knew before His crucifixion and resurrection.

The callings of the Lord and our expected end in Him come as quite a surprise to many of us. At the beginning of God’s journey for us, we may never have thought or dreamed of the specific paths we would take with our Lord. He reveals He plans as we seek His ways and walk His path for each of us. God chooses those He will use, and what they will become is often the opposite of what is apparent when they begin to be used of Him. His thoughts and plans are higher and our expected end is certain in Him.

Old Testament saints had human faults and weaknesses that would seem to disqualify them now. The Christians of Paul’s era would certainly not have chosen Saul, the fiery persecutor of Christians. But God knew what was in Saul’s heart, that he believed he was doing the will of God. He was upholding and fighting to preserve his Jewish faith with all his being in the best way he knew.

God planned for a nature change so he would become Paul, the great apostle, preparing Him to minister to the Gentiles and founding the early church bodies spread in Asia. God does see the end from the beginning and our expected end is a good one! Be encouraged, saints of the Lord! He has promised a beautiful conclusion for all creation. Brother Josh Gwinnup, a close brother and respected minister and friend, said it this way:

“Our God has a determined end for all of creation – and it is holy, glorious, and perfect.

In the end, every enemy is conquered, death is destroyed, and every knee bows unto Jesus Christ and every tongue confesses that He is Lord.” J. Gwinnup, 2022

Our expected end is already set and it is good news! He has called and will continue to choose many men and women to further us all along His path. He continually chooses those who are unqualified in society’s eyes, then and now. Even the Father of our faith, Abraham, had a few character defects! Yes, in the Old Testament, Abraham was a great man of faith, yet he lied, more than once, about Sarah being his wife.

Here’s the biblical account of Abraham’s behavior when he and Sarah were traveling. Fearing the authority of rulers whom they were visiting, Abraham told others that Sarah, his beautiful wife, was his sister. Sarah had agreed to this but it surely placed her in some very awkward and potentially dangerous situations. One example found in Genesis is the account of Abraham lying to Abimelech by saying Sarah was his sister.

Because of that lie, Abimelech was going to take Sarah, a most beautiful woman, for his own. As both Abraham and Abimelech knew, in those days a king could choose whomever he wanted. Fortunately, God intervened, not with Abraham but with Abimelech. When God revealed to Abimelech that Sarah was actually Abraham’s wife and that Abraham had deceived him, he was horrified to have almost done something so offensive to God and man. And here’s Abraham’s excuse:

“Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will kill me on account of my wife. But indeed she is truly my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.

And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This is your kindness that you should do for me: in every place, wherever we go, say of me, ‘He is my brother.’” Genesis 20:8-10 KJV

What a rationalization from this great man of God! Sarah was his half-sister, but Abraham used this with guile, misrepresenting the truth to others out of fear. How frightening for Sarah to be taken by Abimelech to be his wife, in spite of her agreement to do as Abraham said! It’s a rather flimsy excuse to say she is truly his sister when she is also his wife. There’s even an implied blame on God, who “caused me to wander.”

Sounds like a typical human excuse to our ears today: “I had to do it; I had no choice; You, God, got me into this by causing me to wander and be in danger because of her beauty.” We wouldn’t even accept that from any of the teenagers we know! God hates lies and in no way was Abraham in the right. It was something about which God had to deal with him on his way to becoming who God called him to be.

Consider, however, if this story went around in today’s religious circles. Would Abraham have been allowed to explain, to repent, be forgiven of such sin, to continue to become that great man of faith who became the father of all people of faith? Or would he have been immediately disqualified by the brethren and tossed out on his ear?! Just like the rest of God’s called and chosen people, over time and with more experiences, Abraham grew in his faith, matured, and passed the greatest test of all.

God knew Abraham’s expected end was to be a man of faith, even called “a friend of God.” Let’s look at this great man of faith later in life, when he was enduring the most difficult test of his life. God had ordered Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his only son and long-awaited child of the promise God had given him and Sarah:

“Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, ‘Abraham!’ ‘Here I am,’ he replied. Then God said, ‘Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.

[Abraham did so and was lifting his knife to kill Isaac]…But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, ‘Abraham! Abraham!’ ‘Here I am,’ he replied. ‘Do not lay a hand on the boy,’ he said. ‘Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son….

‘I swear by myself, declares the Lord, ‘that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.

Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” Genesis 22:1-3;11-2;15 NIV

Obedience was what the Father required for Abraham to receive the promise. He is not the only saint that God tests in telling us to sacrifice the very most important thing in our lives. The question He allows us to answer is the evidence of whether God is the most important or there is someone, something else, on the throne of our hearts. And how often it is our own child, that most precious gift of God. Sometimes it is a test of surrender that is restored when God sees our obedient heart, just as He did with Abraham.

There are also many important things in this life the saints of God have been called to lay down that are never restored. Isaac was a part of God’s plan and purpose for Abraham’s future, his expected end. The outcome was ideal in this case. God chooses to lead us one way and not another. As a young person, I strayed from walking with the Lord in college. A few years later, I had fallen in love with the Lord again. I recall having 3 requests for things that were most important to me.

Two of the three were marvelously granted, one within a year, while another took years to be fulfilled. A third was denied and the cause of much pain and loneliness at the time. It’s a process, not an event, to learn to sacrifice immediately and with a whole heart, that which we value and find precious. As we mature, He changes the desires of our hearts so we begin to lose our desire for anything that He does not want us to have. We have no ambition to become anything that is not His future for us, nor hang on to the present when He moves on.

We begin to realize, to accept, and even rest in knowing that God is in charge and it’s best to get out of His way. We cease our struggles with His will for us, yielding our will to His, not questioning what He allows along our path of life. When God called to Abraham, he answered immediately “Here I am.” His heart was quick to respond, ready to obey. He knew the voice of the Father and followed through without question.

This is a heart that has practiced surrender! What a powerful test He set for Abraham, to sacrifice his one and only son, long-awaited and beloved! Nothing is more challenging than when God tests us in the things—and people—we love most. For today’s Christians, it is hard to relate to Abraham’s immediate obedience to God’s directive about sacrificing his only child. It is horrifying even to imagine it. Further, Isaac was the child of promise for whom he and Sarah had waited so long.

In those days, other religions surrounding Abraham and Sarah commonly sacrificed children to their idol gods, so it was more culturally prevalent but we don’t know what Abraham thought. There is nothing written about Him having a discussion with God about it, as most of us might have done. Abraham also loved Sarah and one wonders if Abraham even told her about it Any of us who are mothers, let alone the mother of an only, precious, and long-anticipated son, are most thankful that this has not been our test.

We know believers who have lost a child, including ones who had only one child. Some Christian parents have yielded their children to God’s calling that later took their lives. It’s incredible to think of what so many Christian parents have gone through in losing their precious children. What God has worked within them through these incredibly painful losses! Abraham was a flawed human but he trusted God with Isaac, no matter what.

We don’t know if, in his heart, he thought God would raise him up, or what else contributed to his incredible act of obedience. Clearly, Abraham was a man of faith with an instantly obedient heart. Yet God knows as Father God sacrificed His only begotten Son for us! Think of it! He had the power to save Jesus immediately and Jesus knew it. God saw all that happened and did not intervene. How was that for the heart of Father God, watching Jesus suffer and die?

Isaac’s behavior is something to marvel about as well. These scriptures reveal that Isaac had been taught obedience to Abraham and trusted him. The account says that he went with his father and only asked about the needed sacrifice for worshiping God. He allowed his father to tie him on the altar of sacrifice, but what did he say or do, while laying there, helpless, when his own father lifted up his knife to kill him?

God asked for what was most precious to Abraham and Abraham passed the test. He did not remind God of all the promises God had already given to him and Sarah, all the future that would be lost should Isaac die. Personally, God granted me a long held desire to have a baby, one of the three requests that took years to fulfil, and then only after I had truly surrendered this desire to him and had peace either way. It was a long battle but He won! I was granted our precious son years later, at age 40, and in quite different circumstances I could never have foreseen.

Abraham’s type of unquestioning obedience is worth more than gold to God, more than being well educated, attractive, high in stature and wealth or any other external qualifications society may consider. It moves past Abraham’s early character faults that led to lies and deceit. It is most precious in the sight of God. God said about another called and chosen leader, David:

“After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’” Acts 13:22 NIV

Here we are again: God trusts that David’s heart is after His own heart. God knew David’s expected end as well as all the events that would continue to shape Him into Israel’s great warrior king. It certainly did not appear as if David, the lowly tender of sheep, would be the chosen son of Jesse. Yet David had been in God’s school of obedience as a shephard alone in the fields, watching over his father’s sheep. He was neither noticed nor seen as significant in the eyes of others, including his own family.

Meanwhile, David had been learning how he could defeat the lion and the bear attempting to attack his father’s flock. Consider what bravery, strength, and ability that must have taken! It fully prepared David to defeat Goliath with faith that nothing and no one could stand against His God. Yet later in King David’s life, he became a deceitful murderer because of his lust for Bathsheba. God did bring him to repentance through Nathan the prophet, yet how did this great King with a heart for God continue in such sin?

Is this the same man who sought God’s direction before every battle, who did not harm Saul though Saul wanted to kill him, the author of all those beautiful psalms? During that period of David’s life, he surely did not appear to be God’s anointed! Still, David had a heart for God and that tender heart repented when confronted with his actions. David did not defend or explain his sinful actions to Nathan as many of us may attempt.

Can’t you just hear some of the present day excuses for such behavior: “Well she should not have been bathing nude so I coud see her!” Or, “I could not help it, I wanted her so much.” Or “I’m the King and I will not be denied whatever I desire.”David, instead, took responsibility for sinning against God. We humans have a thousand excuses to try and justify what is clearly wrong, but David does not say any of that. His immediate response is “I have sinned against the Lord.” Though he was forgiven, there were consequences God decreed for David. The baby he conceived with Bathsheba died. God allowed turmoil in his family and his kingdom.

But what is even more astounding is what comes after this. It is not the expected end we would predict for adultery! Bathsheba is brought to David’s residence and becomes another of his wives. She conceives again and has Solomon, who became David’s successor, the most successful of Israel’s rulers. This came about by manipulation by Bathsheba to have David, who was on his deathbed, choose Solomon rather than other sons who were vying for the crown.

Think of it! This “adulterous woman” birthed the next king in God’s glorious nation of Israel. It is understood that David was the initiator and adulterer, but so very many societies blame the woman for sexual sin while the man is seen as seduced or led away by her allure. Never mind that Bathsheba could not refuse the king’s demand to come to him while married to Uriah. Never mind that she loved her husband and mourned his death. She had not been looking to be unfaithful to him. How hard it must have been for her, even with the honor of being chosen by the King.

Yes, things were different then. Women did not have freedom or power over their own lives. Men of power and authority, then—and sadly, still now—take advantage and use their authority with women for their own selfish ends, while blaming women for their own lusts. Though it takes two, women in those days, and now in many places in the world, are judged harshly for adultery. What pastor or leader would not be judged when such an illicit affair became known to others? What kind of judgment would fall on Bathsheba’s head? What dishonor some would place on the innocent child of such a union?

God looked at the higher purpose within what was culturally acceptable at that time. The issue here is the attitude of our hearts when such things occur. How many judge the innocent child because of how and who concieved him, regardless of God’s purpose in allowing the child to be born. Would we be tempted to gossip about where he came from, how wrong it is for him to have all that he has, given his “pedigree?”

Would we accept the son of this union, so sinfully begun, as our next religious leader, deserving of the most glorious kingdom of wealth and splendor the world had ever seen? There likely would be comments from some about where Bathsheba came from, what she did to entice the King, and how she happened to birth the next king. Adultery is wrong, of course, but God’s chosen do err. Though the circumstances of Solomon’s birth were far from ideal, God had an expected end that would surprise many today. He was God’s choice, having an expected end for His plans and purposes.

Then there is Rahab, the prostitute, one of the despised Canaanites, who helped Joshua when he was attacking Jericho. She hid the spies and saved her family. She was a woman of faith, telling the spies that everyone was afraid of their God whom she knew would give them the victory. That is a statement of faith already established within Rahab for God to use her with His people. When the king of Jericho asked about the Israelite spies in his city, she lied about their whereabouts in order to protect them and save her own household.

Later, she told them why:

“Before the spies lay down for the night, Rahab went up on the roof and said to them, ‘I know that the Lord has given you this land and that the fear of you has fallen on us so that all who dwell in the land are melting in fear of you.

For we have heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites across the Jordan, whom you devoted to destruction.

When we heard this, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in the heavens above and on the earth below.

Now therefore, please swear to me by the Lord that you will indeed show kindness to my family because I showed kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will deliver us from death.” Joshua 2:8-13 BSB

Rahab was not just an innkeeper, she was running a house of prostitution. Yet God saw the faith in her heart and used her in a mighty way. She not only knew the history and victories of the Israelites, she made a confession of faith in their God. She became part of God’s people and, moreover, is in the lineage of Jesus Christ through the birth of Boaz (Matthew 1:5). How this flies in the face of all those who judge people by the family who produced them! Would some of us even be seen with a woman of such reputation today?

God trains those of an obedient heart to become to become who He wants them to be. He brings each of His called and chosen to an expected end in Him. Each of these flawed biblical characters fulfills God’s destiny for them. In fact, the way God does things, their very sins and flaws shaped them along the way. God dealt with them, maturing all to fulfill His plan. Because of the condition of their hearts, they are submissive and quick to obey. God always has plans for such as these, teaching them to grow up into their calling.

The great Apostle Paul is the first to say he had all the best external qualifications for a religious Jew of his time. He was well-known and respected as an educated, knowledgeable and prominent Jewish leader and scholar of his time. If anyone “deserved” to be a religious leader of the Jews, Saul (Paul) checked all the boxes. But Saul was deceived, not realizing that he was persecuting the Lord he was attempting to defend. Those behaviors made him the last person the Christians of his day would want on their side. He was the enemy of the cross!

But God saw something else in Saul’s future. When Saul met the Lord, he was fully converted, called Paul, and set out to fulfill his calling to minister the gospel to the Gentiles. Once God opened his eyes, Paul counted all his knowledge and stature of that former Jewish life as rubbish. In Acts, Paul lists all his impressive external credentials. He had done everything right according to his religion, but it was not right in God’s eyes:

“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.

I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.” Acts 22:3-5 BSB

Saul was zealous for God, doing what his religion had trained him well to do. But after Jesus completely changed his understanding in an instant, here’s what Paul thought of his external and impressive Jewish resume among the Jews:

“For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself could have such confidence.

If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin; a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, persecuting the church; as to righteousness in the law, faultless.

But whatever was gain to me I count as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things.

I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.” Philippians 3:2-9 Berean

Saul had an instantaneous change when he was blinded by the voice of Christ on the road to Damascus. Saul’s name change to Paul signifies the change in his nature that God had done. God had much for Paul to do so a rapid change by God was necessary. Paul’s very zealousness and love for the law, the way he had been demonstrating his faith and love for God, was turned to fulfill his calling by Jesus Christ. That same quality of passion for God and commitment to Him making Saul an excellent Jewish leader remained in Paul’s heart of faith.

Paul left all of the outward Jewish achievements, considering it rubbish, to pursue the Lord Jesus Christ. What a humanly unexpected end for the great persecutor of Christians of the time! Paul is one of many, many examples where God uses our weaknesses as strengths in Him. God’s thoughts are not ours and His ways are not our ways–but God wants them to be! Paul recognized that his former righteousness under the law, so highly valued in the religious circles of that day, was less than worthless in God’s spiritual kingdom.

Though Paul’s stellar Jewish history, accomplishments, and religious stature may have given him “street cred” in today’s vernacular, it actually worked against the conversion of God’s own. Good thing his calling was the conversion and ministry to the Gentiles, and it took a while for him to be received by his fellow Jewish Christian disciples. Human nature is fallible, so God is never surprised when we humans don’t behave like one would expect His people, particularly His leaders, to behave.

God’s leaders are, indeed, held to a higher standard, as David’s repentance along with consequences, illustrates. There is redemptive justice—discipline for change— but He knows the end from the beginning. Thankfully, when He calls us, He knows all about us. He calls us knowing we have flaws or sins within, as all do. Paul’s heart to do right was worth a great deal to God, regardless of the error of his ways. Paul knows what it means to show the Christ to others:

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:3-8 NKJV

Jesus Christ our Lord, the Perfect Son, did not consider Himself equal to His Father, though He was sent to do God’s will. He is the Son of God and a servant to all. As with our Lord, the Pattern Son, it is a heart of obedience that God prioritizes above all else in those called to work in His kingdom of peace and love. He chooses whom He pleases, understanding our sinful choices and behaviors, flaws in our natures, how we miss the mark by mistakes, the stupid “in the moment” decisions, lies we think necessary to save ourselves, all the sins of the flesh that first showed up in the Garden of Eden.

“For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable. Just as you who formerly disobeyed God have now received mercy through their disobedience, so they too have now disobeyed, in order that they too may now receive mercy through the mercy shown to you.” Romans 11:29-30 BSB

God does not change His calling. He chooses people who have issues and flaws, cleaning each of us up while He is preparing us for what He has called us to accomplish. He shows mercy to those who love Him and are called for His purposes. He could do it all without people, but He looks at the teachable heart that loves Him to be used to bring all further into Him. He does everything well! He even brings children into the world that are needed here, on this earth, for such time and purposes of each era, regardless of the circumstances of their parentage.

God is no respecter of persons and loves to use the most unlikely, often improbable people and situations to show forth His might and power. These are people who would be rejected, held in low regard, by the society around them, then and now. His perfect redemptive judgment looks at the heart and sees so much more than can be understood by hearing outward descriptions of someone’s past or their external present qualifications. He chooses men and women of faith who have a teachable spirit and a heart for God.

All of the unlikely and flawed people God chose in the Bible give hope to each of us. What we think disqualifies a person in God are often the very things God is using to qualify us to fulfill our expected end! Are we able to discern His ways within ourselves and our fellow believers?

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Jeremiah 29:11 KJV

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 Berean

He uses those He has called to serve Him with their whole hearts. The flaws, the lack of external qualifications only make it more clear that it is God who is doing this work. Yes, He knows what He plans for us and goes right past our faults and failures to create obedient servants, fit for His work. His expected end are often quite different than what others predict for us.

You see, God looks at the hearts and searches for those who will love and obey Him, regardless. God’s people have the opportunity to show forth His praises on the earth. We join Paul in saying: “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord!”