“For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
(Deuteronomy 7:6-8 ESV)
Moses goes to great pains to emphasize this true about love: It is a choice. God chose His people Israel not because they were perfect or powerful, but because He chose to pour out His love upon them. Paul makes a similar statement when he talks about New Testament believers being "chosen before the foundation of the world." God does so for two reasons: 1) to emphasize our value, our worth, found in relationship with Him, and 2), to illicit a proper response from us, the loved: to trust and obey. Being loved is a wonderful place to be. But it is not to be taken for granted or a license for evil; it is a privilege that draws us to live lives worthy of such love.
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