Chosen and Appointed

“You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you.  This I command you, that you love one another” (Jn 15:16-17).

We know that Jesus chose each of His disciples.  We have several of their stories when Jesus called them from their tax collector’s booth or fresh off of their fishing boat.  But did you know that Jesus also chose you?

Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:4) and to the church of the Thessalonians, he wrote “But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth” (II Thess 2:13).

God chose you.   And He also accounted for your faith in that choice.  Yes, your faith makes a difference.  God chose you and your faith mattered.  Can both of these be true?  “For by grace (God’s choice and total gift) you have been saved through faith (your choice to believe); and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8).  You have been called out and saved by God’s grace through your faith.

Now this verse goes beyond this initial calling.  After you were chosen; after you believed and became part of God’s family, you were also appointed.  What post or responsibility were you appointed to?  You were appointed to “go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain.”  Or put another way, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10).

You were created for good works.  You were created for bearing good fruit.  As a son or daughter of the Father, this is in your new life DNA.  Jesus could see down the tunnel of time and see you bearing good fruit.  How could He be so sure?  Because Christ is the one producing the fruit in you.  It is part and parcel with being a believer.  It is who you are as a branch connected to the true vine who is living His life and producing His fruit in you.

And answered prayer, seen here for the fourth time in this upper room message, will be part of the fruit-bearing experience.  God will hear and answer our prayers.

Finally, we have what will become one of the greatest commandments in the New Testament; “that you love one another”.  Jesus started our discourse with this commandment (Jn 13:34-35) and repeats it here in this chapter in verses 12 and 17.

The theme of these verses regarding your appointment to God’s family (by believing in Christ) and loving one another is carried on throughout the New Testament letters.  John, for example returns to this very summary in his later letters.  “And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us” (I Jn 3:23).  Yes, you have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit, the sweetest of which is to truly love one another.