The Parable of the Wedding Banquet
1Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:
2“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.</SPAN>
3He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.</SPAN>
4“Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’</SPAN>
5“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business.</SPAN>
6The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.</SPAN>
7The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.</SPAN>
8“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.</SPAN>
9Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’</SPAN>
10So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.</SPAN>
11“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.</SPAN>
12‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.</SPAN>
13“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’</SPAN>
14“For many are
invited, but few are chosen.”</SPAN>
This is the salvation picture. God calls many to be with Him, all who ELECT to listen become chosen. Does this understanding of elect make sense?
The 'elect' in Scripture are some Nazistic tribe of God, He INVITES many (of course, God is just, some's hearts are just NOT going to change, which speaks of FREE WILL, too )
The 'elect,' too, of speaking of the false followers swaying , trying to, anyway, sway the elect is speaking of the elders of churches, the pastors and associate pastors and those in charge of churches.
There are TWO different contexts for 'elect' in Scripture, election is simply what it says, God elects those who OPEN their heart to His drawing them to Him. God draws ALL to Him, some do not go, they are invited, and, I don't undersand the word 'many' of 'For many are invited,' but it does mean to me that God invites all who are willing to be chosen by Him, they wear the proper wedding clothes, but some, the CLOSEST to Him, of all people, the ones that received invitations and were close to the king in this wedding banquet chose NOT to show up. So, God, invited the least of these to come, I guess that is why He says in the beattitudes, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall see God.
And, 'harder to get in to Heaven than a camel going through the eye of a needle.' Not impossible, as the 'eye of a needle,' most know, is the small passageway that a camel? goes through with a rider and it is nearly impossible to get the camel to go through the passage. Is that it? Idk, it sounds good enough for me, the point remains the same.
God calls us to Him, for that love Him have 'purpose,' Scripture says. Pretty straightforward, I think.
God is faithful to us, He invites us to the wedding feast but IF we do not go in with what He wants us to go in with, I personally think the wedding clothes are 'love of Him,' then that person will be CAST OUT , and, it's a looooong cast
(to hell).
Makes perfect sense too, to love God is to understand His grace of His Son dying on the cross and those who believe in Him and received His Spirit unto them (Romans 8:14) . It's not rocket science, but it is God's perfect, created way of our to work in our life, a start, anyway, as we labor with Him, planting and watering, He provides the increase. We take the talents He's given and we USE them, this is by grace that we get what we get, but the nation that was blessed was Israel and it was blessed by faith of Abraham following God. God provides the increase, we are to plant and water and God provides the growth....
Very important that we live in His grace, knowing fuill well that we will mess up but knowing full well that God is just and does shew mercy, He shewed mercy to Adam and Eve, didn't smite them, shewed mercy to Cain, great mercy, Cain killed his brother and God still allowed Cain to get married, have a kid or two or three and it says too 'Cain built a city,'. So.......God bless ya, Christ peeps. ACCEPT His will for your life, through YOUR mistakes, KEEP KNOWING He is ther, it is going to be goooood grace and mercy and love shown you, just, just, just, perfect . God knows how important 'love,' is or He wouldn't have spoke through Paul about it's greatness. Faith, hope, love, all three are 'great,' we know, but love is the BETTER WAY than any other way to reach others. The only way, in fact, I think it's fair to say, not to gong like a clashing symbol