In Colossians 3:12, Paul describes Christians using three keywords that demonstrate three actions that God does for us, as His people. The beginning of the verse says this, “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved…” Obviously, you can read this for yourself and can identify these keywords, right. But let me spell them out for you and briefly elaborate on them for a minute.

You are:

Chosen – What a fantastic concept. To be chosen is a special event. It’s one thing to be picked in a schoolyard game, but to be selected by the Almighty God is another. God picked us. He made us his own. He wanted us to be His. The neat thing about this choice is that you choose if you wish to be in the choosing or not. If you want to be chosen by God, all you have to do is choose to be in the group that is always going to be chosen. This group is God’s people; it always has been and always will be. This group is the church. This group is holy.

Holy – To be holy is to be set apart or to be sacred. This one challenges me because it does not always describe the behavior nor the attitude of the church yesterday or today. We are not always holy in what we think or what we do. We don’t always act and say things that are set apart from the world. Instead, we seem to blend right in. This struggle to do, say, and think the right things should motivate us as the chosen people of God to be holy and godly. Nevertheless, this is how Paul (God) chooses to describe us. I gotta do better, and I bet you do too.

Beloved – It feels good to be described as the beloved. It’s a term of endearment demonstrating God’s unconditional love and devotion to his chosen holy people. God truly loves us, and therefore we should love Him. When we truly realize how much God loves us (by giving up His only Son as a payment for our sins), then we should be motivated to love God all the more and love our neighbors as ourselves. This identifies us as the beloved people of God. It’s a mark of our identity as disciples of Christ.

In the rest of the verse and the next several, Paul describes what we should do as the those who have been chosen of God, holy and believed, but I’ll save that for another article. For now, let’s work on being the chosen, beloved and holy people of God!

I love you,

Alex