“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” (1 John 4:7–16, NRSV)
Remember pick-up team games when you were a kid? Captains were chosen (or self-chosen in many cases) and taking turns begin to pick teams. There was always disappointment in this choosing, not being with your friend, the order of being chosen, being on the weaker team, or chosen last. (and sometimes if there were odd numbers, that last person either sat out or the captains would say "you take them." Although there were those good leaders who would say, "come play with us.")
Sometimes God is seen as choosing like this, and we as either chosen or not. But that's not how it works; or how God works.
Being the beloved is not a privilege for the chosen, but it is the blessing of those who choose to dwell in the love of God!
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