Counted Worthy

In 2 Thessalonians 1:11, Paul is praying for the new believers in the church at Thessalonica. He is praying "That they would be worthy of their calling."
If we go back to Matthew 22:1-14, we will get a little of what it means to be worthy of our calling.

There is to be a great wedding feast. It is to be a feast to end all feasts, so to speak. A great event. Fancy invitations are sent out by the servants of the Lord of the feast. They are to come back with an RSVP, but none of the invited would have anything to do with it. Each was busy in his own little kingdom. Some even killed those who were sent to them.

The Lord of the Feast, the KING says everything is ready, but the invited guests are not WORTHY.

So He sends to invite any one in the highways and byways of the city. None were rich, none were what we might think of as "worthy." There were some good, and some bad. But they readily accepted the invitation and came ready and dressed properly. All except for one party crasher who came in another way, wasn't dressed for it, and was cast out.

The worthy ones were the ones who, in spite of their failure and sin, gladly received the invitation and came dressed in the proper dress. This was what was absolutely necessary to get into the feast. I rather think that when the invitation was given, the garment was also given. It was like a ticket.

The garment of worthiness represents the Righteousness of Christ that is given to the believer which makes him worthy to enter into the presence of God and to the marriage feast of the Lamb.

We will not be able to enter Heaven and the Marriage feast of the Lamb in our own righteousness, only His.

Now, those who refused had their own righteousness. They were relegios that had the Law in little boxes on their wrists, the little skullcaps on their heads, all the pomp and ceremony they could get. But that wasn't what was needed. A willing heart, and a glad acceptance to receive from the King a robe, a wedding robe that was not theirs, that came by faith, and faith alone.

~Bill Gibson

Sept 7, 2007