<p>1:4 <i>In that He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before Him in love- </i>&quot;In that...&quot; connects our having been chosen from the beginning with the blessing of the Spirit (:2). And in fact we were chosen not just from the beginning but from <i>before </i>that. At some point in infinity in the 'past', we were known and chosen. This is even more awesome. Romans 8 makes the same connection; our being foreknown and called was by grace, the gift of the Spirit. The very idea of our calling, predestination and choosing is the parade example of grace; for no works could be done by us which affect those things. And yet Romans 8 goes on to reason that the Spirit has been given to transform us into what we are counted as by status in Christ; His righteousness has been imputed to us, but we are to be transformed by the Spirit into that righteousness in reality. &quot;Without blemish&quot; is of course the language of the unblemished Passover lamb, the Lord Jesus. We were chosen so that the work of the Spirit might transform us into His personality and character, which is counted to us by imputed righteousness.</p><p>Pre-eminently, our love of the brotherhood will be the basis upon which we find acceptance, and in this lies the reason why the life of love is a living out of an acceptance before the Lord now. If we live in love, we are right now holy and blameless before Him (Eph. 1:4). &quot;Before Him&quot; is the language of judgment day (Mt. 25:32; Lk. 21:36; Rom. 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10; 2 Tim. 2:14; 1 Jn. 2:28; Jude 24; Rev. 14:5); and being holy and blameless before Him is exactly how we will be at the judgment seat (Jude 24). Yet right now, he who lives in love, a love unpretended and unfeigned, lives in the blamelessness and holiness of his Lord, whose righteousness is imputed to him. Paul so loved his Thessalonian brethren that he joyed &quot;for your sakes before our God&quot; (1 Thess. 3:9). &quot;Before our God&quot; is very much the language of judgment day; and he had earlier reflected: &quot;what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye <i>are</i> right now our glory and joy&quot; (1 Thess. 2:19,20). They were in this life his joy, as he lived out his life &quot;before our God&quot; and they would be again in the day of judgment.</p><p>Not only are paragraph and chapter breaks sometimes misleading, verse breaks can be too. Inserting punctuation into translation of Hebrew and Greek texts is very difficult. Thus Eph. 1:4,5 in the AV reads: &ldquo;...that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us&rdquo;. Shift the colon and another emphasis is apparent: &ldquo;...that we should be holy and without blame before him: in love having predestinated us&rdquo;. When stuck with a &lsquo;difficult&rsquo; verse (and they all are in some ways), don&rsquo;t be afraid to try re-jigging the punctuation a bit. The love and grace of God is shown so clearly in the way we were &quot;foreordained&quot; or predestinated to be His children, when others were not. This was and is all of grace, for no works had been done by us to warrant this calling. The initiative was His.</p>