What Does "Many Are Called but Few Are Chosen" Mean — And What Is the Greatest Commandment?
What Does “Many Are Called but Few Are Chosen” Mean — And What Is the Greatest Commandment?
Page: 35 | Passage: Matthew 22:14–22:42 | Generated: March 2026
DIRECT ANSWER BLOCK
Matthew 22:14–42 closes the wedding feast parable with a warning about genuine election, then shows Jesus outmaneuvering three attempts to trap Him: render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, God is the God of the living not the dead, and the greatest commandment is total love for God followed by love for neighbor. These three answers still govern Christian thinking about faith and life.
KEY VERSE
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.”
— Matthew 22:37–38 (KJV)
DEVOTIONAL BODY
Many Are Called — But Few Are Chosen
The wedding feast parable closes with a sentence that stands alone, almost parenthetical, yet it is among the most searching statements in the Gospels: “For many are called, but few are chosen” (22:14). The same highways that were searched, the same invitation that went to “both bad and good,” the same feast that was open to all — and yet the conclusion is that many are called but few are chosen.
The man without the wedding garment had been called. He came. He heard the invitation. He entered the hall. And he was cast out. Being called is not the same as being chosen. The chosen are those whose response to the call included receiving what the king provided — being clothed, being transformed, coming on the king’s terms rather than their own.
Oswald Chambers captured the note of urgency this creates: “Many are called but few are chosen,” that is, few prove themselves the chosen ones. The chosen ones are those who have come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ whereby their disposition has been altered and their ears unstopped, and they hear the still small voice questioning all the time, ‘Who will go for us?’" (My Utmost for His Highest). The call goes out broadly. The choosing — as evidenced by transformation — is narrower. The text is a mirror, not a mathematical calculation of who is in or out. It invites the reader to ask: am I only called, or am I truly chosen?
Two Kingdoms: Caesar and God
The Pharisees sent their disciples alongside the Herodians to catch Jesus on the question of Roman taxation: “Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?” (22:17). The trap was elegant. If Jesus said yes, the crowd would turn on Him as a Roman collaborator. If He said no, the Herodians would report Him to Rome as a rebel.
Jesus asked for a coin. They produced one — a Roman denarius, bearing Caesar’s image and inscription. His answer was as clean as it was devastating: “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s” (22:21). “When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way” (22:22).
The answer does more than sidestep a trap. It establishes a framework that Christian thought has lived inside ever since: there are two legitimate spheres of obligation. Civil authorities have legitimate claims; we pay taxes, obey laws, participate in civil life. But these claims are bounded. Caesar has his image stamped on coins. God has His image stamped on human beings (Genesis 1:27). What bears the image of God — your life, your worship, your ultimate allegiance — belongs entirely to God. No Caesar can claim that.
The God of the Living
The Sadducees, who denied the resurrection, came next with a riddle designed to make resurrection look absurd: a woman married seven brothers in succession (per levirate law); whose wife would she be in the resurrection? Jesus answered in two moves. First: they did not understand what resurrection life is like — it is not a continuation of earthly social arrangements, but something categorically different, like the angels (22:30). Second, and more fundamentally: “As touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (22:31–32).
The argument turns on the present tense. God did not say “I was” the God of Abraham; He said “I am.” Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were not dead to God at the time Moses heard these words at the burning bush. They were alive to Him — and therefore resurrection is not a strange theological speculation but a reality already implied by the living relationship God has with His people. Death does not dissolve the covenant. “The multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine” (22:33).
The Greatest Commandment
A lawyer asked the final question, the one meant to force an answer that would divide Jesus from some portion of His audience: “Which is the great commandment in the law?” (22:36). Every rabbi had a position on this. Every answer would offend someone.
Jesus’ answer was not merely safe — it was definitive: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (22:37–40).
The whole Torah — all 613 commandments by rabbinic count — hangs on these two. Not is summarized by them, but hangs on them, the way a coat hangs on a hook. Remove the hook and everything falls. Love for God with every faculty, followed by love for neighbor with the same intensity you naturally extend to yourself — these are not two additions to the law but its weight-bearing structure.
Hannah Whitall Smith, in The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life, described the structure of the Christian life in exactly these terms: “man’s part is to trust and God’s part is to work.” Total love for God — with heart, soul, and mind — is not accomplished by self-effort straining under obligation, but by the soul surrendered in trust to the God who works in it. The great commandment is not a heavier burden but a simpler one: trust Him wholly, and He does the work of conforming you to Himself.
CALLOUT
“Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” — Matthew 22:21
Caesar’s image is on the coin; give it back. God’s image is on you; give yourself back. Jesus draws a clean line between civic obligation and ultimate allegiance. Taxes, laws, and civil duty have their place — but they stop at the edge of your soul. What bears the image of God belongs wholly to God.
APPLICATION
Three things Matthew 22:14–42 invites you to do:
- Examine your calling and choosing. Do not be satisfied with having heard the invitation. Ask whether you are being transformed — whether the garment has been put on, whether your life bears evidence of a disposition altered by the King. The call goes to everyone; the choosing is verified by fruit.
- Give God what bears His image. Caesar may have legitimate claims on certain things. But your heart, your worship, your ultimate loyalty — these bear the divine image. Identify where you have been rendering to Caesar what belongs to God.
- Love God with all, and your neighbor as yourself. Not as a law to strain under but as a hook on which to hang everything. Begin with one act of whole-hearted love toward God today, and one concrete act of love toward a specific neighbor.
FAQ BLOCK
Q: What does “many are called but few are chosen” mean in Matthew 22:14?
“Called” refers to the general gospel invitation that goes out to all people. “Chosen” refers to those who genuinely receive the King’s provision and are transformed by it — those whose response to the call is not merely attending but being clothed in the righteousness Christ provides. The verse is a warning against external religion without inward transformation.
Q: What does “render unto Caesar” mean for Christians today?
Jesus established that Christians have legitimate obligations to civil authority — taxes, laws, civic participation. But those obligations are bounded. They do not extend to ultimate allegiance, worship, or the conscience. Where civil law contradicts the law of God, Christians follow God. But wherever the coin of Caesar circulates (Romans 13:1–7 echoes this principle), we render what is due — and give to God infinitely more.
Q: What is the significance of “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” in Matthew 22:32?
Jesus argued from the present tense of God’s self-identification in Exodus 3:6. God said “I am” — not “I was” — the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, long after those patriarchs had died physically. This means they were alive to God, which implies resurrection. The living relationship between God and His covenant people is not severed by physical death.
Q: Why are love for God and love for neighbor called the two great commandments?
Jesus said all the law and the prophets “hang” on these two. They are not merely the most important items on a list; they are the structural support on which everything else rests. A person who loves God with their whole being and loves their neighbor as themselves will naturally fulfill every other commandment. All specific commands are applications of these two realities.
CALL TO ACTION
“Many are called, but few are chosen” — and yet the call goes out still. God is not the God of the dead but of the living, and He is calling you by name into a relationship with Him that nothing can dissolve. These chapters of Matthew are worth reading repeatedly, slowly, with a quiet heart.
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