First fruit...

In his book, Sit, Walk, Stand, Watchman Nee speakls about looking out over an orange grove and seeing dots of orange colour on the trees - the first fruit to ripen and be ready. However he assures us that EVERY orange, every piece of fruit, shall be harvested. None thrown away, or wasted.
And so it is with God's "first fruits" - the "fruit" that has been made ready to pick in this age. Now. Yes, those that He has called and chosen now are His "first fruit", part of His Body now. However, He assures one and all (as did Watchmen Nee) that ALL will, in his own order, be "picked". HIS time, HIS way.
Being a "first fruit" does not mean that we are special, better than any other (i.e., any one orange doesn't decide to be "first" - that is up to God)...it simply means that God has so ordained our "order". 1 Cor. 1:26-30 makes it clear (and The Message is delightfully blunt): "Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life [a first fruit]. I don't see many of "the brightest and the best" among you, nor many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these "nobodies" to exposé the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies"? That makes it quite clear that none of your can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have - right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start - comes from God by way of Jesus Christ..."
Surely such makes it clear that we are a "first fruit" because of what HE did, NOT because we "made the right choice," or were wise enough to accept His "offer" (such a word is not in scriptrue. Salvation is NOT an offer). No, it is because HE chose us - in His time, and for His reasons, and for His purpose.
Therefore, I can/do rejoice that while I am a first fruit, in time, in the ages to come, ALL will come...to Christ Jesus, triumphant and victorious Saviour of ALL; and then God Almighty, Sovereign Ruler of the universe, shall be ALL in all.
Amen!