called: marked out as the one to whom a call has gone out, whether an invitation offered or God's effective summons
κλητός is a verbal adjective built on the verb "to call" (καλέω). It labels a person by something that has happened to them: a call has gone out, and they are the one called. English "called" (or "invited") carries this well, but the adjective leaves one thing to context: whether the call is a bare invitation someone may turn down, or a summons that takes hold and makes the hearer into what the call names.
The New Testament uses it both ways:
- In the Gospel sayings the called are the widely invited, and only some respond. "Many are called, but few are chosen" sets the called, the whole invited crowd, over against the ἐκλεκτός, the chosen few who actually come.
- In Paul the called are those God's summons has already claimed and shaped. Paul is a called apostle, his readers are called saints, and God works everything for good for "the called according to his purpose."
So the same word can name a crowd that may still refuse and a people the call has already secured. Revelation 17:14 gathers both notes into one phrase, "called and chosen and faithful," where the called are no longer a mere invited multitude but the Lamb's own. The related noun κλῆσις names the calling itself; κλητός names the person on the receiving end of it.