Elect, The (Chosen)

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This has to do with God’s sovereign choosing of persons and angels for various purposes. The Word of God indicates that there are various companies of God’s people who have been thus chosen. There are those whom He has “chosen” to be part of the Church—i.e. Christians (Eph. 1:44According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: (Ephesians 1:4); Col. 3:1212Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; (Colossians 3:12); 1 Thess. 1:44Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. (1 Thessalonians 1:4); 1 Peter 1:2; 2:92Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. (1 Peter 1:2)
9But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: (1 Peter 2:9)). There are also “elect” Jews (Isa. 65:9, 15, 229And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there. (Isaiah 65:9)
15And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for the Lord God shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name: (Isaiah 65:15)
22They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. (Isaiah 65:22); Matt. 24:2222And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. (Matthew 24:22); Luke 18:77And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? (Luke 18:7)), and “elect” Israelites from the ten tribes (Matt. 24:3131And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:31)). There are even “elect” angels (1 Tim. 5:2121I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality. (1 Timothy 5:21)). The Lord Himself is also spoken of as “Mine Elect” (Isa. 42:11Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. (Isaiah 42:1); Matt. 12:1818Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. (Matthew 12:18)).
Election is closely connected with predestination. The difference is that election has to do with being selected and predestination has to do with what we have been selected for. Election, therefore, concerns persons, and predestination concerns the place (the destiny) that God has “marked out” for those persons (Eph. 1:55Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, (Ephesians 1:5)).