I Thessalonians 1:4 “Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.”
The “election of God” denotes the exclusive act “of God”. The word “election” means to choose out a portion of the whole. God’s “election” of His people occurred “before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4). The criterion for God’s choice of His people was His own “purpose” (Romans 9:11); that is, the only factor in God’s “election” of a particular people was His own will! Man’s will was, and is, not a factor in God’s “election”; neither does our “good or evil” works influence God’s “election” (Romans 9:11). Those that God Elected are a “remnant” of the whole of mankind (Romans 11:5). Man’s acts, choice, will, works, etc. played no part in God’s “election” (Romans 11:7). The most we can learn about God’s “election” is that it was based upon His “great love” (Ephesians 2:4) for those that He purposed to “love” (Ephesians 1:4). Furthermore, God’s “great love” is so “great”, in magnitude and intensity, that absolutely nothing can “separate” His Elect from His “great love” (Romans 8:35-39). Furthermore, God’s “love” is so “great” for His “Elect” (I Peter 1:2) people, that He sent His own “beloved Son” to “save his” “Elect” “from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Lest we think that God Elected only a few; John saw the souls of the “Elect” that had died, and they were “a great multitude, which no man could number” (Revelation 7:9). Our Lord tells us that God’s “Elect” are “all which he” (The Father) “hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day” (John 6:39). Thus, the Eternal Security of God’s “Elect” is eternally secured by the will and power of God; for, when our Lord Jesus Christ had fully and finally paid the sin-debt of His “Elect”, He declared on the Cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30). To “know” our “election of God” is to “rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory” (I Peter 1:8) and to worshipfully cry, “What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?” (Psalms 116:12).