Bible Dictionaries
Elect, Elected, Election

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

lit. signifies "picked out, chosen" (ek, "from," lego, "to gather, pick out"), and is used of (a) Christ, the "chosen" of God, as the Messiah, Luke 23:35 (for the verb in Luke 9:35 see Note below), and metaphorically as a "living Stone," "a chief corner Stone," 1 Peter 2:4,6; some mss. have it in John 1:34 , instead of huios, "Son;" (b) angels, 1 Timothy 5:21 , as "chosen" to be of especially high rank in administrative association with God, or as His messengers to human beings, doubtless in contrast to fallen angels (see 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6 ); (c) believers (Jews or Gentiles), Matthew 24:22,24,31; Mark 13:20,22,27; Luke 18:7; Romans 8:33; Colossians 3:12; 2 Timothy 2:10; Titus 1:1; 1 Peter 1:1; 2:9 (as a spiritual race); Matthew 20:16; 22:14; Revelation 17:14 , "chosen;" individual believers are so mentioned in Romans 16:13; 2 John 1:1,13 .

Believers were "chosen" "before the foundation of the world" (cp. "before times eternal," 2 Timothy 1:9 ), in Christ, Ephesians 1:4 , to adoption, Ephesians 1:5; good works, Ephesians 2:10; conformity to Christ, Romans 8:29; salvation from the delusions of the Antichrist and the doom of the deluded, 2 Thessalonians 2:13; eternal glory, Romans 9:23 .

The source of their "election" is God's grace, not human will, Ephesians 1:4,5; Romans 9:11; 11:5 . They are given by God the Father to Christ as the fruit of His death, all being foreknown and foreseen by God, John 17:6; Romans 8:29 . While Christ's death was sufficient for all men, and is effective in the case of the "elect," yet men are treated as responsible, being capable of the will and power to choose. For the rendering "being chosen as firstfruits," an alternative reading in 2 Thessalonians 2:13 , see FIRSTFRUITS. See CHOICE , B.

means "elect together with," 1 Peter 5:13 .

denotes "a picking out, selection" (Eng., "eclogue"), then, "that which is chosen;" in Acts 9:15 , said of the "choice" of God of Saul of Tarsus, the phrase is, lit., "a vessel of choice." It is used four times in Romans; in Acts 9:11 , of Esau and Jacob, where the phrase "the purpose ... according to election" is virtually equivalent to "the electing purpose;" in Acts 11:5 , the "remnant according to the election of grace" refers to believing Jews, saved from among the unbelieving nation; so in Acts 11:7; in Acts 11:28 , "the election" may mean either the "act of choosing" or the "chosen" ones; the context, speaking of the fathers, points to the former, the choice of the nation according to the covenant of promise. In 1 Thessalonians 1:4 , "your election" refers not to the church collectively, but to the individuals constituting it; the Apostle's assurance of their "election" gives the reason for his thankgiving. Believers are to give "the more diligence to make their calling and election sure," by the exercise of the qualities and graces which make them fruitful in the knowledge of God, 2 Peter 1:10 . For the corresponding verb eklegomai, see CHOOSE.