Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
Knowing (eidotev). Second perfect active participle of oida (eidon), a so-called causal participle=since we know, the third participle with the principal verb euxaristoumen, the Greek being fond of the circumstantial participle and lengthening sentences thereby (Robertson, Grammar, P. 1128).
Beloved by God (hgaphmenoi upo 0:0-1:1, I Thessalonians 2:14, I Thessalonians 2:17; I Thessalonians 3:7; I Thessalonians 4:1, I Thessalonians 4:10), but adds this affectionate phrase nowhere else in the N.T. in this form (cf. Judges 1:3) though in Sirach 45:1 and on the Rosetta Stone. But in II Thessalonians 2:13 he quotes "beloved by the Lord" from Deuteronomy 33:12. The use of adelfoi for members of the same brotherhood can be derived from the Jewish custom (Acts 2:29, Acts 2:37) and the habit of Jesus (Matthew 12:48) and is amply illustrated in the papyri for burial clubs and other orders and guilds (Moulton and Milligan's Vocabulary).
Your election (thn ekloghn umwn). That is the election of you by God. It is an old word from eklegomai used by Jesus of his choice of the twelve disciples (John 15:16) and by Paul of God's eternal selection (Ephesians 1:4). The word eklogh is not in the LXX and only seven times in the N.T. and always of God's choice of men (Acts 9:15; I Thessalonians 1:4; Romans 9:11; Romans 11:5, Romans 11:7, 11:58; II Peter 1:10). The divine eklogh was manifested in the Christian qualities of verse I Thessalonians 1:3 (Moffatt).
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing 1 Thessalonians 1:4:
Romans 9:11
1 Thessalonians 1:4
2 Thessalonians 2:13
2 Peter 1:10
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