John Calvin Commentary 1 Thessalonians 1:4

"knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election," — 1 Thessalonians 1:4 (ASV)

Knowing, brethren beloved. The participle knowing may apply to Paul as well as to the Thessalonians. Erasmus refers it to the Thessalonians. I prefer to follow Chrysostom, who understands it as referring to Paul and his colleagues, for it is (as it appears to me) a more ample confirmation of the previous statement. For it greatly tended to recommend them, as God Himself had testified by many signs that they were acceptable and dear to Him.

Election of God. I am not altogether dissatisfied with the interpretation given by Chrysostom—that God had made the Thessalonians illustrious and had established their excellence. Paul, however, intended to express something further, for he touches upon their calling. Since uncommon marks of God’s power had appeared in it, he infers from this that they had been specially called with evidences of a sure election. The reason is immediately added: it was not mere preaching that had been brought to them, but preaching combined with the efficacy of the Holy Spirit, so that it might gain full acceptance among them.

When he says, in power, and in the Holy Spirit, it is, in my opinion, as if he had said—in the power of the Holy Spirit, so that the latter term is added to explain the former. Assurance, to which he assigned the third place, was either in the thing itself or in the disposition of the Thessalonians. I am rather inclined to think that the meaning is that Paul’s gospel had been confirmed by solid proofs, as though God had shown from heaven that He had ratified their calling.

However, when Paul brings forward the proofs by which he had felt assured that the calling of the Thessalonians was altogether from God, he also takes the opportunity to recommend his ministry, so that they themselves may also recognize him and his colleagues as having been raised up by God.

By the term power, some understand miracles. I extend it further, as referring to the spiritual energy of doctrine. For, as we saw in 1 Corinthians, Paul places it in contrast with speech—the voice of God, as it were, living and combined with effect, as opposed to an empty and dead human eloquence.

It is to be observed, however, that the election of God, which is in itself hidden, is manifested by its marks—when He gathers to Himself the lost sheep, joins them to His flock, and holds out His hand to those who were wandering and estranged from Him. Hence, a knowledge of our election must be sought from this source.

However, just as the secret counsel of God is a labyrinth to those who disregard His calling, so too, those act perversely who, under the pretext of faith and calling, obscure this first grace from which faith itself flows. “By faith,” they say, “we obtain salvation; therefore, there is no eternal predestination of God that distinguishes between us and reprobates.” It is as though they said: “Salvation is of faith; therefore, there is no grace of God that illuminates us in faith.”

On the contrary, just as gratuitous election must be combined with calling as its effect, so it must necessarily, meanwhile, hold the first place.

It matters little to the sense whether you connect ὑπὸ with the participle beloved or with the term election.