A CHOOSING, a picking-out — from eklegō, to select (the root of 'eclectic'). ⚠ It is worth seeing the word before the doctrine grew on it: at 1 Thessalonians 1:4, its earliest datable use in Christian writing, Paul states the readers' 'choosing' and then immediately argues FROM the evidence — 'because our gospel did not come to you in word only' — rather than explaining or defending it. The choosing is inferred from something that visibly happened in the room. The systematic questions the word later carries (Romans 9-11 is where Paul himself pushes them) are not in view here, and reading them back into this sentence is anachronism. → first discussed at 1 Thessalonians 1:4