📖 Biblical Definition
The "chosen people" refers to God's sovereign act of selecting a people for Himself — not because of their merit but because of His love and covenant faithfulness. "The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people...but it is because the LORD loves you" (Deuteronomy 7:6-8). In the New Testament, the Church — composed of believing Jews and Gentiles — is called "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation" (1 Peter 2:9). Election is God's sovereign grace, not ethnic privilege.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Chosen: Selected from a number; picked out; elected. The people of God, chosen by His sovereign will.
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CHO'SEN, pp. Selected from a number; picked out; elected; taken in preference. Note: Webster understood "chosen" as the act of God's sovereign will in selecting a people — the Hebrews in the Old Testament and believers in Christ in the New.
📖 Key Scripture
• Deuteronomy 7:6-8 — "The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession."
• 1 Peter 2:9 — "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession."
• Ephesians 1:4-5 — "He chose us in him before the foundation of the world."
• Romans 11:1-5 — "God has not rejected His people...there is a remnant, chosen by grace."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Election is distorted into ethnic supremacy or denied as divine favoritism.
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The concept of "chosen people" is corrupted from two directions. Some treat Israel's election as permanent ethnic supremacy disconnected from covenant faithfulness — ignoring that God's promises find their fulfillment in Christ. Others reject election altogether as "unfair," imposing human egalitarianism on God's sovereign will. Both errors misread Scripture. God's choice of Israel was for the purpose of bringing the Messiah to all nations, not for ethnic privilege. And God's election of believers in Christ is pure grace — "not because of our works but because of his own purpose" (2 Timothy 1:9). To be chosen is to be called to holiness and mission, not to entitlement.
Usage
• "To be God's chosen people is not ethnic privilege but covenant responsibility — Israel was chosen to bring the Messiah, and the Church is chosen to proclaim Him."
• "Election is God's sovereign grace in action, not favoritism — He chose us not because of our merit but because of His love."