You became imitators of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit,
So the scripture does teach divine election. It never teaches divine election apart from the foreknowledge of God. Whom He did foreknow, He did also predestinate, that they shall be conformed in the image of His Son. And so Paul taught the doctrine of divine election to the church in just a month's time.