Amos 3:2

"You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will visit upon you all your iniquities.

"You only have I known ..." "The word `known' in this context is a covenant word, used to describe a relationship instead of cognition."[4] It means, "Jehovah chose Israel alone to be his people."[5] To infer from this that God had no information of other nations, or that, in any sense, he was unaware of them, "would be a limitation upon God's nature,"[6] and also a notion utterly confounded by the stern judgments against other nations appearing in this very prophecy. In short, the doctrine of the election of Israel is the thing in view; but Amos revealed an altogether shocking corollary of it, responsibility and conformity to the will of God, a corollary that Israel had overlooked. Instead of reading their election as:

Now that we are God's, he will help and bless us no matter what we do.

Amos gave them the true version of it:

Now that we are God's, he will surely punish us for all of our iniquities.

It is amazing how this ancient delusion of Israel persists even today in millions of people who think they are "saved by faith alone." God's election, God's grace, God's covenant with his people has from the beginning, continually, and always rested upon the contingency that the recipients of his mercy would continue to love God, and to the best of their ability, obey him.

Christians today should also read the true version of their salvation by the grace of God:

We are God's, and therefore we are under the uttermost obligation to love him and obey him.