1 Peter 1:1-2

I am changing what I am doing on this blog in order that I may kept going better. I will keep this blog strictly for posts about what I reading or studying for papers and sermons that deal with the Bible. I am hoping to blog more often than I have currently been doing. I will try to post meditations here without getting to personal. Meditations may come from the Greek text (they will be taged as "Greek"), even so, I will never assume you know Greek and will provide translations. I also hope to start some different series.  School may delay these posts. I will try to stick with less technical language.

1 Peter 1:1-2

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

 This salutation brings a lot of theological important right from the start. Particularly to the people that Peter is addressing. Peter calls them "elect," "foreknew," "set apart." All three members of the Trinity are present in this. The term elect has overtones from the OT where God called certain people to select a particular nation called Israel. These people are elected based on God's foreknowledge1

and in setting them apart (sanctification) with Spirit. These elect called for obedience to and being cleanse by Christ.
I want to camp out at obedience and cleansing in relation to God's foreknowledge and the setting apart by the Spirit. There is a relation to these actions, that is, God's foreknowledge and "sanctification of the Spirit" procede obedience and cleansing. Dr. Thomas Schreiener notes in the NAC commentary of 1 Peter that sanctification here means a setting part.

1:Here foreknowledge means that God knows who is elect. Add predestination to this would be incorrect though predestination includes God's foreknowledge.