The phrase displays the nature of God’s activity among people, specifically in relation to election (1 Peter 1:1). God the Father determined beforehand which persons from all humanity would be set aside to be exiles, strangers scattered throughout the five districts of Asia Minor. Peter does not indicate what the fore
(beforehand) refers to, though clearly the Father’s knowledge of who were elect was settled before these addressees found themselves in the Dispersion. (Paul indicates it occurred before God created the world, Ephesians 1:4.) The point is that what has happened in the lives of Peter’s addressees (so that they find themselves to be strangers in a strange land) was not happenstance but was the consequence of a decision the Lord God had made concerning them in the past. Their lives have unfolded according to the predetermined plan of God their Father (Acts 23:1–35; Acts 4:27–28).
2 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.