by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
Why wouldn’t I, if I am thinking right? I am “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father<\/em>” (I Peter 1:2). God’s elect are “his own special people<\/em>” (I Peter 2:9). Everyone is not chosen. Many are called, but few are chosen (Matthew 20:16).<\/p>\n If you are among the elect, you have been “sanctified by the Spirit,<\/em>” which means you were set apart from the rest of the world by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit does this through the “truth” He revealed (John 17:17). The gospel is the means by which the Spirit sets us apart from the others (Romans 1:16; I Peter 1:12,22). The obedient believers have been “sprinkled” with the blood of Christ (I Peter 1:2). This is the means of clearing our conscience of the guilt of a sinful past, washing us clean.<\/p>\n Cleansed, sanctified, and obedient people are to God the most special people. He lavishes the elect with “every spiritual blessing in Christ<\/em>” (Ephesians 1:3ff). He adopts us into His family and has a very special “inheritance” reserved for us in heaven (I Peter 1:3-4). Jesus “loved me and gave Himself for me<\/em>” (Galatians 2:20f).<\/p>\n Why would Christians not feel very special if they are thinking right? Are you thinking right?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton Why wouldn’t I, if I am thinking right? I am “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” (I Peter 1:2). God’s elect are “his own special people” (I Peter 2:9). Everyone is not chosen. Many are called, but few are chosen (Matthew 20:16). If you are among the elect,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[642],"class_list":["post-96083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-christianity"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23859,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-are-the-elect-in-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":96083,"position":0},"title":"Who are the elect in the Bible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Who are the \"elect\" the Bible talks about? Answer: \"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34164,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-primitive-baptists-believe\/","url_meta":{"origin":96083,"position":1},"title":"What do Primitive Baptists believe?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: To start with, I want to thank you for your website, particularly the questions and answers section. It is well organized and presents a strong knowledge base, which I am now wanting to draw from. I am a member of the church of Christ and have been using your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91173,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/be-holy-in-all-your-conduct\/","url_meta":{"origin":96083,"position":2},"title":"Be Holy in All Your Conduct","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 10, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh DeLong \"But as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct;\u2026\" (I Peter 1:15). Holy is from the same word in I Peter 1:2 that is translated 'sanctifying', which means 'consecrated', 'purified', 'set apart'. When we become Christians, we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38014,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/learning-from-overlooked-details\/","url_meta":{"origin":96083,"position":3},"title":"Learning from Overlooked Details","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 17, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Steve Wolfgang As part of my morning devotional, a recent reading was \"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia\" (I Peter 1:1 ESV). I am fascinated by the geography of the opening verse. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91290,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/election\/","url_meta":{"origin":96083,"position":4},"title":"Election","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Kenneth Frazier via Sentry Magazine, Vol. 18 No. 1, 31 March 1992 John Calvin is well known for his views on election and predestination. Qualben's \"A History of the Christian Church\" gives this evaluation of Calvin's belief. \"As a logical tonsequence, Calvin asserted that God had from eternity foreordained\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28786,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-baptism-of-cornelius\/","url_meta":{"origin":96083,"position":5},"title":"The Baptism of Cornelius","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: Acts 10:34-48 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Groups who believe in the direct operation of the Holy Spirit in their lives today will cite the conversion of Cornelius and his household as proof \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Some will go so far as to state that a person is not really saved unless they experience the baptism\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96083\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}