3
A word to wives
1 Similarly,* wives, be submissive to your own husbands, so that even if some are disobedient to the Word, they may be won over, without a word, by the conduct of their wives 2 (having watched your pure behavior accompanied by respect), 3 whose adorning should not be the outward one of braiding hair and wearing gold, or putting on fine clothing,† 4 but rather the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible adorning of the gentle and quiet spirit that is of great value before God. 5 For this is how the holy women who hoped in God in former times also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands, 6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him ‘lord’, whose (f) daughters you became‡ by doing good and not being afraid of any intimidation.§
A word to husbands
7 Similarly,* husbands, live together knowledgeably as with a weaker vessel,† according honor to the wife especially as being a joint heir of the grace of life,‡ for your prayers not to be hindered.§
The golden rule
8 Finally, all of you be like-minded, compassionate, loving as brothers,* tenderhearted, courteous,† 9 not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but instead blessing, knowing that you were called to this so that you may inherit a blessing. 10 For:
“The one who wants to love life and to see good days
must refrain his tongue from evil
and his lips from speaking deceit;
11 he must turn away from evil and do good;
he must seek peace, even pursue it.
12 Because the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous,
and His ears open to their prayer;
but the face of the Lord is against those doing evil.”‡
Better to suffer than to sin
13 Now who is he who will harm you if you become imitators of the good?§ 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear, neither be troubled.”* 15 Rather, sanctify the Lord God† in your hearts, and always be ready with an answer for everyone who asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, with meekness‡ and respect; 16 keeping a good conscience, so that wherein they speak against you as evildoers,§ those who revile your good way of life in Christ may be put to shame.* 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, should the will of God so determine, than for doing evil.
Follow Christ's example to victory
18 Because Christ also suffered on account of sins, once for all,† the righteous on behalf of the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God; having been put to death, to be sure, in flesh, but having been made alive in spirit; 19 in which He also went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison‡ 20 who formerly were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, while the Ark was being prepared,§ in which a few, that is eight, souls were brought safely through water. 21 This is an antitype* of baptism, that now saves us also (not the removal of physical filth, but the appeal into God from a good conscience) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.†
* 3:1 This is parallel to 2:18 above, and both are examples of “the will of God”, 2:15. † 3:3 Peter is not advocating a sloppy or slovenly appearance; the problem is the vanity and competition expressed by extravagant hairstyles, clothes, jewelry—anything to get attention. ‡ 3:6 A woman becomes a ‘daughter of Abraham’ by faith in God; she becomes a ‘daughter of Sarah’ by doing good. § 3:6 An incorruptible character does not surrender to intimidation. Since there has never been a lack of evil people in the world, to keep on being and doing good one must stand up to intimidation. * 3:7 This is parallel to 3:1 and 2:18. † 3:7 Oh dear me, definitely not politically correct in this year of our Lord! But then, when did the Sovereign Lord ever worry about being ‘politically correct’, especially in a culture heavily influenced by Satan? And when did the Sovereign's true servants ever worry about being ‘politically correct’ in such a culture? Remember James 4:4—“Adulterers and adulteresses! [so 98% of the Greek manuscripts]. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? So whoever may want to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” 1 John 2:15-17 is to the same effect. To love the things of the world (especially its values) is to adulterate against God: “the love of the Father is not in him”. As Joshua said so long ago, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15). In Genesis 3:16 the Creator said to the woman, “your desire shall be for your husband”—a woman's emotional health and sense of security are heavily influenced by her husband's attitudes, more so than vice versa. ‡ 3:7 “The grace of life”—I love it. I take this to be the bottom line in marriage, husband and wife are joint heirs of the grace of life. Without males the race dies out; without females the race dies out; so both sexes are 100% necessary, so they are equally important. But for people to live together harmoniously there has to be organization, a chain of command, an authority structure. § 3:7 Oops, there is more involved than meets the eye. “Your” is plural—it could be referring to the husbands, but could also be referring to a husband and his wife, which seems to me more likely. Praying together is an important activity for any Christian couple, but if their relationship is strained such praying becomes awkward, in fact probably won't even happen. * 3:8 This list of attitudes refers primarily to relationships within the Christian community. † 3:8 Instead of “courteous”, some 22% of the Greek manuscripts, have ‘humble’ (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.). ‡ 3:12 The quote is from Psalm 34:12-16. Based on this Psalm, the blessing to be inherited is in this life. Without peace life is not ‘good’. § 3:13 “The good” is ambiguous as to gender; it could be a good person or a good thing, or a generic good. * 3:14 The quote is from Isaiah 8:12. In that context there is a contrast between Jehovah as the ‘fear’ of Israel and whatever god the others fear. Whatever ‘fear’ motivates those who persecute you for doing good, do not let it shake your devotion to the true God. † 3:15 Instead of “God”, perhaps 6% of the Greek manuscripts have ‘Christ’ (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.). ‡ 3:15 ‘Meek’ is not ‘weak’—it is power that is restrained, under control. Since the worldview of the Bible is far superior to all others, someone who really understands the issues can smash the opposition, but Peter says not to do that; by handling the questioners gently we have a better chance of converting them. In verse 18 below he will make the point that in this we will be following Christ's example. But remember what Jesus Himself said about ‘dogs’ and ‘pigs’ in Matthew 7:6. § 3:16 This clause is a repeat of 2:12. * 3:16 Often such people are put to shame in this life, but if not, they certainly will be at the Judgment. † 3:18 “Once for all”—no one can kill Jesus twice. ‡ 3:19 What spirits are these? Peter gives a little more detail in his second letter, 2:4-6. “For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction…” So the spirits in question are angels. Jude 6-7 refers to those same angels: “and the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these [angels], having given themselves over to fornication and gone after a different kind of flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” Recall that the men of Sodom wanted to rape the angels who were in Lot's house; whatever kind of flesh angels have when they materialize, it is not human flesh, it is precisely a different kind of flesh. So the angels in question are the ones who cohabited with women, producing the mongrel race of nephilim (Genesis 6:2-4). Their crime was so terrible that God incarcerated them even before Jehovah the Son became flesh and defeated Satan—they were put in cold (or hot) storage until human history played itself out. So the “proclamation” that Jesus went to make to those spirits was that he had won and that their condemnation was now irreversible. § 3:20 It probably took Noah at least 100 years. * 3:21 Why “antitype” rather than ‘type’? I suppose because the roles are reversed: the ark was to save Noah from the water, the water was the problem; in baptism the water is part of the solution, it saves us from something else. From what, from sin and death? Probably not. I have been given to understand that for the early Church water baptism was meant to do the following: by invoking the name of the Lord Jesus Christ the convert was placing himself under Christ's protection and repudiating Satan and the world system (with its values) and the demons controlled by him. Recall that in the New Testament water baptism followed immediately upon conversion (no weeks or months of instruction). Peter discounts the physical effect of water—the point is to appeal to God in good conscience—and goes on to the victory of Christ over death and the whole angelic hierarchy. So obviously He is in a position to protect us from Satan and his angels. † 3:22 I believe that this truth is directly relevant to Ephesians 2:6 (see the footnote there). In Christ we have authority over the hierarchy of fallen angels. [I am still working on how we may interact with the good ones.]