1 Peter · chapter 3 of 5
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1 Peter 3 teaches how to live faith at home, with wives whose conduct can win their husbands and husbands who honor their wives, and in the community, with unity, blessing instead of revenge and readiness to give a reason for hope with gentleness. It presents Christ, the righteous one who suffered once for the unrighteous to bring us to God, and compares Noah's ark with baptism.
After calling believers God's people, Peter applies that identity to their closest relationships and to their witness before others. The chapter also contains one of the most difficult passages of the New Testament, the spirits in prison, on which interpreters have proposed different readings.
Peter asks wives to be subject to their own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, as they see their respectful and pure lives. Their adornment should not be merely external but the hidden person of the heart, the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in God's sight. So the holy women adorned themselves, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham. Husbands are to live with their wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel and as heirs with them of the grace of life, so that their prayers may not be hindered.
He asks all to have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind, not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but blessing, for they were called to obtain a blessing. He quotes Psalm 34: the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous. Even if they suffer for righteousness' sake, they are blessed. They must not fear but honor Christ as Lord in their hearts, always ready to give a defense to anyone who asks for a reason for their hope, with gentleness and respect. It is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will.
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit. In that state he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities and powers subject to him.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but bless, because believers were called to inherit a blessing. The Christian response to evil is blessing.
Honor Christ as Lord in your hearts and always be prepared to answer with gentleness and respect anyone who asks for a reason for your hope. Witness does not require arguing but explaining with humility.
Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God. His suffering opens the way into God's presence.
Baptism, the counterpart of the ark, saves through the resurrection of Jesus Christ as an appeal to God for a good conscience. Christ reigns at God's right hand with everything subject to him.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: With their conduct, without a word. — 1 Peter 3:1-2
Answer: A gentle and quiet spirit of the heart. — 1 Peter 3:4
Answer: Live with them in an understanding way, honoring them as fellow heirs of the grace of life. — 1 Peter 3:7
Answer: They must bless. — 1 Peter 3:9
Answer: To give a reason for the hope in them, with gentleness and respect. — 1 Peter 3:15
Answer: Eight persons. — 1 Peter 3:20
1 Peter 3 presents a witness that is lived first at home. In a small group you can ask whether treatment at home reflects the character of Christ, and which concrete changes, such as more listening, honor and gentleness, would make the home more faithful. The text does not justify violence or humiliation; it calls for mutual respect.
Verse 15 also invites preparation. Each person can write a few lines on why they have hope in Christ, so they can share it calmly when someone asks, without arguments or superiority.
1 Peter 3 ends with the exalted Christ, on whom all of the readers' hope rests. Chapter 4 applies the example of his suffering: living for the will of God, loving fervently and not being surprised by the fiery trial.
Interpreters understand it in three main ways: that Christ, by the Spirit, preached through Noah to the people of his day, now in prison; that after his death he proclaimed his victory to fallen spiritual beings; or that he announced the gospel to the dead. Peter does not explain, and the center of the passage is Christ's victory and the hope of believers.
Peter clarifies that it is not the water that cleans the body but the appeal to God for a good conscience, and that it saves through the resurrection of Christ. Christians understand it in different ways, but the text stresses that salvation comes from Christ and not from a rite.
The phrase points to the fact that women were generally more vulnerable in that setting, not that she is lesser before God, since she is a fellow heir of the grace of life. Peter asks for considerate and respectful treatment.