1 Peter 3

1-7 Wives and Husbands

• Wives, accept your husband’s authority, so even unbelieving husbands will be impressed – not by your words – but by your purity and show of respect.
• Don’t be as concerned about your outward appearance as you are about the beauty of your inner qualities – a gentle and quiet spirit.
• Look to God’s holy women of old – like Sarah – as examples of respect for their husbands.
• Become her “daughters” by doing good and not living in fear. I’m not sure why this reference to fear is here. Maybe it has to do with being worrisome, which would certainly take away from having a quiet spirit. Maybe it refers to trusting our husbands to do what is best for the family and not worrying them with every detail. We know Abraham as a man of faith because he struck out for an unknown land at God’s bidding. Sarah obviously trusted Abraham to know what he was doing. She apparently went with him without protest, without a lot of “but what if’s.”
• In the same way, husbands, though your wives may be physically weaker, honor them as valuable in God’s eyes, for you both will receive the same gift of life.
• You can’t pray effectively to God while disrespecting your wife.

8-22 Doing Good in All Circumstances

• Definition of good: spiritual unity, sympathy, love, tenderness, humility, repaying abuse with a blessing.
• You’ve been chosen to inherit a blessing, as it has been written: if you want a good life, keep your language pure and seek peace, and the Lord’s ears will be open to your prayers.
• But if you choose to speak and do evil, his face will be against you. The choice: a father’s loving eyes or his stern face. Not unlike the choice any child has.
• Typically, you will come to no harm when you do good things.
• But even if you do, remember who your Lord is, and be ready to answer questions about your faith “with gentleness and reverence.” Confidence in your faith is no excuse for rudeness.
• If you suffer, it’s better that it is for doing good than for doing evil; remember Christ, who – though righteous – suffered in order to reconcile the unrighteous to God.
• Though his flesh was put to death, his spirit remains alive – that same spirit that was in Noah (“herald of righteousness,” per 2 Peter 2:5) as God waited patiently for Noah to build the ark.
• The flood was a “pre-figure” of baptism, which saves you. This figure has always puzzled me – how a destroying flood can be a symbol of a cleansing baptism. The only conclusion I can reach is that the flood saved Noah and his family by raising them up out of the dregs of humanity (those who could think only of evil continually, per Genesis 6:5), just as when we come out of the waters of baptism, we are set apart from the world.
• It’s not just getting wet that saves us, but an answer of [or request for?] a good conscience, because of the resurrection of Christ. Different translations of use different words. In the KJV, it’s “an answer of”; ASV calls it “an interrogation of,” while the RSV and NASV translate it “appeal to God for.” (The Greek is eperotema, which means enquiry, question, or demand.) Since I’m more familiar with the KJV, I’ve thought of this as a prick in our conscience that motivates us to obey God in baptism, but I can see how it can better mean that, in our baptism, we are appealing to, subjecting ourselves to, the only one that can take away our guilt.
• He has gone into heaven to be at the right hand of God, with authority over angels, authorities and powers.