Chapter Three

Instructions for women (7); for men (1-6); and for all Christians (8-17). The redemptive sufferings of Christ the Savior and their saving consequences (18-23).

1 Peter 3:1. Likewise, you wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some disobey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, 1 Peter 3:2. when they see your pure and reverent conduct. Similar in character to the previous particular instructions to servants (1 Pet 2:18), the Apostle now proposes instructions for Christian women; to all of them he advises submission to their own husbands, with the special goal, probably, of emphasizing the concept of submission—wishing to prevent Christian wives from desiring to refuse obedience to their pagan or Jewish husbands: examples of such mixed marriages in early Christianity were not uncommon (cf. 1 Cor 7:12 and following). Like the Apostle Paul (1 Cor 7:16), Apostle Peter expects a missionary effort from the Christian wife toward her non-Christian husband: the gentleness, good behavior, and holiness of a Christian woman could dispose an unbelieving husband toward Christianity. “Pagans gain a good understanding of faith and zeal for it, which our obedience to authorities produces, and on our account they give thanks to Christ, and for Christians it is great praise when, on our account and for our good behavior, even pagans bless the name of God. The words ‘will be won over without a word’ mean either that they are won over without any reasoning or contradiction, or that proof from deeds is stronger than words and artifice, as the holy man said: ‘a deed not accompanied by words is better than a word not accompanied by a deed’ (Blessed Theophil.).

1 Peter 3:3. Let your beauty not be the outward adorning of braiding the hair, of gold ornaments, or of fine clothing, 1 Peter 3:4. but let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in God’s sight. The holy Apostle now portrays more truly and deeply the moral character of a Christian woman, on one hand rejecting and condemning the custom and passion of pagan women for luxury in dress and ornament (v. 3), and on the other hand presenting and demanding from Christian women the inner imperishable beauty of the spirit—that is, the spiritual attitude formed and guided by the Holy Spirit (cf. 2 Cor 4:16; Eph 3:16)—and pointing to gentleness (the absence of pride, irritability, and anger) and quietness, peacefulness, and tranquility as the chief virtues adorning the spirit of a Christian woman. These qualities of the spirit, according to the Apostle, have great value in God’s eyes.

1 Peter 3:5. For in this way, in former times, the holy women also who hoped in God adorned themselves, being subject to their own husbands. 1 Peter 3:6. So Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. You are her children, if you do good and are not afraid with any fear. To strengthen his exhortation to Christian women regarding submission to their husbands, the Apostle points to ancient Old Testament examples of virtuous women who adorned themselves chiefly through obedience to their husbands. From biblical women, the Apostle particularly singles out (v. 6) Sarah, the ancestress of the Hebrews, who testified to her wifely respect and submission to her husband Abraham by calling him master (Hebrew baal, Greek kyrios), Gen 18:12. The example of Sarah was especially persuasive for Christian women from among the Jews, but Christian women from among the Gentiles could also be called daughters of Sarah in spirit, just as all Christians are called by Apostle Paul children of Abraham, the father of believers (Rom 4:16). Apostle Peter assumes such spiritual kinship of Christian women with Sarah here, when he makes this kinship conditional on two circumstances: a) if you do what is good, and b) you are not frightened by any fear: “when adorning themselves as befits Christian women, he persuades them to be merciful, not fearing punishment from their husbands... By this exalted speech, persuading careful and timid women to give more generously of household things, the Apostle also restrains husbands from severity toward them.”

1 Peter 3:7. Likewise, you husbands, live considerately with your wives, showing honor to the weaker vessel as joint heirs of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. In Christianity, the submission of a wife to her husband must not have a slavish character; rather, it must have the character of free moral obedience with the husband’s reciprocal kind treatment of her. The relations of Christian husbands to their wives, according to the Apostle, should be distinguished by thoughtful consideration of them as the weaker party, and moreover by special respect, delicacy, and regard. Both these qualities present a new, purely Christian foundation: women together and equally with men are fellow heirs of the grace of life and eternal salvation (cf. Gal 3:28); more specifically, the mutual and joint prayer of spouses, both private and public (cf. 1 Cor 7:5; 1 Tim 2:8-9), requires a reconciled and undisturbed Christian spirit, and this is possible only through the purely moral mutual relations of Christian spouses required by the Apostle.

1 Peter 3:8. Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind; 1 Peter 3:9. do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse, but instead bless, knowing that to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. From particular instructions to persons of separate stations, the Apostle again turns to general instructions for all Christians, and the essence of these instructions is the commandment about love and its kinds and manifestations. “Having completed particular instructions concerning husbands and wives, he generalizes the exhortation to all... I say to all in general. For this is the end; all have one goal—salvation, all have one law—love. From this arise all virtues, humility, compassion, mercy, and so forth. From these, ‘oneness of mind’ is complete indifference to agreement on something. ‘Compassion’ is sorrow for the suffering, the same as for ourselves. ‘Love of brothers’ is the disposition toward neighbors such as should be toward brothers. ‘Tender-heartedness’ is a soul’s striving toward acts of kindness to those of the same kind. ‘Love of wisdom’ is gentleness and friendliness with all, as with acquaintances and friends. ‘Humility’ or ‘humble-mindedness’ is bearing blame from another, awareness of one’s sinfulness, bearing accusations, which could be called good judgment. ‘Insult’ is a tendency to slander arising from bad habit. With these virtues adorn yourselves’ (Blessed Theophil.).

1 Peter 3:10. For, whoever loves life and desires to see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech; 1 Peter 3:11. let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. 1 Peter 3:12. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off their remembrance from the earth. The Apostle strengthens his previous instructions with a reference to the words of the psalmist, Ps 33:13-17, as if saying: “he who loves life—that is, who transforms himself for true life and wants to show it as desirable (for the expression ‘wishing to love’ indicates desiring to show it as longed for by people to the breaking point)—let him adhere firmly to what the prophetic word proposes together with me” (Blessed Theophil.).

1 Peter 3:13. And who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 1 Peter 3:14. But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed; do not fear their threats and do not be troubled. 1 Peter 3:15. In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord, always being ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you to account for the hope that is in you, with gentleness and respect. 1 Peter 3:16. Keep your conscience clear, so that those who speak evil against you may be put to shame when they see your good conduct in Christ. 1 Peter 3:17. For if it is God’s will, it is better to suffer for doing good than for doing evil; The Apostle expresses an exalted view of virtue, possessing such intrinsic worth that no external evil can cause essential damage to the virtuous (v. 12; cf. Rom 8:33); on the contrary, it elevates its justifying power (v. 14; Matt 5:10). At the same time, the exhortation to Christians not to fear the threats of persecutors, as well as the exhortation to zealously seek God’s glory in the souls of believers, the Apostle expresses, in his customary manner, with words from the Old Testament, specifically: the prophet Isaiah (Isa 8:12-13). With the inner sanctification of God in Christian hearts must be joined also the outward confession of Him before people, the readiness of believers to give an account of their hope to anyone who asks. “The Apostle commands a faithful person to always be ready to give an account of the faith, so that whenever anyone asks us about the faith, we can always answer easily, and do so with gentleness, as if in the presence of God Himself... It should be noted that these words of the Apostle do not contradict Christ’s saying. When the Lord says that when they bring you before governors and authorities, we should not worry about how to answer (Luke 21:14), and Peter now commands preparing an answer, the Lord is speaking of testimony, and the Apostle Peter is speaking of teaching” (Blessed Theophil.). Hope, according to the Apostle, forms the very essence of true spiritual Christian life, and the answer or account of this hope, grounded in faith, must be “with gentleness and reverence,” from reverent respect for divine truth and without a trace of arrogance. Here is—for all times—a lesson for all confessors, defenders, and missionaries of the Christian faith! In v. 17, the thought of verse 14 about it being better to suffer for good deeds than for evil is repeated and justified (cf. 1 Pet 2:20).

1 Peter 3:18. because Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, so that he might bring you to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, 1 Peter 3:19. in which he also went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 1 Peter 3:20. who formerly disobeyed, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being built, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved from the water. Supporting the thought just expressed about the innocent sufferings of a Christian (v. 1 Pet 3:14-17), the Apostle now (v. 18) says that Christ Himself suffered innocently; at the same time, the Apostle, “to show the power of the One who suffered, added: ‘once’ (Blessed Theophil.), and the immeasurably greater, universally historical redemptive significance of Christ the Savior’s sufferings, the Apostle showed by ‘the righteous for the unrighteous’; the purpose and saving consequence of Christ’s sufferings is that He, as the True High Priest, brought us to God, that is, opened to sinful humanity access to God, just as the Old Testament priesthood had the duty and power to be a mediator in reconciling the people, defiled by sin, with God. From the second half of v. 18, the Apostle sets forth the dogmatic Christian teaching about Christ’s descent after death and before resurrection into hell to preach to pre-Christian humanity. The state of Christ the Savior after death, expressed by the Apostle in the phrase “put to death in the flesh, made alive in the spirit,” is precisely rendered in the well-known paschal church hymn “in the grave in the flesh, in hell as God with the soul...” The passive form of the verb made-alive—properly ‘being made alive’—stands in the Apostle’s writing in keeping with his usual usage: the saving acts of Jesus Christ in the work of divine economy, Apostle Peter usually presents as acts of God the Father: “God raised Christ” (Acts 2:24); “Christ was exalted by God’s right hand” (Acts 2:33). According to v. 19, Christ in his made-alive spirit—but still before his resurrection from the dead—descended into the underground prison (phylake), that is, Sheol, or hell (cf. Eph 4:9-10) for the purpose of preaching the Gospel (cf. Matt 4:23) to the spirits there. The content of this preaching could only be the good news of the accomplished redemption and its saving fruits, with calls to all spirits to repentance and faith, Eph 4:6. According to the belief of the Orthodox Church, Christ’s preaching in hell was preceded by preaching about Him there by the Forerunner and Baptist of Christ (Troparion of the Forerunner). In v. 20, from all those to whom Christ preached repentance and salvation in hell, as an example are named the wicked contemporaries of Noah, who in their time resisted or disobeyed God’s patience, which awaited their repentance and specially called them through Noah, through his preaching and the very act of building the ark (Gen 6:3 and following). If the saving preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ extended to such great sinners, then certainly His preaching touched all sinners and righteous people in general (cf. Ps 15:10) who lived before Noah and after Noah, before Christ’s coming. The contemporaries of Noah are named in v. 20 precisely as an example and, probably, because of the connection with the further development of the Apostle’s discourse (v. 20b-21a), where, in the image of Noah with his family, saved from the flood, he shows the salvation of Christians through baptism; moreover, in the New Testament, the times of Noah are repeatedly presented as typical in relation to subsequent Christian times (Matt 24:37 and following; 2 Pet 2:5; Heb 11:7 and others).

1 Peter 3:21. And baptism, corresponding to this, now saves you—not as the removal of filth from the flesh, but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 1 Peter 3:22. who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels and authorities and powers subjected to him. In the concept of the historical universal water flood, the Apostle now takes not its punitive but its saving side, which conditions the construction of the discourse 1 Pet 3:20: “were saved by (more precisely from the Greek dia: by means of) the water.” The Apostle “represented that salvation was preached to people from the beginning, but they, inclined to vanity, neglected it, and at a time when people were countless in number, only eight souls obeyed the preaching and were saved in the built ark. Since salvation was in water, he rightly applies this to holy baptism and says that that water pointed to our baptism, because it will also destroy disobedient demons and saves those who come in faith into the ark, that is, into the church, and just as water washes away filth, so baptism, only it produces the removal of filth not physical, but by means of an external sign produces a washing away of spiritual pollution. It is like a pledge and a commitment of a clear conscience before God” (Blessed Theophil.). Baptism, the antitype later (antitypon), the Apostle defines in essence partly negatively, contrasting it with the many Jewish washings, which cleansed only bodily, not spiritual uncleanness—partly positively as “the pledge of a clear conscience toward God” (syneidesestos agathe eperotema eis theon), by which the Apostle expresses both the grace granted at baptism from God—the forgiveness or cleansing of sins and reconciliation with God—and on the other hand the prayer of the one baptized for the preservation of this clear conscience for future time. This power of baptism is rooted in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His subsequent ascension into heaven, whereby He, as God-man, was freely obeyed by the heavenly spirits (v. 22. Cf. Heb 1:4).