1 Peter 3
One cannot help being struck in reading the Epistles of Peter with this thought, that he is always contemplating difficulties in the road of the saint, and suggesting how to get along, so as to glorify God in the very midst of them.
This remark applies very specially to this chapter. He begins with the wives, and supposes that many may have unconverted husbands. Subjection was that which the Lord had laid on the wife; but this thought might arise in her heart, Am I to obey a husband who is unconverted? Never mind, the Lord says, you be in subjection. Then the difficulty might come, What if he asked me to do anything that would lead to the dishonor of God? The answer is simple. It never can be the path of a Christian to dishonor Christ.
(Verses 1-2) “Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.” There might come in even the very point that the wife sees, the privilege of the Table of the Lord, and the husband forbids her going. What is she to do? I believe her path is clear; it is not a command of the Lord, but a privilege, and therefore if the husband forbids, it is the duty of the wife to be subject, till God clear the way, which, in His own time, He may do. The principle is subjection, and that God owns, and we can never traverse the Word of the Lord without distinct retributive judgment following, sooner or later, from the Lord. How much better is it quietly to wait on the Lord for Him to remove the difficulty, than for her to take the bit in her teeth and say, “It is a privilege, and I mean to have it at all costs.”
What is the thought the Lord holds out to the wife? That the husband may be won by her life, her “chaste conversation coupled with fear.” It is a wonderful thing to get a soul converted to God by a life. I can conceive no testimony higher to any saint, than that the quiet walk of subjection to God has been the means of showing Christ to a soul. Many a careless husband has, thank God, been converted through the silent godly testimony of a woman, who always did the right thing, because always thinking of pleasing God. The fear is the danger of overstepping one word of the Lord’s — the fear of misrepresenting Him.
(Verses 3-4) “Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.” There is a beautiful allusion to the fashions, because there is nothing so changeable as fashion, but, the apostle says, you are to have an ornament that is ever the same. Oh to be the possessor of that, which in the sight of God is of great price, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit! It is not shown in what the world around notices; it can only be seen and understood by those who are thrown in contact with the wearer.
It is a beautiful thing to be able even to dress to please the Lord, because the body belongs to Him. Spirit, soul, and body are all His, and we are always to be living to God, having the eye on God, walking before Him.
(Verse 7) “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.” The wife was to give to the husband subjection, and the husband was to give to the wife honor; he was to be the one who should cherish and care for her, as the one given him of God. “That your prayers be not hindered.” There must be some special reason for the apostle speaking of this. Take care, he says, that you so dwell, that your prayers be not hindered. You are heirs together of the grace of life; that is, you possess the life that springs from Christ, and you are heirs together of the grace that flows from Christ now be watchful lest anything come in to hinder your prayers.
Depend upon it, the secret of power does not depend on the public prayer meeting, but on cultivating the spirit of prayer, and this applies when we are but one or two together. It is a beautiful broad principle in Scripture, and nothing so tends to real fellowship as bowing the knee together.
(Verse 8) “Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous.” We have a lovely word here, because the tendency is for different minds to come in and have different interests. Do not have it so, the apostle says; have sympathy one with the other, be pitiful, be not courteous merely, but humble-minded.
(Verse 9) “Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing, not rendering evil for evil.” Evil will rise, he says, you are going through an evil world, and what is the blessed privilege of the child of God in a place where he receives evil every day? To pay it back with good. What a wonderful privilege for a saint of God! He is called to inherit a blessing himself, and to be a blesser of others.
(Verses 10-12) “For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it: for the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.” Now we come to a quotation from the Old Testament Scriptures, the 84th Psalm. It is very instructive to see how in this epistle the apostle lays his hand, by the Spirit of God, on the three great sections of Scripture, and uses them for our edification. In the first chapter he quotes from the law, in the second from the prophets, and now in the third from the Psalms. They are all beautifully brought to bear upon us, for what Peter is about, in his epistle, is presenting the moral government of God over His people in this world.
(Verse 10) It would be a wonderful thing for us to know a little more of this restraining power. You will not find a happy bright Christian who allows himself in the unrestrained use of his tongue. He will not be bright, he will not be happy, and he does not see good days; on the contrary, he sees miserable days, unhappy, dull days, because he has done the thing the Lord told him not to, and he suffers for it.
(Verse 11) You are to seek peace, and pursue it; it is the thing the heart is to be really set on in going through this world, and if any would incite you to cause trouble, you simply say, “No, I will seek peace.”
(Verse 12) Do I shrink from the eyes of the Lord being upon me? Certainly not, if my heart is right with Him. No! Let Him see everything, for the enjoyed presence of God is what preserves a good conscience, not only with Him, but before the enemy.
“The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers.” Sweet word! Peter feels the necessity of prayer and dependence, and if your walk be right, he says, the Lord is attentive to your prayers. “But,” you say, “He does not answer.” Well, perhaps He may be having a controversy with you, “for the face of the Lord is against them that do evil,” and that is as true of a child of God as of an unconverted person. If the soul is doing right, what is the result? You have the eyes of the Lord upon you, and the ears of the Lord open to you, that is, you have the presence of the Lord as the result of a walk that is suited to God. Then you are not a bit afraid of Satan’s power, or of Satan’s wiles. The only way in which we can get along is by enjoying God.
(Verses 13-14) “And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled.” Evil is all about, he says, and you must expect to meet with difficulty and trial; but going through this scene, if you walk before the Lord, who will harm you? People do not harm those that do good, but those who do evil; people are pretty sure to escape who do good.
“But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye.” Do what is thoroughly right, and you may suffer for it in this world, but it is a happy thing for us if we do thus suffer in this Christ-like way. Peter endeavors to assure our souls, very much as Paul comforted the Thessalonians when they were undergoing trouble. “Sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts.” (It is not “the Lord God.”) He says, You sanctify in your hearts the One whom God has exalted as Messiah, and set at His own right hand.
(Verse 15) “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” You are always to be able to give a reason for the joyful expectation that you have. Hope is never uncertainty in Scripture, but the joyful expectation of a certainty. It is a very good thing to be pulled up now and then to give a reason for the joyful expectation that we have. We ought to be able to give a very distinct reason, but our answer is to be given in “meekness and fear,” that is, in a manner that shuts out all levity or lightness, a manner that conveys to the soul that asks the question, this: “It is the most wonderful favor of God to give such a hope to a sinner like me, but I have got it through His grace, and you may get it likewise.”
(Verse 16) “Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evil-doers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.” If I have not a good conscience I am utterly powerless. If I have a bad conscience I cannot meet Satan, and I cannot meet man: but I can go and meet God, confessing my sin, because I shall meet His mercy, and His grace will give me the sense of cleansing and pardon, and when I have again got a purged conscience I can meet both Satan and man.
Paul says, “Herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense.” If I exercise myself, I keep a good conscience; if I have an exorcised conscience, I have a bad conscience. Conscience and communion never work together. If I am in communion with God, what am I doing? I am occupied with God. If I have an exercised conscience, I am occupied with myself, or with what I have done that is wrong.
The shield of faith is confidence in God, the breastplate of righteousness is the practical thing, assurance that I have not done a thing that God would not have me do, or that man could take hold of.
(Verse 17) “For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well-doing, than for evildoing.” I grant you it may seem a hard thing to carry out this verse but it is what Christ did. He did well, and suffered for it, and took it patiently. Why ought the Christian never to suffer as an evildoer? Because Christ once suffered for sin — let that be enough. The apostle says, If you suffer for righteousness’ sake, be happy in it; if for Christ’s sake, glory in it; but for doing evil let not a Christian suffer, because Christ has once suffered for those very sins: a most touching reason.
(Verse 18) “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.” That is His wondrous suffering for sins on the cross, and then the glorious effect of that is that I am brought to God, not brought to heaven or brought to glory, but brought to God in Christ, in His own blessed person. “Being put to death in the flesh,” that is dying as a man, “but quickened by the Spirit,” and then he adds, “By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison.”
(Verses 19-22) “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us, (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels, and authorities, and powers, being made subject unto Him.” That which led to the apostle’s giving this unfolding was, that these Jewish believers were a little company who were frequently taunted because of their faith in a Christ who did not exist on the earth. They were twitted and taunted with the fact of their Christ not being present. Yea, says the apostle, and I can tell you something else, the Spirit of Christ went and preached in Noah’s days, and He was not present then, and there were but a few, even eight, saved then. The little flock with Noah was all right, and the mass of the world was all wrong; judgment overtook the mass of the people in that day, and as it did then, so will judgment overtake the mass of the Jewish nation in this day.
Many a Christian believes that the Lord, between the crucifixion and resurrection, went down to hell, and, during the time that His Spirit was absent from the body, preached in hell to the spirits who had been disobedient in Noah’s time. But it is very peculiar that Christ should preach only to the disobedient of Noah’s day, and leave all the rest. He would not have been so particular as to His audience, I believe, had he gone there, but I do not believe he did. He says elsewhere, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hades” (Psa. 16:1010For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. (Psalm 16:10)). That His soul went into hades is certain from this scripture, but we must bear in mind that “hades” is a condition, not a place. There is a hades of the blessed dead, as well as a hades of the wicked dead. Into the hades of the blessed Jesus undoubtedly passed, for He said to the dying thief, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise,” and eventually, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:43-4643And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. 44And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. 45And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. 46And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost. (Luke 23:43‑46)). We may safely conclude that the hades He went to was not the “prison” in which the spirits of the godless of Noah’s day are chained.
The Spirit of Christ in Noah really preached to the people in Noah’s day. How the Spirit of Christ? We have seen in the first chapter of this epistle that very expression (ch. 1:10-11). The Spirit of Christ in the prophets could write Scripture, and then search Scripture. So the Spirit of Christ in Noah could proclaim the gospel to the antediluvians, while they were men on the earth. In Genesis 6 God says, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man.” This is the very word. The Spirit of the Lord strove with them for a hundred and twenty years. The Spirit of Christ in Noah proclaimed the gospel all that time. It was the preaching of righteousness and coming judgment. The spirits of these men are in prison now, because they were disobedient to the word preached to them then.
I believe the apostle introduced the passage for two reasons. This little company of Jewish believers was looked down upon by the rest of the nation, because they were so few in number, and because Christ was not corporeally among them, and He would comfort them as to both points, for only a few, eight persons, were in the right, and saved in Noah’s time, and the Spirit of Christ preached then, though He Himself was not present. Then he makes an allusion to our present condition as believers, the consequence and result of the Lord being raised from the dead.
Water, which was the very thing that was the death of the world, saved Noah. “The like figure whereunto, even baptism, doth also now save us.” Not baptism but that of which baptism is the figure.
It is not the answer of a good conscience here, but the request of a good conscience, because the moment a soul is quickened it wants to know how it can stand before God in righteousness. Well, Peter says, this is how you get it. It is not the purgation of any evil by ourselves, but Christ died and put our sins away. In baptism death is accepted. Like Noah, the believer is on the other side of death and judgment.
I look up, Peter says, and see Christ raised from the dead, and gone into heaven, angels being made subject to Him. There was a beautiful touch for the believing Jew. I have a good conscience, and a seated Christ in glory, and I am on the other side of death and judgment, seated in Christ at God’s right hand. This is the blessed portion of the Christian in this world.