1Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some disobey the word, they may be won over without a word through the conduct of their wives,
2when they observe your pure conduct carried out in fear.
3Let your adornment not be the external kind—braiding of hair and wearing of gold or putting on of garments—
4but rather the hidden person of the heart, in the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.
5For in this way formerly the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being subject to their own husbands,
6as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. You have become her children, doing good and not being afraid of any terror.
7Husbands, likewise, live with your wives with understanding, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they too are fellow heirs of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.
8Finally, all of you be of one mind, sympathetic, loving one another as brothers, tenderhearted, humble-minded,
9not repaying evil for evil or insult for insult, but on the contrary blessing, because for this you were called, so that you might inherit a blessing.
10For “whoever wants to love life and to see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit;
11let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.
12For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
13And who will harm you if you become zealous for what is good?
14But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “Do not fear their fear, nor be troubled,”
15but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you,
16yet with gentleness and reverence, keeping a good conscience, so that in the very thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame.
17For it is better, if the will of God should so will, to suffer while doing good than while doing evil.
18Because 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;
19in which also he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,
20who formerly disobeyed, when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few—that is, eight souls—were brought safely through water.
21which now also saves you, baptism, as its antitype—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
22who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, with angels and authorities and powers made subject to him.
Open in the interactive reader →