Peter’s been explaining to the reader how we should submit to authority, we should submit to our spouses, we should respect one another. When we submit to each other on Earth, we do so in order to submit to God and demonstrate to others our submission to God. Submitting to our spouse or to our Government or to our employers or creditors should always be done in such a way that we are Primarily submitting to God’s law and God’s word, and secondarily submitting to that earthly relationship. Usually submission to God first and foremost means we have no problems with each other, because we are treating each other the way we’d want to be treated, we are considering others before ourselves, we are serving one another, the way Jesus taught and demonstrated. He told us the son of man didn’t come to be served but to serve, and we should do likewise. As Christians we should be deferential and respectful to one another out of love, we should be patient and forgiving because God demonstrated that patience and forgiveness towards us. Our interpersonal relationships should be submissive in a loving way, but we should always respect God first and foremost, so sometimes Peter said we should expect to be punished for doing what’s right. Peter spoke a lot about this earlier in this letter, in chapter 2. He said if we suffer for doing good, and we endure it, that is a commendable thing before God, or it’s a Gracious thing in the sight of God. We reflect God’s Grace and his Glory when we suffer for doing good. We follow in the footsteps of Jesus when we suffer for doing what’s right, and while that doesn’t make it pleasant while it’s happening, it is actually a good reminder that it IS a blessing from God in some sense, and our reward in Heaven is Biblically supported. He actually continues on this vein about suffering for doing good.

13 Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats[b]; do not be frightened.”[c]

1 Peter 3:14 [b] Or fear what they fear
1 Peter 3:14 [c] Isaiah 8:12

Verse 13, Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? This question is most likely a rhetorical question. It’s not like Peter is getting letters back from the readers with lists of people who are intent on harming others for being eager to do good. But think about that for a bit. Who wants to harm someone else who is eager to do good? What type of person will harm another because they want to do something good that glorifies God? If you told me you were starting a soup kitchen to feed the hungry, I wouldn’t criticize the menu choices. But there are those types of people out there who nitpick other people’s good deeds. I think the motivation for slandering or gossiping about others good deeds is because the slanderer or gossiper feels inadequate or deep down has self guilt that they aren’t the one that is doing that good deed. In that example, it’s just a verbal or reputational harm that’s inflicted. In modern Western society, especially in the USA where people have freedom of religion, it doesn’t get much more harmful than that type of slander. I’m not saying this to minimize having a bad reputation when you are trying to do good. To me, that seems like a pretty bad outcome, and would discourage me trying to do something good if I get scrutinized. But this was written in a time where there was more persecution of the church, both sanctioned by the government and also not sanctioned, but at least allowed.

Peter’s letter is asking that question, who is going to harm you for doing good? Remember Jesus was attacked for giving a man the ability to walk. In John 10 during his “I am the Good Shepherd” speech, he eventually asked the Jews in Jerusalem which good deed they wanted to stone him for? He said “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which one of these do you stone me?” In Jesus case, he did the miracles which made them angry. Saying he was the Son of God may have bothered them, but proving it through miracles- especially in a way that didn’t conform with their man made regulations made them furious! When Jesus asked them, they had to admit they wanted to stone him because he said he was the Son of God. For Jesus, doing the good deeds was providing proof that he was God’s Son. Doing the good deeds made them want to cause Jesus harm, because he was forcing them to admit that he was saying he was the Son of God. The Pharisees were a type of people who would harm a person who was eager to do Good. They saw Jesus as a disruptor of their earthly power. In verse 14 Peter says when you suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. That is similar to to what peter said last chapter of this letter, 1 Peter 2:19 which says if you’re doing good, because you are conscious of God, it’s commendable or gracious before God to suffer and endure that suffering. When we stand up to unfair suffering that’s caused by our eagerness to do Good, we follow in Jesus footsteps and reflect his Glory. There are some footnotes in the English NIV, and if you replace the English regular text with the footnote, you get a very close quote to Isaiah 8:12, which Peter had quoted earlier in the prior chapter. Using the footnote as regular text is actually the way some other language NIV versions frame the footnote (in the Spanish NIV, the English footnote is the regular text, and their footnote is what the English NIV has as the regular text). This verse in Isaiah said that God himself will become a stumbling block to both Judah and Israel. The stumbling block will become a trap and a snare. And together with the Psalm 118 quote that The stone that the builders reject will become the cornerstone, we understand those verses to mean Jesus Christ is the messiah. But going back to Isaiah, the prophecy was foretelling that God himself would be their refuge and their salvation, he would upend and defeat the enemies of Israel. Isaiah said that God alone was worth their reverence and their fear, and they shouldn’t fear the things that everyone else fears. In the context of what Peter is saying (and has said last chapter when he quoted this chapter of Isaiah before), and assuming his entire quote is from Isaiah 8:12, our big concern should be God first and foremost. We shouldn’t have the same motivators as everyone else, we shouldn’t fear what man does to us, we shouldn’t worry about people. Especially the type of people that want to harm others for doing good! Those types of people are definitely not on the side of God. Right? You have devout followers of God, and then maybe there are some casual people who like God but won’t do anything about it. Then there are people who don’t believe, have a different religion, or are against religion, but still wouldn’t endorse or participate in harming others just for doing something that they thought was the right thing. Now we are get to the group of people Peter is talking about, people that actively harm someone else for doing good. These people are clearly not on the side of God and are actively working against the work of God and his Kingdom. We should not fear them or worry about what they would do to us. These people are far from God, and God is actively opposing their hard hearts.

15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,

We shouldn’t fear the things that the rest of the world fears, we shouldn’t fear those who would harm us for doing good. Verse 15, but in your hearts. Meaning, regardless of opposition, threats, regardless of what is going on in the hearts of the rest of the world, Our hearts should be reverent towards God, but also we should acknowledge and revere Christ as Lord. He is our teacher, he modeled submission towards God, even submitting to the punishment of the Roman Centurions, he did that in a subsitutionary manner, in our place, so we should revere him as our savior. We should also revere Christ as Lord.When we call Christ Lord, it’s a different role than savior. He is our Lord, he is our master. And this is where Peter was going on his thought process. Slaves submit to your masters, Wives submit to your Husbands, Submit to authority whether it’s the King, the Government, the Emperor. When we submit to earthly authority we submit to God and we submit to Christ as our Lord. Jesus Christ’s teaching and his world view, his instructions. All of these things should dictate our lives. When we have Christ as our Lord, it’s not just, “thanks for saving me from my sin” our attitude should be “I am living for Him, and I want everything I do and everything I say and even everything I think to honor him and follow his instruction and avoid his warnings”. When we mature in our faith, and live with Christ as Lord, and revere Christ, our paths diverge from what’s normal to the rest of the world. Then people start noticing. People might ask us why we are so different, why are we so forgiving, why are we so patient. Peter says We must be ready to explain that our behavior is dictated by our hope. Faith is a hope and confidence in something that’s unseen and might not be immediately apparent to others. What’s the reason for the hope we have? The Bible tells us that we have the victory in Christ, he took our place, died for our sins and we’ve been forgiven. We’ve been reconciled to God so we will spend an eternity with God the Father, and we have been given a deposit of that inheritance which is the gift of the Holy Spirit to grow in our faith. We might not get through all of the theology before we lose their attention or interest, but we should be ready, prepared to give an answer. It’s easy to not be ready and preapared. Even though we understand where our faith comes from, it’s easier to just take the compliment, as in someone says, “oh you’re so patient, I just don’t have your patience” and you aren’t ready do explain where your hope comes from, you just say thanks. You might even say thanks, I’m blessed, but you don’t explain your hope and where that blessing comes from. We must be prepared. I know I have been unprepared. And look what Peter says, always do it how? With Gentleness and respect. Don’t go condemning people to Hell or pointing out their sins. Don’t go with an intent to get into a big theological argument about why one denomination is non-Biblical. Just have a spirit of gentleness and respect, no matter what they believe, and explain why you have come to the conclusions you have. You don’t always win theological arguments with people who are stubborn in what they belive, but that’s ok. That only happens through the Holy Spirit working through them while they read the word of God and pray and study. The fact is their conversion has nothing to do with us, and everything to do with the Holy Spirit. But watch how that might happen:

16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 17 For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

We keep a clear conscience, and they might continue to speak maliciously against us, but God convicts them through the Holy Spirit, and they become ashamed of their slander. That’s the way God works in the evildoer or the people who speak maliciously against us. They do the bad thing, and eventually the Holy Spirit works on them to make them feel ashamed and convicted of their sins. When we were saved, the Holy Spirit was at work in us convicting us of our sins, convicting us of all the bad, selfish, evil things going on in our heart, and it led us to the Cross. The feeling of conviction and shame needs to occur before we understand the need of repentance and desire for forgiveness and reconciliation. Now to those who speak maliciously against us, we have to hope that the spirit will convict them and they feel ashamed for their slander. On this side of Heaven, we may never know if or when this even happens. It might be a bit unsatisfying if we are the type of person who wants to see quick results, or any results at all, but our role in all of this might be just to be punished for doing the right thing and suffer for doing good.

Again Peter reminds the reader, there’s little gain to suffering for doing evil, and that’s just in the realm of reaping what you sow.

18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.

Peter tells us to be prepared to give an answer for the hope we have, and here’s that answer in verse 18. Here’s the theology, Jesus Christ suffered once for all sins. He was perfectly righteous and died for the unrighteous. To bring you to God. Look how Peter words that. He didn’t go out and say, “you’re a sinner. You’re unrighteous”. But he kind of did! He said the righteous died for the unrighteous. To Bring you to God. Hey, wait a minute, did he just call us all unrighteous? Yeah, but it was so gentle the way he explained it, and really it almost got lost in the amazing and greater fact that Christ brought us to God! Nobody is complaining that they were just lumped in with the unrighteous group, but we are all in there. Christ brought us to God! The truth is we needed to be brought to God, we couldn’t get there on our own, but it’s ok, because Christ Brought Us to God, he died for us. More theology, He was put to death in the Body and was made alive by the Spirit. Again, this is a consistent theme in scripture. We must put to death flesh, become alive in the spirit. This is what we recognize through baptism, which is where he eventually goes with this thought. But he goes there via the Flood and Noah and the Ark.

19 After being made alive,[d] he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,

Some people read this to mean that everyone before Christ had a chance to be taught through the Spirit of Christ either after their death or in some way before they died. Some say that before Christ there was a place or an imprisoned state of Spirit that the dead Spirits waited in until Christ could make a proclamation to them and offer them salvation through Grace by the cross. People think between the time Jesus died and was resurrected, he went on a big preaching tour through Hades, or this place of Spiritual imprisonment. I don’t tend to agree with this interpretation because Hebrews teaches that after death is Judgement. Also in Matthew 25 Jesus taught about heaven and Hell in a Parable with 10 virgins. They wanted to meet the Groom, but before the Groom arrived, there were 5 who were unprepared and went back for more oil for their lamps. The door to the wedding banquet was shut, and when the unprepared 5 returned the bridegroom said “truly I tell you, I don’t know you”. Jesus tells us we don’t know the hour and must be prepared. I understand that all supporting scripture we read about immediate state at death determining ultimate eternal destination is found in the New Testament, after Jesus has arrived. So yes I agree what God’s plan was and what happened before Jesus we don’t entirely know. Peter seems to say he preached to imprisoned spirits here, but there is a footnote. Now with the footnote, another reading of this passage is Jesus died in the flesh, and was made alive in the spirit. In that same Spirit he had gone Long ago to make proclamation to those imprisoned Spirits in the days of Noah. In that case that means the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of God, and they had their chance to be taught with the Spirit of Christ, and repent, and whether they did or didn’t repent before their deaths determines their ultimate fate. Now I personally favor the reading that keeps salvation consistent throughout time, and there isn’t a special “Second Chances” preaching tour that happened to imprisoned past spirits after Jesus died but before He was resurrected. I don’t have a very strong opinion on this, because even though it’s interesting to think about, we are all clearly about 2000 years on the side of History where we have Christ on the Cross and our lives are the only opportunity we have to repent. Whether the people who rejected Noah’s warnings had another opportunity to repent after Christ died on the cross, or whether Noah’s warning from God was the Spirit’s final warning is kind of not super relevant to us today. It was not even super relevant even to the readers of Peter’s letter, since we are talking about people who lived thousands of years before Christ’s flesh, but presumably were being taught by Christ’s spirit.

21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God.[e] It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

Water and flood meant death. When we go underwater in baptism, or are immersed, it symbolizes that we identify with and share in Christ’s death on our behalf. That’s death of the flesh, and when we emerge from the water, it means we identify and share in Christ’s resurrection, which for us is rebirth of the Spirit. So Peter is saying the flood represents baptism which represents death of flesh and resurrection in Christ. Jesus died for our sins, he came back to life. Peter explains that we aren’t saved by baptism. The act of baptism is not cleaning us from dirt, or washing away sin. Some denominations say that. But Baptism is symbolic. It’s a pledge of a clear conscience. Now I can understand how you could believe that we are saved by baptism. If you read it quick, Peter’s wording here is saying water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also. If you interpret that to mean flood water symbolized baptism water which saves you, then baptism means salvation, but what he is saying is flood water represents baptism water, which represents resurrection of Christ and baptism of the Holy Spirit which saves you. The baptism that saves is being baptized by the Holy Spirit, being born again. We are saved by what water baptism represents and that is a baptism by the Holy Spirit.. We are saved by identifying with Christ’s death on the cross and our identifying with the resurrection of Him. He ends the chapter with the words of confidence that Jesus Christ has gone into heaven and is seated at God’s right hand, which means his work is done. He has the victory and all is in submission to Him. Because the Victory is Christ’s that means the victory is Ours as Christians too! We identify with Christ’s death, his burial, and his resurrection, so we identify with his Victory and his Eternal Glory!!