When Paul defines the duties of bond-servants, he balances his statement by a corresponding exposition of the duties of masters (Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 4:1). Peter, dealing here specially with the application of the general Christian law of order and _submission,_ passes at once to the position o... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 3:1. IN LIKE MANNER, YE WIVES, SUBMIT YOURSELVES. Literally, it is ‘submitting yourselves,' this conjugal duty being represented as on the same plane with the former, and simply another application of the general law stated in 1 Peter 2:18. TO YOUR OWN HUSBANDS. Here, as also in at least tw... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 3:2. HAVING BEHELD YOUR CHASTE BEHAVIOUR COUPLED WITH FEAR. On the force of the ‘beheld,' as implying close observation, see on 1 Peter 2:12, where the same term occurs. The behaviour is styled _chaste,_ not in the limited sense of the English adjective, but as covering purity, modesty, and... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 3:3. WHOSE ADORNING LET IT BE NOT THE OUTWARD ADORNING OF PLAITING OF THE HAIR AND OF WEARING OF ORNAMENTS OF GOLD, OR OF PUTTING ON OF APPAREL. The sentence opens with the relative ‘whose' without any noun. It admits, therefore, of being construed in more than one way. The ‘whose' may be ta... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 3:4. BUT THE HIDDEN MAN OF THE HEART. This phrase is taken by some to be practically equivalent to what is elsewhere called the ‘new man' (Colossians 3:10), or the ‘new creature' (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15), _i.e_ the regenerate life itself on its inward side, the new nature that is... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 3:5. FOR THUS IN OLD TIME ALSO DID THE HOLY WOMEN WHO HOPED IN GOD ADORN THEMSELVES, SUBMITTING THEMSELVES TO THEIR OWN HUSBANDS. The example of the women whose lives are recorded in the ancient history of God's people furnishes another incentive to the cultivation of the kind of attraction... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 3:6. AS SARAH OBEYED ABRAHAM. Why is Sarah introduced in this connection? Possibly as the _standard_ by which the holy women of old measured their wifely submission. Taking ‘as' in the sense of ‘according as' (with Schott), we should have in this sentence a new stroke added to the preceding... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 3:7. YE HUSBANDS, IN LIKE MANNER, DWELL WITH YOUR WIVES. The brief counsels to husbands which are now appended to the ample exposition of the duties of wives are neither a mere parenthesis in the Epistle (Canon Cook), nor simply a corollary to the foregoing exhortation (Canon Mason). Far les... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 3:8. FINALLY, BE YE ALL; or, to retain the immediate dependence which the previous counsels had upon the general exhortations of 1 Peter 2:11-12, or 1 Peter 2:13, _finally being all._ It is, says an old Greek interpreter, as if the apostle had written, ‘Why should I give particular direction... [ Continue Reading ]
The injunctions on the subject of the blamelessness of conduct by which Christians should be distinguished in their political, civil, and domestic relations, are now succeeded by a train of exhortations of a wider kind. These are given in as rich detail as the former. They are addressed to all belie... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 3:9. NOT RENDERING EVIL FOR EVIL. The transition from the duties of Christians toward each other to their duties in relation to their adversaries is made easily through the last-named grace. An undue esteem of ourselves is inconsistent either with the oneness of mind and feeling which makes... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 3:10. FOR HE THAT DESIRES TO LOVE LIFE AND SEE GOOD DAYS. The kind of behaviour which has been urged in 1 Peter 3:8-9 is now further recommended by considerations drawn from the dependence of happiness on character, and from God's regardfulness of men's lives, as these are expressed in Psalm... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 3:11. AND LET HIM TURN FROM EVIL AND DO GOOD. The best authorities introduce the connecting ‘and,' or ‘further,' which the A. V. omits. The ‘eschew' of the A. V. (comp. Shakespeare's ‘What cannot be _eschewed,_ must be embraced,' _Mer. Wives,_ v. 5, 251), connected with the old French _esche... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 3:12. BECAUSE THE EYES OF THE LORD ARE UPON THE RIGHTEOUS, AND HIS EARS UNTO THEIR SUPPLICATION. This blameless, patient, beneficent, and peaceable manner of life, which has been recommended as containing the secret of all gladness in one's life, and all goodness in one's days, is further ur... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 3:13. AND WHO IS HE THAT WILL DO YOU EVIL, IF YE BE ZEALOUS OF THAT WHICH IS GOOD? The counsels of 1 Peter 3:8-9 are yet again enforced by a still more pointed statement of the security of the righteous. This statement is attached to the immediately preceding thoughts, God's supervision of t... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 3:14. BUT EVEN IF YE SHOULD HAVE TO SUFFER FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS' SAKE, BLESSED ARE YE. The old formula ‘but and if,' which the A. V. took over here from the Vulgate and the Rhemish Version (it is not found here in Wycliffe, Tyndale, Cranmer, or the Genevan), is needlessly retained by the Revise... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 3:15. BUT SANCTIFY CHRIST AS LORD IN YOUR HEARTS. The A. V., following Tyndale, Cranmer, and the Genevan, adopts the reading of the _Textus Receptus,_ viz. ‘the Lord God.' The Vulgate, Wycliffe, and the Rhemish have ‘the Lord Christ,' and this reading must be accepted as having by far the we... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 3:16. HAVING A GOOD CONSCIENCE, or, _having your conscience unimpaired._ The term _conscience_ seems to make a nearer approach in this passage than in the previous (see on chap, 1 Peter 2:19) to the modern philosophical definitions of it as the ‘principle of reflection in men by which they d... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 3:17. For it is better to suffer, if the will of God should will it, doing well than doing evil. This statement resembles that in chap. 1 Peter 2:20. It is also followed up, as was the case there, by an appeal to Christ's own case. The two propositions, however, have distinct points of diffe... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 3:18. BECAUSE ALSO CHRIST DIED ONCE FOR SINS, A RIGHTEOUS ONE FOR UNRIGHTEOUS ONES, IN ORDER THAT HE MIGHT BRING US TO GOD. There are two varieties of reading to notice here. Documentary evidence is pretty evenly balanced between the verb ‘suffered' and the verb ‘died.' Although the Revised... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 3:19. IN WHICH ALSO HE WENT AND PREACHED TO THE SPIRITS IN PRISON. Here, again, the A.V., following the Genevan alone among these earlier English Versions, wrongly renders ‘ _by_ which.' The sense is, ‘in which,' i.e in the spiritual form of life which has just been noticed. The verb ‘preach... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 3:20. AFORETIME DISOBEDIENT. The ‘disobedient' means here again, as in 1 Peter 2:7-8; 1 Peter 3:1 _disbelieving,_ refusing belief and withstanding truth. The clause may describe the ‘spirits' according to the conduct which made them spirits ‘in prison.' So it is understood by most. It may, h... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 3:21. WHICH ALSO IN THE ANTITYPE NOW SAVES YOU, NAMELY BAPTISM. The rendering of the A. V., ‘the like figure _whereunto,'_ follows a reading which is now given up. The best authorities also substitute ‘you' for ‘us.' Some interpreters regard both the _Ark_ and the _‘few_ ' as having a typica... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 3:22. WHO IS ON THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. A familiar phrase expressing ‘the regal and judiciary power' to which Christ is exalted. Compare such passages as Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1; Philippians 3:20; Hebrews 1:3; and the fundamental O. T. passage, Psalms 110:1. HAVING GONE I... [ Continue Reading ]