1 Peter 3 - Introduction

He teacheth the duty of wives and husbands to each other; exhorting all men to unity and love, and to suffer persecution patiently: he declareth also the benefits of Christ toward the old world.

Anno Domini 65.

THAT the brethren might know how to behave in the various relations of life, the apostle, in this chapter, first of all commanded the Christian women in Pontus, &c. who were married, to obey their own husbands, although they were Heathens; that, bytheir cheerful submissive behaviour, they might allure their husbands to embrace the gospel, 1 Peter 3:1.—when they found that it had such a happy influence on the temper and behaviour of their wives, 1 Peter 3:2.—With respect to their dress, the apostle ordered all the women who professed the gospel, to adorn their minds with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, rather than their bodies with ornaments of gold, and silver, and costly apparel, 1 Peter 3:3 proposing, to them the example of the godly women in ancient times, who adorned their minds with the female virtues, being subject to their own husbands, 1 Peter 3:5.—such as Sarah, who obeyed Abraham, and shewed how greatly she respected him by calling him her Lord, 1 Peter 3:6.

Then turning his discourse to husbands, the apostle ordered them to live with their wives, in the performance of all the duties of the married state, suitably to the more enlarged views which the gospel gave them of their duties: and in the treatment of their wives, to have a regard to the weakness of their bodily frame, 1 Peter 3:7.—Next, addressing the disciples in general, he ordered them in their intercourse with one another, to be sympathizing, tender-hearted, and courteous, 1 Peter 3:8.—never returning evil for evil, nor railing for railing; but, on the contrary, blessing; that they may obtain the blessing of inheriting the heavenly country, according to Christ's promise, 1 Peter 3:9.—and David's declaration concerning those who desire to enjoy life, and see good days, 1 Peter 3:10.—He told them farther, that the divine protection is promised to the righteous; but that the anger of God is threatened against the wicked, 1 Peter 3:12.—Besides, to forgive our enemies, is the way to disarm them, and restrain them from hurting us, 1 Peter 3:13.—Then returning to the subject of suffering, he told them, that if they suffered for righteousness' sake, they were happy, as Christ declared, Matthew 5:10.—and exhorted them not to be terrified by the threatenings of their persecutors, 1 Peter 3:14.—but to be always prepared to give with calmness an answer to every one who asked a reason, and particularly concerning their hope of an eternally happy life in the body, after death. This hope, the Christians were to profess, more especially, when their enemies were putting them to death, because the Heathens, who heard them on these occasions declare their hope, perceiving that it was what supported them under their sufferings, and made them fearless in death, could not avoid being curious to know what the foundation of that hope was whose influence was so powerful, 1 Peter 3:15.—also because the declaration of their hope at such a time, might, under the divine blessing, induce some of the Heathens to embrace the gospel, who, with admiration, beheld their courage in suffering death.

Because the disciples of Christ, on account of their aversion to idolatry, and of their deserting the temples of the heathen deities, were represented as atheists, seditious persons, and the most profligate of mankind, the apostle exhorted the brethren of Pontus, &c. while they resisted idolatry, and refused obedience to the sinful commands of the heathen magistrates, to maintain a good conscience in every part of their behaviour; that their persecutors, who spake loudly against them as evil-doers, might be put to shame, 1 Peter 3:16.—Besides, if they were tosuffer, it was better for them to suffer as well-doers than as evil-doers, 1 Peter 3:17. And lest their enemies might conclude from their sufferings, that theywere wicked persons, or at least persons with whom God was displeased, the apostle observed, that Christ, though most righteous and infinitely beloved of God, had been put to death as an evil-doer; but was demonstrated to be innocent of the crimes laid to his charge, by his resurrection from the dead. This example shewed the brethren, that sufferings are no mark of God's displeasure; and that if they suffered with Christ, their innocence should be made manifest at least in the end; when, being raised from the dead, as Christ was, they should be brought to God to enjoy eternal life with him in heaven, 1 Peter 3:18.—Farther, to prove what he had affirmed, 1 Peter 3:12 that God protects the righteous, and will severely punish the wicked, the apostle, as an example of both, observed, that Christ, 2 Peter 3:6 brought a flood on the old world, and destroyed the ungodly, to whom, without success, he had preached by his Spirit speaking in his prophet Noah; but saved Noah and his family, by that very water with which he destroyed the ungodly, 1 Peter 3:19.—That the purpose for which St. Peter appealed to these ancient facts, was what I have mentioned, is evident, not only from what is said, 1 Peter 3:20 but from 2 Peter 2:5 where, after mentioning God's saving Noah while he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly, he adds, 1 Peter 3:9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the wicked to the day of judgment to be punished.—Farther, that the brethren might be in no doubt concerning the apostle's design in mentioning the salvation of Noah and his family, he assured them, that the salvation of these eight persons by the water of the deluge, is a type of the salvation of believers from death by the water of baptism, through the resurrection of Christ: which baptism, he told them, consists not in the washing away ofthe filth of the flesh, but in the answer of a good conscience, 1 Peter 3:21.—Then, to make the righteous or faithful, on whom the eyes of the Lord continually look, certain of deliverance out of temptation in the present world, and of eternal salvation in the world to come; and at the same time to fill the wicked; against whom the face of God is set, with a just dread of the future judgment, the apostle declared that Christ our Master, since his resurrection, has gone into heaven in his glorified humanity, and is now at the right-hand of God as Governor and Judge universal; every creature in the universe, whether good or bad, being put in subjection to him, 1 Peter 3:22.