III. (1) LIKEWISE YE WIVES... — Third division of second prudential rule: subordination conjugal. Here, again, the form in the original is participial, joining this injunction on to 1 Peter 2:13; 1 Peter 2:18, where the word is the same in Greek, “wives, in the same way submitting yourselves.” Wheth... [ Continue Reading ]
WHILE THEY BEHOLD... — The same curious word as in 1 Peter 2:12, and the tense, which is ill-represented by “while they behold,” sets us at the moment of the triumph of the wife’s conduct, literally; _having kept,_ or _when they have kept an eye on your chaste conversation._ The husband is jealously... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOSE ADORNING LET IT NOT BE.... — The passage shows that the Asiatic Christians were not all of the poorer classes. Many of the wealthy Jewesses had joined them. The wealth of the Ephesian Christians about this time may be gathered from 1 Timothy 2:9, and of the Laodiceans from Revelation 3:17. Two... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT LET IT BE... — The connection of the clauses is somewhat difficult, but is made more so by our translation of 1 Peter 3:3. Literally it would run, _of whom let it not be,_ or, _to whom let there not belong the outward adorning, but the hidden man of the heart._ If we adopt the translation in the... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR AFTER THIS MANNER. — Here we have not only _the_ ground of the foregoing precepts, but also of the assurance that God sets a value on such embellishments. It had been accepted by Him in the holy women of old who hoped in Him, and would be accepted again. “The Apostle enforces his doctrine by exa... [ Continue Reading ]
EVEN AS SARA. — A definite example of the general fact just alleged. St. Peter seems rather to have argued from what every one would feel _must_ have been the case than from explicit records. Sara’s usual subjection is clearly seen in the one instance to which St. Peter refers (Genesis 18:12), where... [ Continue Reading ]
LIKEWISE, YE HUSBANDS. — The subjection is not to be all one-sided, though the husband’s subjection to the wife will be of a different kind from the wife’s to him. We are hardly to take this as a separate paragraph from the foregoing, but rather as a corollary added to it, to correct a false impress... [ Continue Reading ]
FINALLY, BE YE ALL. — A return from the special to the general. St. Peter has not, however, forgotten the _purpose_ with which the former rules were given; his thought is still how to produce a right impression on the unbelieving world, although some of these injunctions touch only _internal_ relati... [ Continue Reading ]
NOT RENDERING. — So far St. Peter has been speaking of _internal_ conduct. The two last adjectives, however, lead gradually into the wider field of conduct, and probably now he is thinking solely of relation to the adverse world. Among the Christians surely there would be no “evil” or “railing” to _... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR. — St. Peter will show that he is not going beyond his book when he says that the blessing is only to be obtained by those who bless. HE THAT WILL LOVE LIFE. — The “will” here is not merely the future tense, but “he that hath a mind to love life.” St. Peter’s quotation, from Psalms 34:12, is not... [ Continue Reading ]
LET HIM ESCHEW EVIL. — Literally swerve _out of the way from evil._ The two former clauses dealt with the domain of _word_; these two with the domain of _action._ It suits St. Peter’s intention better to take the verse, not as an exhortation to virtue in general, but as an instruction how to behave... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR. — Or, _Because._ In the Psalm there is no such connecting particle, but it is involved in the juxtaposition. The sense that the Lord’s eyes are over you is a sufficient reason for self-restraint under provocation: especially, perhaps, when we see that by “the Lord” St. Peter understands Jesus C... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHO IS HE THAT SHALL HARM YOU? — There is always a ring of scornful assurance in an interrogative introduced by “and:” “And who, pray?” IF YE BE FOLLOWERS. — Rather, _if ye make yourselves zealots._ The phrase looks on into the future; not merely “if at present ye be.” And the word which means “... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT AND IF YE SUFFER. — The old-fashioned phrase would read more intelligibly thus: _Nay, if ye should even suffer._ So far are men’s attempts to “harm” us (by acts of malice to property or good name, &c.) from really injuring us, that even if it should come to be a matter of “suffering” we are to b... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT SANCTIFY THE LORD GOD IN YOUR HEARTS. — The tense of this and the two preceding imperatives shows that St. Peter meant this for advice to be acted _upon_ at the moment of being called on to suffer. The passage, as it stands in Isaiah, runs literally, “Jehovah Sabaoth, Him shall ye sanctify, and... [ Continue Reading ]
HAVING A GOOD CONSCIENCE. — This strikes the key-note of the paragraph. How vigorously St. Peter repeats it! “Zealous for that which is good,” “for righteousness’ sake,” “_sanctify_ the Lord,” “with meekness and fear,” “a good conscience,” “your good conversation.” WHEREAS. — The word means precise... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR IT IS BETTER. — There is a kind of ironical suppression in this comparison. IF THE WILL OF GOD BE SO. — A strikingly reverent phrase in the original, _If the will of God should will it._ This is, of course, to be taken only with the word “suffer,” which itself means, as in 1 Peter 3:14, to suff... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR CHRIST ALSO. — This gives a reason for thinking it no such formidable thing to suffer when one is innocent. It has been tried before, and the precedent is encouraging. “It is,” says Archbishop Leighton, “some known ease to the mind, in any distress, to look upon examples of the like or greater d... [ Continue Reading ]
BY WHICH. — If “by the Spirit” had been right in the former verse, this translation might have stood here, though the word is literally _in;_ for “in” is often used to mean “in the power of,” “on the strength of:” _e.g.,_ Romans 8:15. But as that former rendering is untenable, we must here keep stri... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH SOMETIME WERE DISOBEDIENT. — The absence of the definite article here in the Greek (contrary to St. Peter’s usage in participial sentences — _e.g.,_ 1 Peter 1:5; 1 Peter 1:7; 1 Peter 1:10; 1 Peter 1:17) makes it possible to think that the spirits mentioned in this verse are not co-extensive wi... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LIKE FIGURE WHEREUNTO EVEN BAPTISM DOTH ALSO NOW SAVE US. — There are two undoubted false readings in this sentence which must be cleared away before we can consider the meaning. First, the word “whereunto” is a mistake for the more difficult _which;_ and second, it should be _you,_ not “us.” We... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO IS GONE INTO HEAVEN, AND IS ON THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. — This verse (which partakes of the character of a doxology) serves two purposes. First, it carries on the history of Jesus Christ. How carefully, in spite of what seem at first irrelevant digressions, St. Peter holds his threads. Christ’s pa... [ Continue Reading ]