1 Peter 3:9-22

9If people do bad things to you, do not do anything bad to them in return. If people insult you, do not insult them in return. Instead, pray that God will bless those people. That is what God wants you to do. Then you will receive the gift of God's blessing.

10The Bible says this: ‘Do you want to enjoy your life? Do you want to be happy? Then you must be careful not to say evil things. Do not tell any lies.

11Stop doing evil things. Instead, do things that are good. Try to be friends with people. Help people to live in peace with each other.

12Remember that the Lord God sees what everyone does. He takes care of people who do what is right. When they pray, he listens to them. But the Lord God turns against people who do evil things.’

13If you always try to do good things, then nobody should hurt you.

14But somebody might give you trouble, even when you do what is right. If that happens, God will bless you. So do not be afraid of what people may do to you. Do not worry about it.

15Instead, always remember that Christ is your Lord. Let him rule how you live. People may ask you, ‘Why do you trust God to help you?’ You must always be ready to answer them about that.

16But when you tell them, be kind and polite. Do only what you know is right. Then those people will see that you live in a good way because you believe in Christ. When they say bad things against you they will become ashamed.

17Sometimes God may let you have trouble and pain even when you have done good things. But that is better than if you have trouble and pain because you have done bad things.

18Christ himself always did what was right. But he received pain on behalf of people who do what is wrong. He died once to take away all those wrong things. He did that to bring you near to God. People killed Christ's body, but God's Spirit made him alive again.

19Like this, he went to the spirits who were in prison. He told them God's true message.

20Those were the spirits of people who had refused to obey God long ago. At that time God waited patiently for them to turn to him while Noah was building a large ship. But only a few people agreed to go into that ship. God saved only eight people when the ship sailed on the deep water.

21That shows how God now saves you. It is like a picture of baptism. The water of baptism does not wash dirt from a person's body. Instead, it shows that a person has decided to obey God. He is choosing to do what is right. That saves you, because Jesus Christ became alive again after his death.

22After that, Jesus went into heaven. Now he is sitting at God's right side. He rules over angels and over everything that has authority and power.