Tyndale Open Study Notes1 Peter 3

This section focuses on the key instruction to submit to all human authority. Peter applies this instruction to several relationships:

• Christians should accept the authority of those in government (2:13–17).

• Christian slaves should accept the authority of their masters (2:18–25).

• Christian wives should accept the authority of their husbands (3:1–6).

Peter appears to follow an early Christian use of the traditional household code. This code gave a series of instructions for different members of a household. Similar examples appear in Ephesians 5:21–6:9, Colossians 3:18–4:1, 1 Timothy 5:1–6:2, and Titus 2:1–10.

The last of Peter’s three teachings about accepting authority speaks to wives and husbands (2:13–3:7; compare Ephesians 5:21–33; Colossians 3:18–19).

• Submit yourselves to: Wives are instructed to recognize that God has appointed the husband as head of the relationship (see 2:13; Ephesians 5:22–25). In the ancient world, submission often meant obedience (see 1 Peter 3:6). God also intends the husband to lead in a loving and respectful way (3:7; see Ephesians 5:25–30). Peter focuses especially on wives whose husbands do not believe in Christ and who may oppose their wives’ faith.

• without words: Peter encourages Christian wives to influence their husbands through respectful and appropriate behavior.

braided hair or gold jewelry or fine clothes: Peter is not saying that Christian women must avoid all forms of decoration. Instead, he teaches that their beauty should not come from clothing or jewelry but from the inner beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. See also 1 Timothy 2:9–10.

• And called him lord: See Genesis 18:12. Peter sees this way of speaking as a sign of Sarah’s general attitude of respect toward Abraham.

• refuse to give way to fear: Christian wives who were married to unbelieving husbands were often pressured, both subtly and openly, to give up Christian principles and values. Peter urges them to continue to do what is right.

• In the same way: Like slaves and wives, husbands also have specific responsibilities in the household (2:18–3:6).

• as a delicate vessel: Peter was likely referring to a woman’s physical strength and possibly her lower social status in that society. Because women were usually physically weaker than men and often had less power to protect themselves, the husband had the responsibility to care for and protect his wife.

• fellow heirs of the gracious gift of life: The husband’s role as head must be balanced by the truth that men and women have equal status before God (see also Galatians 3:26–29).

• A husband’s prayers are hindered if he does not give special honor to his wife (compare James 4:3).

Finally: This is the last in a series of instructions to different groups (2:13–3:12). Here, all Christians should respond to other people with love, both believers and unbelievers (3:8; 3:9–12).

so that you may inherit a blessing: By blessing others, we receive a blessing from God.

Peter emphasizes the connection between a person’s conduct and the blessing that God gives by quoting Psalm 34:12–16. This psalm was important in early Christian teaching (see also 1 Peter 2:3; Hebrews 12:14). The passage teaches believers to control their speech, resist evil, and do good. It also highlights God’s promise to bless those who obey him.

This short paragraph emphasizes how Christians should respond to suffering by following Christ's example (see 3:18).

In general, people do not want to harm someone who is doing good. However, Christians sometimes suffer even when they do good (3:14; see 1:6; 4:12–19).

• "Do not fear what they fear; do not be shaken“: See Isaiah 8:13, where God urges the prophet to fear only the Lord.

• sanctify Christ as Lord: By showing deep respect and obedience to Christ, they will no longer fear the people who persecute them.

As in 2:21–25, Peter again points to Christ as an example for believers who suffer. Christ was righteous, yet he suffered (3:13–17). His unique work for us reminds suffering Christians that their hope and confidence rest on a secure foundation.

He suffered physical death (literally death in the flesh), but he was raised to life in the Spirit (or in spirit). Flesh and spirit are often contrasted in Scripture (for example, Romans 7:5–6; 8:2–11). In this passage, flesh refers to ordinary human life, and the Spirit refers to the new realm that began through Christ’s death and resurrection. Christ died in the old realm and was brought to life in the new realm.

This difficult passage has been widely interpreted in three ways:

1. One interpretation says that these were the spirits of people who had died, and that Christ preached the good news to them after his resurrection. However, the New Testament does not support the idea that people can hear the good news or respond to it after death. Because of this, it is not likely that spirits in this passage refer to the spirits of dead people.

2. A second interpretation understands 3:19–20 as describing Christ preaching through Noah to the people who lived in Noah’s time. These people are now spirits in prison. This interpretation would explain the reference to people in the days of Noah in 3:20. However, it does not fit well with the main discussion about Christ’s death and resurrection in 3:18.

3. In the third interpretation, the spirits in prison are evil spiritual beings. Jewish tradition, based on Genesis 6:1–4, taught that many angels rebelled during the time of Noah (see also Jude 1:6; 1 Enoch 6–10). In this view, Peter is saying that Christ announced his victory over these evil spiritual powers after his resurrection (compare 1 Peter 3:22).

only eight souls: These were Noah, his wife, their three sons, and the sons’ wives (Genesis 6:18; 8:18).

• symbolizes the baptism: Peter might mean that, just as the water lifted the boat that saved Noah and his family, baptism brings believers into salvation. Or he may mean that, just as Noah and his family passed through water to reach safety, Christians pass through the waters of baptism as part of their salvation. A third possibility is that, just as the water in Noah’s day judged sin, the water of baptism shows the washing away of sin for Christians.

• Peter does not mean that water baptism saves a person regardless of that person's inner attitude. He explains that baptism saves only as a response to God from a clean conscience (or an appeal to God for a clean conscience). In this way, he makes clear that only people who exercise faith toward God will benefit from baptism.

All the angels, authorities, and powers accept his authority: In the ancient world, many people believed that spiritual beings had a direct effect on life on earth. Christians needed to remember that Christ has already won his victory over these spiritual powers. This means that we do not need to fear anything in the spiritual world (compare 3:14).