Duties of husbands and wives
1 In the same way, wives must be submissive to their husbands. If any of them resists the Word, they will be won over without words by the conduct of their wives.
2 It will be enough for them to see your responsible and blameless conduct.
3 Do not be taken up with outward appearances: hair styles, gold necklaces and clothes.
4 There is some thing more permanent that shines from within a person: a gentle and peaceful disposition. This is really precious in God’s eyes.
5 This was the way the holy women of the past dressed. They put their trust in God and were obedient to their husbands,
6 namely Sarah who had such respect for Abraham that she called him her lord. You are her children if you do what is right and are not afraid.
7 Husbands, in your turn, be sensible in your life to gether. Be considerate, realizing that the woman is of a more frail disposition and that you both share in the gift of life. This will prevent anything from coming in the way of your prayer.
8 Finally, you should all be of one mind: share each other’s troubles with mutual affection, be compassionate and humble.
9 Do not repay evil for evil or answer one insult with another. Give a blessing, instead, since this is what you have been called to do, and so you will receive the blessing.
10 For if you seek life and want to see happiness, keep your tongue from evil and your mouth from speaking deceit.
11 Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
12 Because the Lord’s eyes are turned to the just and his ears listen to their appeal. But the Lord frowns on evildoers.
Do not fear or be disturbed
13 Who can harm you if you de vote yourselves to doing good?
14 If you suffer for the sake of righteousness, happy are you. Do not fear what they fear or be disturbed as they are,
15 but bless the Lord Christ in your hearts. Always have an answer ready when you are called upon to account for your hope, but give it simply and with respect.
16 Keep your conscience clear so that those who slander you may be put to shame by your upright, Christian living.
17 Better to suffer for doing good, if it is God’s will, than for doing wrong.
Endure sufferings as Christ did
18 Remember how Christ died, once and for all, for our sins. He, the just one, died for the unjust in order to lead us to God. In the body he was put to death, in the Spirit he was raised to life,
19 and it was then that he went to preach to the imprisoned spirits.
20 They were the gener ation who did not believe when God, in his great patience, delayed punishing the world while Noah was building the ark in which a small group of eight persons escaped through water.
21 That was a type of the bap tism that now saves you; this baptism is not a matter of physical cleansing but of asking God to rec on cile us through the resurrection of Christ Jesus.
22 He has ascended to heaven and is at the right hand of God, having subjected the angels, Dominations and Powers.
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Comments Letter of Peter 1, Chapter 3
• 3.1 In speaking to married couples, Peter prefers to address himself to women. Is it because he recognizes the importance of their mission? Or rather, because in the rest of the letter, he paid more attention to men who, ac cording to Jewish customs, occupied the front rows of the assembly?
Why does he ask them to obey their husband? Is it because God wants it that way, or because the Church is anti-feminist and wants women to be submissive? This point was explained in 1 Cor 11:9 and Eph 5:22. The apostles heard and taught the revolutionary ruling of Jesus who gave women the same rights as husbands in marriage. However, since they lived in a male-dominated society, they could hardly imagine or discover a new way of sharing between spouses.
In any case, they could not reform the male-centered culture of their time overnight. They were speak ing for women accustomed to obey. Some among them understood their promotion (Lk 8:1), but it happened that they showed this with actions which scandalized many (see commentaries on 1 Cor 11:6 and 1 Tim 2:11).
• 18. In this paragraph we have the reference to “the descent of Christ into hell” mentioned in our creed: see also Eph 4:9 and the commentary on Mt 27:52.
Peter, using the ex pressions of his day, speaks of the sinful peo ple in Noah’s time. For the Jews, they were the example of those who sin by irresponsibility and lack of real concern for the will of God. Yet, Christ saved them: he came for everyone, and not only for those who have been faithful or who had the chance of meeting him in his Church.
Note the comparison be tween the deluge and baptism: water washes away the old world, a life of sin: the person who comes to Christ begins a new life, striving for “a pure conscience.”
He died as humans do but was raised to life by the Spirit (the text says, “he died according to flesh.”) This means that he died because he had accepted and really taken on our mortal condition, but he had to be repossessed by the Spirit of God. It is a reaffirmation of the double nature of Christ. Compare with Rom 1: 4.