13-18 If with heart and soul you’re doing good, do you think you can be stopped? Even if you suffer for it, you’re still better off. Don’t give the opposition a second thought. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They’ll end up realizing that they’re the ones who need a bath. It’s better to suffer for doing good, if that’s what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad. That’s what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others’ sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all—was put to death and then made alive—to bring us to God.

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13 Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?(A) 14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed.(B) “Do not fear their threats[a]; do not be frightened.”[b](C) 15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer(D) to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope(E) that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience,(F) so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.(G) 17 For it is better, if it is God’s will,(H) to suffer for doing good(I) than for doing evil.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Peter 3:14 Or fear what they fear
  2. 1 Peter 3:14 Isaiah 8:12