1 Peter 3:8-18
New Catholic Bible
Mutual Love.[a] 8 Finally, all of you should be united in spirit, sympathetic, filled with love for one another, compassionate, and humble. 9 Do not repay evil with evil or abuse with abuse. On the contrary, repay with a blessing. This is what you were called to do, so that you might inherit a blessing. 10 For:
“If anyone wishes to love life
and to experience good days,
he must restrain his tongue from evil
and his lips from deceitful speech.
11 He must turn away from evil and do good,
seek peace and pursue it.
12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
and his ears are attentive to their prayer.
However, the face of the Lord
is set against those who do evil.”
Christian Conduct in Suffering and Persecution
13 The Blessings of Suffering for Righteousness.[b] Now who is going to harm you if you are eager to do what is right? 14 Yet even if you should suffer for doing what is right, you are thereby blessed. Have no fear of others, and refuse to be intimidated by them. 15 Rather, revere Christ as Lord in your hearts.
Always be prepared to offer an explanation to anyone who asks you to justify the hope that is in you. However, do so with gentleness and respect 16 and with a clean conscience so that those who slander you for your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing what is right, if such is the will of God, than for doing what is wrong.
18 Christ’s Victory and Descent to the Netherworld, and Christian Baptism.[c] For Christ also suffered for our sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but raised to life in the spirit.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 1 Peter 3:8 Mutual love of Christians is expressed in a new type of social relations and inner attitudes that lead up to evangelical behavior (see Lk 6:28; Rom 12:9-20).
- 1 Peter 3:13 Persecution must not come as a surprise to believers; it is their lot according to one of the Beatitudes of the Gospel (see Mt 5:10), almost repeated here word for word. Thus, Christians follow the example of Christ, ready to justify their hope but refusing to retaliate with hatred and violence. They are not enemies of society or other people, a crime that has apparently already been leveled at them.
- 1 Peter 3:18 The author presents the vision of a new world. Christ’s Death and Resurrection have been victorious over sin; the risen Lord dominates the universe and all the good or evil forces in it, e.g., angels, dominations, and powers. Christ truly died and was in the sojourn of the dead, as the New Testament more than once attests (see Mt 12:40; Acts 2:31; Rom 10:7; Eph 4:8-10).
The intent of this passage is probably to say that nothing human or cosmic can be excluded from the Redemption that Christ effected. It is in this sense that we are to understand the article of the Creed that speaks of Christ “descending into hell.” The story of Noah (see Gen 6:1—7:4) is interpreted as a saving of the righteous and a destruction of sin; it seems to be taken as a symbolic anticipation of Baptism, which at the time was received by immersion.
