1 Peter 3:13-4:11

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹³ Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? ¹⁴ But even if you do suffer for doing what is right,^[a] you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear,^[b] and do not be intimidated,^{(A) 15} but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you,^{(B) 16} yet do it with gentleness and respect. Maintain a good conscience so that, when you are maligned,^[c] those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame.^{(C) 17} For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil. ¹⁸ For Christ also suffered^[d] for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you^[e] to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,^{(D) 19} in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, ²⁰ who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight lives, were saved through water.^{(E) 21} And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for^[f] a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,^{(F) 22} who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.^(G)

Good Stewards of God’s Grace

4 Since, therefore, Christ suffered in the flesh,^[g] arm yourselves also with the same intention (for whoever has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin),^{(H) 2} so as to live for the rest of your time in the flesh no longer by human desires but by the will of God.^{(I) 3} You have already spent enough time in doing what the gentiles like to do, living in debauchery, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry.^{(J) 4} They are surprised that you no longer join them in the same excesses of dissipation, and so they blaspheme.^{[h](K) 5} But they will have to give an accounting to him who stands ready to judge the living and the dead.^{(L) 6} For this is the reason the gospel was proclaimed even to the dead, so that, though they had been judged in the flesh as everyone is judged, they might live in the spirit as God does.

⁷ The end of all things is near;^[i] therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers.^{(M) 8} Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.^{(N) 9} Be hospitable to one another without complaining. ¹⁰ Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.^{(O) 11} Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.^(P)