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1 Peter 3
1In the same way, wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, so that, even if any don’t obey , they may be won by the behavior of their wives without a word,
2seeing your pure behavior in fear.
3Let your beauty come not from the outward adorning of braiding your hair, and of wearing gold ornaments or of putting on fine clothing,
4but from the hidden person of the heart, in the incorruptible adornment of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in God’s sight.
5For this is how in the past the holy women who hoped in God also adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands.
6So Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose children you now are if you do well and are not put in fear by any terror.
7You husbands, in the same way, live with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor to the woman as to the weaker vessel, as also being joint heirs of the of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.
8Finally, all of you be like-minded, compassionate, loving as brothers, tenderhearted, courteous,
9not rendering evil for evil or insult for insult; but instead blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.
10For, “He who would love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking .
11Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it.
12For the eyes of the Lord are on the , and his ears open to their prayer; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
13Now who will harm you if you become imitators of that which is good?
14But even if you should suffer for ’ sake, you are blessed. “Don’t fear what they fear, neither be troubled.”
15But the Lord God in your hearts. Always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, with humility and fear,
16having a good conscience. Thus, while you are spoken against as evildoers, they may be disappointed who curse your good way of life in .
17For it is better, if it is God’s will, that you suffer for doing what is right than for doing evil.
18Because also suffered for sins once, the for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit,
19in whom he also went and preached to the spirits in prison,
20who before were disobedient when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ship was being built. In it, few, that is, eight souls, were through water.
21This is a symbol of baptism, which now saves you—not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God—through the of Jesus ,
22who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him.
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Questions this passage answers
What does the Bible say about worry?
Jesus forbids worry about food, drink and clothing, and he argues rather than scolds: your Father knows what you need, he feeds the birds, worry adds nothing to your life. Scripture then gives the worrier something to do, prayer with thanksgiving and casting the burden on God, and it limits the horizon to one day at a time.
Why does God allow suffering?
Scripture never gives one tidy reason for all suffering. It says that pain entered a good world through sin, that God is neither its author nor its prisoner, that he uses it without approving of it, and that he entered it himself in Christ rather than explaining it from a distance. The Bible answers the question with a person before it answers it with an argument.
What does the Bible say about anxiety?
Scripture treats anxiety with far more tenderness than most Christians expect. It names it honestly, traces it to a divided and overloaded heart, and answers it with the character of God rather than with willpower. The command not to be anxious always comes attached to a reason and to an action, never as a bare demand to feel differently.
What does it mean to be born again?
To be born again is to receive a new spiritual life from God, given by the Holy Spirit, that no amount of moral effort or religious heritage can produce. Jesus told the most religious man in Jerusalem that he must be born again to see the kingdom of God at all. It is not self-improvement. It is a new birth, entirely God's act, that changes what a person is before it changes what they do.