Suffering for Righteousness’ Sake
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Read 1 Peter 3:8–22 before proceeding. Keep your Bible open throughout this session.
Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
— 1 Peter 3:21
The Character of the Church
Peter now steps back from the particular relationships he has been addressing — civil authorities, household servants, wives and husbands — and gives a more general portrait of how Christians relate to one another and to the world. Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.
The list of virtues is pointed. Unity of mind — not uniformity, but the common direction that believers share when they are all oriented toward the same Lord. Sympathy — literally, feeling with, the capacity to enter the joys and sufferings of others as if they were one’s own. Brotherly love — the familial bond of those who have been born again into the same family by the same imperishable seed. A tender heart — the softness toward others that remains sensitive to their needs and pains. A humble mind — the low view of self that frees a Christian to serve without needing to be served first, to forgive without needing to be proved right, to love without needing to be admired.
These are the qualities that mark the Christian community when it is functioning as it should. They are what the congregation looks like on a healthy Sunday morning, and what the congregation is trying to become across the years. None of them is glamorous. All of them are essential. And all of them are the fruit of the new birth Peter has been describing since chapter one. The Christian community is, at its best, a community in which these five qualities are palpably present, and the world sees in this community something different from the patterns of mere human fellowship.
In this session we will walk through a passage that brings together several themes. We will see Peter’s call to bless rather than to retaliate, and the Old Testament quotation he uses to ground it. We will examine his counsel for Christians who suffer for righteousness’ sake, and his famous command to always be prepared to give a defense of our hope. We will reach the Christological heart of the passage — Christ’s suffering for sins, righteous for unrighteous, to bring us to God. And we will spend significant time with Peter’s baptismal teaching in verse twenty-one, one of the clearest statements in the New Testament of what Lutherans confess about the power of the sacrament.
Bless, and You Will Inherit Blessing
Peter’s first major movement in the passage is his instruction on how Christians respond to mistreatment. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless. The counter-cultural force of this is easy to miss. The ordinary response to being wronged is to wrong in return. The ordinary response to being insulted is to insult back. The ordinary response to being harmed is to harm, or at least to threaten harm. Peter tells his readers to do none of this. Bless instead. The Christian is the one who, when cursed, blesses. When reviled, does not revile back. When attacked, prays for the attacker.
This is the same pattern Peter has been teaching throughout the letter, applied now more broadly. Christ did not revile when He was reviled. Christians do not revile when they are reviled. The pattern is the pattern of Christ Himself, and the Christian’s participation in it is not accidental. It is, Peter says, what we were called to. To this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. The call of Christian discipleship includes this specific shape of response. And the outcome — the blessing the Christian will receive — is not a reward for performance but the fitting end of a life lived in the pattern of Christ.
The Psalm Peter Quotes
Peter grounds his exhortation with a lengthy quotation from Psalm 34. Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
Psalm 34 was clearly important to Peter. He has already echoed it earlier in the letter — the language of tasting that the Lord is good, in chapter two, is also from Psalm 34. The Psalm as a whole is a meditation on the Lord’s care for those who fear Him, His nearness to the brokenhearted, and His vindication of the righteous. Peter uses this particular portion to ground his call for Christian speech and action to be oriented toward peace rather than retaliation. The one who wants to see good days is not the one who successfully gets even with his enemies; he is the one who keeps his tongue from evil, turns from harm, and pursues peace.
The final phrase of the quotation is striking. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Peter is reminding his readers that God sees both sides of every dispute. The Christian who is being wronged is not alone; God’s eyes are on him, and God’s ears are open to his prayer. The one wronging him is not getting away with it; God’s face is set against the evildoer. The Christian does not need to vindicate himself because the Lord is already on the watch. This is why the Christian can afford not to retaliate — because retaliation is not necessary for justice, because the Judge is already at work.
Who Is There to Harm You?
Peter asks a rhetorical question that has been understood in various ways. Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? The question is striking because, on the surface, the answer seems to be — many people can harm Christians who are zealous for what is good. History and current experience both record this. The passage must be read carefully, not as a promise of worldly safety but as a deeper theological claim.
Peter’s meaning, consistent with the rest of the letter, is not that Christians who do good will never suffer. It is that when Christians suffer for doing good, their sufferings cannot touch what is deepest about them. The body may be harmed, but the soul remains in the keeping of the Shepherd. The reputation may be damaged, but the inheritance is kept in heaven. The life may be taken, but the life that is hid with Christ in God cannot be taken. The question is rhetorical not because suffering is impossible but because the suffering is limited. No one can ultimately harm the Christian who belongs to Christ.
But Even If You Should Suffer
Peter immediately acknowledges the possibility. But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. He does not pretend that faithful Christians will always be spared. He names the possibility directly. And he names it in a way that both acknowledges the reality of the suffering and redeems its meaning. The sufferer for righteousness is blessed. Not in the sense that the suffering is pleasant, which it is not, but in the sense that such suffering participates in a pattern that God Himself calls blessed — the pattern of Christ, the pattern of the prophets before Him, the pattern of the martyrs who would follow.
Have No Fear
The pastoral word that follows is warm. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled. Do not be afraid of those who threaten you. Do not let your inner life be overturned by the fear of what they might do. The Christian’s fear is not to be oriented toward human enemies. It is to be oriented toward the Lord. But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, Peter continues. The place of holy fear is for Christ. The place of reverent worship is for Him. Human threats can produce anxiety, but they cannot produce the reverent fear that belongs to God alone. The Christian who has his priorities ordered correctly — Christ as Lord above all — has no room in his inner life for the terrified fear of man.
Always Prepared to Make a Defense
Peter now gives one of the most famous single verses in the letter, a verse that has shaped Christian apologetics for two thousand years. Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
Three things in this verse repay careful attention. First, the occasion — when someone asks. Second, the content — a reason for the hope that is in you. Third, the manner — gentleness and respect.
When Someone Asks
Notice that Peter envisions the defense as a response to a question. The Christian is to be always prepared — ready at any moment — but the actual giving of the defense happens when someone asks. This is not a call to aggressive proselytizing or to corner non-Christians with arguments they never invited. It is a call to readiness. The Christian should be the kind of person whose life raises questions, and when those questions come, she should be able to answer them. The apologetic moment is when curiosity, skepticism, wonder, or opposition leads someone to ask — and Peter expects that, when this happens, the Christian will be able to respond substantively.
A Reason for the Hope
The content of the defense is specific. A reason for the hope that is in you. Not a reason for every doctrine the Christian believes, though the Christian should be able to articulate many of them. Not a reason for every practice of the Christian life, though the Christian should be able to account for most. The focus of the apologetic defense is the hope. This means the Christian should know, and should be able to articulate, what she actually hopes for. The inheritance imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven. The salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. The return of Christ. The resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come. These are the hopes of Christians, and the Christian should not be struck dumb when asked about them.
This requires preparation. The Christian life cannot be lived without catechesis. The ordinary Christian should know the basics of what she believes and should be able to say them in her own words. For Lutherans, the Small Catechism is the classical tool for this — a brief summary of what every Christian should know about faith, life, and hope. The Christian who can work through the Small Catechism in plain language has, in her possession, the resources for a basic defense of the hope that is in her. Peter’s call to readiness is a call to keep these basics ready for use.
With Gentleness and Respect
The manner matters. Peter does not tell his readers to give the defense triumphantly, aggressively, or with the swagger of those who have the right answers while others have the wrong ones. He tells them to do it with gentleness and respect. The Christian who speaks truth to a questioner does so as one who recognizes the dignity of the questioner, honors the questioner’s capacity to weigh the answer, and does not need to win the exchange to be faithful.
This is an important corrective to much Christian apologetics across history and in our own day. The Christian apologist is not a debater trying to score points. He is a witness trying to bear witness. The goal is not to humiliate the questioner but to serve him with the truth. The manner of the defense is part of the defense. A gentle, respectful answer is itself a commendation of the Gospel. An aggressive, contemptuous answer may win the argument and lose the person. Peter knows this, and he insists on the manner because the manner matters.
A Good Conscience
Peter adds one more element. Having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. The Christian’s defense of the hope is paired with the Christian’s actual conduct. If the life does not support the words, the defense fails regardless of its content. A good conscience — the inward assurance that the Christian has lived honorably — gives the words their weight. And when slander comes against a Christian whose conduct has been honorable, the slander falls back on the slanderer, because the observable life contradicts what is being said.
This is why Christian readiness to give a defense cannot be merely intellectual. It is the readiness of a whole life — words ready to speak, conduct ready to bear witness, conscience ready to answer to God. These are not separate. They are the single work of the Christian, whose hope is lived out in both word and deed, with the whole life pointing back to the one who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Christ’s Suffering and Victory
Peter now moves into one of the denser theological passages in the letter. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.
Every phrase in this sentence is packed with theological weight. Christ also suffered — connecting His experience to what Peter’s readers are being asked to endure. Once for sins — the singular, complete, unrepeatable nature of Christ’s sacrifice, which the book of Hebrews develops at greater length. The righteous for the unrighteous — the substitutionary logic of the atonement, where the innocent bore what the guilty deserved. That He might bring us to God — the purpose of the whole, to reconcile sinners to the God from whom sin had separated them. Put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit — the death and resurrection, held together as the single saving event.
Once for Sins
The word once, used emphatically, is important. Christ’s sacrifice was not repeated. It was not one of many. It was the once-for-all offering that accomplished what all the previous sacrifices of the Old Testament had only pointed toward. This is at the heart of the Reformation insight that grace is received by faith, not manufactured by repeated religious works. Christ has done what needed doing. His one sacrifice is sufficient. The Christian receives its benefit by trusting in what He has accomplished, not by trying to add to it.
The Righteous for the Unrighteous
The substitutionary logic is stated as clearly as anywhere in the New Testament. The righteous one — Christ, the spotless Lamb, the innocent — suffered for the unrighteous — us, the guilty, the sinners. Not alongside us. In our place. The transfer of guilt and righteousness is here. Our sin was placed on Him. His righteousness is credited to us. This is the deep engine of the Gospel, and Peter states it without qualification. The Christian stands before God not on the basis of his own righteousness, which is inadequate, but on the basis of Christ’s, which has been given to him by grace through faith.
Bringing Us to God
The purpose of the substitution is relational. That He might bring us to God. Christ did not die merely as an example or only to display love. By His death He made full satisfaction for our sins, and because that atoning work is complete, He brings sinners into restored communion with the Father from whom sin had separated them. The Gospel is, at its heart, a restoration of relationship — the Father and the sinner, alienated by sin, brought back together by the Son who bore the sin away. Christianity is not first of all a set of beliefs or a code of ethics. It is a reconciliation, accomplished at the cross, in which the living God and the redeemed sinner are joined in a communion that death itself cannot break.
The Spirits in Prison
Peter then makes one of the most difficult and debated statements in the New Testament. In which He went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
This passage has puzzled interpreters since the earliest centuries of the Church. What does Peter mean? Who are the spirits in prison? When did Christ go and proclaim to them? Why is Noah brought into the picture here? The answers are not simple, and sincere Christians have understood this passage in various ways. We will not pretend to resolve every question, but we can note the main lines of interpretation and draw what seems most consistent with the passage’s purpose in Peter’s argument.
Possible Interpretations
Some have read this as a reference to Christ, between His death and resurrection, descending to a place where disobedient spirits from Noah’s time are held, to proclaim His victory to them. Others have read it as a reference to Christ’s pre-incarnate Spirit speaking through Noah to the disobedient people of that generation, who are now spirits in prison awaiting judgment. Still others have read it as a reference to Christ’s triumphant proclamation to fallen angelic powers at His resurrection or ascension. The Lutheran tradition has generally favored the first interpretation — the descent to the place of the dead (the descensus ad inferos of the Apostles’ Creed) — though Luther himself considered the passage obscure and did not base his teaching on the descent exclusively here. Whatever the details, the Lutheran Confessions teach that Christ descended to hell as victor, conquering the devil and destroying hell’s power (Formula of Concord, Article IX). His proclamation to the spirits in prison is not a second opportunity for the dead to believe.
What seems most important for our purposes is not the precise details of the descent but what Peter is doing rhetorically. He is setting up the connection between the waters of the Flood and the waters of Baptism. Noah and his family were brought safely through the flood in the ark — through water, the same water that destroyed the disobedient. This becomes the framework for understanding what happens in Baptism, which Peter will address directly in the next verse.
Baptism Now Saves You
Peter now makes the statement that has become one of the most important for the Lutheran understanding of Baptism. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Read the sentence slowly. Baptism now saves you. Peter does not say Baptism symbolizes salvation. He does not say Baptism pictures salvation. He does not say Baptism testifies to salvation that has already occurred elsewhere. He says Baptism saves. This is one of the clearest statements in the New Testament of what Lutherans have always confessed about the power of this sacrament. The Word of God, joined to water in Baptism, does what the Word always does — it creates what it announces, gives what it promises, works in the person baptized what no ordinary water could accomplish.
Not a Removal of Dirt
Peter anticipates the misunderstanding. Not as a removal of dirt from the body. The water of Baptism is not just physical water doing physical cleaning. The washing of the body is not what Baptism is. Peter knows that some will hear Baptism now saves you and think of a merely external, physical ritual. He corrects this. Baptism is not what happens to the skin. Baptism is what happens to the person, in the totality of body and soul, through the Word that is joined to the water.
An Appeal to God for a Good Conscience
The phrase Peter chooses to describe what Baptism actually is — an appeal to God for a good conscience — has been translated several ways. The Greek word rendered appeal or pledge is unusual, and its precise meaning has been debated. What seems most consistent with the grammar and context is that Baptism is the place where the baptized person appeals to God, on the basis of what Christ has accomplished, and receives from God a good conscience — the cleansed, forgiven standing that only God can give. Baptism is the moment where the Word of forgiveness is applied to the individual, through the water, by the promise of the Gospel that is joined to the act.
This is a high doctrine of Baptism, and it is exactly what Lutherans have always confessed. The Small Catechism teaches that Baptism is not simply plain water, but water enclosed in God’s command and connected with God’s Word. It brings about forgiveness of sins, redeems from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe it, as the words and promise of God declare. Peter is the biblical ground of this teaching. Baptism now saves you. Not because water is magic. Not because the ritual has power of itself. Because the Word of God, spoken in the act of Baptism, is the Word of the God who created the world with His Word, and that Word does what it says.
Through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
And Peter grounds the efficacy of Baptism in the resurrection. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Baptism saves, not on its own power, but because it is the application to the individual of what Christ accomplished in His death and resurrection. The waters of Baptism are not just any water; they are the water in which the baptized is united to Christ in His death and raised with Him in His resurrection. Paul develops this at length in Romans 6. Peter states it compactly here. Baptism is the place where the resurrection of Jesus Christ becomes the new life of the one baptized.
This connection to the resurrection is essential. Baptism works because Christ rose. If Christ had not risen, Baptism would be empty. Because Christ rose, Baptism gives what Christ has to give. The power of the sacrament is the power of the risen Lord, applied to the individual through the Word and the water. The baptized person shares in what Christ has done, and the sharing is real, objective, effective — not merely symbolic or aspirational. What was accomplished in Christ is given to the baptized in Baptism, by the power of the Word, through the resurrection.
A Few Pastoral Notes
Several pastoral applications follow from this teaching. First, Baptism is a gift to be received, not an achievement to be earned. The baptized person has been given something by God, and he lives out of that gift for the rest of his life. Second, Baptism is complete in itself — it is a one-time event, not a repeated ritual. What was given in Baptism continues to be given. The Christian does not need to be baptized again to receive its benefits; he needs to remember what he has already received and live in its power. Third, Baptism is universal in scope — for adults who come to faith through hearing the Word, and for infants born into Christian homes, who are included in the promises of God through the same Word and water that saves their parents. The Lutheran confession of infant Baptism rests on passages like this one, where the Word of God is understood to do the saving work, creating faith even in those who cannot yet articulate it.
For Christians who were baptized as infants, this passage should be a source of deep comfort. Whatever they may have experienced in subsequent years — wanderings, doubts, sins, recoveries — their Baptism remains. The promise was made over them, the Word was spoken, the water was applied. They have been claimed by God, and that claim does not evaporate. Luther’s counsel on this was firm and consoling — when the devil tempts you to doubt, he said, remember your Baptism. You have been named by Christ, and no accusation of hell can undo what Christ has done.
This comfort must be heard rightly. Baptism remains God’s objective promise and work, and nothing we have done since can make His promise untrue. Its benefits are received by faith, however, and persistent unbelief or impenitence rejects the gift. The way back is always the way of repentance, which Luther describes in the Large Catechism as nothing else than a return and approach to Baptism. Baptismal remembrance therefore comforts the repentant; it is not permission to continue securely in unbelief.
Christ at the Right Hand
Peter closes the section with one more Christological statement. He has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to Him.
The image is of Christ’s exaltation and cosmic reign. After the suffering came the resurrection. After the resurrection came the ascension. After the ascension came the session at the right hand of the Father, the position of cosmic authority, from which Christ now reigns over all principalities, powers, and authorities. The spirits in prison, the fallen angels, the demonic powers, the worldly authorities that threaten the Church — all of them have been subjected to Christ. The letter’s whole treatment of Christian suffering rests on this fact. The enemies who appear so threatening in the moment have already, in the deeper reality, been defeated. Christ is Lord. The outcome is secure. The Christian who suffers now is suffering in the interim period before the visible consummation of what has already been decisively accomplished.
For Peter’s suffering readers, this was the deepest comfort. Whatever the Roman authorities might do, Christ is at the right hand. Whatever the demonic powers might stir up, they have been subjected. Whatever the world’s rejection looks like, the world is not the ultimate power. The Christian lives in the overlap of the ages — the victory has been won, but the consummation has not yet come. And in that overlap, the Christian holds firmly to what has already been accomplished, trusting that the visible unfolding will, in God’s time, match the invisible reality. The Lord reigns. The Lord will reign visibly. The Lord will bring His people safely home.
Gathering the Threads
Peter has covered remarkable ground in this passage. He has set out the qualities of the Christian community — unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. He has called his readers to bless rather than retaliate, grounding the call in Psalm 34. He has addressed the question of suffering for righteousness’ sake, counseling his readers to have no fear but to honor Christ as Lord in their hearts. He has given the Church the biblical ground of all Christian apologetics — always being ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, with gentleness and respect. And he has reached the Christological heart — Christ’s once-for-all suffering for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, the descent and the victory, the Baptism that now saves through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the session at the right hand of God.
For the Lutheran Christian, the passage is particularly rich because of its treatment of Baptism. Here is Peter, an apostle of Christ, stating in plain language what the Church has confessed across the centuries. Baptism saves. Not because water is magical, but because the Word of God is joined to the water, and the Word does what it says. The Christian life rests on this gift. And through all the suffering Peter has been describing — the mockery, the marginalization, the threats — the baptized Christian lives in the reality of what Baptism has given him. He has been united to Christ’s death and resurrection. He belongs to the one who is at the right hand of God. He is held by the Word that created him and the water that was poured over him in the name of the Triune God.
The Christian who has grasped what Peter teaches in this passage can face whatever comes with steady hope. The hope is not that sufferings will be few. The hope is that Christ has already gone ahead of us through suffering to glory, that Baptism has united us to His path, and that the same Lord who rose from the dead will bring us safely home to the inheritance that has been kept for us.
For Discussion
The following questions are for group discussion or personal reflection.
Peter lists five qualities of the Christian community — unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Which of these is most present in your congregation? Which is most lacking? Which do you yourself most need to grow in?
The call to bless rather than retaliate runs against every ordinary human instinct. Can you think of a time you responded this way to someone who wronged you? What enabled you to do it? What happens inside you when you retaliate instead?
Peter calls Christians to always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is in them. How prepared are you? If a neighbor asked you tomorrow why you are a Christian, what would you say?
The manner of the Christian’s defense — gentleness and respect — is as important as the content. Where have you seen Christian apologetics that honored this, and where have you seen it ignored? What difference does it make?
Baptism now saves you is one of the clearest statements in the New Testament of the power of this sacrament. How does the Lutheran confession of Baptism compare with how you had previously understood the sacrament? What does it mean for your own life to remember your Baptism?
Christ is at the right hand of God, with all powers subjected to Him. How does this affect the way you read current events and face personal difficulties? What changes when the triumph of Christ is the larger frame through which you interpret everything else?
Looking Ahead
Next week Peter continues his treatment of suffering in a passage that is, in some ways, even more pointed. Chapter four, verses one through nineteen, teaches the Christian to arm himself with the same way of thinking Christ had — being done with sin, living no longer for human passions, ready to face the judgment that is coming, and rejoicing in sharing Christ’s sufferings. The passage builds on everything we have covered and brings into view the eschatological urgency of the Christian life. The end of all things is at hand.
Before next session, read 1 Peter 4:1–19 at least twice. Pay attention to how Peter builds on the themes we have been tracing. The Christian has died to sin. The Christian is done with the ways of his former life. The Christian stands in an age where the end is approaching, and the time calls for sober thought, earnest love, faithful stewardship, and willingness to suffer as a Christian. This is a passage for serious Christians in serious times, and it rewards careful reading.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that You might bring us to God, we thank You for the Baptism through which You have joined us to Your death and resurrection. Help us always to remember what You have given us in this sacrament — the forgiveness of sins, the good conscience appealed to God, the new life that shares in Your own. Grant us the qualities of Christian community that Your apostle describes, and teach us to bless rather than retaliate when we are wronged. Make us always ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, with gentleness and respect. And bring us safely into the kingdom where You reign at the right hand of the Father, with all powers subjected to You. Amen.