1 Peter 3

¹Likewise, wives, order yourselves under your own husbands, so that even if some are disobedient to the word, they will be won over without a word through the way of life of their wives, ²as they observe your pure conduct characterized by reverence. ³Your adornment should not be the external kind—the braiding of hair and the wearing of gold jewelry or the putting on of fine robes— ⁴but rather the hidden person of the heart, clothed in the imperishable quality of a spirit of gentle strength and quietness, which is very precious in the sight of God. ⁵For this is how the holy women of the past, who put their hope in God, used to adorn themselves, ordering themselves under their own husbands, ⁶just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him "lord." You have become her children by doing good and not being intimidated by any terror.

⁷Husbands, likewise, live together with your wives according to understanding, assigning honor to the feminine vessel as the physically weaker one, since you are also fellow-heirs of the gift of life, so that your prayers are not hindered.

⁸Finally, all of you be like-minded, sympathetic, loving as family, tender-hearted, and humble-minded. ⁹Do not return evil for evil or insult for insult, but on the contrary, give a blessing, because you were called to this so that you might inherit a blessing. ¹⁰For, "The one who desires to love life and to see good days, must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; ¹¹he must turn away from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. ¹²For the eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and his ears are open to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."

¹³And who is the one who will harm you if you become zealots for the good? ¹⁴But even if you should suffer for the sake of justice, you are blessed. "Do not fear what they fear, and do not be shaken," ¹⁵but set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts, always ready to give a reasoned defense to everyone who asks you for an account of the hope that is in you. ¹⁶But do this with gentle strength and reverence, keeping a good conscience, so that in the very thing for which you are slandered, those who insult your good way of life in Christ may be put to shame. ¹⁷For it is better to suffer for doing good, if the will of God should so intend, than for doing evil.

¹⁸For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, so that he might bring you to God—being put to death in the realm of the flesh but made alive in the realm of the spirit. ¹⁹In that realm, he also went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, ²⁰who were once disobedient when God’s patience was waiting in the days of Noah while the ark was being constructed. In it, a few—that is, eight souls—were brought safely through water. ²¹This water prefigured the baptism that now saves you—not the scrubbing of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²²who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels and authorities and powers having been ordered under him.