Montgomery - I Peter - 3

3:1  In the same way you wives must be submissive to your own husbands; so that if some of them will not believe the message, they may apart from the message be won over by the behavior of their wives,

3:2  when they see how pure and reverent you are.

3:3  Your adornment ought not to be the outward adornment of plaited hair and golden jewels and the wearing of beautiful dresses;

3:4  but rather that hidden personality of the heart, the imperishable ornament of a quiet and gentle spirit, which in the sight of God is indeed precious.

3:5  For in this way in the olden time the holy women also, who put their trust in God, used to adorn themselves. They were ever in submission to their own husbands;

3:6  thus, for example, Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are daughters of Sarah, if you do what is right, and permit nothing to make you afraid.

3:7  In the same way you husbands live with your wives, according to knowledge, honoring your wife as of the weaker sex, yet as an heir with yourself of the grace of life; so that your prayers may not be hindered.

3:8  Finally, you should all be harmonious, sympathetic, loving as brothers, tender-hearted, humble-minded;

3:9  not paying back evil for evil or abuse for abuse, but on the contrary giving a blessing. Because for this you have been called - to inherit a blessing.

3:10  He who would love life and enjoy happy days, Let him keep his tongue from evil, And his lips from speaking guile;

3:11  Let him turn from evil and do good, Let him seek peace, and pursue it.

3:12  For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, And his ears are open to their cry; But the face of the Lord is set against evil-doers.

3:13  Yet who will harm you if you become zealous for the good?

3:14  But even if you should suffer in behalf of righteousness, you are happy. Do not be afraid of their terror, neither be troubled.

3:15  But consecrate Christ in your hearts, as Lord. Be always in readiness to make and answer to any one who asks you a reason for the hope that is within you, yet with gentleness and reverence.

3:16  See that you have a clear conscience, so that, although they speak of you as evil-doers, these libelers of your good Christian lives may be ashamed.

3:17  For it is better that you suffer for doing right, if such be God’s will, than for doing wrong;

3:18  because Christ also once for all suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but make alive in spirit.

3:19  (It was in spirit that he went and preached the Word to the spirits who were in prison,

3:20  who in old times had been disobedient, when God’s longsuffering was waiting in the days of Noah, while an ark was building, in which a few persons - eight in number - were saved by water.)

3:21  Baptism, the counterpart of that, now saves you (not the washing off of the filth of the flesh, but the prayer for a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

3:22  He is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; to Him angels and authorities and powers have been made subject.