The grace of life is God as life and life supply to us in His Trinity — the Father as the source of life, the Son as the course of life, and the Spirit as the flow of life, who flows within us, with the Son and the Father, as grace to us (1 John 5:11-12; John 7:38-39; Rev. 22:1). All believers are heirs of this grace. See note 1 Pet. 1:4^2a.

The Greek word for assigning means to apportion, to portion out; hence, to assign to. The word for honor means preciousness, valuable worth. The husbands should appreciate the preciousness, the valuable worth, of the wives and apportion it, assign it, as honor to them, duly and reasonably, as also to fellow heirs of the grace of life.

Man, including woman, was made a vessel to contain God (Rom. 9:21, 23), and the believers in Christ are vessels to contain Christ as the treasure (2 Cor. 4:7). Although the wives, as female vessels, are weaker, they are still vessels of the Lord and can be vessels unto honor (2 Tim. 2:21).

The female, according to nature in God's creation, is weaker than the male, physically and psychologically.

I.e., in an intelligent and reasonable way, governed by human and spiritual knowledge that recognizes the nature of the marriage relationship and the weakness of the female, and not governed by any passion or emotion.

Lit., fright, or, nervous excitement.

That the hidden man of the heart has the incorruptible adornment of a meek and quiet spirit indicates that the meek and quiet spirit in us is the hidden man of our heart. Our heart is composed of all the parts of our soul — mind, emotion, and will — along with the main part of our spirit — the conscience (Heb. 4:12). Among all these, our spirit is at the center; hence, our spirit is the hidden man of our heart. As wives, the sisters in the Lord should have as their adornment before God their inner being — the hidden man of their heart, which is adorned with a meek and quiet spirit. This spiritual adornment is very costly in the sight of God, and it is incorruptible, not like the material adornment of the plaiting of hair or the putting on of gold and garments, which is corruptible.

Women's hair is intended by God for their glory and as a sign of their submission (1 Cor. 11:15; S.S. 4:1; 6:5; 7:5). But it was misused by many, especially by those who lived in the luxurious and corrupt life of the Roman Empire at the time of this Epistle, to beautify their lustful flesh by adorning it extravagantly with gold and other costly things. Christian wives, as holy women, should absolutely abstain from this God-condemned practice.

See note 1 Pet. 1:17^4e.

In fear modifies pure manner of life.

Or, chaste; in Greek, a derivative from the same root as holy in v. 5 and 1 Pet. 1:15. The pure and chaste manner of life must be the holy manner of life (1:15), the excellent manner of life (1 Pet. 2:12), and the good manner of life (v. 16).

The word of God (1 Pet. 1:23, 25; Rom. 10:8; Eph. 1:13).

A pious fear. See note 1 Pet. 1:17^4e.

Since the conscience is a part of our human spirit (Rom. 9:1; 8:16), to care for our conscience is to care for our spirit before God.

The Christian's good manner of life should be one that is in Christ. It is a living, a daily life, in the Spirit. This is higher than a living that is merely ethical and moral.

Referring to 1 Pet. 2:18.

The tense of the Greek participle means be always blessing.

We have been called to bless others, so we, as a blessed people, should always bless others that we may inherit blessing. What we bless others with, we will inherit ourselves (Matt. 10:13).

Good days are days of good, referring to good things as blessings.

If we are terrified and troubled by the persecutors (vv. 13-14), it will appear that we do not have the Lord in our hearts. So, in suffering persecution we should show others that we have Christ as Lord within us. This is to sanctify Him, to separate Him, from the other gods, not degrading Him so that He appears to be like the lifeless idols.

The living hope of the inheritance of eternal life. See note 1 Pet. 1:3⁶ and note 1 Pet. 1:4^2a.

Not the Holy Spirit but the Spirit as the essence of Christ's divinity (Rom. 1:4; cf. John 4:24a). The crucifixion put Christ to death only in His flesh — which He received through His incarnation (John 1:14) — not in His Spirit as His divinity. His Spirit as His divinity did not die at the cross when His flesh died; rather, His Spirit as His divinity was made alive, enlivened, with new power of life, so that in this empowered Spirit as His divinity He made a proclamation to the fallen angels after His death in the flesh and before His resurrection.

This refers to the Spirit in v. 18, indicating and proving that Christ, after dying in His flesh, was still active in this Spirit.

Not to preach the good news but to proclaim the victory achieved by God, that is, that through Christ's death on the cross God destroyed Satan and his power of darkness (Heb. 2:14; Col. 2:15).

Throughout the centuries great teachers of different schools have had varying interpretations concerning the spirits in prison. The most acceptable according to the Scriptures is as follows: the spirits here refer not to the disembodied spirits of dead human beings held in Hades but to the angels (angels are spirits — Heb. 1:14) who fell through disobedience at Noah's time (v. 20 and Life-study of Genesis, Message 27, pp. 363-4) and are imprisoned in pits of gloom, awaiting the judgment of the great day (2 Pet. 2:4-5; Jude 1:6). After His death in the flesh, Christ in His living Spirit as His divinity went (probably to the abyss — Rom. 10:7) to these rebellious angels to proclaim, perhaps, God's victory, accomplished through His incarnation in Christ and Christ's death in the flesh, over Satan's scheme to derange the divine plan.

Referring to Tartarus, the deep and gloomy pits (2 Pet. 2:4 and Jude 1:6), where the fallen angels are kept.

Not human but angelic beings, different from the eight souls.

"The Greek means «arrive safe into a place of security through difficulty or danger,» as Acts 27:44" (Darby).

Water was the medium through which the saving was accomplished. The ark saved Noah and his family from God's judgment, the destruction of the world by the flood. But the water saved them from the corrupted generation and separated them unto a new age, just as the water of the Red Sea did for the children of Israel (Exo. 14:22, 29; 1 Cor. 10:1-2) and the water of baptism for the New Testament believers (v. 21).

Sins here and in 2:24, 1 Cor. 15:3, and Heb. 9:28 refers to the sins we commit in our outward conduct; whereas sin in 2 Cor. 5:21 and Heb. 9:26 refers to sin that is in our nature by birth. Christ died for our sins, bearing up our sins on the cross, that our sins might be forgiven by God. But He was made sin and took away the sin of the world that the problem of our sin might be solved. Peter did not deal first with sin in our nature but with sins in our conduct, in our manner of life (v. 16). The emphasis of this book is that Christ's death redeemed us from our inherited vain manner of life (1 Pet. 1:18-19).

This indicates that Christ's death was for redemption, not for martyrdom. On the cross He was our Substitute and bore our sins; He, the righteous One, was judged on behalf of us, the unrighteous, by the righteous God according to His righteousness, that He might remove the barrier of our sins and bring us to God. This was to redeem us from our sins back to God, from our unrighteous manner of life back to the righteous God.

Referring to the water mentioned in the preceding verse, of which the water of baptism is the antitype. This indicates that Noah and his family's passing through the flood within the ark was a type of our passing through baptism. The water of the flood delivered them out of the old manner of life into a new environment; in like manner the water of baptism delivers us out of the inherited vain manner of life into a manner of life of resurrection in Christ. This is the main emphasis of this book. Christ redeemed us for this (1 Pet. 1:18-19). Christ's redemption was accomplished by Christ's death and was accepted and applied to us, in baptism, by the Spirit through Christ's resurrection. Now our daily walk should be in the Spirit of the resurrected Christ; it should be a walk in which we live Christ in resurrection through the life power of His Spirit (Rom. 6:4-5). This is a new and excellent manner of life that glorifies God (1 Pet. 2:12).

In apposition to antitype.

Baptism itself does not and cannot put away the filth of our flesh — the dirt of our fallen nature and the defilement of fleshly lust. The erroneous teaching concerning baptismal salvation, a teaching based on this verse and Mark 16:16 and Acts 22:16, is corrected here. Baptism is only a figure; its reality is Christ in resurrection as the life-giving Spirit, who applies to us all that Christ passed through in His crucifixion and resurrection, making these things real in our daily life.

The Greek word denotes a question, an inquiry. Its meaning is very much disputed. The right meaning seems to be as indicated by Alford — "the seeking after God in a good and pure conscience." It is this that governs the proper Christian life. This kind of question, which asks for something, can be considered an appeal or demand. Peter's thought here may be that baptism is the baptized one's appeal to God for a good conscience toward God. Baptism, as a symbol, a counterpart of our belief in all the accomplishments of Christ, testifies that all the problems we have before God and with God have been solved. Hence, it is also a testimony, witnessing that in our conscience there is no more accusation and that instead we are full of peace and are confident that we have been baptized into the Triune God (Matt. 28:19) and have been organically united with Him through the resurrection of Christ, that is, by Christ in resurrection as the Spirit of life. Without the Spirit of Christ as its reality, baptism by water immediately becomes an empty and dead ritual.

This additional word not only unveils to us, further, the glorious result of the suffering of Christ — His exaltation after His resurrection and the high and honorable position He now holds in the heavens at the right hand of God — but also indicates how glorious and honorable is the organic union we have entered into with Him through baptism, for we were baptized into Him (Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27).