1 Peter 3:8-17

This short and simple section deals with the wider relations of the Christian disciple to his fellow-disciples and to the world. It is an expansion of Christ's teaching in the Golden Rule. It is clearly shown that to suffer for righteousness is only to tread in the steps of the great Forerunner, and that such a life is reasonable, and its principles once grasped can be easily justified to others. The hope of the Christians was the chief point likely to be under discussion, since this was at once the most attractive feature of their faith, and the one most difficult of belief. This epistle is full, as we have seen, of the idea of hope, and hence the writer lays stress upon it, when urging the nature of their apologia or vindication of their manner of life, and its ruling thought. Christ is to dominate their hearts, for He constitutes their Hope in the most perfect presentation of its power.

1 Peter 3:10. he that would love life: this does not quite represent the Gr. of the OT, which is, He that desireth life, and loveth many days. It may have been changed, because the original Gr. is awkward, or to give an even finer meaning to the passage, viz. that the making of life lovely lies in the will of the individual. He can triumph over all difficulties and injustice, and make all life worthy of being loved. As Tennyson phrases it:

Let my day be brief,

So Thou wilt strike Thy glory through the day.

1 Peter 3:14. fear not their fear: Have no fear of their threats.