1 Peter 3:15

1 Peter 3:15. but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. The A. V., following Tyndale, Cranmer, and the Genevan, adopts the reading of the Textus Receptus, viz. ‘the Lord God.' The Vulgate, Wycliffe, and the Rhemish have ‘the Lord Christ,' and this reading must be accepted as having by far the weightiest evidence on its side. The Revised Version rightly accepts it, giving it at the same time greater point by making the term ‘Lord' not a mere name of Christ, but a predicate. The Greek, though not absolutely conclusive, is on the whole in favour of this rendering. Isaiah's words, therefore, are continued, but with two significant modifications. Christ takes the place of the Jehovah of hosts, who is presented in the prophecy as the object of sanctification, and the words ‘in your hearts' are added in order to express the fact that this sanctification is not to be of a formal or external order, but to rest in the deepest seat of feeling. The term ‘sanctify' here means to regard and honour as holy; and, as appears from the explanatory terms, ‘let Him be your fear' and ‘let Him be your dread' (Isaiah 8:13), it amounts to much the same as ‘fear.' The fear of man is to be displaced by the fear of Christ, and of Him as our true Lord (comp. Luke 12:4-5). Thus ‘the Apostle places before us Christ to be our Lord, and to be set up in our hearts as the object of reverence and godly fear, in words which the prophet of the Old Testament uses with regard to the Lord Jehovah' (Humphrey, Comm. on the Revised Version, p. 442).

ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you. The ‘and' with which the A. V. introduces this sentence is not found in the best manuscripts. This makes it more probable that what now follows is not to be taken as a distinct counsel, ‘ be ready,' etc., but as in intimate connection with the preceding statement. One way in which this sanctifying of Christ as Lord will express itself is in meeting fairly and frankly the difficulties and questionings of others. The inward homage to Him does not absolve from responsibility to others, or justify disregard of their inquiries. What it implies is neither on the one hand the reticence which fear or indifference may prompt, nor on the other the propensity to dispute about our hope, but a readiness to give an account of it, wherever it may be necessary or helpful to do so. The phrase means literally ‘ready for an apology,' the noun being that which is variously rendered in our A. V. as ‘answer' (Acts 25:16; 1 Corinthians 9:3; 2 Timothy 4:16 and here), ‘defence' (Acts 22:1; Philippians 1:7; Philippians 1:16) and ‘clearing of oneself' (2 Corinthians 7:11). It has been supposed to refer here to official examination, or to legal processes such as Christians were subjected to under the Emperor Trajan. The general terms, however, in which the inquirers are described make it clear that what is in view is not readiness to face judicial investigation, but readiness to give at all fit times to all fit persons a reasonable defence or explanation of the Christian hope. The term ‘apology' is used not in the popular sense of an excuse, but in that of an apologetical vindication. It was afterwards applied to the early treatises written in defence of the Christian faith by the so-called Apologists, Tatian, Theophilus, Athenagoras, etc. The times are defined by the ‘always,' which covers all fit occasions, small or great, pleasant or the reverse. The fit persons are defined as embracing not indeed all and sundry, but all who ask ‘an account' (a phrase occurring only here) of this hope, all who demand to know what can be said on the subject of a hope in One risen from the dead, which so manifestly makes new men of those whom it inspires. These are to be considerately met, and, if possible, satisfied.

but (or, yet) with meekness and fear. A qualification of the kind of satisfaction that is to be attempted,

a caution against an over-readiness, which, instead of conciliating, prejudices and hurts. The spirit of truth, says Leighton, is itself the ‘spirit of meekness the dove that rested on that great champion of truth, who is truth itself.' This ‘meekness' (on which see also 1 Peter 3:4) is another of those virtues which have been so elevated and enriched by the Gospel as to be made practically new things. In the old Greek system of morals it had, indeed, a better place assigned it than was allowed to the quality of humility (on which see 1 Peter 3:8). In the ethical teaching of men like Plato, Aristotle, and Plutarch, it is commended as the virtue by which a man retains his equanimity, as the mean between the extremes of passionateness and insensibility, and as the opposite of rudeness, severity, harshness. So far, therefore, it had a good sense, where humility had the reverse. It remained, nevertheless, on a comparatively low platform, and with a value essentially superficial. Christianity carried it far beyond this, giving it a deeper seat than natural disposition, a loftier sphere of action than our relation to other men, a happier connection with humble-mindedness (comp. Ephesians 4:2; Colossians 2:12), at once a more inward and a more Godward aspect. Having its roots in the Christian consciousness of sin, it is first of all a grace with a Godward aspect (comp. Matthew 11:29; James 1:21), ‘the temper of spirit in which we accept His dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting' (Trench). It is, in the second place, the disposition to meet whatever demand is made upon us by the oppositions and sins of our fellow-men in the spirit which is born of the sense of our own ill-desert in God's sight. So it is set over against a contentious spirit (Titus 3:2), want of consideration for offenders (Galatians 6:1), and harshness toward opponents (2 Timothy 2:24), etc. The ‘fear' which is to be coupled with it is best understood neither as the fear of God exclusively, nor as the fear of man specifically, but more generally as the dread of doing or saying anything out of harmony with the solemnity of the interests involved ‘that reverential fear,' as Bishop Butler expresses it, ‘which the nature of religion requires, and which is so far from being inconsistent with, that it will inspire, proper courage towards men.' While we are to be ready with our answer, it is not to be given in a forward, irreverent, or arrogant spirit. Reference is appropriately made (by Alford, etc.) to the interpretation put upon this counsel by one who had the best title to speak, the hero of Augsburg and Worms: ‘Then must ye not answer with proud words, and state your cause with defiance and with violence, as if you would tear up trees, but with such fear and humility as if ye stood before the judgment-seat of God; so shouldest thou stand in fear, and not rely on thy own strength, but on the word and promise of Christ.'