1 Peter 3 Discussion

Your marriage, your prayer life, and your public witness are more connected than most of us want to admit, and 1 Peter 3 says it plainly. We sit down as pastors and walk line by line through one of the most challenging chapters in the letter, starting with God’s design for husbands and wives. We talk about submission and honor without softening the text, and we also name the real fear that comes with authority and responsibility. Then we land the warning that should stop every husband in his tracks: if you don’t treat your wife with honor, your prayers can be hindered. 

From there, we tackle the “weird stuff” that everyone notices but few explain, including Jesus proclaiming to the spirits in prison. We explore what that could mean and why Christ’s suffering and resurrection are not only personal salvation but also a cosmic declaration of victory. If you’ve ever wondered what happened between the cross and the empty tomb, this section will give you categories to think clearly and biblically. 

We also take on the loaded phrase “baptism now saves you” and ask the obvious question: does baptism save you? We clarify the difference between water and what it signifies, why Peter links baptism to an appeal for a good conscience, and why Scripture holds faith, confession, and baptism tightly together. We close with practical application: honoring Christ as holy, being ready with a reason for your hope, and doing apologetics with gentleness and respect in a world that often expects Christians to be harsh. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review, what line from 1 Peter 3 challenged you most?

Text us at 737-231-0605 with any questions.

Transcript

Welcome And 1 Peter 3 Outline

Pastor Plek 0:10

And welcome back to a chapter today. Keeps the devil away. I'm Pastor Pleck. That's Pastor Holland. We are talking all about 1 Peter chapter 3. And now we're going to outline it. We're going to observe it. We're going to interpret, and then we're going to apply it so the word of God may bam impact some people in a powerful way. Wherever you live, work, and play, you can do it all for him today. All right. So verses 1 through 7, instructions for husbands and wives. Wives are called to submit to their own husbands. Husbands are to be kind and loving to their wives, or else their prayers are going to be hindered. And you don't want that. Okay. Verses 8 through 12 is a call to unity and blessing. All believers should be one mind, sympathetic, loving, compassionate, and humble. And the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their prayers. Then you got verses 13 through 17, suffering for righteousness' sake. This theme of suffering comes up a bunch in 1 Peter. And then verses 18 through 22. Christ's suffering is the ultimate example, and it's our victory. Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God. All right.

Marriage Roles And Honoring Each Other

Pastor Plek 1:17

Let's get into some observations. What do you see here? Holando.

The Hard Verses: Spirits In Prison

Pastor Holland 1:21

All right. There's some weird stuff in here. Verse 19 Jesus went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because they formerly did not obey. What's he talking about there?

Pastor Plek 1:33

You know, I think this could be the rebellious angels. That's what I think. What do you think?

Pastor Holland 1:40

Yeah, the spirits in prison, the rebellious rebellious angels who were um like uh rebelled from God, right? Yeah, and you know, sentenced to um damnation. Yeah, Hades, locked locked in chains in Hades or Sheol, the place of the dead. And so some people say that that this is what Jesus did uh in between his death and resurrection. Right. That his body was buried in a tomb, his um soul, his spirit um descended to the place of the dead, where he proclaimed victory for the righteous dead and um proclaimed um here to the spirits in prison kind of judgment, uh God's judgment for their rebellion against the body.

Pastor Plek 2:28

And do you think it was kind of like um like hey, you thought you won. In other words, you thought you took humanity down, like the treasure of my creation, humanity. You thought you could take them all to hell with you, um, to hell with you. Get it?

Pastor Holland 2:42

Yeah.

Pastor Plek 2:43

Uh no, I am redeeming their, I redeem their souls. Yeah. And they didn't see it come. They're like, whoa, I didn't even see that one. Crazy.

Pastor Holland 2:51

Yeah, yeah.

Does Baptism Save You

Pastor Holland 2:53

And so that's cool. Um, you also have baptism now saves you. Verse 21. So, question Does baptism save you?

Pastor Plek 3:03

Baptism does not save you, but you know, if you're saved, you go get baptized. Well, then why does he say baptism saves you? That is a great question. What do you think?

Pastor Holland 3:12

Okay, so here he when he says this verse, baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Meaning, um, not uh like the physical water itself has some salvific effect, but rather what the water signifies, your appeal to God, meaning your faith. Um, so baptism it uh as a sign of faith saves you. Yeah. Um, you and you can speak about it in that way, because Peter does, I think, um, that baptism and salvation are kind of connected together in that baptism is the sign of the inward faith that you have. Right. Yeah. Okay. So the water doesn't have some kind of saving power, um, but your faith uh in Jesus saves you, and the water signifies that.

Pastor Plek 4:08

That's my answer. Okay.

Fear And Submission In Modern Life

Pastor Plek 4:11

Um I love how um you are her children if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening. Yeah. That is sort of an interesting way of speaking. Don't fear frightening things. Uh is it a sin to fear frightening things? And if if how would you know it was a frightening thing if you didn't fear it? I mean, wow.

Pastor Holland 4:40

Deep, deep question. I mean, a monster is frightening, but you know, Goliath is a frightening thing, but David didn't fear it because he said, you know, he had the Lord on his side. Fair enough. Okay. So similarly, I think for women, like to submit to obey Abraham and call him Lord means that might be frightening. Yeah, that's frightening. That's saying, I'm giving you control over the direction of our lives.

Pastor Plek 5:00

Okay, so this is good. So remember that this whole comes this that whole phrase comes right behind Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord. Yeah. Which would be master. It would be like, that's like bow down to you type stuff. Like, what do we talk? I mean, that's kind of wild to think. Like, you know, let's get into modern context. But the same thing that the reason why a woman today would fear that is that she doesn't want a tyrant over her. Isn't that exactly what that's saying? Yeah. Yeah.

Pastor Holland 5:29

That's and her submission, not this is not a, you know, you say like bow down. This is not a like she worshipped or idolized him. Lord, meaning uh Lord can mean um master or uh and so the idea essentially just acknowledging his authority over her as her husband. And so the idea of like a husband as head over his wife doesn't start with Paul in the New Testament. This this was God's design back from Adam and Eve in the garden and present throughout all of the Bible. And uh, but yeah, it can be a frightening thing to say, I'm going to submit to some authority who's gonna have the right to my life.

Pastor Plek 6:10

Yeah, like to direct me. Now, not in a way to have you do anything sinful or not God honoring. However, kind of wild that that's that authority, but also I think the the the part that's don't fear anything that's frightening. There's the the scary part of like giving authority to a man, but then there's a responsibility that that man now has. He should fear that should be I don't know, frightening. Like you have responsibility for this woman. You need to take care of her and provide for her, protect her, pursue her, and preside over her life in a really positive God-only way. All right. Yeah. And that's why he says, likewise, because I think that likewise links you do good and do not fear anything that's frightening. Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as a weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. I I love this because it's

Understanding Your Spouse With Honor

Pastor Plek 7:00

the link of I am going to have to live with my wife in an understanding way. How is it that men are to understand their wives?

Pastor Holland 7:13

The I think uh other translations put it according to knowledge. Uh-huh. Um, and so yeah, having a knowledge, one, I think knowledge of um God's word and what he teaches about the relationship between a husband and wife, but also knowledge of your wife and an understanding being understanding of her needs everything that she's there's a certain period where I don't understand my wife at all, actually.

Pastor Plek 7:36

Well, you need to I'm gonna grow in this. This is very convicting to under live my wife in an understanding way at the entire month long.

Pastor Holland 7:46

And there you go. The whole thing is about it. I think this all goes back to verse 12 of chapter two. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, and then show honor. Verse uh 17, honor everyone, honor the whole thing is about what does it look like to honor people in the different spheres of life? Yeah. And so for a with a husband and wife, you have one who is a weaker vessel, one who's a stronger vessel. The wife is the weaker vessel. It's how God designed male and female. Yep. And so for the weaker vessel, um, the honor to the husband is in submission to his authority as head. Um, for the stronger vessel, the honor is in taking care of your wife, um, loving her, um, being living in an understanding way, showing honor as it says an heir with you of the grace of life. And so both husband and wife have particular duties to honor the other. Um, but they're not the exact same duties. There's an order. Yeah.

Pastor Plek 8:42

Let's get into like along those lines, nature of man. Yeah. What do we got here? Um I guess this whole thing of of submission, it was we we saw it in chapter um two, right? With like be submissive to the authorities. Now in chapter three, the frightening thing, it's just in the same way, it would have been frightening to submit to the authorities of political authorities, kings and governors and whatnot, is also there's a scary thing for women to submit to men um in everything, which is here it is. It's like that is part of the order of society, can be frightening, and there's a tendency in us to rebel against it, to be afraid of it, and to say, I don't want that. And he's saying, No, the word of God commands us to lean into that.

Pastor Holland 9:24

Yeah, yeah. And because I mean, the government authorities in those days wanted to kill Christians. And um so there were their punching to submit to. Um and here he brings up the first thing he brings up is husbands that don't obey the word. And so he goes, Yeah, that would be frightening. A husband that's not a Christian or disobeys God's word, and yet his counsel and command to the wives is to um be subject to them, and that maybe your conduct, your respectful, pure conduct, might win them over without a word, through your

When God Hinders A Man’s Prayers

Pastor Holland 10:00

gentle, quiet spirit. Um, and so God can work through uh the faithfulness of Christian wives to bring unbelieving husbands to faith.

Pastor Plek 10:09

And probably on the flip, right? Yeah. Of that uh husbands who are believers, by their faithful leadership, uh can reach their unbelieving wives. Yeah. All right. What about um there's I like I like look at verse 13. Now, who's there to harm you if you're zealous for what is good? In other words, I think sometimes we can be zealous, but not for good stuff. Yeah.

Pastor Holland 10:33

And and again, like if you're doing the right thing, you shouldn't face any penalties for that in a normal, you know, a proper society.

Pastor Plek 10:40

And in fact, they're gonna go, why are you so obedient? And you're like, because I love Jesus. Yeah. And that gives credit to who Christ is.

Pastor Holland 10:46

I also do love back to the beginning, um, where he he's giving this command to women let your adorning, meaning like the thing that is most uh that you that's put on display, um, not be the external stuff, jewelry, fancy clothing, your hair. Let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle, quiet spirit. A gentle quiet spirit is not something that's typically praised in our culture today. We, you know, we think that that's like lame and um, you know, uh powerless and stuff like that. But this passage says the exact opposite. Gentle quiet spirit can be the very means by which a husband's faith could be, or you know, an unbelieving husband can come to faith. He shows the power of gentleness and quietness and how it's fitting for women. So good. All right, let's get into some character of God here.

Pastor Plek 11:40

Um how about that? Uh uh oh, how about that God hinders prayers of men who don't treat their wives right? Yeah. Like that's that's pretty extreme.

Pastor Holland 11:56

Yeah. Every authority over someone else is under authority, um, uh under God's authority. And so you're accountable to God. And if you're doing a bad job, God's gonna judge you.

Pastor Plek 12:06

Yeah. And so if you have any dream, desire, hope, um, and you don't treat your wife right, it ultimately not only your wife's not blessed, but you're not gonna get blessed, and you're gonna hit brick wall after brick wall after brick wall, and you're always gonna wonder why are my prayers hitting the ceiling? Because they are. Yeah. Because you're not obeying God's word, which says, treat your wife with honor and respect and love and care for her.

Pastor Holland 12:28

Yeah, absolutely. Um and it says, uh oh, where is it? The eyes of the Lord, this is verse 12. Yeah. Um, this is related to that. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. So again, connected to you know, your prayers being hindered, if you're doing evil, the face of God is against you. Like that should make you tremble and go, like, you know, the God who swallowed people into the earth in the Old Testament and sent fiery serpents and brought the red sea plagues on Pharaoh and the Red Sea to destroy the Egyptians, and like that God is against you if you're doing evil. You need to repent. Oh, gosh. All right. Yeah, He's not listening to your prayers, he's preparing judgment

God’s Will: Suffering For Doing Good

Pastor Holland 13:19

for you.

Pastor Plek 13:19

All right, so let's get on what God's will is. Verse 17. Okay. Here it is. If that should be God's will, and you're like, oh, I wonder what God's will is. For it is better to suffer for doing good. That's God's will. Suffer for doing good. Yeah, it's not God's will to suffer for doing evil. Yeah. Like if you're ever wondering, like, why is this happening? Oh, I'm suffering for for the Lord. And you're like, it was you, you know, you stole something and they there was a thing by my house the other night.

Pastor Holland 13:46

People got thrown in jail for stealing cars, and it's like, oh, this is not fair. No, it's fair. You stole cars, you go to jail.

Pastor Plek 13:51

Yeah, but they, you know, they didn't read me my rights first, and blah, blah, blah. I I should get off on the technicality of whatever. Like, yeah, you're not suffering, that's not the Lord's will that you suffered for doing evil, even if it was the wrong uh whatever protocol wasn't followed.

Pastor Holland 14:07

Yeah, that what he's talking about, suffering for doing good, is like you're doing all the right things. You're living your life for Jesus and you're preaching Jesus, and then you get thrown in jail for that. Right. And he goes, Yeah, that's God's will. Um and I mean, that's what happened to all the apostles, right?

Pastor Plek 14:24

Yeah. All right, I love that. Let's get into some

Applications: Marriage, Baptism, Witness

Pastor Plek 14:27

application. You love that? Yeah, I mean, it's it's just the truth of like, and also the hard truth that I'm so like, yeah, I love that. All right. Uh so let's get into some application. Sind to avoid, promise to claim, example, follow, command, obey, knowledge to believe. What do you what do you got for uh this this application?

Pastor Holland 14:46

Husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way. Honor your your wife. Um live according to knowledge, knowledge of God's word, knowledge of her, what she needs. Um, put it Paul's way, that you would nourish and cherish her. Um that's your command as a husband.

Pastor Plek 15:04

Wow. Wives, submit to your husbands in everything. Uh be like Sarah, who called Abraham Lord. Like there is a it's call your husband Lord tonight and see what happens. See how the the just the way that your relationship will flourish. When he says, hey, honey, and you go, Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Yes, my Lord. If you do it like that, you will get extra credit. Please uh you can text it at 737-231-0605 and let us know how that went. Uh yeah, we'd love to hear from you about that. Um, because I uh you're gonna be surprised. What a you know, this is Ephesians 5. What a a man sort of needs in a sense from his wife is respect, and what a woman needs from her husband is love. And I think you get to see that aspect really kind of um fleshed out here. Yeah. Um how about this one? Get baptized. Yeah. All right, it's not that the baptism save you, save you, but it acknowledges you made an appeal to God to clean your soul, which is exactly what you did. And then uh the fulfillment of you following through on all that is I'm obeying that. It is saying to the world, I am saved, and you can trust him too. He's cleaned me in the same way this baptismal water has cleaned my body, it'll clean your soul.

Pastor Holland 16:18

Yeah. Okay, on that, we've said several times, like baptism doesn't save you. Right. But this passage says baptism now saves you. I I feel I think we need to be comfortable, in my opinion, saying baptism saves you.

Pastor Plek 16:31

Not as a removal of dirt from the body, in other words, but as an appeal to God, right?

Pastor Holland 16:35

In the same way that Romans 10 says, if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved.

Pastor Plek 16:44

This outward confession, you can out the inner stuff, doesn't do anything.

Pastor Holland 16:49

Right. But the inward belief ought to produce not only the outward confession, but the outward obedience to the command to be baptized. And so you should really see these things as being connected. If you believe, get baptized. They're connected in scripture. Right.

Pastor Plek 17:04

I I like that. Uh because but it says baptism, which corresponds to this. What does it correspond to? That it's a representative God saved Noah through the waters. Noah through the waters. Yeah. And so why did he save Noah? Because he was more he believed. Yeah. And so first he believed, then he saved him on the water. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I think that's what the corresponding thing is. The the saving faith saved him through or then the representation of that, the physical manifestation of that is Noah's saved on the waters. The physical manifestation of your belief is getting actually baptized.

Pastor Holland 17:39

Exactly. My whole point is I'm I'm agreeing with what you're saying. If you believe, get baptized because scripture holds them together as baptism is the outward expression of your inward faith.

Pastor Plek 17:48

And but what I want, but don't what if you haven't gotten baptized yet? And as you're about to hit those baptismal waters, you die. You're good. All right, you're gonna be fine. All right.

Pastor Holland 17:58

However, let's say it's the heart that counts there.

Pastor Plek 18:00

Yeah. However, if you if you say, like, like, what why do I need to be baptized in front of a church? Why do we need to blah blah blah blah? If you start going to all the excuses of why you shouldn't be baptized, then I'm gonna start to question what happened in your soul. Not that I can see it, not that I have like special knowledge. However, whenever you plant a seed, an app an apple seed, it produces apple trees. It doesn't produce anything else. So when you pr plant the seed of salvation, outcomes salvific things like baptism.

Pastor Holland 18:30

Yeah, there you go.

Pastor Plek 18:31

Right. What other application do you have? Um good question. How about honor

Apologetics With Gentleness And Respect

Pastor Plek 18:41

the Lord is holy? There you go. Have no, like, I I think that in your heart, in your heart of hearts, honor Christ the Lord is holy. Um I don't know if we think about that often. Uh like, hmm, Jesus, you're so holy. And I'm Jesus, you are really because it's in that in the realm of suffering.

Pastor Holland 19:01

Yeah, and it well, and the context of this, yeah, is is suffering, but also being prepared to make a defense um to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Gentleness and respect. It's good to honor him as holy is going like Christ is holy, I am in him, I'm set apart, I'm gonna do what he tells me to do. And that means I'm always ready to testify that Jesus is Lord and He saves sinners and you should repent.

Pastor Plek 19:26

And this is where the term apologetics comes from. The the word defense here is apologia. Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and a respect. And so when someone is genuinely asking about Jesus, that's probably not the time to start mocking them for their sinful life. Uh, that might be the time to go, like, your sin is preventing you from being close to Jesus. Jesus came and died on the cross for you. He rose the dead. Holy Spirit, come to my life, make me the person you want me to be, and watch what God does. But having a genuine reason, like here's what the scripture says, here's what my life says, here is what, here's how the word of God has changed me. Here is the the truth you can you can sink your teeth into. Here's the history that I've studied. And you don't need to know I have an entire apologetics thing. However, tell the story. Yeah, you have your own story. Um, and the more you read God's word, the more God's word will come out of you. And so, therefore, know God's word and you can make a really profound, powerful impact uh with the gospel. Amen. Hey, I think

Final Takeaways And Closing

Pastor Plek 20:32

that about covers it. We'll see you next time on a chapter a day.