Good Conscience
1 Peter 3.13-22
It is natural to expect that those who become followers of what is good, will be respected and not harmed by anyone. The expression in the Greek original, is quite strong: if you become zealots (not zealous) for the good. It is, no doubt, a reference to the three preceding verses, the "way to happiness". Even among unbelievers, there is generally approval of those who are law-abiding and unreproachable in their social and domestic behaviour.
It is very possible, however, that suffering will be incurred "for righteousness' sake", i.e., because of faithfulness to the Lord: as the world hated Him, it will hate those that follow Him. Blessed are they who suffer for this reason, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5.10). The prophet Isaiah was told by the LORD not to walk in the sinful way of the people of his days, nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled (Isaiah 8.11-13), and these words are repeated here for believers who are in a similar situation.
Suffering for righteousness' sake should therefore bring joy to the child of God (Acts 5.41) and cause him to give glory to God (1 Peter 4.16). Not that we should actively seek persecution by being offensive in our witness to others, but if we simply take a firm stand for God's righteousness in the way we speak and behave, we ought to rejoice if we suffer for that. We are not going to escape suffering in this world if we are obedient to our Lord. Someone has said, "Christianity is a banquet but never a picnic." We are never told that we are going to have an easy time down here.
Instead of being afraid, we are to sanctify the Lord God, or perhaps better, Christ as Lord in our hearts - an adaptation of Isaiah 8:13: "Him shall you hallow; let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread". In our lives today we need to sanctify our Lord in our hearts. Habakkuk wrote, "But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him" (Habakkuk 2.20). On Sunday, for example, the world is passing by, headed for the supermarkets and amusements, and is not respecting Him. Are we?
We must also be always ready to explain, when asked, the reason for our faith and hope which motivates our behaviour, having an intelligent grasp of the matter and skill in presenting it, with meekness and fear of God, not of man. Here again we see how it is necessary for us to know more than a little about the Bible.
Tragically there are today so many folk who say they are Christians, but any sceptic, apostate or heretic is able to tie them up into knots so they cannot extricate themselves at all. Why? Because of the fact that they do not know the Word of God. They rely entirely on their parson, minister or pastor for basic matters of faith, and are easily led astray by false teachers and sophistic arguments.
Ever since Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil humankind has been endowed with a conscience: the ability to know right from wrong. Conscience is corrupted by sin, and can become unreliable, but when the mind has been renewed by the new birth in the Holy Spirit and instructed by the Word of God, which will make it sensitive to what is right and wrong in God's sight, it is safe to be trusted again. This also underlines the value and importance of the believer searching the Scriptures in order that his mind and heart might be instructed in those things which please God.
Believers are therefore instructed to keep a clear conscience: to speak and behave in a way pleasing to God, so they will have no regrets afterwards.
Some people, however, are still inclined to speak evil against God's children and to be opposed to those who live according to God's standards. They dislike those who are too good just as they condemn those which are too bad. It is the case of the light showing up the deeds of darkness which they practise, and they hate this (John 3:20). If we make sure that those who speak evil of us are in error, onlookers will cease to give credit to the slanderers on the evidence of our actions, and they will be shamed, if not now, certainly on the Day of Judgment. The slanderous rumours about us will not bother us because we know they are not true.
If it is the will of God, it is better to suffer for doing good, keeping a clear conscience, than to suffer for doing evil, which is deserved. In other words, if we are to suffer, let it be by the direct hand of God and not through any fault of our own. God has a good reason to allow us to suffer unjustly: it has to do with testing and trial and the blessing which follows. In fact, the overall message is the fact that blessing follows suffering for doing good.
The supreme example is seen in Christ who was hated for the good He said and did and was put to death for it. He suffered for our sins, not His own, for He did not have any. It was in His humanity that He gave His life on our behalf on the cross, and it was the Holy Spirit who raised Him from the dead. In His case the blessing came to us, who believe in Him, for it was the only way in which we could be reconciled with God.
He paid the penalty for our sins when he gave His life. Sin separated us from God (Isaiah 59:2) - made us dead to Him - and could only be forgiven after He had paid for them. He was righteous, therefore perfectly acceptable before God in every respect. His death was sufficient, complete and finished work, once for all satisfying the justice of God. It brought us back into communion with God - reconciled us - and this is life never to be extinguished again, eternal.
Verses 19 and 20 have caused considerable controversy over the ages, many interpretations being offered, and they are even used by the Roman Catholic institution to justify their invention of purgatory, which is completely out of line with all other very clear teaching in the Bible. The key word to this entire passage is in verse 20; it is the little word "when".
These verses are clearly a digression from the main theme, and take us to a time when God's wrath against humanity was such that He destroyed everyone but the family of Noah, in all eight souls. When did Christ preach to the spirits in prison? "When once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah," and not after He died on the cross!
We are told that even at that time, the Holy Spirit, sometimes called the Spirit of Christ as well as Spirit of God, spoke to the people through Noah - during 120 years, in fact - announcing the divine justice (2 Peter 2.5); they were, however, unbelieving and rebellious, so they died in the Flood and their spirits went to the prison in Sheol awaiting final judgment like the rich man (Luke 16.23).
In Christ's day, those who rejected Noah's message were in prison. The thought is that Christ's death meant nothing to them just as it means nothing to a great many people today who, as a result, will also come into judgment.
In verse 21 the connection is made between the time of Noah and our own: the water of the flood. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is real baptism, and the water of the flood was a symbol of it in Noah's time just as water baptism is a symbol of it today. Just as Noah and his family were saved by faith, so are we. The ark they built because of their faith in God's word is a type of Christ who gives us shelter from God's punishment. Baptism is the answer of a good conscience toward God: believing in His Word (of which water is also a symbol), and receiving His gift of salvation from the consequences of our sin by faith in His Son.
It is a faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ which brought the work of the Holy Spirit into our life and regenerated us. In so doing we have our sins buried in Him and receive new life as He rose again from the grave. We have died to the old life of sin and now live a new life of obedience to the Lord.
We are all sinners down here, but we can come to Him, receive Him, and thus join the great company of the redeemed. We are baptised by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ, because He is raised from the dead and is today at God's right hand.
R David Jones
13 And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good?
14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. "And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled."
15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defence to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
16 having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.
17 For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,
19 by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison,
20 who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.
21 There is also an antitype which now saves us - baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.