3 ^1-2 Wives, fit in with your husbands’ plans; for then if they refuse to listen when you talk to them about the Lord, they will be won by your respectful, pure behavior. Your godly lives will speak to them better than any words.

³ Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty that depends on jewelry, or beautiful clothes, or hair arrangement. ⁴ Be beautiful inside, in your hearts, with the lasting charm of a gentle and quiet spirit that is so precious to God. ⁵ That kind of deep beauty was seen in the saintly women of old, who trusted God and fitted in with their husbands’ plans.

⁶ Sarah, for instance, obeyed her husband Abraham, honoring him as head of the house. And if you do the same, you will be following in her steps like good daughters and doing what is right; then you will not need to fear offending your husbands.^[a]

⁷ You husbands must be careful of your wives, being thoughtful of their needs and honoring them as the weaker sex. Remember that you and your wife are partners in receiving God’s blessings, and if you don’t treat her as you should, your prayers will not get ready answers.

⁸ And now this word to all of you: You should be like one big happy family, full of sympathy toward each other, loving one another with tender hearts and humble minds. ⁹ Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t snap back at those who say unkind things about you. Instead, pray for God’s help for them, for we are to be kind to others, and God will bless us for it.

¹⁰ If you want a happy, good life, keep control of your tongue, and guard your lips from telling lies. ¹¹ Turn away from evil and do good. Try to live in peace even if you must run after it to catch and hold it! ¹² For the Lord is watching his children, listening to their prayers; but the Lord’s face is hard against those who do evil.

¹³ Usually no one will hurt you for wanting to do good. ¹⁴ But even if they should, you are to be envied, for God will reward you for it. ¹⁵ Quietly trust yourself to Christ your Lord, and if anybody asks why you believe as you do, be ready to tell him, and do it in a gentle and respectful way.

¹⁶ Do what is right; then if men speak against you, calling you evil names, they will become ashamed of themselves for falsely accusing you when you have only done what is good. ¹⁷ Remember, if God wants you to suffer, it is better to suffer for doing good than for doing wrong!

¹⁸ Christ also suffered. He died once for the sins of all us guilty sinners although he himself was innocent of any sin at any time, that he might bring us safely home to God. But though his body died, his spirit lived on, ¹⁹ and it was in the spirit that he visited the spirits in prison and preached to them— ²⁰ spirits of those who, long before in the days of Noah, had refused to listen to God, though he waited patiently for them while Noah was building the ark. Yet only eight persons were saved from drowning in that terrible flood. ²¹ (That, by the way, is what baptism pictures for us: In baptism we show that we have been saved from death and doom by the resurrection of Christ;^[b] not because our bodies are washed clean by the water but because in being baptized we are turning to God and asking him to cleanse our hearts from sin.) ²² And now Christ is in heaven, sitting in the place of honor next to God the Father, with all the angels and powers of heaven bowing before him and obeying him.