Study Desk

When you do good, you stop ignorant people from saying foolish things about you. This is what God wants.

Live like free people, but don't use your freedom as an excuse to do evil. Live as those who are serving God.

Show respect for all people. Love your brothers and sisters in God's family. Respect God, and honor the king.

One of you might have to suffer even when you have done nothing wrong. If you think of God and bear the pain, this pleases God.

But if you are punished for doing wrong, there is no reason to praise you for bearing that punishment. But if you suffer for doing good and you are patient, this pleases God.

People insulted him, but he did not insult them back. He suffered, but he did not threaten anyone. No, he let God take care of him. God is the one who judges rightly.

Your husbands will see the pure lives that you live with respect for God.

No, your beauty should come from inside you—the beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. That beauty will never disappear. It is worth very much to God.

It was the same with the holy women who lived long ago and followed God. They made themselves beautiful in that same way. They were willing to serve their husbands.

In the same way, you husbands should live with your wives in an understanding way, since they are weaker than you. You should show them respect, because God gives them the same blessing he gives you—the grace of true life. Do this so that nothing will stop your prayers from being heard.

Don't do wrong to anyone to pay them back for doing wrong to you. Or don't insult anyone to pay them back for insulting you. But ask God to bless them. Do this because you yourselves were chosen to receive a blessing.

It is better to suffer for doing good than for doing wrong. Yes, it is better if that is what God wants.

Christ himself suffered when he died for you, and with that one death he paid for your sins. He was not guilty, but he died for people who are guilty. He did this to bring all of you to God. In his physical form he was killed, but he was made alive by the Spirit.

Those were the spirits who refused to obey God long ago in the time of Noah. God was waiting patiently for people while Noah was building the big boat. And only a few—eight in all—were saved in the boat through the floodwater.

And that water is like baptism, which now saves you. Baptism is not the washing of dirt from the body. It is asking God for a clean conscience. It saves you because Jesus Christ was raised from death.

Strengthen yourselves so that you will live your lives here on earth doing what God wants, not the evil things that people want to do.

In the past you wasted too much time doing what those who don't know God like to do. You were living immoral lives, doing the evil things you wanted to do. You were always getting drunk, having wild drinking parties, and doing shameful things in your worship of idols.

But they will have to face God to explain what they have done. He is the one who will soon judge everyone—those who are still living and those who have died.

God has shown you his grace in many different ways. So be good servants and use whatever gift he has given you in a way that will best serve each other.

If your gift is speaking, your words should be like words from God. If your gift is serving, you should serve with the strength that God gives. Then it is God who will be praised in everything through Jesus Christ. Power and glory belong to him forever and ever. Amen.