1 Peter 3

_1-2Wives, you must listen to your own husbands. Maybe some of your husbands don't believe in God. If those men see that you respect God and that your lives are right and pure, then the wives who live in the right way can help their husbands turn to God. You can do this even if you don't say anything. ₃You must be beautiful, but it must not be your beautiful braided hair or golden jewellery or fine clothes that should make you beautiful. ₄No, your beauty must come from inside, from your heart. You must be humble and quiet. This is very important to God.

₅This is the way that the women who believed in God and worshipped Him lived. They were obedient to their husbands and that is how they made themselves beautiful. ₆Remember Sarah. She listened to Abraham and when she talked to him, she said ‘sir’. You are Sarah's children if you do good and are not afraid to do the things that a woman must do to be a good wife.

₇Husbands, you must remember that God made women not as strong as you are, so you must think about what they need. You must respect them because God has also given them the gift of real_life. You must do this so that nothing will stop God from giving you what you pray for.

₈The last things that I want to say are these: You must not argue with each other, and you must think the same about things. You must be happy when other people are happy and you must be sad when they are sad. You must love each other like brothers and sisters. Feel sorry for other people and be humble, not proud. ₉When people do bad things to you, do not try to do bad things to them. When people say bad things about you, do not say bad things about them. No, you must bless them because God has chosen you to bless other people. If you do that, He will bless you. We read in the Old_Testament:

₁₃This is sure: No one will do bad things to you if you want to do good things. ₁₄But even if you do have to suffer because you do what the Lord wants, then you are happy people. You must not be afraid of the people who make you suffer and you must not worry. ₁₅You must honour and respect Christ as the only Lord of your lives. You must always be ready to tell anyone about the things that God will do, and tell people when they ask you about them. ₁₆But you must be humble when you tell them about it and you must always give the honour to God, and remember what is right and what is wrong. Then the people who say bad things about you will see that you do good things, because you believe in Christ, and then those people who say those things will be ashamed. ₁₇Because if God wants you to suffer, then it is better that you suffer because you do good things and not suffer because you do bad.

₁₈Christ also suffered and died to save sinners and forgive their sins. He was innocent, but He died so that people who had sinned and who were guilty could live. He died so that He could bring you to God. The people killed Christ. His body was dead, but the Spirit of God made Christ live again ₁₉and Christ went to the spirits in prison who had to wait for the day of judgement and He told them the news that He had won and had defeated his enemies. ₂₀These were the spirits of the people who did not want to listen to God in the time when Noah, who built the ark, lived. God waited patiently for those people to come back to Him and then He saved only a few people. The ark floated on the water and that is how God saved them. There were 8 people in the ark.

₂₁This water was a sign of baptism, and now God also saves you through baptism. Baptism does not wash and clean our bodies, but it saves us because God made Jesus Christ live again. When we are baptised, we pray and ask God that we may know that we are no longer guilty. ₂₂Jesus went to heaven and He is sitting there at the most important place next to God. God said that Jesus Christ must rule over all the angels and everything that wants to be important in the world.