Devotional Thoughts: With gentleness and respect

Let's get back to 1 Peter ...

Continuing onward ... I Peter 3:8-22 ...

St. Peter winds up this part of the letter by exhorting the readers with the key behaviors!

Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

He had come a long way from those days of Jesus and the 12 disciples. They often bickered and competed with each other. An older, wiser, humbler Peter encouraging the flock!

For,
"Whoever would love life
and see good days
must keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from deceitful speech.
He must turn from evil and do good;
he must seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
and his ears are attentive to their prayer,
but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."

Here Peter reached back to his Jewish roots and cites a portion of a Psalm of David (Psalm 34:12-16) to strengthen the exhortation.

Peter then presses the point home citing what Jesus did ...

Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. "Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened." But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

Great stuff! I picture Peter like a football coach firing up the team with these words.

Then would it be unfair to say, I feel he goes "off the rails" as some of the next few parts are hard for me to understand?!

He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit,

No problem there. But this ...?

through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.

What is this about? Spirits in prison? Is Jesus preaching to dead people from the past?

UPDATE: In digging around, another option for the meaning of "spirits in prison" is the fallen angels. I don't know which explanation works better. The strength of this view is that humans are body and spirit while angels are only spirit.

And then the following item about linking baptism with salvation?!

In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

I think Peter is pushing the imagery very hard here and it comes out a bit mangled. But the part I do see is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Without that, we have nothing. And to the extent baptism is linked to that reality of ressurrection we are saved.

Just my view here as I contemplate the text. I did go check Eugene Peterson's Message rendering of this passage and he seems to be going in this direction as well.

My prayer Lord is that you would help me set apart Christ as Lord in my heart and prepare me to give an answer to everyone who asks me to give the reason for the hope that I have and to do so with gentleness and reverence. Amen.