Pastor Bell's Words To Live By

Having used the analogy of the master and slave and the wife and husband to explain to us the nature of authority, Peter now goes on to tell us where real authority lies. The slave is encouraged to accept his lot, usually of unjust treatment, as Christ did. Not accepting the position you find yourself in leaves one open to the root of bitterness which will produce the fruits of bitterness such as anger, malice and insincerity that

this is real authority

Peter mentions in Chapter 2:1.  He goes on to state that acting like a slave, Christ endured the suffering, the abuse and the shame so that he could condemn all these vices in the flesh and set us free. In the analogy of the wife and husband, he describes the wife as the weaker vessel. This in no way suggest that the women are emotionally weaker that men. He rightly suggests that in general women are physically weaker that men, but does not suggest that men should use their physical strength to subjugate women. Generally women tend to be emotionally stronger than men and are more intuitive. 

Peter now concludes his argument and reiterates the spiritual dimension that we should aspire to.

Firstly he quotes the Psalmist who reminds us that for us to receive blessings from the Lord, we should seek peace and pursue it (3:10), keep our tongues from speaking evil and our lips from deceit (lies).  It is better to suffer for doing good rather than suffer for doing bad.

Secondly we can then make a defense (put up an argument) of the hope that is in us to anyone (v.15) because Christ is now our example. Finally we ought to keep our consciences clear as this determines how we relate to God (v.16). (Our spirit man is made up of our consciences, our intuition and our fellowship/communion with God).

So real authority lies in Christ and being in Christ allows us to share that authority. Because Jesus is 100% spirit, when he suffered and died physically, he was still active spiritually, preaching to those spirits who were imprisoned by Satan. And upon his ascension to heaven, God placed everything, both spiritual and temporal under him, and as we remain in him we can exercise his authority in love as someone who has been set free.

Read again 1Peter 3:17-22 and appeal to God for a good conscience!