Study Desk

Household slaves, submit with all fear to your masters, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel.

For what credit is there if you sin and are punished, and you endure it? But when you do what is good and suffer, if you endure it, this brings favor with God.

when He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He was suffering, He did not threaten but entrusted Himself to the One who judges justly.

For you were like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.

not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this, so that you can inherit a blessing.

because the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are open to their request. But the face of the Lord is against those who do what is evil.

But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear or be disturbed,

but honor the Messiah as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God, after being put to death in the fleshly realm but made alive in the spiritual realm.

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

in order to live the remaining time in the flesh, no longer for human desires, but for God's will.

But if anyone suffers as a "Christian," he should not be ashamed but should glorify God in having that name.

Shepherd God's flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion but freely, according to God's will; not for the money but eagerly;

not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

In the same way, you younger men, be subject to the elders. And all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves.

For if God didn't spare the angels who sinned but threw them down into Tartarus and delivered them to be kept in chains of darkness until judgment;

and if He didn't spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when He brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;

But these people, like irrational animals—creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed—speak blasphemies about things they don't understand, and in their destruction they too will be destroyed,

but received a rebuke for his transgression: A donkey that could not talk spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet's irrationality.