1 Peter 3:16

Plain English Version

Tell them clearly, and respect them as you talk to them. Make sure you always live the right way, so you don’t feel shame. Some people rubbish Christians, but if they see you doing the right things, they will feel shame about themselves.

Cross References

Matthew 5:11

And you too. Some people will not like you following me, and they will say bad things about you, and they will make trouble for you. Sometimes people will tell lies about you. But don’t worry. Be really happy when they do that.

Acts 24:16

So I always try to do whatever God wants, and I always try to do whatever other people want too. You see, I want to feel good about everything I do.

Acts 28:22

But we know that people in a lot of places don’t agree with the Christians, so we want to hear what you have to say.”

1 Timothy 1:19

You have to keep on believing God’s word and keep on doing the right thing, so that you will never feel bad about the things you do. Some people heard about God, but they didn’t try to go the right way, and now they don’t believe in God any more.

1 Timothy 1:5

You see, you have to teach people to do what is right, and to believe in God properly, and to never do bad things. Then they will properly love each other all the time. We want people to follow the things that we teach, so that they live that way.

2 Timothy 1:3

I thank God for you, Timothy, and I pray for you all the time, in the day time and also at night. I work for God, and I really want to work properly for him so that I always feel good about it. (My father wanted to work for God properly too, and so did my grand-father, and my family that lived a long time ago.)

Titus 2:8

The message you teach has to be right, so that nobody can rubbish it. Then your enemies can’t say anything bad about you. Anyone that says bad things about you will shame themselves.

1 Peter 2:12

You live in the same place with people that don’t follow Jesus. So you have to make up your mind to always do things that are good. Sometimes people might tell lies and blame you and say you have done wrong. But if you always keep on doing whatever is right, they will see that you do good things. Later, after God comes to judge everybody, they will remember the good things you did, and they will respect him.

1 Peter 2:15

God wants you to live the right way, and if you do that, nobody will have anything bad to say against you. Those people that want to blame you for no reason or tell lies about you, they will not be able to say anything.

1 Peter 3:21

That water is a picture of the baptism ceremony. Like the time our Christian leaders put us under the water to baptise us. They didn’t do that to wash the dirt off the outside of us. No. It’s like that water washed the shame from inside us. When we asked those leaders to baptise us, we asked God to make us clean on the inside, so that we will not feel shame any more. So God saves us and gives us new life. Yes, we can have new life because, after Jesus died, he came back to life again.

1 Peter 4:4

Some of your friends keep on doing lots of bad things, and they don’t care about it. But you say, “No,” and you don’t do those bad things with them. So they are surprised, and they rubbish you.