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Q & A

Brian Messerli
03/23/25 - Sun Bible Study

Question #1:  What do 1 Peter 3:19 and 4:6 mean?

1 Peter 3:18-20

• Now, whatever answer we give here 1) has to be consistent with the rest of Scripture and 2) has to fit the immediate context.  Some have tried to use this text to teach that Jesus went a preached to dead people, giving them a second chance to go to Heaven.  But 1) that doesn’t fit with the rest of Scripture and 2) that wouldn’t fit in the immediate context.  In context, Peter is speaking to Christians who are suffering unjustly and may even be facing death threats.
  • 1 Peter 3:13-14 - They’re afraid of being harmed and there are people trying to scare them and intimidate them because of their faith in Christ.  But Peter not only reminds them God will be with them, but that there’s great power in suffering for doing what’s right.  He wants to make sure they don’t lash out against their persecutors by doing evil, because then their suffering would be deserved.   
  • 1 Peter 3:17 - God’s will is that if we’re going to suffer, it needs to be for doing the right thing, not the wrong thing.  And that’s why he brings up Jesus in v. 18, because He’s the ultimate example of someone suffering unjustly, even to the point of being put to death!  Yet what happened to Jesus after He was put to death?  God raised Him by the power of the Holy Spirit!  So the point is, if these Christians stay faithful to God, even to death, God’s going to vindicate them in the end and resurrect them just like He did for Jesus!
    • So whatever Peter means in v. 19, it’s meant to give these Christians hope to stay faithful in suffering by reminding them they can be victorious even in death!  It wouldn’t make any sense to think Peter totally switches gears and starts talking about Jesus giving people a second chance to go to Heaven by preaching to dead people.  That’s way outside the context.
• v. 19-20 - But the next million dollars question are, “When did Jesus make proclamation to the spirits in prison, what did He preach or proclaim, and who in the world are the spirits in prison?”
  • 1) This most naturally sounds like this proclamation happened after Jesus’ resurrection.  After the point at which He was made alive in the spirit.
  • 2) This word “proclamation” is almost always used in the context of proclaiming the gospel, or the good news that Jesus is king!  That’s why some versions say He went and “preached” to the spirits in prison.  But keep in mind, the proclamation that Jesus is the victorious King doesn’t mean He was preaching salvation to them.  It can also be a proclamation of judgment on the wicked.
  • 3) But who are the spirits in prison?  All we can tell here is that in v. 20, these spirits he’s referring to were once disobedient in the days of Noah.  That leaves us with a few options:
    • A) Evil human beings who lived during Noah’s day, but who have all died and are now living in the spiritual realm until the final day of Judgment.
    • B) Evil, demonic spiritual beings who influenced the human beings to sin during Noah’s day.
    • C) Both.  I actually lean towards both.
      • The Jews believed, based on Genesis 6, that evil angelic beings came to the earth to intermarry with women, and their evil influence was what led to the most evil period in history before the flood.  There was a book written by the Jews during the intertestamental period called 1 Enoch.  It wasn’t inspired by God, but it helps us know how the Jews thought.  There’s a scene in the book where these evil angels from Noah’s day make an appeal to Enoch to intercede for them to God for the horrible disaster they created on earth, but this was God’s response.  “You will not be able to ascend into heaven unto all eternity, but you shall remain inside the earth, imprisoned all the days of eternity.” (1 Enoch 14:5-6).  Peter himself mentions evil spirits being held by God in pits of darkness.
      • 2 Peter 2:4
      • Jude 6 - Now, it’s also true that evil humans are kept in darkness reserved for the day of judgment too, so Peter could have both evil angels and the evil humans from Noah’s day in mind here.   

But in what way did Jesus proclaim the good news that He’s king to both evil angels and humans from all the way back in Noah’s day?  Well, when He ascended to Heaven after His resurrection to sit at the right hand of God’s throne, it was a proclamation to everyone, the living and the dead, angels and humans, that He is the true King!  It wasn’t an offer of salvation, it was a statement of judgment because they rejected God and His king.  And Peter even mentions His ascension in this context.

• • • 1 Peter 3:22 - Jesus has victory over all evil, including evil angels and all evil human power structures that have exalted and aligned themselves against Him.  Now, what does this have to do with the context?  Well, the point is, even though Jesus was killed in the flesh, Jesus’ resurrection by the Spirit and ascension to Heaven gives Him victory over ALL evil.  He uses Noah’s day because that was the time when evil was the most rampant it had ever been on the earth; so bad God destroyed the earth with a flood!  So every evil angel and every human being going all the way back to worst of days pre-flood have been defeated by Jesus!  The same disobedience demonstrated by the angels and humans pre-flood was the same disobedience that put Jesus on the cross, AND the same disobedience that’s now persecuting these Christians in 1 Peter.  Yet because Jesus conquered them all in the resurrection, so will we if we stay faithful!  There’s no power of Satan strong enough to defeat Christians if we’re faithful to Jesus.  Even death itself can’t defeat us, just like death couldn’t defeat Jesus, and actually Noah himself defeated death by his faith too!
      • 1 Peter 3:20-21 - Death flooded the earth by water in Noah’s day, yet Noah was brought safely through death by the ark.  Likewise, the waters of baptism are like the new flood waters of death that save us by putting our old self to death and washing away the evil of our sins, yet the ark which brings us safely through the water is the resurrection of Jesus!
        • So do you see what a comfort this would be to Peter’s audience?  They don’t have to fear death anymore, because they’ve already died and been resurrected in baptism, a preview of their literal death and resurrection later!  They’ve already been brought safely through the flood waters of death, so now there’s nothing man can really do to them!  Even if they’re killed for their faith, they’ll be resurrected in victory over all the powers of evil like Jesus was!

- Follow-up questions/comments before we get to 1 Peter 4:6?

• 1 Peter 4:6 - Now I think this verse is tricky because it sounds like it’s related to 1 Peter 3:19, like it’s talking about the same thing.  But it’s not.  1 Peter 3:19 was about the gospel being proclaimed to wicked dead people and angels, but this is about the gospel proclaimed to dead people who are righteous like Jesus.
  • We know that because just like Jesus was judged in the flesh and made alive in the spirit, so too are the dead he’s talking about here.  These are people who lived righteously and justly like Jesus, so they’ll be vindicated in the end.
  • 1 Peter 4:3-5 - These Christians are being maligned for not participating in evil like they used to.  Now, part of this maligning could be like our modern equivalent of calling them goody-two-shoes and saying, “You think you’re too good to party with us now?”  But actually, in this context, it seems like part of their maligning had to do with the fact that Christians were dying just like everyone else.  Their opponents may be mocking them saying, “What good is it to serve God if he doesn’t even prevent you from dying?  You’re trying to live for Him and say no to all this fun stuff, but for what?  You’re just going to end up in the grave like everyone else!”
    • Interestingly, there was another book written by the Jews in the intertestamental period before Christ called The Wisdom of Solomon.  And in this section, we see how some of the Greeks maligned the Jews for being righteous because they died like everyone else.
      • “But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them.  In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure was thought to be a disaster, and their going from us to be their destruction; but they are at peace.  For though in the sight of others they were punished, their hope is full of immortality.” (Wisdom of Solomon 3:1ff)
• So if they’re being maligned for dying, Peter is assuring them that’s okay, because they heard and obeyed the gospel before they died, which means even though in the flesh they’re judged as mere men, as mere mortals like everyone else, they’ll be made alive in the spirit for all eternity just like Jesus was!
   
• Follow-up questions/comments?
• Note:  I used to hold that the verse meant Jesus went back and preached to the wicked people during Noah’s day.  In 1 Peter 1:11 it says the “spirit of Christ” spoke through the prophets, so Jesus was condemning the wicked in Noah’s day through Noah.  The problem is, that has nothing to do with the context.  How does that encourage Christians who are suffering at the hands of the wicked to know Christ preached to the wicked thousands of years ago in Noah’s day?

Question #2:  Why does Jesus teach us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation” if God doesn’t tempt anyone?

- Matthew 6:13

- James 1:13 - I always appreciate situations like this, because anytime there seems to be a contradiction in Scripture, there’s always an answer.  If the Bible were a man-made document, there’d be contradictions all over the place and it’d be hard to explain them, but because this is God’s word, any contradiction we think we’ve found is just a reflection of our own misunderstanding.  So how do we reconcile these verses?

Well, the word for “temptation,” in the Bible has two meanings depending on the context.

1) To entice to sin. James describes it this way…

- James 1:14 - “Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.”  This is not the kind of temptation Jesus refers to in Matthew 6.  Jesus isn’t telling us to pray, “God please don’t entice us to sin.”  God would never do that.

2) To Test our faith.  The same word Jesus uses for “temptation” in Matthew 6 is translated “testing” or “trials” in other verses.  For instance…

James 1:2

1 Peter 4:12

Now, while it’s certainly true God never tempts us to sin, He absolutely does test our faith in several ways.  Question:  What are some ways God tests our faith?  1) Through difficult requests.  When He asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, Moses to confront Pharaoh, and Jesus to go to the cross, those were all tests.  When God asks us to make sacrifices, will we choose obedience or comfort?  That’s a test.  2) Through confusing requests.  Sometimes God asks us to do something we don’t understand.  When He asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, it wasn’t just a difficult request, it was a request that made no sense at all!  He waited decades to finally have a son, yet now God wants him to kill him?  It’s a test to see if we’ll lean on our own understanding, or trust Him even when we don’t get it.   3) Through difficult circumstances.  Think about Job.  God tested His faith through extreme grief and loss.  The apostle Paul was tested when he was beaten, shipwrecked, hated, and falsely imprisoned.  Sometimes we face brutal trials in this life, health problems, financial problems, family problems, and it all tests our faith.  Will we trust God even in the trial?  Will we serve God for nothing?  Or will we abandon Him in times of adversity?  3) Through Satan’s temptations.  Sometimes, the testing of our faith and enticement to sin overlap.  God Himself doesn’t tempt us, but He does allow Satan to tempt us.  The difference is in the motive.  God is testing us, Satan is trapping us.  God uses Satan’s temptations to make us stronger, Satan uses them to make us weaker.  Notice, in the book of Job, God allows Satan to afflict him, but Satan’s goal is to tempt Job to sin and curse God, but God’s goal is to test Job’s faith and make him wiser.

So when Jesus says to ask God, “Do not lead us into temptation,” He’s saying, “Don’t lead us into a test!”  Why?  Because tests are painful and hard!  Now, it’s true James says to consider it joy when we encounter various trials, and that sounds like another contradiction.  But that joy James talks about comes from knowing the result of the test, “…knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” (James 1:3).  But there’s a difference between the joy of knowing the test is bringing you stronger faith and actually ENJOYING the test itself.  Thinking about the result produces joy even in the pain, but going through the test is not enjoyable at all!  It’s why Jesus cried out in Garden, “Let this cup pass from me!” (Matt. 26:39).  He was saying, “Don’t make me go through this test!”  But of course, He also said, “Yet not as I will, but as You will.”  Jesus was teaching us if it’s God’s will that we be tested, we should accept it.  But we shouldn’t WANT God to test us.  We should ask Him NOT to test us because tests of our faith can be brutal!

Hence the second line in Matthew 6:13, “But deliver us from the evil one.”  Credit to Tim Mackie at the Bible Project for helping me see this connection.  In line 1, Jesus asks, “Don’t let me be tested,” but line 2 acknowledges sometimes God won’t grant that request, and He’ll test us anyway.  So we’re asking, “God, if you do decide to test me, don’t let the devil win!  Deliver me from the evil one so I pass the test instead of succumbing to the temptation to sin.”  That’s exactly what God did for Jesus.  God tested Him greatly in the wilderness for 40 days through hunger and Satan’s temptations, He tested Jesus on many other occasions, culminating in the final test of the cross — yet God delivered Him every time, and never let Satan win.

• Follow-up questions/comments?
  • Note:  This is why we should be careful asking God for patience, because we’re really asking God to put us through a test that will result in patience.  We don’t phrase it that way; we don’t say, “God please put me through something difficult to develop patience in me.”  We just want the patience.  In other words, we want the result of the test, but without the test.  And it doesn’t work that way!  God knows even if we ask Him not to test us, He may anyway because it’s for our good!

Question #3:  Is there a difference between forgiveness and reconciliation?  Is it possible to forgive without being reconciled?

• Matthew 5:23-24 - In this passage, Jesus shows that there’s a difference between reconciliation and forgiveness, but they’re related.  To be reconciled means to restore the relationship.  There’s been a breach in the relationship because one or more parties has sinned against the other.  And the only way to restore the relationship is if the sinful party is willing to ask for forgiveness, and if the other party is willing to forgive.
  • So forgiveness is meant to lead to reconciliation.  The same thing is true in our relationship with God.
  • 2 Corinthians 5:18 - God reconciled us to Himself through Christ!  He restored our relationship with Him! How?  By forgiving us of our sins!  And now Paul calls preaching the gospel the ministry of reconciliation.  He’s going out to convince everyone to be reconciled to God through the forgiveness of sins.
    • Question:  Wouldn’t it be weird for God to say, “I’ll forgive you, but I don’t want a relationship with you?  I’ll forgive you, but I’ll just hold you at arm’s length and I don’t want anything to do with you.”  That would COMPLETELY miss the point of forgiveness!
    • Likewise, our goal in forgiving people should always be the restoration of our relationship.
• But the question was, “Is it possible to forgive without being reconciled?”  The answer is yes, but only in rare cases.
  • 1) If the person who wronged you is no longer alive.  It’s not possible to be reconciled to them because they aren’t around.  In this case, the forgiveness is more for your own sake to release yourself from the bitterness of holding a grudge.
  • 2) In the case of adultery.  If a man cheats on his wife, and she forgives him, she may still decide to divorce him.  When Jesus says the only exception for divorce is adultery, I don’t think He’s implying that if she divorces him, it means she hasn’t forgiven him.  No, if she withholds forgiveness, she’ll have to answer to God for that.  Jesus says if we don’t forgive others, we won’t be forgiven by God.  But in her case, she may forgive her husband, but her trust in him has been irrevocably destroyed.  I believe that’s why it’s the only exception Jesus gives for divorce because He knows it can do irreparable damage to the relationship, even if he or she’s repentant and promises to change.  Now, do I think she should absolutely be reconciled to him again and stay married to him?  Yes, but if she just can’t bring herself to do it, I don’t think we can judge her as sinful for that.  That’s even more true if he’s done this multiple times!
  • 3) If the person who wronged you refuses to repent.
    • True Biblical reconciliation through forgiveness is only possible if the guilty party is willing to repent.  If not, you can forgive them for your own sake so you’re not holding a grudge against them, but it’s going to be hard to reconcile with someone who is completely unwilling to accept that they sinned against you.  This is kind of like when Jesus asked God, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  Jesus was forgiving them in the sense of releasing any bitterness or grudge against them in His heart, but He certainly wasn’t able to reconcile with them.
    • Note:  We need to be careful not to treat every sin against us as the end of the world and if people don’t repent of every little wrong they inflict on me, then I’m not going to have a relationship with them!  Sometimes we may take things too far in our pride and think we’re one of the exceptional cases where reconciliation is impossible, when in reality we could just be overly sensitive, our pride and ego may be hurt, or we’re holding people to far too harsh a standard.
      • Ecclesiastes 7:21-22 - The truth is, we probably don’t repent of every one of our sins against God, and of every one of our sins against others.  Yet God and others give us grace we don’t even realize we’re getting sometimes.  So we should be VERY generous with our forgiveness and VERY quick to reconcile with others.  We shouldn’t be holding every little infraction over people’s heads and we definitely shouldn’t be looking for loopholes that allows us to forgive someone without reconciliation, because again reconciliation is the GOAL of forgiveness, and it reflects the heart of our Heavenly Father.