You women should submit yourselves to your husbands, even if they are not believers, and make your inner beings/hearts beautiful with qualities that will not fade away.

1You women believers, just like slaves should submit themselves to their masters, submit yourselves to your husbands. Do that in order that if any of them do not believe the message about Christ, they may become believers without it being necessary for you to say anything to them about their relationship to God.

2They will believe in Christ when they see that you respect them and that your way of life is pure.

3Do not be trying to make yourselves beautiful by decorating the outside of your bodies, such as ◄by the way you comb your hair/by your hair style► or by wearing gold jewelry and fine clothes.

4Instead, make your ◄inner beings/hearts► beautiful with qualities/attitudes that will not fade away. Specifically, have a humble and quiet/calm attitude, which is something that God considers to be very valuable.

5◄The devout women/The women who habitually worshipped God► who lived long ago and who trusted in God made themselves beautiful by having attitudes like that, and by being submissive to their husbands.

6Sarah, for example, obeyed her husband Abraham and called him ‘my master’. You will be as though you are [MET] her daughters if you do what is right and are not afraid of what your husbands or anyone else may do to you because you are believers.

You men must live in an appropriate way with your wives, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

7You men who are believers, just like your wives should respect you, you should conduct your lives in an appropriate way with them. Treat them respectfully, realizing that they are usually weaker than you are, and realizing that ◄they share with you/both of you have► the gift that God has kindly given to you, which is eternal life. Do this so that nothing will hinder you from praying (OR, hinder God ◄from answering/from doing what you ask for► when you pray).

Agree with each other, love each other, be humble, and bless those who do evil things to you instead of retaliating.

8To end this part of my letter, I say to all of you, agree with each other in what you think. Be sympathetic toward each other. Love each other as members of the same family should. Act compassionately toward each other. Be humble.

9When people do evil things to you or insult you, do not ◄retaliate/repay them by► doing evil things to them or insulting them. Instead, ask God to bless them, because that is what you have been chosen by God {what God called you} to do, in order that you may receive a blessing from him.

10Consider what the Psalmist wrote about the proper way of conducting our lives, As for those who want ◄to enjoy life/to live happily► and experience good things happening to them every day,
they must not say [MTY] something that is evil or say [MTY] something that deceives others.

11They must continually turn away from doing anything that is evil, and must do things that are good instead.
They must deeply desire to enable people to act peacefully toward each other;
they must zealously urge people to act in a peaceful way,

12because the Lord sees [MTY] what righteous people do and he appreciates/likes what they do.
He listens to righteous people when they pray, and he answers them.
But he is [MTY] opposed to those who do evil things.

Do good things to others, even if you suffer for doing it, as Christ did.

13If you ◄are eager/try very hard► to do good things, most people will not harm you. [RHQ]

14But even if you suffer because of doing what is right, God will bless you. Do as Isaiah wrote: “Do not be afraid of people who ◄threaten you/say things to cause you to be afraid of what they might do to you►, and do not worry about [DOU] what they might do to you.”

15Instead, acknowledge that Christ is the one who is in complete control of your lives. Always be ready to answer everyone who demands that you tell them about what you confidently expect God to do for you.

16But answer them humbly and respectfully, and make sure that you ◄do/have done► nothing wrong, in order that those who say evil things about you may be ashamed when they see the good way in which you are conducting yourselves because of your relationship with Christ.

17It may be that God wants you to suffer. But it is better to do good things, even if you suffer for doing them, than to do evil things and suffer for doing that.

18I say that because Christ died once for the sake of people who have sinned. He was a righteous person who died for unrighteous people. He died in order that ◄he might bring us to/we might begin an intimate relationship with► God. During the time that he had an ordinary body, he was killed {people killed him}, but God’s Spirit caused him to become alive again.

19The Spirit also helped him as he went to proclaim God’s victory to the evil spirits whom God had imprisoned in the heavens (OR, to the spirits of those who had died, and who were in the place where the spirits of dead people are).

20Long ago, during the time that Noah was building a big boat, those evil spirits disobeyed God when he waited patiently [PRS] to see if people would turn from their evil behavior. Only a few people were saved {God saved only a few people} in that boat. Specifically, God brought only eight persons safely through the waters of the flood, while all the others drowned in it.

21That water, by means of which eight people were saved when God punished the other people [MET], represents the water in which we are baptized to show that God has saved us from being punished. The water in which we are baptized does not remove dirt from our bodies. Instead, it shows that we are requesting God to assure us that he has removed our guilt for having sinned. And because Jesus Christ became alive again after he died, we know that God accepted his sacrifice for us and because of that he was able to remove our guilt.

22Christ has gone into heaven and is ruling [MTY] in the place of highest honor ◄next to God/at God’s side►, after God caused all the evil and powerful spirit beings [DOU] to be made subject to him.