In verse 16 Peter goes on to say, “Having a good conscience, that wherein you are spoken against as evil-doers, those who revile your good manner of life in Christ may be put to shame.” Since the conscience is a part of our human spirit (Rom. 9:1; 8:16), to care for our conscience is to care for our spirit before God.
The Christian good manner of life should be one that is in Christ. It is a living, a daily life, in our spirit. This is higher than a life which is merely ethical and moral.
If we would have a good manner of life and sanctify the Lord in our daily life, we must take care of our conscience. It is not sufficient for us to be justified by others. We need to be justified by our own conscience. We should not be satisfied that we are justified by the community, by the brothers, or even by the entire church. No one knows us as thoroughly as our conscience does. This is especially true of the enlightened conscience of the regenerated spirit. A renewed conscience enlightened by the indwelling Spirit is trustworthy in its testimony and accurate in its judgment. The judgment of our enlightened conscience is more accurate than someone else’s judgment of us.
The enlightened conscience of our regenerated spirit is an inner judge. This inner judge, our conscience, cooperates with the indwelling God. The reason the enlightened conscience of the regenerated spirit can be an inner judge is that it cooperates with the indwelling God. For this reason, the judgment of the enlightened conscience is thorough and accurate. Therefore, we must take care of our conscience.
A brother, for example, should take care of his conscience in his relationship with his wife. In the sight of man, it may appear that he is not wrong with his wife in any way. But his enlightened conscience may tell him that he has been wrong with her in many ways. Likewise, in the church life apparently we may be honest and faithful. However, our conscience may know that in certain things we have not been altogether honest and faithful to the church. Therefore, it is very important that we take care of our conscience.
In verse 17 Peter continues, “For it is better to suffer for doing good, if the will of God should will it, than for doing evil.” Again Peter speaks concerning unjust suffering. He covered this point earlier in 2:18-21, where he says that Christ is a model to us of One who suffered unjustly and that we should follow in His steps.
Verse 18 says, “Because Christ also has once died concerning sins, the righteous on behalf of the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in flesh, but made alive in spirit.” Christ is the righteous One, and we are the unrighteous ones, yet He died for our sins. Christ died concerning our sins so that He might bring us to God. His death removed all the barriers, in particular the barriers of our sins and unrighteousness. Because His death has removed the barriers of sins and unrighteousness, we have a way to reach God. Christ died in order to bring us to God.
Sins in verse 18 and in 2:24, 1 Corinthians 15:3, and Hebrews 9:28 refer to sins we commit in our outward conduct. But sin in 2 Corinthians 5:21, John 1:29, and Hebrews 9:26 refers to sin by birth in our nature. Christ died for our sins, carrying up our sins on the cross, that our sins might be forgiven by God. But He became sin and took away the sin of the world that the problem of our sin might be solved. Peter does not deal first with sin in our nature, but with sins in our conduct, in our manner of life. In this book Christ’s death redeemed us from our inherited vain manner of life (1:18-19).
The fact that Christ, the righteous One, died “on behalf of the unrighteous” indicates that His death was for redemption, not for martyrdom. On the cross Christ was our Substitute, bearing our sins, the righteous One judged on behalf of us, the unrighteous, by the righteous God according to His righteousness, that He might remove the barrier of our sins and bring us to God. This was to redeem us from our sins back to God, from our unrighteous manner of life back to the righteous God.