Albert Barnes Commentary 1 Peter 3:10

"For, He that would love life, And see good days, Let him refrain his tongue from evil, And his lips that they speak no guile:" — 1 Peter 3:10 (ASV)

For he that will love life. Or, "He willing, (yelwn,) or that wills to love life." It implies that there is some positive desire to live, some active wish that life should be prolonged. This whole passage (1 Peter 3:10–12) is taken, with some slight variations, from Psalm 34:12-16.

In the Psalm, this expression is, What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? The sense is substantially the same. It is implied here that it is right to love life and to desire many days. The desire for this is referred to by the psalmist and by the apostle without any expression of disapproval, and the way is shown by which length of days may be secured.

Life is a blessing, a precious gift of God. We are taught so to regard it by the instinctive feelings of our nature, for we are so made as to love it and to dread its extinction. Though we should be prepared to resign it when God commands, yet there are important reasons why we should desire to live. Among them are the following:

1. Because, as already intimated, life, as such, is to be regarded as a blessing. We instinctively shrink back from death as one of the greatest evils; we shudder at the thought of annihilation. It is not wrong to love that, in proper degree, which by our very nature we are prompted to love; and we are but acting out one of the universal laws which our Creator has impressed on us when, with proper submission to his will, we seek to lengthen out our days as far as possible.
2. That we may see the works of God and survey the wonders of his hand on earth. The world is full of wonders, evincing the wisdom and goodness of the Deity; and the longest life, indeed, many such lives as are allotted to us here, could be well employed in studying his works and ways.
3. That we may make preparation for eternity. Man may, indeed, make preparation in a very brief period, but the longest life is not too much to examine and settle the question of whether we have a well-founded hope of heaven. If man had nothing else to do, the longest life could be well employed in inquiries that grow out of the question of whether we are fitted for the world to come. In the possibility, too, of being deceived, and in view of the awful consequences that will result from deception, it is desirable that length of days should be given us that we may bring the subject to the severest test, and so determine it that we may go surely to the changeless world.
4. That we may do good to others. We may, indeed, do good in another world, but there are ways of doing good which are probably confined to this. What good we may do hereafter to the inhabitants of distant worlds, or what ministrations, in company with angels or without them, we may exercise towards the friends of God on earth after we leave it, we do not know. However, there are certain things which we are morally certain we shall not be permitted to do in the future world. We shall not:
   1. Personally labor for the salvation of sinners by conversation and other direct efforts;
   2. Illustrate the influence of religion by example in sustaining us in trials, subduing and controlling our passions, and making us dead to the world;
   3. Be permitted to pray for our impenitent friends and relatives as we may now;
   4. Have the opportunity of contributing from our resources for the spread of the gospel or of going personally to preach the gospel to the perishing;
   5. Be employed in instructing the ignorant, in advocating the cause of the oppressed and the wronged, in seeking to remove the chains from the slave, in dispensing mercy to the insane, or in visiting the prisoner in his lonely cell;
   6. Have it in our power to address a kind word to an impenitent child or seek to guide him in paths of truth, purity, and salvation.
   What we can do personally and directly for the salvation of others is to be done in this world. Considering how much there is to be done and how useful life may be on earth, it is something we should desire, that our days may be lengthened out, and we should use all proper means for this to be done. While we should always be ready and willing to depart when God calls us to go, and while we should not wish to linger on these mortal shores beyond the time when we may be useful to others, yet, as long as he permits us to live, we should regard life as a blessing and should pray that, if it is his will, we may not be cut down in the midst of our way.

"Love not your life, nor hate; but what you live,
Live well; here long, or short, permit to heaven."
—Paradise Lost.

And see good days. In the Psalm (Psalms 34:12) this is, and loveth many days, that he may see good. The quotation by Peter throughout the passage is taken from the Septuagint, except that there is a change of the person from the second to the third: in the psalm, for example, refrain thy tongue from evil, etc.; in the quotation, let him refrain his tongue from evil, etc. "Good days" are prosperous days, happy days, days of usefulness, days in which we may be respected and loved. Let him refrain his tongue from evil. The general meaning of all that is said here is, "Let him lead an upright and pious life, doing evil to no one but seeking the good of all men." To refrain the tongue from evil is to avoid all slander, falsehood, obscenity, and profanity, and to abstain from uttering erroneous and false opinions (3:2).

And his lips that they speak no guile. This means no deceit, nothing that will lead others astray. The words should be an exact representation of the truth.

Rosenmuller quotes a passage from the Hebrew book Musar, which may be a fitting illustration of this: "A certain Assyrian wandering through the city cried and said, 'Who will receive the elixir of life?' The daughter of Rabbi Jodus heard him and went and told her father. 'Call him in,' said he. When he came in, Rabbi Jannei said to him, 'What is that elixir of life which you are selling?' He said to him, 'Is it not written, What man is he that desireth life, and loveth days that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips that they speak no guile. Look, this is the elixir of life which is in the mouth of a man!'"