Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Peter 3:15

"but sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord: [being] ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness and fear:" — 1 Peter 3:15 (ASV)

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.—The tense of this and the two preceding imperatives shows that St. Peter meant this for advice to be acted upon at the moment of being called on to suffer. The passage, as it stands in Isaiah, runs literally, “Jehovah Sabaoth, Him shall ye sanctify, and He (shall be) your fear, and He your dread.” It becomes, therefore, very striking when we find that, without a shadow of doubt, the correct reading here is, But sanctify the Lord the Christ in your hearts.

How is this possible? For, unless the Catholic doctrine is truly a statement of fact, how could a Jew like St. Peter have ever applied to a Man whom he had known familiarly—a Man who had served him at table and washed his feet—the words Isaiah spoke about the “Lord of Hosts”? This passage immediately precedes the one quoted in 1 Peter 2:8, and (like that one) is not chosen at random, but is drawn from the great Immanuel passage. That presence of God, which was the sacred protection of Israel in the days of Hezekiah, has found fulfillment in “the Christ” now given.

But what is meant by “sanctifying” Him? The phrase is not used anywhere else in the New Testament, except in the Lord’s Prayer; but in the Old Testament see Leviticus 10:3; Isaiah 29:23; Ezekiel 38:23. Just as to “glorify” God means (in word and deed) to recognize His glorious perfections; as to “magnify” Him means to recognize His greatness; as to “justify” Him means to recognize His inherent justice; so to “sanctify” Him means to recognize, in word and deed, His full holiness, and therefore to treat Him with due awe. This not only substitutes the fear of God for the fear of man (since they mutually exclude each other), but also enforces purity of life, thus recalling “that which is good” and “for righteousness’ sake.”

This, adds St. Peter, is to be done “in your hearts.” This does not mean simply “with your hearts,” or “from your hearts” (that is, inwardly, or with all sincerity and devotion), but it signifies the dwelling place where Christ is to be thus recognized. That is to say: St. Peter, like St. Paul (Ephesians 3:17), acknowledges an indwelling of Christ in the hearts of the faithful. This indwelling is not merely subjective, consisting of their constant recollection of Him, but real and objective: there He is, as in a shrine, and they must pay due reverence to His presence.

The Apostle does, in fact, in those words “in your hearts,” purposely call attention to the difference between Isaiah’s use of the name Immanuel and the Christian meaning of it. To Isaiah, God dwelled in the midst of a people in its corporate capacity; St. Peter knew that, through the Incarnation, each individual Christian has God in them, united with them.

And be.—The better reading omits the connecting particle, so that we should put “being” instead of “and be.”

Ready always to give an answer.—This is the consequence of sanctifying Christ within by the worship of a pure life, so that no moment, no questioner finds us unprepared to speak with freedom of our hope in Him. The word for “answer” here is apologia, an apology; not, of course, in the modern sense of an excuse, but a defense, the reply of an accused person, like the well-known Apologia Socratis, or the great modern Apologia pro Vita Sua, or the works from which Tertullian, Athenagoras, St. Justin, and others are called “The Apologists.”

It does not mean that every person is bound to be able to state intellectually the nature and grounds of the Christian creed, though such a duty may, perhaps, be fairly deduced from the text. It does not say that every Christian ought to know why he or she is a Christian, but that every Christian’s own life ought to be so free from taint, so conscious of Christ enshrined within, as to cause them no misgiving in defending the faith from the calumnies (see 1 Peter 2:12) brought against it. The constant readiness, or freedom from the burden of sin, is the main point, “which intimates,” says Leighton, “it was not always to be done to every one, but we, being ready to do, are to consider when, and to whom, and how far.” Consciousness of impurity of life shuts a person’s mouth from defending Christian morality.

That asks you a reason.—Rather, that demands of you an account. It does not mean inquirers about Christian doctrine, but those who call Christians to account for their profession of the Gospel hopes. Though it must not be exclusively so taken, St. Peter evidently means chiefly being called into the law court to give account. Probably he is thinking of our Lord’s charge to himself and his co-apostles in Luke 12:11. (Compare to Matthew 10:5, 10:16, and 10:19.)

Of the hope that is in you.—More literally, with regard to the hope that is in you; that is, with regard to the Christianity in which you share. It is, of course, quite a modern application of the text to see in this anything of the individual assurance of salvation. However fairly it may be argued that a Christian ought to know why he or she, personally, expects to be saved, it is not the thought of St. Peter here. Christianity is here called a hope, rather than a faith, as in Acts 28:20; Colossians 1:23, because, especially in times of persecution, so much of our creed has a future tinge.

With meekness and fear.—There ought certainly to be added a warning But before these words. The readiness of the Christian’s defense of himself or herself and the Church from all moral aspersions is not to be marred by any self-exaltation or improper confidence. Archbishop Leighton says, “Not, therefore, blustering and flying out into invectives because he has the advantage against any man that questions him regarding this hope, as some think themselves certainly authorized to use rough speech because they plead for truth. On the contrary, for that very reason, study meekness, for the glory and advantage of the truth.” The “fear” will be, in large measure, a dread of overstepping the bounds of truth or modesty in speaking of Christian morals. The Acts of the Martyrs, with all their splendor, too often show how St. Peter’s cautious But was needed.