The use of the verb “put to silence” implies that Peter’s readers were being talked about in the community. And the talk that was happening was the chatter of “foolish people” who did not know what they were talking about (they had “ignorance”). Peter does not tell us precisely what slurs were being voiced about these Christians (Peter’s readers obviously knew). Yet his use of the term “foolish” deliberately recalls words as those of Psalm 14:1: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’.” The point is then that the people of the community did not take seriously the existence of God and so could not fathom the values and lifestyle of these Christians. Recall that these Christians are “born again” (1 Peter 1:3) and so see a much bigger and better reality than the (spiritually) unborn could see (stuck as they still are in the narrow world of the womb). Thus, to silence ignorant talk, the Christians are to do good.
15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.