Beginning at 1 Peter 2:11 Peter had been instructing his readers on how they were to live as God’s people in a world hostile to God. In the face of public suspicion concerning people whose focus is God’s imperishable inheritance (1 Peter 1:4), Peter stressed the necessity of honourable conduct among the Gentiles (1 Peter 2:12), that is, doing good (1 Peter 2:12, 1 Peter 2:15, 1 Peter 2:20; 1 Peter 3:2, 1 Peter 3:6, 1 Peter 3:11). But doing good (as opposed to punching back against evildoers, 1 Peter 3:9) may result in suffering. In 1 Peter 3:13–17 Peter spelled out the right attitude his readers were to have in the face of injustice. In the present paragraph, Peter explains why honouring Christ the Lord as holy (1 Peter 3:15) is necessary and possible.
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,