1 PETER 3:18-4:11 GOD'S PLAN FOR A RELATIONSHIP WITH ME THROUGH CHRIST

For CHRIST DIED for SINS ONCE for ALL, the RIGHTEOUS for the UNRIGHTEOUS, to BRING YOU to GOD. CHRIST was PUT to DEATH IN the BODY but MADE ALIVE BY the SPIRIT, THROUGH WHOM also CHRIST WENT and PREACHED to the spirits IN PRISON WHO DISOBEYED LONG AGO WHEN GOD WAITED PATIENTLY in the DAYS of NOAH while the ARK was being BUILT. IN it ONLY A FEW PEOPLE, EIGHT IN ALL, WERE SAVED THROUGH WATER, and this WATER SYMBOLIZES BAPTISM that NOW SAVES YOU ALSO-NOT the REMOVAL of DIRT from the BODY but the PLEDGE of a GOOD CONSCIENCE TOWARD GOD. It SAVES YOU BY the RESURRECTION of JESUS CHRIST, WHO HAS GONE INTO HEAVEN and is at GOD'S RIGHT HAND- WITH  ANGELS  AUTHORITIES and POWERS in SUBMISSION to CHRIST.

LIVE FOR GOD:

THERFORE, SINCE CHRIST SUFFERED IN HIS BODY, ARM YOURSELVES ALSO WITH the SAME ATTITUDE, BECAUSE HE WHO HAS SUFFERED IN HIS BODY IS DONE WITH SIN. As a RESULT, HE DOES NOT LIVE the REST of HIS EARTHLY LIFE for EVIL HUMAN DESIRES, but RATHER for the WILL OF GOD. For YOU HAVE SPENT ENOUGH TIME in the PAST DOING WHAT PAGENS CHOOSE to DO-LIVING in DEBAUCHERY, LUST, DRUNKENESS, ORGIES, CAROUSING and DETESTABLE IDOLATRY. THEY THINK IT STRANGE that YOU do not PLUNGE with THEM into the SAME FLOOD of DISSIPATION, and THEY HEAP ABUSE ON YOU. BUT THEY WILL HAVE TO GIVE ACCOUNT TO CHRIST WHO IS READY TO JUDGE THE LIVING AND THE DEAD. For THIS is the REASON the GOSPEL WAS PREACHED EVEN TO THOSE WHO ARE NOW DEAD, SO THAT THEY MIGHT BE JUDGED ACCORDING TO MEN IN REGARD TO THE BODY, BUT LIVE ACCORDING TO GOD IN REGARD TO THE spirit.

The END of ALL THINGS IS NEAR. THEREFORE BE CLEAR MINDED and (INNER) SELF CONTROLLED so that YOU CAN PRAY. ABOVE ALL, LOVE EACH OTHER DEEPLY, BECAUSE LOVE COVERS OVER A MULTITUDE of SINS. OFFER HOSPITALITY to ONE ANOTHER WITHOUT GRUMBLING. EACH ONE SHOULD USE WHATEVER GIFT HE HAS RECIEVED TO SERVE OTHERS, FAITHFULLY ADMINISTERING GOD'S GRACE in its VARIOUS FORMS. If ANYONE SPEAKS, HE SHOULD do it as ONE SPEAKING the VERY WORDS OF GOD. If ANYONE SERVES, HE SHOULD do it with the STRENGH GOD PROVIDES, so that in ALL THINGS GOD MAY BE PRAISED THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. To GOD BE THE GLORY and the POWER FOR EVER and EVER.    AMEN!