1st Peter Chapter 3 verse 17 Holy Bible
For it is better, if the will of God should so will, that ye suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing.
read chapter 3 in ASV
Because if it is God's purpose for you to undergo pain, it is better to do so for well-doing than for evil-doing.
read chapter 3 in BBE
For [it is] better, if the will of God should will it, to suffer [as] well-doers than [as] evildoers;
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For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.
read chapter 3 in KJV
read chapter 3 in WBT
For it is better, if the will of God should so will, that you suffer for doing well than for doing evil.
read chapter 3 in WEB
for `it is' better doing good, if the will of God will it, to suffer, than doing evil;
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Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 17. - For it is better. St. Peter meets the common objection that suffering could be borne more easily if it were deserved; the Christian must take the cross, if it comes, as from God, sent for his good (comp. 1 Peter 2:19, 20). If the will of God be so; literally, if the will of God should so will. Θέλημα denotes the will in itself; θέλειν, its active operation (Wirier, 3:65. β). That ye suffer for well-doing, than for evil-doing. The construction is participial, as in 1 Peter 2:20. As there, the participle expresses, not merely the circumstances, but the cause of the suffering; they would have to suffer, not simply while they were doing well, but because they did Well.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(17) For it is better.--There is a kind of ironical suppression in this comparison.If the will of God be so.--A strikingly reverent phrase in the original, If the will of God should will it. This is, of course, to be taken only with the word "suffer," which itself means, as in 1Peter 3:14, to suffer capitally. St. Peter is thinking of the legal process of 1Peter 3:15-16, coming to a verdict of "guilty." He was himself daily expecting such a death.For well doing.--Better, perhaps, as well doers. It does not necessarily mean, in the Greek, that the well doing was the reason of the suffering, but simply that it accompanied it.
