What is the context?
People who shared the readers’ former way of life now find their refusal to join in strange. Surprise turns into abuse. A changed life does not always bring immediate approval from old companions.
Peter directs attention from their verdict to the One who judges the living and the dead. Those who speak against the believers must themselves give an account. The judging authority is not held by the crowd.
The Gospel’s purpose reaches beyond the verdict people pass on a person’s bodily life. The BSB speaks of those who are now dead and of life according to God in the spirit. How this relates to preaching and death is one of the passage’s disputed details.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley understands the Gospel to have been preached to people who have since died. Human judgment against them did not cancel the life God gave. The USCCB’s note on verse 6 reports this reading alongside a possible connection with the dead mentioned in 3:19.
Calvin connects the verse with the reach of Christ’s saving work to the dead, as he did in chapter 3. The Catholic Catechism, 634, uses the verse in explaining Christ’s descent to the dead and the reach of His redemption. These readings differ over when and to whom the preaching occurred.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
In John 5:24–29, Jesus speaks both of people passing from death to life through hearing and believing, and of the future resurrection of those in the graves. He has authority to give life and to judge.
Peter’s encouragement belongs within that larger hope. Those who receive His life are not deprived of that hope by human rejection or bodily death. The final account belongs to Him.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.