1 Peter 3:13

And who is he that will harm you, if ye be zealous for that which is good?

Peter begins in this paragraph to speak guardedly about the terrible persecution coming upon them. He did not mean by this question that Christians were not in any danger of bodily harm from their enemies; what it meant was that no matter what might happen to their bodies, nothing, really, could happen to them. Peter was in complete harmony with the Lord in such a viewpoint. "It means that men and devils may do their worst, as they did to Jesus, and cannot harm us."[17] Our Lord himself said:

But ye shall be delivered up even by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolk, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. And not a hair of your head shall perish. In your patience ye shall win your souls (Luke 21:16-19).

We must believe, therefore, that it was this safety through persecution that Peter had in mind here. There is a quotation from G. A. Studdent-Kennedy regarding one who was asked if prayer would render a man invulnerable to shot and shell, and who replied that "Fellowship with God through prayer would make a man sure that though his body was shattered, his soul would be untouched."[18]

[17] A. J. Mason, op. cit., p. 417.

[18] Archibald M. Hunter, op. cit., p. 128.