What Does 1 Peter 3:15 Mean?

But set apart the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you for a word about the hope within you, with gentleness and fear.

1 Peter 3:15 · SDV

Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.

Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

THE KEY

The “reason” for your hope is a logos, word, speech, account, so what is already within you can become speakable.

THE MEANING

The Lord is set apart in your heart, and the hope within you can take words when someone asks for its account. You answer with gentleness and fear, so the manner of speaking belongs to the witness as much as its content.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This undoes the belief that hope must remain wordless to be real, or be defended harshly to be convincing.

THE ROOT

λόγον

logon

GROWS FROM

λογ-

log-

Word, speech, or account.

The KJV’s “reason” is ⁨λόγον⁩ (logon), from ⁨λόγος⁩ (logos): word, speech, or account. The verse presents hope as something already within you that can be given words when someone asks.

ALSO GROWS

logos: Word, message, or account

λόγος

This is the base form behind ⁨λόγον⁩, showing how “reason” here can mean a spoken account.

logizomai: Reckon or consider

λογίζομαι

This related word connects the account you give with thought made intelligible.

ἁγιάσατε

hagiasate

GROWS FROM

ἁγ-

hag-

Set apart; treat as distinct.

“set apart” in this verse is hagiasate. The verb carries set-apartness into the heart: the Lord has a distinct place at its center. From that inner orientation, the hope within you can be spoken without the answer becoming an act of force.

ALSO GROWS

hagios: Set apart

ἅγιος

This adjective shares the root and names the distinctness carried into the heart.

hagiazō: Set apart or consecrate

ἁγιάζω

This verb names the act expressed here: setting apart the Lord in the heart.

ἐλπίδος

elpidos

GROWS FROM

ἐλπ-

elp-

Hope or expectation.

The hope is already “in you”; it is not assembled for the person asking. In the same letter, this hope is called “lively,” linking the answer you give to an expectation already alive within you.

ALSO GROWS

elpis: Hope or expectation

ἐλπίς

This is the noun in its base form, naming what the verse says is within you.

elpizō: Hope or expect

ἐλπίζω

This verb shows the same root as an active orientation toward what is hoped for.

THE PATTERN

A truthful account can be spoken openly while its manner remains gentle.

I speak of your witnesses in sight of kings, and I am not put to shame.

Psalm 119:46 · SDVThe speaker gives a public account without hiding what is held as true.

A soft answer turns away the burning, but words of pain stir up the nostrils.

Proverbs 15:1 · SDVThe way an answer is given shapes what it brings into the exchange.

Let your word always be in favor, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you must answer each one.

Colossians 4:6 · SDVSpeech that is ready for questions is also shaped by the manner in which it meets each person.

THE THREAD

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus the Anointed One, who according to his great faithful love has birthed us again into a living hope through the rising of Jesus the Anointed One from the dead,

1 Peter 1:3 · SDV

The “hope” in both verses translates forms of ⁨ἐλπίς⁩ (elpis, hope or expectation). Here that hope is already within you and can be spoken; there it is named as a lively hope.

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