NOTES for Pe1 3:13
What does the apostle mean when he says that no evil can be done to the one who strives for the good? If we understand his words as referring exclusively to our still untransformed world, they may appear overly optimistic. But what should be considered good? And on what does it depend?
As early as five centuries before the Savior's birth, the Athenian philosopher Socrates asserted that evil cannot come to a person from outside, and that what people usually consider evil, meaning by it failures, sufferings, and even death, is not in fact evil. True evil, in the philosopher's opinion, a person can do to himself only by making a wrong choice and thereby harming his own soul. This is how a man who lived in the times of Zechariah and Malachi, but never heard them, resolved the question of good and evil.
It would seem that the apostle has the same thing in mind: if evil is understood as harm inflicted by a person on his own soul, then one who strives only for the good truly has nothing to fear. But the matter concerns a fallen person in a fallen world. Can one be confident in one's own unswerving movement on the path of the good?
As is evident, human wisdom alone is not enough here. But the apostle is not speaking only of it either. Now that the Messiah has come and brought the Kingdom into the world, a person no longer remains alone in his striving for the good, one on one with the world that lies in evil and with his own sin. And if earlier intention alone was not enough, if earlier one who chose the path of righteousness had to be a spiritual hero, now it is enough simply to remain firm in one's intention. In everything else, we will always be helped.