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But now you no longer live in the same wicked way as those people do. They continue to enjoy those wrong things all the time. But you do not join with them. So they insult you. But those people will have to explain to God what they have done. He is ready to judge every person, whether they are alive now or they have already died. That is why even dead people needed to hear the good news about Christ. Their bodies had to die, as all people must die. But they heard the good news so that their spirits could live, as God wants them to live.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. 4:6 The ‘dead people’ may mean all the believers who had died during the time that the New Testament describes. Or, the ‘dead people’ may mean all the people who died before Christ came to live on earth. They had no chance to hear the good news about Christ while they lived on earth. So this may mean that Christ went to tell them about what he had done on their behalf. Then they had the chance to believe in him, as we do.