Reading Social Conflict through Greek Grammar 123 allows the author to address a diverse readership, which is experiencing a variegated set of trials and tribulations. Another view, which is sometimes combined with the previous approach, is to describe the use of the fourth-class condition as a part of the author’s tactful attempt to prevent any further grief for his audience37. He seeks to describe their sufferings in an indirect manner, because he feels that they do not need any further reminder of its gruesome reality. Taking this idea a bit further, Leonhard Goppelt suggests that the author “emphasizes the openness of the situation in order to protect the Church from fatalistic resignation and to encourage it toward a positive form of conduct in the sense of the principle advanced in 2:12”38. While these solutions have seemed to carry the day in recent discussions, they are nonetheless inadequate explanations of the problems that surround the use of the fourth-class condition. The major flaw in both proposals is that they arise not out of the immediate context but out of general assumptions regarding the nature of suffering. A better and much simpler approach would be to examine the condition’s function within the larger rhetorical unit of 1 Pet 3,13-17, keeping a particular eye on how this section relates to the author’s wider emphasis on the need for good works in the life of the believer. 4.2. Function of the Fourth-Class Condition in 1 Pet 3,14 One of the primary solutions that 1 Peter offers concerning the hostility which has arisen against its readers is the importance of Christian conduct amidst a hostile, unbelieving world. In fact, it could be said that good works hold a particular place of prominence in the theology and strategy of the letter39. The emphasis that the topic receives becomes especially pronounced in the second major section of the epistle (1 Pet 2,11–4,11). Within this broader framework, 1 Pet 3,13-17 attempts to move the readers away from the moral decay that could result from fear of mistreatment and death and into a life that is directed by the lordship of Christ, a life of indisputable righteousness and good works. The problem, of course, lies in the conflict that this type of lifestyle generates. The readers essentially find themselves in the midst of a catch-22. If they cease 37 E.g., Zerwick, Biblical Greek, 110-11 (§323); Best, 1 Peter, 132; Omanson, “Suffering for Righteousness’ Sake”, 439; Goppelt, I Peter, 241; Witherington III, 1-2 Peter, 177-78. 38 Goppelt, I Peter, 241. 39 Cf. W.C. van Unnik, “Teaching of Good Works in 1 Peter”, NTS 1 (1954-55) 92-110. In a forthcoming monograph (Good Works in 1 Peter: Negotiating Social Conflict and Christian Identity in the Greco-Roman World [WUNT; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014]), I explore how this important theme was meant to address the conflict in which the readers were engaged. In doing so, I challenge many of van Unnik’s conclusions.