An Exposition Of 1 Peter, Part 16: Wives Be Subject To Your Own Husbands

An Exposition of 1 Peter, part 16: Wives, be Subject to your own Husbands

1 Peter 3:1-7

Introduction

There are few passages in Scripture which are as controversial in today’s societies. These verses are contrary to what feminists preach. These women say things like: “I will not be in subjection to any man!” the wedding vows are often altered to take the word “obey” from the wife’s vows. The equality of men and women are held by both law and custom in America today. And if that isn’t enough, American law allows for same-sex marriage and admit to a bewildering cloud of gender choices. But what does God say? How are we to understand this passage that seems to be so out of sorts with the times?

Exposition of the Text

Likewise, you, who are wives, subject yourselves to your own husbands — When we look at this first verse, we should note two qualifications. First if all, it refers to wives and not females in general. The second is that subjection is to be to one’s own husband and not someone else’s husband or to men in general. We are talking about a specific relationship within the covenant of marriage. It does not address the status of women and men in society.

Something else to notice in the Greek of this sentence is that the word “subject” is actually a participle in Greek and not an imperative which would make the word “subject” to be much stronger. The participle implies a sense of voluntary submission or informed choice. Peter is about to describe the rationale why they are to subject themselves to their own husbands. In 1 Peter 2:13, the imperative “be subject” is used in relation to obey every manmade ordinance for the Lord’s sake. For wives this would mean obeying Roman law concerning the conduct of women in society. It is tempered by the words “for the Lord’s sake.” But just as citizens, non-citizens living in the Empire, Christians, and slaves were to be in subjection to Roman Law, women were to be in subjection. As we saw in our earlier studies, this subjection is not absolute. If the Law of God were in conflict with Roman Law, God’s word was to be obeyed. But the Christian is not to violently resist Roman Law. But there is a time for non-compliance. The Christian should be willing to suffer indignity in these conditions.

So that in case there are some (husbands) who are not convinced by the Word (of God), they might be won without the Word by the conduct of their wives. — Under Roman Law, the husband had the power of life and death over his slaves and his family as well. The husband could divorce his wife at will, sell her into slavery, or even kill her. this sounds incredibly cruel to our ears today. He also had control over the family religion as well. This put Christian wives who had Pagan husbands at great difficulty. she would expect to attend the altar of her husband. Under these conditions, what was she to do? Would open defiance to her husband win him to the Lord. It would seem more likely that she would get beaten or worse for such insubordination. As 1 Peter addresses how the Christian should bear witness to Christ by their willingness to suffer for Him, we can see that it is the Lord’s desire that the submission of the wife to her Pagan husband would serve as an effective witness to Jesus Christ. It was by such submissive suffering that the wife might win her husband over.

Observing your pure and reverential conduct — People watch how Christians conduct themselves. they are looking for any fault or inconsistency so that they might accuse us of hypocrisy, and therefore, dismiss the claims of the gospel. People often try to provoke the Christian to wrath. The suffering witness of the Christian is a main theme of 1 Peter. Just as Christians were to submit to the government and slaves to their own masters, the submission of wives to their own husbands was a means of witness. Marriage relations have enough difficulties as it is. just like some slaves had difficult masters, many wives also had difficult and pagan husbands. Such husbands deserve to be held to account for their conduct and openly rebuked by their wives. As tempting as that might have been, it might have acted as an incitement to violence against the wife by an angry husband who has had hos authority and respect challenged. The bible says a soft answer turns away wrath. (Proverbs 15:1) So, there is a practical application here just as with slaves not provoking their masters. However, the more important aspect is the Christian witness to the world, We are here to win people to Jesus, Peter, at the end of Chapter 2 used the example of Christ’s willing suffering as a model of how we should witness by unjust suffering.