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About Jesus Steve Sweetman This Section - Chapters 3 Wives
And Husbands (ch. 3:1 - 7) Peter
now turns from slaves submitting to masters, to wives submitting to their
own husbands. The Greek word
that is translated as “submit” is “hupotasso”.
It is derived from 2 other words,
“hupo” – under, and “tasso” to arrange or rank”.
Thus the meaning of “hupostasso” is “to rank , or arrange
under”. It was very much a
military word in the first century. A
soldier for example would rank under his superior officer.
So Peter is telling the Christian wives to align themselves under
their own husband. Modern men
and women may struggle over this point, but this is what Peter is saying. It
is further interesting to note that there would be many Christian women
who would have non-Christian husbands.
Peter is telling them to align themselves, or rank under them as
well. In
Peter’s day, if a man became a Christian, the chances that his wife
becoming a Christian would be good. But
the reverse is not the case. If
a woman became a Christian, because of the nature of their marriage and
their culture, a man would not necessarily follow his wife. Peter
goes on to speak to the issue of a believing wife married to a
non-believing husband. If the
wife submits to her husband and behaves as a believer should, then it is
quite possible that the husband would “be won over without words”.
Thus you have the reason why the believing wife should stay with
the unbelieving husband. Paul says the same in 1 Cor. 7. One
thing to note here is that the good behaviour, “without words” might
win the unbeliever over. You
will not find this thinking too much in Scripture, that is, not
proclaiming the gospel with words, but living the life only.
This is most likely due to the nature of the relationship in
question here. The life must
be lived. Sometimes words may
be perceived as nagging in the marital relations where emotions can run
high. But sooner or later
words will have to be spoken. If
the husband comes to the place of wanting salvation, then at that time the
wife will speak the words of the gospel. Peter
says, “when they see the purity and reverence of your lives”.
You must remember, back in those days there was much sexual
impurity. The husband in many
cases would not be faithful to his wife.
Many felt that it was a right and even a privilege to have other
sexual partners. In many cases
this activity was a part of pagan worship.
Yet to see the wife living in purity, should speak volumes to the
husband. Being
reverent towards your husband would also speak to him as well.
I would suppose at times this might have been a very difficult
thing to do. But the goal of
such reverence is the salvation of the husband. Verse
3 has been greatly misrepresented by certain legalistic groups over the
years. It says, “your beauty
should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the
wearing of gold jewelry, and fine clothes”.
Some have taken this verse in a legalistic sense and told the women
of their church not to braid their hair and not to wear jewelry.
Then beyond that, they have added other rules as well pertaining to
dress. But Peter isn’t
really saying not to wear jewelry or braided hair.
He is simply saying that a woman’s beauty should not come from
such things alone. If that is
all that makes a woman beautiful, then obviously the beauty is skin deep.
In
verse 4 Peter says that a woman’s beauty should come from within, “ a
gentle and quiet spirit” which pleases God.
Thus the emphases should not be on what a woman does or doesn’t
wear, but on what shows from within. If
a woman's inner beauty can be seen, then let her have the braided hair.
Let her wear the jewelry, or whatever the fashion of the day is.
There
is one thing to note here and that is prostitutes wore braided hair and
lots of jewelry in those days. That
is why Peter says what he says. Like
Paul, he really didn't think it was appropriate for Christian women to
dress like prostitutes Peter
mentions a generational point here, maybe not like many of us would say
today. For example, we might
say, “your grandmother never dressed that way”.
Obviously the child to whom you are speaking to
might suggest that there is no relevance
between her and her grandmother.
Peter
makes the statement that this is how the Godly
women of old led their lives. They
let their godly character be the source of their beauty.
Peter
goes on to say that these women of old were “submissive to their own
husbands”. Note the words
“their own”. This does
have significance in a marriage where the husband is not a Christian.
Over the years, on occasion I have seen Christian women become more
submissive to a male pastor or leader in the church than their own
husbands. The end result is
that the husband feels isolated and left out.
Even though a believing woman is a part of a church, the pastor, or
any man, does not take the place of her husband, even if he is not a
Christian. She has become one
flesh with her husband. One
point needs to be mentioned here. As
we have discussed earlier with the topic of 2 kingdoms we live in here on
earth. When God’s Kingdom
comes in conflict with an earthly kingdom, we align ourselves with God’s
Kingdom. The same is true in a
marital relationship. If the
husband is demanding something that is definitely not Christian, you obey
God, rather than man. Yet we
need to understand that many times something a unbelieving husband might
ask of his wife is not necessarily not Christian. A wife should be clear
on what is not Christian and just not something she doesn‘t like, or
views as non-Christian. There
are many swing issues that would not be worth having a conflict over.
For example, a believing wife attending church services every night
of the week. The husband may
say that she should not go to church meetings every night.
The wife might say that the idea of staying home is not Christian.
She needs to be in church. Well, at least in my thinking, it is
probably more non-Christian to attend a church meeting every night of the
week in that particular situation. She
should stay home with her husband. What
Peter says next is pretty far fetched in today’s feminist world.
He says, “like Sarah who obeyed Abraham and called him her
master”. (ch. 3:6) What else
can be said here than what is said. Wives
in the western world do not call their husbands their masters. Peter
ends his encouragement to women by telling them that if they are like
Sarah, then they will be her daughters.
They will do good and not give way to fear.
Just what Peter means by “not giving way to fear” is somewhat
debatable. “Giving
way to fear” might possibly mean just giving in to every demand of her
husband, even the non-Christian demands, out of fear.
One might say, if one really fears God, then fear of man does not
exist in their lives. After
all the verses Peter devotes to wives, he leaves only one verse for the
Christian husband. He tells the men to treat their wives with
consideration. That means to
think of them, to consider them in every decision that he makes.
Peter tells the husband to treat his wife “with respect as the
weaker partner”. The idea of treating a wife with respect in that very
man dominated society would be somewhat revolutionary for many men.
The weaker partner should only be taken in a physical sense. Peter
says that the wife is “heirs with” the husband “of the gracious gift
of life”. By using the word
“partner” in the last phrase, and the words “heirs with him”
suggest a mutual relationship with one another in living as Christians.
Both husbands and wives are “heirs together” of salvation.
Salvation does not belong to the man alone, but to the woman and
man as equal brothers and sisters in the sight of God.
You might say that a wife is also a
Christian sister to her husband.
The reverse would be true as well.
The husband, as well as being a husband, is a Christian brother and
needs to be treated with Godly respect. Husbands and wives then should
therefore understand that beyond their marital relationship, they are
equals, that is, equal before the Lord as brothers and sisters in Christ,
each having a part to play in the Body of Christ.
Husbands and wives may be husband and wives, but they are also
brothers and sisters in Christ, and sons and daughters of their Father in
Heaven. Suffering
For Doing Good (ch. 3:8 - 22) Peter
begins this section with the word “finally”.
After talking to husbands, wives, and slaves, he now gives a
general encouragement to everyone. He
says, “live in harmony with one another, be sympathetic, love as
brothers, be compassionate and humble”.
Peter is speaking to Christians, encouraging them to be an example
to the rest of the world. Living
in harmony obviously seems like a hard thing to do, even among Christians.
If it were easy, Peter would not have mentioned it.
The fallen nature of things penetrates our lives to such a degree
that it is always part of us, until the day Jesus returns.
Yet until that day, we are to try our best, with the help of the
Holy Spirit to live in harmony. In
the same way that husbands are to be considerate of their wives, we are
all to be considerate of each other. Also,
in the same way that wives are to submit to their husbands, we are all to
submit to one another. This
submission to one another means giving way to others instead of always
promoting ones self interests. Still
in the context of the church, Peter says not to “repay evil with evil or
insult with insult”. It is
obvious then that even in the church someone may insult you, but you are
not to insult them back, but rather extend a blessing.
Why? The reason why
Peter says this is because at some point we all will inherit a blessing.
So giving a blessing now is a small thing compared to the big
blessing that Jesus will give us. To
back his point Peter quotes from Psa. 34:12 – 16.
The Psalm says that “whoever would love life, and see good days,
must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech”.
It is quite clear that controlling our tongues will cause us to
live a better life. An
uncontrolled tongue creates many unnecessary conflicts.
We don’t need to speak everything our mind thinks.
The
Psalm continues by saying that “he must turn from evil and do good; he
must seek peace and pursue it”. Christians
should be peace seekers, yet not at the expense of truth.
Paul, for example, did
his best to try to live peacefully with everyone.
But not everyone wanted to live peacefully with him and that is why
he found himself in so much conflict.
Paul’s tongue seldom got him in trouble.
His actions seldom got him in trouble.
His trust in Jesus was the thing that got him in so much trouble,
as well as his preaching about this faith. The
Psalm goes on to say that the “eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and His ears are attentive to their prayers”.
There are 2 aspects of us being righteous.
We are seen as right in the eyes of God, even though we aren’t,
because of the cross. Yet on
the other hand, there should be a measure of righteousness being worked
out in our lives. If we are on
this path of righteousness being worked out in our lives, then God will
keep and eye on us and hear our prayers.
If then our prayers are not answered, this may be one reason why
– but not the only reason.
The
last part of this Psalm says that “the face of the Lord is against those
that do evil”. This is clear
and simple. God turns Himself
away from evil doers, having nothing to do with them.
He leaves them alone to muddle around in their own calamity.
Possibly the only time He will turn His face towards them is on the
Day of Judgement when He pronounces judgement on these people.
The thought that God would turn His face from someone is not
popular in today’s society, yet it is a Biblical truth
In
verse 13 Peter says, “who will harm you when you do good”?
He is simply being practical and logical here.
If you do good to others, there’s a good chance they will do good
to you. Yet if for some reason
people try to harm you, even when you are doing good, then count yourself
as blessed, which was the case with many Christians in those days, and
with the case of Jesus Himself. Why
should we feel blessed in these situations.
That doesn’t sound like good common sense.
The fact is that Jesus suffered unjustly, and if we suffer in like
fashion, we should be thankful that we are suffering in the same way that
our Lord suffered. This was
Peter’s attitude towards unjust suffering.
He wanted to follow Jesus, even if it meant suffering unjustly, and
he did just that, right up to his death on the cross. The
next phrase says, “do not fear what they fear”.
The NIV has an alternative reading that says, “do not fear their
threats”. I am not a Greek
scholar but as I read the Greek text my paraphrase would be, “don’t
fear those who do evil to you”. What
should we do instead of fearing those who may oppose us?
Peter says, “in your hearts, set apart Christ as Lord”.
This is fundamental to being a Christian.
In the deepest place of our hearts, we should make Jesus our Lord.
We should put Him in charge of everything.
We should follow Him and nothing that would offend Him. In so
doing, He will grant us the strength to endure the unjust suffering. In
the midst of this unjust suffering Peter encourages his readers to be
ready at all times to give a reason for the hope that they have.
First of all, you need the hope in the midst of the suffering.
Some may not have this hope, but if you do, then be ready to
explain this hope that you have. Christians
need to be ready to explain as many aspects of the gospel as they can.
Sad to say, but many just can’t do that. I believe this lack of
being able to explain why we believe as we do is one of the biggest
downfalls of the modern church. Still
in verse 15 Peter says that our explanation must be given with gentleness
and respect. Giving our
explanation in arrogance will
do more harm than good. Once
again, many times over the years I’ve seen many explanations of the
gospel not done with gentleness. Many times our preaching is used as
a club to smash over people’s heads. In
verse 16 we are told to do all this “with a clear conscience”.
If we do, our accusers should be ashamed of themselves.
If we do good, the best we can, with a pure motive before Jesus,
then the only ones that should experience shame are those who accuse us.
If they don’t experience the shame now, they will on the Day of
Judgement. One
thing to note is not all those who preach the gospel preach out of a clear
conscience. They preach with
other motives, and even with sin in their lies.
This should not be. In
verse 17 Peter tells us that “it is better to suffer for doing good, if
it is God’s will, than for doing evil”.
This is interesting. It
would appear that some suffering is God’s will and some not.
Obviously suffering because of our own foolishness is not God’s
will. But I think Peter might
be suggesting that some unjust suffering might not be God’s will.
If so, then this unjust suffering spoken of here might be the type
of suffering where we can use our civil rights to help us out of the
situation, like Paul in his appeal to Part
of the gospel message can be seen in verse 18.
It says, “for Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous
for the unrighteous, to bring you to God”.
Jesus dies for all mankind’s sin.
None are excluded. He was the only righteous person that ever
walked the face of the earth and yet He was the one who was punished for
all mankind. We all should
have been punished, only One was punished.
The reason for this was to “bring us to God”.
This is reconciliation. The
fall of man separated us from God, and the sacrifice of Jesus provides us
with a way to be united with God. Peter
says that Jesus “was put to death in the body but was made alive by the
Spirit”. It was only
Jesus’ body that died. His
spirit did not die, even though there are some these days that believe His
spirit died as well. We are
like Jesus. Our earthly bodies will die, but our spirits will live on, and
at some future date, will be joined with a new heavenly body.
The
next verse is interesting in the sense that many have had differing
opinions over the years about the meaning of the verse.
It says that Jesus “went and preached to the spirits in prison
who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah…”
Those who died in disobedience before the flood are in a place
where Peter calls prison. This
most likely is Hades. This
word (Hades) is used in other passages as a place of the dead. (Acts 2:27
and 31, A
secondary question can be asked at this point, to which I don’t know the
answer to. Jesus preached to
the pre-flood spirits. What
about the post-flood spirits? Did
He preach to them? Are they in
Hades as well? Are they in a
different compartment in Hades? Why
does Peter specifically mention the pre-flood spirits, and not the
post-flood spirits too? I
don’t know. Peter
points out that only 8 people were saved in the ark.
The water symbolized baptism, he says.
The flood waters that saved these 8 people, symbolizing Christian
water baptism saving us today. To put it another way, the waters in
Noah’s day carried the ark to safety, and the waters of
baptism carry us safely to God.
This verse needs to be understood in its New Testament context.
Baptism alone does not save us. Trusting in Jesus saves us.
Yet baptism is the outward expression of this new trust that we
have found in Jesus. Peter
says that it is “not the removal of dirt from the body” that saves us,
but “the pledge of a good conscience towards God”.
It is not of any works that we can do that saves us, even the
removing of dirt from our body. It
is not the putting away of sin that saves us.
It is a good conscience that saves us.
I interpret the good conscience to be our faith, our trust in
Jesus, because that is the only thing that saves us.
Concerning water baptism; some suggest that it is
symbolic of our death to self and our resurrection to a new life in Jesus.
That's what I believe baptism is.
Others suggest that when you go under the water in baptism you
literally die to self. Baptism
is more than symbolic. I don't
believe that for a number of reasons.
The reason why some say it's literally death to self is because of
what Peter says here in verse 20; "… baptism that now saves
you". Without getting too
involved, it is repentance and faith that saves us, not baptism.
So, what does Peter mean here.
He explains further that it's "not the removal of dir from the
body, but a pledge of a good conscience".
Again, a pledge of a good conscience means faith.
Faith saves us. The
removal of dirt from the body might well be in reference to a Jewish
tradition, that Jewish Christians kept, and that was a ceremonial washing
or bath. The Greek word "baptizo"
was often used in reference to these ceremonial baths.
What Peter might well have been saying is that these ceremonial
baths mean nothing. It is
faith in Jesus, and His resurrection, as he says next that saves us.
Peter
says that it is the resurrection that saves us.
Our faith is
based on the fact the Jesus rose from the dead.
If He had not risen from the dead our trust in Him would be futile.
But He did rise from the dead, and even more so, “He has gone to
Heaven and is at God’s right hand”.
This speaks of the ascension. We
cannot speak of the resurrection without speaking of the ascension.
The 2 go hand in hand. The
people of Peter’s day understood sitting at God’s right hand to be a
place of universal authority, not that God has a literal right hand.
Jesus now sits in the Supreme place of authority over all things,
right alongside God Himself, until the day comes when He will hand
everything back over to His Father in its restored state. Peter
closes this chapter by saying that Jesus, who is now in this place of
authority have the angels, authorities, and powers in submission to
Him”. All the spiritual
beings in Heaven submit to Jesus.
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