What Do I Do If…?

1 Peter 3:1-7

…so with this passage – we must beware of the problem of hearing a passage today in a way that was never intended… we must admit that great abuses have taken place have led many to see in this passage some kind of moral subjugation of women by men… many women do not hear this text in any other way than how it has been practiced by abusive men.”

Scot McKnight

1. Peter is answering the question, “What do I do if…?”

• “What do I do if I’m a Christian and we no longer have social relevance?”
• “What do I do if I’m a Christian and we don’t have a temple or a people?”
• “What do I do if I’m a Christian and the governing authorities are not?”
• “What do I do if I’m a Christian slave and my master is not?”
• “What do I do if I am a Christian and my spouse is not?”
  (specifically in the context of a believing wife and unbelieving husband)

1 Peter 3:1-7

“Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands,

1. Win those over to Christ by the power of the living and active Holy Spirit
2. Unbelievers will reject it and have hardened hearts which may lead to suffering
   and oppression for Christians

1 Peter 3:1
1 Peter 3:2
1 Peter 3:3-4

Peter’s instructions against outward adornment make sense if a Christian wife is attending Christian worship outside her home, and especially if doing so without her husband. Society would perceive that act alone as questionable. By leaving her home unadorned, her intent to attend worship and not a tryst (meaning an affair or romantic rendezvous) would presumably be all the more clear.”

Karen Jobes

1 Peter 2:15

1 Peter 3:4	Matthew 11:29
“the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.”	“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
Wives	Jesus
“gentle and quiet spirit”	“gentle and lowly”

1 Peter 3:5-6
Genesis 21:8-13
1 Peter 3:7

1. Women did not have the same advantages socially as men
2. Men, do not impose your physical superiority over your wives

…for wives to be subject to their own husbands in proximity to the discussion of Jesus as the model for Christian suffering immediately raises the question of whether women should stay in marriages where there is physical abuse. There is nothing in this passage of Scripture that would either sanction the abuse of wives or suggest that women should continue to submit themselves to that kind of treatment. The nature of the suffering that Peter is addressing is primarily verbal abuse and loss of social standing.”

Karen Jobes

Matthew 22:37-39

“…since they are heirs with you of the grace of life…” -1 Peter 3:7

Ephesians 5:21-29
Ephesians 5:25

How did Christ love the Church?… ‘Submissively’. There is no greater act of submission than for Christ to come from heaven to earth and then to submit himself even to death on a cross.”

Alistair Begg

I believe in a wife submitting to her husband, but I don’t believe the husband ever
has the right to demand it. In fact, I know that when I am worthy of submission, my
wife submits; and when I am unworthy of it, she does not… My responsibility as a
husband is to be worthy.”

Scot McKnight

Philippians 2:5-11

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