Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Peter 3:1
Likewise, ye wives, [be] in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;
1. Likewise, ye wives ] The sequence of thought is every way suggestive. The Apostle passes from the all but universal relation of the master and the slave as one element of social life, to the other, yet more universal, and involving from the Roman point of view almost as great a subordination, of husband and wife. Here also it was his object to impress on men and women, especially on the latter, the thought that the doctrine of Christ was no element of disorder. The stress which he lays on their duties may be fairly taken as indicating the prominence of women among the converts to the new faith. Of that prominence we have sufficient evidence in the narrative of the Acts (actsr 16:13, Act 17:4; Act 17:12). In what follows we have again a reproduction of the teaching of St Paul (Eph 5:22-24; Col 3:18; 1Ti 2:9). It is not without interest to recall the fact that Aristotle makes the two relations of which St Peter speaks, that of husband and wife, that of master and slave, the germ-cells, as it were, out of which all political society has been developed (Arist. Pol. i. 2).
be in subjection to your own husbands ] The use of the Greek adjective for “own” is not intended, as some interpreters have thought, to emphasize a contrast between obedience rendered to their own husbands and that which they might be tempted to give to others, but rather to lay stress on the fact that their husbands, because they were such, had a right to expect the due measure of obedience in all things lawful. The words that follow indicate the frequency of the cases in which the wife only was a convert. The Greek text runs “that even if any obey not the word,” as though, in some cases at least, it might be expected that husband and wife would both have been converted together. In “the word” we have the familiar collective expression for the whole doctrine of the Gospel. The Greek verb for “obey not” implies, as in chap. 1Pe 2:7, Act 14:2, Heb 3:18; Heb 11:31, a positive antagonism rather than the mere absence of belief and obedience.
may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives ] The Greek for “word” has no article, and the probable meaning is not “without the open preaching of the word of Christ,” but rather, without speech, without a word [being uttered]. On “conversation,” see note on chap. 1Pe 1:15. Here, where “conversation” is used as the direct antithesis to speech, the contrast between the new and the old meanings of the word is seen with a singular vividness. The silent preaching of conduct is what the Apostle relied on as a more effective instrument of conversion than any argument or debate. In the verb “be won,” literally, be gained over, we have the same word as that used by St Paul in 1Co 9:19-20, and by our Lord, in teaching which must have made a special impression on St Peter’s mind, in Mat 18:15.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands – On the duty here enjoined, see the 1Co 11:3-9 notes, and Eph 5:22 note.
That, if any obey not the word – The word of God; the gospel. That is, if any wives have husbands who are not true Christians. This would be likely to occur when the gospel was first preached, as it does now, by the fact that wives might be converted, though their husbands were not. It cannot be inferred from this, that after they themselves had become Christians they had married unbelieving husbands. The term word here refers particularly to the gospel as preached; and the idea is, that if they were regardless of that gospel when preached – if they would not attend on preaching, or if they were unaffected by it, or if they openly rejected it, there might be hope still that they would be converted by the Christian influence of a wife at home. In such cases, a duty of special importance devolves on the wife.
They also may without the word be won – In some other way than by preaching. This I does not mean that they would be converted independently of the influence of truth – for truth is always the instrument of conversion, Jam 1:18; Joh 17:17; but that it was to be by another influence than preaching.
By the conversation of the wives – By the conduct or deportment of their wives. See the notes at Phi 1:27. The word conversation, in the Scriptures, is never confined, as it is now with us, to oral discourse, but denotes conduct in general. It includes indeed conversation as the word is now used, but it embraces also much more – including everything that we do. The meaning here is, that the habitual deportment of the wife was to be such as to show the reality and power of religion; to show that it had such influence on her temper, her words, her whole deportment, as to demonstrate that it was from God.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Pe 3:1-7
Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection
Wifely subjection
Here is required of wives subjection towards their husbands; though God made them in many things equal, yet in wisdom He thought meet to make some little inequality, and appointed the husband to be the superior and head, and so to rule, and the wife to be subject to him; yet not so but that he hath his rules to bound his rule, that it exceed not (1Co 11:8-9; 1Ti 2:13).
Neither is this without reason; for if all were equals in the commonwealth there would be confusion; and if all bells were of a bigness, and all the strings of an instrument of one size, there would be a harsh sound, and no melody: so, were there not some small inequality between husbands and wives, there could not but be contention. It is Gods order that wives be subject, as it is His order the sun should shine, the earth bear fruit, the heavens cover us. Accordingly, God hath provided to make man the stronger, woman the weaker vessel, that he might be the fitter to rule, and she (feeling her own weakness) the more willing to be ruled. (John Rogers.)
A quarrelsome wife
There were times when the Rev. Andrew Fuller could be exceedingly severe. He was once spending a few days in a family where the husband and wife were not very happy together, chiefly, I believe, owing to her tyrannical spirit, fostered by perverted views of Divine truth, making her by no means remarkable for kindness to her husband. One evening, having heard Mr. Fuller preach, according to the fashion of the school to which she belonged she remarked: Ah, sir, we are poor creatures and can do nothing. You are quite mistaken, madam, replied Mr. Fuller, you can do a great deal. Why, what can I do? asked the lady, somewhat excited. Why, madam, replied he, with a tone and manner which can only be imagined by those who knew him, you can quarrel with your husband. The lady said no more. (Baptist Messenger.)
If any obey not they also may be won.–
Wives must be subject even unto bad husbands
Not only must wives be subject that have good husbands, but even they which hath infidel husbands, unkind, irreligious; for they are their husbands, whom they have chosen, and are now in covenant to God withal, and which God hath laid out for them as a blessing or cross. If any shall say, This is very hard, let such know, that Christians must do difficult things. Every bungler can make good work of good, straight timber, but he that can make good work of that which is crooked and knotty is worthy commendation. (John Rogers.)
Unconscious influence
The case supposed is one that would occur again and again while Christianity was making its way among the pagan nations. A Christian woman would find it very difficult to win over her pagan husband by direct efforts; she would be thrown back upon the silent influence of her chaste, holy, unselfish conduct and conversation; and the apostle intimates that she should expect this to be a sanctified energy which God would use to accomplish the desire of her heart. A fable is told of a mountain island of lodestone that stood up in mid-ocean, and attracted on every side the ships that sailed over the seas. As soon as ever they came within the line of its influence they were insensibly seized, gradually at first, then ever more swiftly they were drawn, until at last they dashed to destruction on the rocky coast. The Christian should be an influence for Christ on every side of his nature, seizing every barque that sails by on the ocean of life; seizing it by the power of Christian character and Christian consistency, and drawing it into the harbour of Gods love and service.
I. It may be well to illustrate what is meant by our unconscious influence, and to exhibit its importance and value. As we meet together in society, how distinctly tone is recognised and felt! Beyond the influence we can exert on each other by our actions, there is the power of our very presence, an atmosphere around us which we carry with us wherever we may be. You can be a growing power, more decidedly and wholly influencing others for good, as by watchfulness and earnest culture you grow in personal religious worth.
II. Consider the sphere in which the power of this our unconscious influence will be most felt. It will be felt everywhere. It is a necessity of our being that we should exert it. It belongs to us, and flows forth from us as freely as the fragrance of the violet wherever the violet is found. Yet such influence is most felt at home. Much ought to be done by the young Christians direct efforts for the happiness and salvation of the household; but the very freeness of life in the home makes such labour difficult, and often there are circumstances which make it impossible to speak the word. So, in your first religious Sphere, you may be thrown back upon the importance of the influence silently exerted by your character. In a home some will be dependent on you, whatever your place may be; the children, younger children, or the servants. These will be very easily affected by the tone and spirit of your life; and they will be very keen to watch for the spirit they know is in harmony with the professions you make. In another way those on whom you depend in the home will be reached by you. On the side of your submissions and obediences you will win power over them. Holy, loving children have been honoured as the means of winning their parents for Christ. And home life includes a circle of friendships; you are not called by your Christian profession to separate yourselves from such circles; but you should carry into such society a fragrance of Christian purities and charities that may ever flow out to bless those with whom you meet.
III. On what the efficiency of this influence will depend.
1. It will depend on our cultivation of Christian graces, and that work includes the repression of all our constitutional infirmities, whether of temper or spirit, and the mastery of all habits that are relics of our sinful states.
2. It will depend on the consistency of our Christian conduct.
3. It will depend on constancy in religious duties. (R. Tuck, B. A.)
The attractive power of Christian character
We adopt the opinion that the Word is used in two distinct senses, and we read the passage thus: If any obey not the gospel, they also may without preaching be won by the character and conduct of the wives. The subject before us is this: The gospel reproduced in character and conduct, a means of saving sinners from the error of their ways. In discussing this subject, however, let me guard against even the appearance of underrating the written and the preached Word. Without the Word, what revolutions would this void create! The Word withdrawn from Christendom would rend the finest pictures, and pull down the most splendid buildings, and take the salt from the best literature, and bury in oblivion the highest science, and darken the brightest homes, and devastate the fairest countries, and undermine all righteous thrones, and send back some civilised nations to barbarism, and bring a huge shadow of death over the whole world. Without the Word mankind are without gospel, without light and life.
I. The Word received produces a distinctive character in him who accepts it. This is alike its object and tendency. The Word reveals the one living and true God-the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost-as the redeeming God, and shows that God is reconciling the world unto Himself. Now, the man who receives the Word is translated from darkness to light, he is transplanted from an ungenial to a friendly soil, and he admits to his nature elements which, combining with whatever is Divine within him, will produce a new man and effect a new creation.
II. The character which the Word produces is of a nature to attract and win. The character begotten by the Word is-
1. Strong. It has in it all the constituents of complete spiritual power, intelligence touching the highest subjects, faith in God, hope of the greatest and most enduring good, love of the purest and most fervent flame, immutable and everlasting principles of action.
2. The character formed by the Word is also genial. There is in it the attractiveness of beauty and of pleasantness, as well as of power. The basis of that which is genial in the Christian character is love.
3. This strong and loving character is also reasonable, it is conformed in all points, to rational principles. It has within it none of the elements which constitute the fanatic or visionary. Imagination creates not this character, but faith in a Divine revelation; and that revelation presents nothing contrary to reason.
III. The influence of this gospel-formed character is felt most where association is most frequent and contact most close. The text points to a home as the sphere of Christian influence, but it also directs our attention to woman as influential there, and it leads our thoughts to the presence of unbelief in the family. This suggests two things: firstly, that there is often evangelistic work to be done in families of which Christians are part; and secondly, that this work may be extensively wrought by Christian women. Christian men and women, whatever your hands may find to do beyond, neglect not the home.
IV. Believers of the Word may accomplish the end of preaching by being doers of the Word in the face of unbelievers. The great want of the world at the present time, is the Christianity of the New Testament translated into action. The demand for Christians is more urgent than the demand for churches. Men would see works that they may believe our words. (S. Martin.)
Won by behaviour
A high-born, cultured lady was converted during one of the London missions, and it was a genuine conversion. Immediately she separated herself from the world, revolutionised her household, altered her gay attire; and instead of the theatre or concert or ballroom night after night she was found at the mission service, the prayer meeting, or Bible reading. At first it embittered and angered her worldly husband, but eventually he yielded to what he termed a new caprice. When he found out that his beautiful wife was really in earnest, he persecuted her, and stung her with bitter reproaches, which, unfortunately, too frequently aroused her passionate temper, or occasioned an angry retort. One day God used her husbands bitter words to teach her a great lesson. When your Christ can do something more for you, Isabel, he said, I may let Him try to do something for me-not before. Wherein do I fail most? she asked. In your temper and tongue, which are sourer than when I first knew you. Is this really so? she asked herself when alone. If so, O God, forgive me was the sob which burst from her lips. What! is it possible that my hastiness may perhaps be keeping my husband from God? Away with it, Lord I Give me, I pray Thee, victory over all sin. God answered her prayer, but the testing time had yet to come. When her husband found persecution no longer irritated her, he let jealousy get the better of him-jealousy of the little delicate lad, their only child, who monopolised so much of his mothers time, and filled a large place in her loving heart, One evening when Mr. N-returned home irritable and morose-perhaps the worse for wine-she was singing softly, Theres a beautiful land on high, and the patient little sufferer had just said, Id like to be there, mother, if I could take you with me, when Mr. N-entered the nursery, and said, irritably, Put that child down, Isabel; Norton has come home with me to dine. Our little laddie is worse, Edgar, she said. May I not stay with him? No, and taking him roughly from her knee he handed the child to the nurse. All nonsense about his being worse. But, as he spoke, a loud moan escaped the little lads lips. His father had caught his head accidentally against the corner of the table, and he cried out to go back to his mother again, The child is not hurt much, Isabel; leave him at once, and come and attend to my guest. With an aching heart, Mrs. N-obeyed, trembling lest the blow might prove serious. Before dinner, however, was over, she was summoned to the nursery. The child was worse. Both the doctor and physician had been sent for, and they shook their heads at his condition. In the midst of the confusion and excitement, Mr. N-went out with his friend, heedless of the message which had been sent to him from the nursery, lie did not return until long after midnight. But about midnight his little child died. Isabel N-was childless. There she knelt alone by the bedside of her little darlings lifeless form. Would it be possible to describe her feelings or to understand the conflict through which she was passing? The Refiner was looking on-watching intently to see the effect of the fire through which He was causing His child to pass. Would it burn up the dross? Would it subdue the will? A few minutes later her husbands step was heard in the hall, and Mrs. N-knew the butler would tell his master all that had happened. The grief-stricken woman listened for him to come to her at once, but she heard him enter the library and shut the door; and, in the stillness which followed, she cried unto the Lord for guidance and strength. Pride said, Let him come to you-he has wronged both you and the child; but love said, Go to him-be the first to forgive. Love conquered, thanks be to God. Mr. N-was sitting by the table, his head buried in his hands, when he heard the library door open, and in another moment felt his wifes soft warm arms encircling his neck, and her lips pressed to his heated brow, while a voice of gentle sweetness said, Jesus has taken our darling to be with Him, Edgar; but I will love you more, dear. No stinging reproaches-no hard hasty words-not even a tender rebuke. The man could hardly believe he heard aright. What a miracle! What wonderful love! Yes, and the love broke his heart. Come upstairs and see our boy, Edgar. Without speaking he followed her; and while the two knelt alone in that still room and her tremulous voice pleaded that the sorrow might be sanctified, and that one day they too might join their little one in the Better Land, the proud, stubborn man yielded his heart to his God. When he arose he said, calmly, Isabel, Christ has done so much for you, dear, that I mean to ask Him to do as much for me. There is something in Christianity after all. (Mrs. Walter Searle.)
Chaste conversation coupled with fear.–
Christian womanhood
The chaste conversation coupled with fear seems to signify purity in an atmosphere of fear, the tremulous grace which is afraid of the very shadow of wrong. The beholding is in the original a remarkable word. It seems to point at initiation into a world of goodness before unknown to the husband. The selfish rhetorician Libanius, who had some Christian acquaintances, is said to have exclaimed: What wives those Christians have! A missionary to China has heard Christian women say: Until we became Christians we never really knew that we were women. (Bp. Wm. Alexander.)
The Christian woman
Let our thoughts be guided by this twofold proposition:-
1. For the unfolding of womans character, and the balancing of her spirit, Christianity supplies the only sufficient impulse and guide.
2. Christianity exhibits no more perfect illustration or achievement than in the completed proportions of her spiritual life. The first epoch of trial in womans life begins when the period of education ceases. It is a period of dependence, in the first place, with most women-dependence on parents-but still not the less irksome for that, if the woman, with a consciousness of strength, sees the parent worn and anxious with excess of labour; or if, with willingness for effort which her position or social prejudice forbids, she sees her every want met only by reluctant and grudged supplies. It is a period of uncertainty; for it looks straight out upon all those contingencies that determine her future lot-a lot for which she is not so much to lead or choose as to wait and weigh the perils of being chosen, or to learn the calm fortitude that conquers neglect with dignity. It is a period of highly wrought sensibility. The emotions have swelled, from the babbling brook that kept its quiet way within the banks of youth, into the rushing river of impetuous passion. It is a period of comparative irresponsibleness; and who shall say that irresponsibleness is a blessing, when we know so well how occupation dispels morbid introspections, and how daily strain upon the muscles fortifies timid and tremulous nerves? It is not true, I think, of any other condition of human discipline, more than this one, that nothing short of a personal acquaintance with Christian trust can satisfy its wants. Two other and different resources, indeed, the young woman has: and we need not wander far to search for proofs how often She tries their value. They are her womanly pride, and the excitements of society. What will Christianity do? It concentrates the aimless and restless purposes of woman on the one grand object of a personal acceptance with God. It takes off the load, which no human spirit can bear and be cheerful, by its promise of forgiveness for what is lacking, and by its encouraging assurance that when once the life is consecrated to God no single act or thought of good can fail of fruit in the spiritual harvests of eternity. It offers her what the mind of youth more than anything else craves-a friendship at once unchangeable and trustworthy as the heavens; and so it opens the gates of the city of God straight into her closet of prayer, and, when the world looks most inhospitable, shows her friendly angels ascending with her supplications, and descending with counsel and compassion, between her Bethel and her Father. It not only quickens her to a new fidelity in all the homely ministrations of the house where she lives, towards brothers and sisters, parents and servants; it opens to her the lowly door of poverty; it draws her, by cords stronger than steel, to the unclad orphan and the bedside of sick wretchedness; it stimulates her invention, it exhausts her economy, it plies her fingers, it inspires her intercessions for the instruction of poor childrens ignorance, and the redemption of their despair. Another task still Christianity solemnly charges upon woman in her youth. It bids her by every separate obligation of her discipleship be true to immaculate virtue in her intercourse with companions, and in the bestowment of her favour. Would to God that some angel from His own right hand would reveal to her the power she controls for the redemption of those horrible vices that defile and intoxicate the land! for then she might take up her benignant ministry as an apostle of holiness, persuading the tempted by her unbending principle, as well as bearing her own profession incorruptibly. It is time to advance to a later stage of the Christian womans experience. If her moral power is so decisive at the time when life has devolved upon her the fewest responsibilities, and neither age nor station has vested in her any adventitious authority, it is only more commanding yet when she has taken up the complicated relations of marriage, and assumed the spiritual governance of that lesser church, that sacred seminary-the family. The chief enemies to her Christian simplicity-and thus to the symmetry of her own character, as well as the integrity of her influence-are social ambition, an appetite for admiration, the passion for indiscriminate excitement, and, in other constitutions, a dull servitude to the routine of mechanical tasks.
1. By social ambition I mean the vulgar appetite for those external distinctions which are even more dangerous to woman than to man, because of the inherent natural aristocracy of her nature. A wife or mother who suffers it to be her supreme exertion to rise in the public consideration has already parted with that artless sincerity which is the chief grace of her womanhood.
2. Appetite for admiration. Could some searching census register the number of those who are kept aloof from the love of God by this foolish vanity alone, should we dare to look into the swelling catalogue? Could some magic reflection be added to mirrors, so that, while they show back the adjustment of garments, they should also reveal the emptiness of soul, what dismal disclosures would startle the sleeping conscience!
3. Passion for indiscriminate excitement. What hold has religion taken of that mind which never rests in its insatiable craving for some public spectacle-is never satisfied except when it is preparing for some scene of social display, or exulting over its conquests? There is no noble type of womanhood that does not wear serenity upon its forehead.
4. On the other hand, in constitutions of an opposite inclination, female life is apt to degenerate, if not inspired by religion, into a tame routine of narrow domestic cares, dwarfing the spirit to its own contracted limitations. The very nature of woman requires animation for its health. Religion, with its infinite mysteries, its deep and stirring experience, its boundless duties, offers that needed stimulus-offers it to the obscurest and the lowliest. The Christian wife and mother is a Christian in the spirit by which she orders her household and nurtures her offspring. Too many mothers make their first request for their sons that of the mother of Zebedees children-that they may sit on thrones of wealth and power. What wonder if those sons are worldlings, are hypocrites, are criminals? Too many train up their daughters with no loftier aim than to be beautiful brides, or the centres of meretricious observation at summer watering places, or to value a husband by his income, or not to be over nice in their judgment of men, because they are not expected to be virtuous like women. Infamous effrontery towards God! And thus I have come, finally, to what may be briefly established-that Christianity exhibits no more perfect achievement than in the completed character of a spiritual womanhood; for, passing on one stage later yet, we find the united result of a lifes discipline and a heavenly faith in the Christian womans old age. Providence has not withheld that confirmation of the power and beauty of religion from our eyes. We feel new confidence and truth, new love for goodness, new zeal for duty, new trust in God, new gratitude to Christ, when we look on her ripened holiness; and, as her strength faints before the power of decay, behold the crown of immortality descending almost visibly upon her head! I cannot so well finish this account of a Christian woman as by repeating the following touching, simple memorial of his wife written by one of the statesmen of England-Sir James Mackintosh-in a private letter to a friend: She was a woman, he writes, who, by the tender management of my weaknesses, gradually corrected the most pernicious of them. She became prudent from affection; and, though of the most generous nature, she was taught frugality and economy by her love for me. During the most critical period of my life she preserved order in my affairs, from the care of which she relieved me. She gently reclaimed me from dissipation, she propped my weak and irresolute nature, she urged my indolence to all the exertions that have been useful or creditable to me, and she was perpetually at hand to admonish my heedlessness and improvidence. To her I owe whatever I am-to her whatever I shall be. In her solicitude for my interest, she never for a moment forgot my character. Her feelings were warm and impetuous; but she was placable, tender, and constant. Such was she whom I have lost; and I have lost her when a knowledge of her worth had refined my youthful love into friendship, before age had deprived it of much of its original ardour. I seek relief, and I find it in the consolatory opinion that a benevolent Wisdom inflicts the chastisement as well as bestows the enjoyment of human life; that superintending goodness will one day enliven the darkness which surrounds our nature, and hangs over our prospects; that this dreary and wretched life is not the whole of man; that a being capable of such proficiency in science and virtue is not like the beasts that perish; that there is a dwelling place prepared for the spirits of the just; that the ways of God will yet be vindicated to man. (Bp. Huntington.)
Let it not be that outward adorning.–
The influence of Christianity on dress
To lay down rules for the regulation of dress, applicable to all circumstances, all ranks, all ages, is impossible. To fix the cut of the coat, the shape of the bonnet, were a hopeless and, indeed, ridiculous task. All that we can do is to lay down certain principles, distinctly asserted in, or clearly deducible from, the gospel.
I. Christian principles forbid all dress which is not honestly procured. That dress is dishonestly procured for which you know you cannot pay, or the payment of which is effected by dishonourable means, by falsehood, by embezzlement, or fraud. It is not in the higher circles only that temptations to obtain dress by dishonest methods occur. The servant maid must ape her mistress; but the wages she receives are not equal to the demands of her pride. But even if every tradesmans bill is punctually paid, still you are guilty of dishonesty if the money thus expended be drawn from other channels in which, in justice to yourselves, or to your families, it ought to flow. You are unjust to yourself if you starve either the body or the mind to decorate the person.
II. Christian principles forbid that dress which is immodest. The author of my text, in another Epistle, charges the women that they adorn themselves in modest apparel. A prudent woman, says Mr. Jay, will avoid whatever would appear light and wanton. The apparel of a woman professing godliness should not be the attire of a woman of the world, much less the attire of a harlot. Females sometimes wear a label on which indecency and indelicacy are written, and then appear to be offended because observers can read. I would not always infer too much from these outward hints; but, in the name of a blush, on what principle can we explain the invention and adoption of certain modes? I describe nothing. Intimately connected with modesty in dress is health; and when it is considered how many thoughtless females have fallen the untimely victims of disease introduced into the frame by the general scantiness, or the partial distribution of their attire, I am persuaded the allusion will not be deemed improper.
III. Christian principles forbid that dress which is unbecoming your station. It is obvious, by a comparison of the text and parallel passages with the general scope of Scripture, that costly attire is not forbidden where the ability of the person is fully equal to its purchase, without injury to any other claims. The virtuous woman is highly commended in the Proverbs, who, through her industry, clothed all her household in scarlet, and herself with silk and purple. Moreover, the good of society requires persons to dress, in some degree, according to their rank and station. But it is excess that the apostle censures.
IV. Christian principles forbid that dress which requires an undue consumption of time. I will not recount the days and years of valuable time which some females spend in cutting, adjusting, adorning, altering, and improving the articles of their dress, till the world of novelties is ransacked and the invention at a stand: I will not number up the hours, or tell the years the aggregate would make, devoted to the toilette, with peevishness and impatience, till every ringlet is properly adjusted, every plait suitably apportioned, and every gem placed to the best advantage at the expense of religion and humanity, and to the ruin of both body and soul!
V. Christian principles forbid that dress which, by its singularity or extravagance attracts peculiar attention. The desire to court observation-the ambition to be singular-the hope of being admired, is the essence of pride, and in this vice both the extremes of finery and of plainness will be found to meet. Keep thy foot when thou goest into the house of God. Surely, look well to thy attire is included in this injunction.
VI. That dress is forbidden by Christian principles which seriously occupies and absorbs the powers of the mind. And yet how many females are there the range of whose information is bounded by these limits-the topics of whose discourse are derived from this subject-who understand no science but that of shapes and colours-are acquainted with no art but that of decoration and display-and are conversant in no history but that of modes and fashions. It yet remains that I should produce some considerations by which the observance of them may be enforced.
VII. These principles should be enforced-
1. By a consideration of the sources whence your dress proceeds. As clothes cannot impart moral qualities or mental endowments to the wearer, so they are little to be gloried in on another account: they are derived from the lowest sources, and composed of the meanest materials. Nay, more than this, is not the dress on which you pride yourself the memorial of your shame? But for sin it had never encumbered the limbs, nor occupied for a moments space the care of the unspotted mind.
2. By a comparative view of its intrinsic worth. In a time of universal famine how many jewels would you give for a single loaf of bread? In a raging fever how many diamonds would you sacrifice for a moments ease? In a parched desert how many embroidered robes would you exchange for a cooling draught? Why, then, should such enormous sums be expended in glimmering pebbles and sparkling dust? Compare them with your books-your Bibles-your souls-all neglected for their sake! Arise to correcter sentiments and nobler aims. Make the Bible your looking glass, the graces of the Spirit your jewels, the temper of Jesus your attire.
3. Consider the estimation in which dress is held by the wise and good. With them it always occupies its proper place, which is an inferior one; and wherever it rises to excess and glare, indicating the vanity and pride of its possessor, it excites their pity and contempt.
4. The estimation in which you will hold dress in the hour of death and in an eternal world. (T. Raffles, D. D.)
Dress
St. Peter does not prohibit absolutely the plaiting of the hair, the wearing of gold, and the putting on of apparel; but he desires that the precedence be given to higher and better things.
I. Let us not hesitate to say that there is nothing in Christianity, rightly understood, which prohibits a woman from endeavouring to dress well and to look well. There is no religion in a mean, unattractive garb. Years ago there lived two Greek philosophers, Diogenes and Plato. Plato, who was a man of wealth and taste, had handsome carpets. Diogenes preferred living in a tub, and saying disagreeable things, under the impression that he was faithful. One day he came, in an ill temper, into his brother philosophers drawing room; and stamping on the carpets, cried out, I trample on the pride of Plato! Yes, said Plato, quietly,-and with greater pride. Is there not something of this pride in unworldly. dressing? Cannot a woman show her Christianity without making herself conspicuous by singularity? But we will take a step farther. We have said that Christianity does not prohibit attention to dress. We wilt now say that Christianity requires of a Christian woman to make the best of herself. God the Creator delights in beauty-beauty of form and hue and outline and arrangement; and surely He would have us, His creatures, delight in beauty also; and surely anyone who shows a marked inattention to the comeliness of outward things, shows himself, so far, out of harmony with the Divine mind.
II. The Christian woman will always subordinate the outward to the inward. But she will want rules to guide herself by. She will not be extravagant in the money she spends upon her dress. If her personal appearance be a talent, so also is her money: and both have to be considered. Another talent, which a Christian woman will think much of, is her time. The highest praise as to dress, which a right-minded woman would desire, would be to have it said of her by the passers-by, I did not notice her dress; but I noticed herself; and she seemed an unaffected, modest, genuine Christian lady. (G. Calthrop, M. A.)
Female adornment
I. The capacity of woman for adornment.
1. We say that the female form is adapted for adornment.
2. We say that the female nature is adapted for adornment. Can kindness, gentleness, meekness sit with so good a grace on a man as on a woman? Is not sweetness of temper reflected in every look, and does it not beautify and glorify every feature?
II. The directions for womens adornment. (J. J. S. Bird, B. A.)
Female adorning
Here, in the Word of life, we have fallen upon a text that deals with female attire, condemning one style of adorning, and commending another. God loves beauty of every kind, both the beauty of nature and the beauty of holiness. How do we know that? Because everything that He makes is beautiful. The works of nature are beautiful on all sides, and on all sides alike beautiful. It is not a bright exterior, and a rough ungainly interior; it is not a polished side to the public road, and a slovenly rubble wall on the shaded side. Nor is the most elaborate design or the most exquisite colour reserved for the most enduring objects. The snow crystals, and the frosted tracery on the windows, are as perfect in design and execution as the monarchs of the forest that outlast fifty human generations. Man is the chief of Gods works, and enjoys most of His care. He was made most beautiful, but has disfigured himself by sin. When His best work was damaged, the Creator did not give it up, and give it over. He framed a plan to restore. He desires to have His own image renewed. A man of feeble intellect, in the north of Scotland, was wont, like most of his class, to be very slovenly in his appearance. To this weakling the gospel of Christ came in power. He accepted Gods covenant love, and found himself a child of the family. Soon after this change the minister met him on a Sabbath morning, and was struck with his unwonted cleanness, and the efforts he had made in his own fashion to ornament his person. Accosting him kindly, the minister said, You are braw today, Sandy. He was braw Himsel the day, replied Sandy reverently; meaning that Jesus, when He rose from the grave on the first day of the week, was arrayed in the Divine glory and the beauty of holiness. The Lord on high, who rejoices to receive the little ones, would, methinks, be pleased to see Sandys Sunday clothes, and to hear Sandys simple answer. Peter in this text undertakes to tell how the uncomely may be rendered beautiful. Here is the true adorning; and it is for us, for all. Still deeper goes the apostles thought when he arrives at the details of the recommended ornaments. Not that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;-what then? Let it be the hidden man of the heart. There is a whole Christ in every disciple who lives up to his privileges, as there is a whole sun in the cup of every flower that opens to his shining. When this ornament is worn in the heart within, its beauty is seen on the outward life. In general, a likeness of Christ is in the life of a Christian; and, in particular, a meek and quiet spirit. When, in the processes of art, a new and beautiful colour is about to be transferred to a fabric, the hardest portion of the task sometimes is to discharge the dyes that are already there. A terrible process of scalding must be applied to take out the old ere you can successfully impart the new. In like manner, the anger and pride and selfishness that have first possession present the greatest obstacle to the infusion of a meek and gentle spirit into a man. If there be a royal, there is certainly no easy, road to this consummation. It is a striking, bold, and original conception, to propose that an ornament should be hidden in the heart. Ordinarily, we understand that an ornament, from its very nature, must be worn in a conspicuous position. When it is hidden, how useful and valuable soever it may be, it ceases to be an adorning. But in the spiritual sphere the law is reversed. Meekness is spoiled when it is set up for show. This ornament, moreover, is incorruptible. This epithet is peculiarly relevant. With the exception of the metals and minerals, ornaments are, for the most part, perishable commodities. Rain soils them; the sun burns their beauty out, In the accidents of life they are worn or torn, or stolen or lost. The rose and lily that bloom on the cheek are not perennial; the wrinkles of age are creeping on to drive them off and take their place. All these adornings are corruptible. This text recommends one that will never fade. Age makes it mellower, but not less sweet. As it is not a colour of the decaying body, but a grace of the immortal spirit, it will pass unharmed through the dark valley, and bloom in greater beauty on the other side. It will make the ransomed from among men very comely in the eyes of angels, when they stand together round the throne, and serve their common Lord. One grand concern with buyers is to obtain garments that will last-garments whose fabric will not waste, and whose colours will not fade. Yet another quality is noticed of the recommended adorning-it is costly. In the sight of God, and of the godly, it is of great price. In the market of the world, alas! we, like inexperienced children, are often cheated. We pay a great price for that which is of no value. We are often caught by the glitter, and accept a base metal for gold. He who counts this ornament precious knows its worth. The righteousness of the saints is dear to God in a double sense. It is both beloved and costly. (W. Arnot.)
Womens dress
Common sense, sustained by Christian principle, will ever reveal what your dress ought to be. The coarse dress is not necessarily the fulfilment of the admonition of the apostle Peter. A young woman is not to affect the repulsive robe of the nun, as if that were religion; nor to dress in the drab of the Society of Friends, as if that were humility; she is to dress as becomes her station, and her rank, and her position. We may depend upon it, it is far more conducive to the universal welfare that the highest classes should dress as becomes them, than that they should lay it all aside, and dress like the Society of Friends. What would become of all the lace, silks, and warehouses in the City of London, and in Manchester, and Nottingham, and Glasgow, and other places; what would become of all the mills that are employed; if men were to try to form, what cannot be formed in character, in wealth, or in industry-a universal dead level? All that Peter insists upon, and all that we require is, that the young woman shall dress as becomes her position in life; good taste, which is always a quiet, never a gaudy thing; and Christian principle regulating her in this: and that the aged woman shall be sober, autumn never trying to deck itself in the flowers of summer, nor cold and dreary winter putting on what is not natural-all the splendours and the glories of June; and young and old recollecting this beautiful thought, Behold the lilies of the field; they toil not, neither do they spin; yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (J. Cumming.)
The hidden man of the heart.–
Soul clothing
To clothe the foot in costly apparel, and the upper part with rags, were absurd; so to bestow cost in clothing the body, but none on the soul. The soul is immortal, must live forever; it was created according to Gods image, and now the soul is most deformed with sin, and so hath need of clothing, especially seeing God, who is of pure eyes, cannot behold it but with detestation. The Church is all glorious within, and such as would be indeed members of Christ, and heirs of heaven, must look for inward sanctity. This is the most costly apparel that can be, of Gods own making, and which none but His children wear. This is apparel for all sexes, ages, degrees, and callings, whatsoever, and which doth well become and fit each of them. This is never out of season, never out of fashion; it fits in youth, in age, in life, in death, and is to be worn by night as well as by day, in sickness as in health, yea, is then in great account, when other apparel is laid aside, and not regarded; yea, this apparel we carry with us out of this world, when we leave our gay robes behind us; and this apparel lasts ever, being the better for the wearing. (John Rogers.)
Latent goodness and latent evil
If we translate this into modern language, we might say, The latent good and evil in man. The heart stands for the source, back of all else, from which our life flows. What we love most, that we are. Wherever our deepest longing goes, there we are going. But this profound tendency of the soul is often a hidden tendency. It is the hidden man of the heart. There is in every man a great deal more of good and of evil than we see. Inside of the visible man, whose face and form we see, there is an invisible man of veins and arteries, and another invisible man of nerves, and a third invisible man of bones; and from the co operation of these proceed the actions of the visible man. What we see in nature is only the visible outcome of what we do not see. So, in the processes of the human soul, what we know proceeds from hidden sources which we do not know. What do I mean by the formation of Christian character? I mean that a man may deliberately choose to be pure, honest, truthful, generous, religious, and that he can turn this choice at last into a habit, so that it shall be natural to him to do right, rather than to do wrong. What he did at first by an effort, and with difficulty, he now does without any conscious effort, and easily. Now, all these instincts, whether original or acquired, are wholly hidden from our knowledge. They are latent until they are called out by some occasion; then they show themselves spontaneously. Some are near the surface, and appear on all occasions; others are deep down, and appear only on special occasions. The moral cowardice in the apostle Peter, which could make him deny his Master, was latent, and Peter could not believe it possible that he should act thus. Circumstances develop latent goodness as well as evil. You are living among neighbours whom you do not know very well. But they seem to you commonplace, or perhaps worldly. But some calamity befalls you. This event brings out the goodness which was lying latent in your neighbours hearts; latent because nothing appealed to it. How kind they are now! how self-sacrificing! But the sickness of your child was not the cause of this sympathy, but merely the occasion of its manifesting itself and becoming developed. It did not make, it only revealed, these kindly thoughts of many hearts. Just so the great calamities and dangers of a nation arouse as by an electric touch the heroism and self-sacrifice that there may be in the people. Cincinnatus steps from behind his plough; William Tell from his mountain home; Washington from his comforts; to serve his country in council or battle. But the times which try mens souls do not make Washingtons and Tells-they only test them and call out their latent virtue. Woe to the nation, woe to the man who is not equal to the test when it comes! If the test does not cause them to rise, it makes them fall. How many examples there are to prove the existence of this latent evil! We have seen a young man go from the pure home of his childhood, from the holy influences of a Christian community. He leaves his home and comes to the city to engage in business. He trusts in his own heart, in his own virtuous habits. But there is latent evil in his heart, there is a secret selfishness, a hidden and undeveloped sensualism, which is ready to break out under the influences which will now surround him. He becomes a lover of pleasure; he acquires a taste for play, wine and excitement. In a year or two, how far has he gone from the innocent hopes and tastes of his childhood! The latent evil that was in him has come out under the test of these new circumstances. Meantime, another young man, apparently no better than he, has, under the same circumstances, developed the seeds of virtuous and holy purposes, and has become a man of unshaken integrity and virtue. Why this difference? You cannot trace it to education, for their education was similar, you cannot account for it by the influence of circumstances, example and outward temptations; for these were the same in both cases. The difference was in the latent character of the two boys. One in the depths of his soul was then a sensualist; was then a worldly and selfish boy. The other, with no better outward habits, had in reality an inward principle of goodness. And circumstances merely developed the latent good and evil of the two. The fact of latent goodness is as true and important as that of latent evil. If our inmost purposes are right; if we have kept our heart with all diligence; if we have habitually trusted our souls to God, then we have a stock of latent goodness, ready and equal for any occasion which may come to call for it. We need not fear, then, that we shall not be able to meet any emergencies. An unsuspected strength will then manifest itself, a courage and faith for which we dared not hope will triumphantly reveal itself. What, then, is the practical conclusion from these facts? It is that we should both distrust ourselves and trust ourselves; that we should pray. Lead us not into temptation, yet count it all joy when we fall into temptation. If we are already conscious of our weakness, we may not need the trial which is sent to show us our weakness. But if, nevertheless, God sends the trial, then it was necessary that we should be tried, and let us count it all joy that it has come. If it brings out an amount of latent evil of which we were not aware, then it is well that we should become thus acquainted with our own depths of sinfulness. The disease must be brought out before it can be cured. But if the temptation, on the other hand, reveals and quickens powers of inward virtue and resolution, then let us bless God for this latent goodness which He shows us. (James Freeman Clarke.)
The hidden man
The point is, that one should not expend the whole of life on making the outside beautiful, but that one should see to it that the inside is adorned also. You are not to cheat the soul of all its gems and virtues for the sake of making yourself attractive exteriorly by adornments of that kind. It is not for that general subject, however, that I have selected She passage, but for this phrase, the hidden man. You will have been struck in reading, how much this dual life is insisted upon in the New Testament, especially how much use the apostle Paul makes of it. There are two elements running side by side in his philosophy; one the outward, another the inward. The outward man perishes day by day, the inward man is renewed day by day, says the apostle; and he dwells in various phrase on that duality, the inward life, and the outward or physical life. Everywhere there is this reciprocal action, the world on the mind, and the mind on the world. The sense, the physical body, is the instrument by which the world acts upon our hidden man, and by which the hidden man acts back again upon the world. Through the exterior world the soul is thus the recipient of treasures. The soul is like a prince who receives embassies from all the provinces round about; presents and tribute come to him from the uttermost parts of the earth. The air, the storms, all human occupations, all governments, individual men and combinations of men, pleasures-all bring influence to this potentate, the hidden man of the soul. Then, in turn, the soul sends forth energy, speech, will; and as the tide that swells and fills the harbour, then reflows and seeks again the great ocean, so the flux and reflux of force between mind and the physical world is a greater though an invisible and silent tide. The laws of the physical world are almost sterile until they are touched by the human will. Natural laws could give us metals in their foaming, bubbling states, but they never made a knife or a sword. Nature made trees, but never made a house. Nature has made germs, man has made the harvest. All the great laws that make summer and winter and the intermediate seasons, all the laws that are called natural, all the laws that spring from political economy, all those laws which are said, in one respect, to be natural laws, are not natural laws until some human spirit sits astride upon them and directs them. Now, the relative proportion between this receiving and the outgoing power determines character. It is the critical line both as respects quantity and quality. Those who live by their senses, controlled by objects to be seen or heard or felt from without, live animal lives. They are savages. Then come those who, receiving much, only give forth the energy of their passions-not intellectual energy, not moral, not aesthetic. They give forth simply the energy of selfishness, of pride, of vanity, of ambition, of avarice, combativeness, or destructiveness. It is the lower tier of the human, and the upper tier of the animal that is affected in them, and that gives forth some voice or fruit. Then come those who give action, the men who have industries, that dig, that hew, that build, converting impressions and the result of knowledge from without into energies by which they give the fruit of physical combinations and constructions. This includes the vast mass of the respectable people of the globe today. They are constructors and workers. Then there are those who are over and above all this activity, for the upper always owns the lower. He who gives thoughts can also give construction, though he who gives only construction cannot give thought. The upper always carries within it the privileges and the fruit of the inferior, or of all that is below it. So that the next rank are those who give forth thought and emotion, that have it in their power to thrill their time, or to augment it, to build it up, to defend it; men who live in the higher range of their faculties, and give the fruit reaped from these higher fields, higher and richer. Then come those who, over and above all activities, in physics and even in intellect, have a reserved life which has never had expression except through hymns and psalms, the voice of the teacher and the inspirations of the poet-the utterances of those who have given to knowledge a higher character and a winged form. They are sensitive, open to the subtle inspirations that move in the higher realms, and are men who live by faith or by the higher forms of imagination, not by sight nor by the physical fruitfulness of the human body. In regard to this relative activity of different classes, what they receive and what they give forth, it may be said that it determines, not simply individual rank or life, but it determines also the philosophy or the character of different religions. Take, for instance, the contrast between Judaism and Christianity. Judaism was a recipient religion; Christianity is a projecting religion. The Oriental mind generally receives; the Occidental mind gives forth. A word as to the relative productiveness of these two elements. The productiveness of the mind is generally in increasing ratio from the lowest to the highest; the effectiveness of its outgo is generally in the inverse relation or ratio. Man can more easily turn that which is inspired in his animal range and nature into an external influence and substance, than he can that which belongs to his highest nature. How much of thought there is in cultivated men! How much of thought that goes forth in language! But how much more thought that never rides in the chariot of language! How much men think day by day that is only thinking! In my orchards today there are, I think, on single cherry trees more than a million blossoms; and probably all but about a hundred thousand of those will drop without a cherry having formed under them. Men are like such trees. They breed thoughts by the millions, that result in action only in the scores and the hundreds. Waves of feeling rise, roll through the mind, and leave no more effect behind them than the waves of unknown seas that have rolled solitary for centuries by day and by night. How much there is of purpose that is blighted and barren! How much there is in goodness, how much in sweetness, how much in love, that runs the circuits and touches all the shores of human possibility, but never comes out nor shows itself! How many there are doomed by necessity, like fragrant trees in the great tropical wildernesses-fragrant for ages, but neither brute, beast, nor man ever smells their sweetness! How many there are that live in society who are capable of issuing sweetness that should be of influence, and that should make a very summer round about them, but there is no channel, and they die without opportunity! The great hidden soul had no tongue, nor possibility of using it if it had one. This hidden man, then, may be called in respect to those things that are the highest and the best in this life, the silent man; for we can say least of the things most worthy to be expressed; and this great silence may be said to determine character and condition very largely. They that know how to repress the lower and the evil that is generated within, are on the platform of morality ascending towards spirituality; and those that ascend to the highest forms can express but little. Yet they have, as it were, a palace within themselves, out of which in days of trouble or trial come forth inexhaustible stores of strength and of consolation. It is the hidden man which is at once the glory and the shame of mankind-the rich of thought and pure of purpose whose life perhaps can bring forth but little outward fruit, but who store up for the eternities grand knowledges, impulses, and actions; and, on the other side, the men who maintain an external decorum, but are full of all uncleanliness. This hidden man is more beautiful than any of you think, and more horrible. The saint dwells in many a bosom, not far removed from the very angels of the throne itself. Devils inhabit the heart of many and many a respectable man. Oh! bring out your silent man, make him speak, unroll what is written in his thought. How many men could hold up their faces then? And how many men who have produced nothing for the market, not much for the neighbourhood, little for the uses that are common on earth; that have neither the pen of the ready writer, nor the tongue of the orator, nor the wings of the poet, are rich unto God! They dwell in their meditations, and their imaginations remain untranslated into human language or into human conditions, but they are rich rewards God. This is a subject that is full of practical meaning; we ought so to coordinate the receiving to the giving-the income to the outgo that we shall strengthen and make better both of them. So ought men to organise their lives that they shall be fertile without, and fruitful and rich and abundant also within. (H. W. Beecher.)
The hidden man
I. It reminds us that it is the inward life that makes the man. The hidden man is not what first meets the eye that constitutes a persons individuality. It is what his will-led, taught yet ignorant, prejudiced yet biassed, free yet trammelled, great yet little-determines.
II. We are reminded that this inward man far exceeds that which is outward and visible.
1. It exceeds it in value. A man would not take the kingdom for his body. Youth or age, beauty or vileness, do not alter the intrinsic nature of the man. Often indeed do we see the noblest spirits inhabit the most unseemly bodies, while those who possess outward beauty are infamous in their lives. As to the stupendous contrast, in value, of the soul over the body, it is impossible to define any just description. A priceless jewel wrapped in a worthless piece of paper is only a faint representation of the contrast which exists between them.
2. The inner man again is the responsible part of our human nature. The body is but the agent.
3. Compare again for one moment the elements of which they are severally composed. The outward, visible man is dust. The soul or living essence is the breath of the living God. Its influence at once exalts the body to the highest step of material creation.
III. We may consider that this inward life is as the text describes it-a hidden life. No human eyes can penetrate the veil which hides it from view. It is in our own hearts we live, in our souls we exist, and in our own hearts we must die. It would be mockery to bring the outside world into our inside existence. It would be bad for us, and bad for the world, if we did not live in a hidden world. Thank God that even our sins are hid.
IV. We would warn you that this hidden life is no secret from God.
V. That this inner man deserves and demands more careful cultivation than it generally receives. Now, in order to effectually cultivate the heart, there must be-
1. A continuous course of introspection.
2. There must be self-communion.
3. There must be the admission of Christ as a guest. It is in the heart that Christ must dwell. (Homilist.)
Religion an inward principle
When religion is styled the hidden man of the heart this language cannot imply that it is totally concealed from the observation of the world. Effects may be visible, while the principle whence they proceed is removed from our view. A beautiful river, which highly adorns the country through which it flows, will not fail to engage the eyes of every beholder. Yet the source of it may not be the object of our sight. In like manner the fruits of pious dispositions can be witnessed by all. But the dispositions themselves fall not within our notice. The words convey this idea, that genuine religion consists in the inward temper. From this view of it some instructive lessons may be deduced.
1. Religion does not so essentially depend upon any particular mode of faith or worship as some may suppose.
2. This subject teaches us that it is highly unbecoming and presumptuous in men to decide with rashness on the religious character and state of their neighbours. Fallible as we are we cannot read the motives of individuals; and much goodness may exist, which, from various causes, has few or no opportunities of being witnessed by the eye of man.
3. If religion be the hidden man of the heart it cannot exist, and still less can it flourish without the agency of God accompanying our diligence, watchfulness, and self-denial.
4. Religion, being the hidden man of the heart, cannot easily be in danger from causes altogether external; nor is it amenable to human laws, nor dependent on human patronage.
5. Since religion is a principle, the inseparable alliance between the possession of its spirit and our happiness, both present and future, is placed in a new and striking light. The happiness of man cannot be independent on the mind. The purest happiness of the mind will be the happiness of heaven, and the degree of it will be greatest in the cases of those whose religion is most eminently the hidden man of the heart. (J. Kentish.)
The best clothing
It is Tertullians counsel to young women: Clothe yourselves with the silk of piety, with the satin of sanctity, with the purple of modesty; so shall you have God Himself to be your suitor. (J. Trapp.)
Meekness
A garment that will never be the worse for wearing, but the better. (J. Trapp.)
Beauty beneath ugliness
A woman, famous as one of the most kindly among leaders of the best American society, once said: If I have been able to accomplish anything in life it is due to the words spoken to me in the right season when I was a child by an old teacher. I was the only homely, awkward girl in a class of exceptionally pretty ones, and being also dull at my books, became the butt of the school. I fell into a morose, despairing state, gave up study, withdrew into myself, and grew daily more bitter and vindictive. One day the French teacher, a grey-haired old woman, with keen eyes and a kind smile, found me crying. Qu as-tu, ma fille? she asked. Oh, madame, I am so ugly! I sobbed out. She soothed me, but did not contradict me. Presently, she took me to her room, and after amusing me for some time, said, I have a present for you, handing me a scaly, coarse lump, covered with earth. It is round and brown as you. Ugly, did you say? Very well, we will call it by your name, then. It is you! Now, you shall plant it, and water it, and give it sun for a week or two. I planted it and watched it carefully; the green leaves came first, and at last the golden Japanese lily, the first I had ever seen. Madame came to share my delight. Ah, she said, significantly, who would believe so much beauty and fragrance were shut up in that little, rough, ugly thing? But it took heart and came into the sun. It was the first time that it ever occurred to me that, in spite of my ugly face, I, too, might be able to win friends, and to make myself beloved in the world. (Great Thoughts.)
The hidden man
Why do you not wear richer apparel? once asked a familiar friend of Edward I. Because, said the sensible king, I cannot be more estimable in fine than I am in simple clothing.
Exterior adornment insufficient
Those who adorn only the exterior, but neglect the inner man, are like the Egyptian temples, which present every kind of decoration upon the outside, but contain within, in place of a deity, a cat, a crocodile, or some other vile animal. (Clement of Alexandria.)
Inner attractiveness the most desirable
Plain women, far from underrating beauty, are apt to place too high a value upon it. Their own lack of comeliness is their lifelong sorrow. They do not realise that the women who are most ardently and lastingly loved by men are seldom very beautiful. Prettiness wins admiration; something much deeper and more subtle inspires and retains affection. No woman need be ugly. If there is a soul in her body it has but to begin betimes to show through, From her earliest girlhood the thought she thinks, the feelings to which she gives way, the tones she utters, the wishes she indulges, are sculpturing lines in her face that are capable of making a beauty all her own-lines whose writing will remain when bloom fades and sparkle falls. It is in the beginning of manhood and in the beginning of old age that a man is captivated simply by a pretty woman, and is in breathless haste to make her charms his own possession. The maturer man is far less subject to a mistaken infatuation. He looks for something less ephemeral than a glowing cheek and melting eye. As a rule I prefer plain women to pretty ones, said one of these discriminating persons. They are less self-conscious and have more regard for the rights of others. When my wife sends me shopping, as sometimes happens, I always select a plain girl to serve me. You see she knows her lack of personal attractions, and that she has nothing to depend on but the excellency of her services. Therefore she takes infinite pains with her customers. She pays strict attention to her business. There is nothing surer in the world than if you go into a store and select a plain girl to wait on you, you will be well served. The pretty girl, on the other hand, knows that she is pretty. It is usually very apparent that she knows it. She trades upon her prettiness. She uses the time and thought she ought to devote to serving you in trying to make you understand and appreciate that she is pretty. And this principle underlies beautys conduct in other walks of life. I admire lovely women most men do-but unless they possess more solid attractions than charms of person they are soon outrivalled by their plain and tasteful sisters. (Daily Paper.)
A reminder or heaven
To look upon her face, says Walworth of his mother, was to feel heaven near. It was within her.
A meek and quiet spirit.–
Quietude
I. Some characteristics of the grace.
1. Its leading characteristic is the beautiful. Not so much the true, the good, is in his mind as the beautiful. First-rate Christian excellence assumes lovely forms. Let the beauty of the Lord our God.
2. The grace is distinctively feminine. The apostle is speaking to women, commending to them their distinctive glory. Here we come on a mystery of nature. All things are set over against each other in pairs, complemental.
3. But may, ought, to be assumed by all. There is a modification of the principle just laid down as to complemental beings and to complemental excellences. The one side may and must appropriate some characteristics of the other, e.g., a pillar all strength would be ugly; all garlands of flowers must fall. So a man all power would be dreadful; a woman all amiability could not carry the structure of life.
4. It is a grace of the interior life. A meek and quiet spirit.
II. The grace itself. The grace commended is that of quietness of soul; but on its two sides, not disturbing, not disturbed.
1. The soul-quietness that is not disturbed. The soul is like a ship on storm-beaten ocean-ever liable to tempest.
(1) Causes and occasions of disturbance. It may spring from conditions of body, mind, estate, in the church, in the world.
(2) Means of quietude. Quietude a decoration, but also a need. How?
(a) Some hints, along the common level of things.
(i) Live so as to have a cool brain and a clear mind.
(ii) Guard against ones special temperament.
(iii) Face facts, and be not content without evidence.
(iv) Guard against demoniac might of the imagination.
(v) Do not morbidly underrate the kindness of fellow men, or overrate their antagonism.
(b) But rise higher. We need-
(i) Strong and growing dependence on God.
(ii) To be filled with the Spirit, i.e., to be filled with such thoughts and feelings, that storm shall break in regions below the serenities in which we dwell.
(iii) Keep ever in view the quietude of Christ. See if there be any sorrow, etc., if there be any patience like to His.
2. The soul quietness that is not disturbing. It is the restless that disturb the peace of others. Ourselves quiet, we shall not till others with wild alarm.
III. Other characteristics of the grace. Some characteristics were mentioned to prepare us to look upon the grace itself; these now are separately and finally pointed out to induce in us the cultivation of this grace also.
1. The soul-decoration is most valuable. One knows its worth. In the sight of God it is of great price.
2. Imperishable. (Henry T. Robjohns, B. A.)
Of meekness and quietness of spirit
I. What is implied in a meek and quiet spirit.
1. A calm submission under the merely natural evils and calamities which we meet with in the world.
2. A moderation of our anger and resentment upon occasion of moral wrongs or injuries.
3. A sincere desire of the harmony and happiness of society, and a disposition to cultivate peace and friendship with all about us.
II. Why we should acquire and cultivate this temper.
1. The intrinsic dignity and value of meek and quiet temper, which is of great price in the sight of God.
2. The importance of a meek and peaceable spirit in religion, and its necessity for our obtaining the mercy and forgiveness of God.
3. Another argument may be brought from the great examples of Gods clemency and patience, and our Saviours meek, gentle, and peaceable behaviour while He was in this world.
4. We should cultivate a meek and quiet spirit from a regard to the peace of mankind and the happiness of the particular persons with whom we have any intercourse.
5. We should cultivate a meek and peaceable spirit for our own interest and satisfaction. There is hardly anything that can be more prejudicial to a man than a wrathful and turbulent temper.
III. The methods of forming and raising a spirit of meekness and quietness is us.
1. For attaining to that part of it, which consists in a patient submission to the purely natural evils which befall us in the world, the great rule is to impress our minds with a deep conviction of the wisdom, equity, and goodness of Providence, by the direction or permission of which all such evils come upon us.
2. As the most difficult part of meekness and quietness of spirit consists in the due government of our resentment with respect to the authors of moral injuries, we must take care to represent such persons in the most favourable light that we justly can to ourselves.
3. When we feel our angry passions beginning to move in us let us carefully guard against their rising to any criminal or unbecoming height in us.
4. Let us observe the direction which our Lord has given us, to express a meek and peaceable spirit when we exercise our devotion and offer up our prayers to Almighty God. From what has been said we may see that the notions which so commonly prevail in the world, concerning the honour, courage, and magnanimity of men are extremely ill-founded. (J. Orr.)
Hidden ornaments
Who is not fond of ornaments? Even those people who pretend to care only for the useful are not really quite indifferent to the ornamental. We not only have some things simply for ornament, but things which are made for use we like to look as nice as possible. We do not bind books, nor make furniture, nor build houses and churches for the sake of ornament, yet we all admire a pretty book, handsome furniture, a fine house, and beautiful churches. You may remember, in reading your Histories of England, how the early Britons, in their savage state, like many of the heathen still, used to paint their bodies, thinking it improved them. Now, this desire for ornament is laid deep down in our nature, like one of the foundation stones of a house, and, therefore, it is quite right, so long as it is guided properly. St. Peter is certainly not speaking against all ornament. How could it be wrong, when our earth is full of it? But, certainly, St. Peter does not mean we are not to think at all of our appearance. It is not right to be untidy and slovenly in dress. What, then, you ask, is wrong? To make ones outward appearance the chief thing. Some people give you the impression that they are always thinking of what they have on; they seem to have just come away from the looking glass, for they are so got up, as we say, and look more like dressed dolls than like real men and women. But there are other persons who always look nice without seeming to be conscious what they have on, and who never strike you as having spent much time over their toilet, or as if it had cost them much trouble. These are the truest gentlemen and ladies. Now St. Peter tells us what part of ourselves we should be most anxious to make beautiful, and what ornament we should seek for it. And what is the part to be adorned? He calls it the hidden man of the heart. It reminds me of the Psalm which says, The kings daughter is all glorious within. But, you say, who ever heard of wearing ornaments inside, where no one can see them? It must, surely, be silly to adorn something that is hidden. But no! it is not. For anyone can see the difference between a heart that is adorned and one that is not, though you cannot see either the heart or the ornament itself. For look at the adornment which St. Peter recommends. It is the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. Let us try to think of some persons mentioned in the Bible who wore this ornament. Did not Isaac, when he took that long and tiring journey with his father Abraham, carrying the wood for the sacrifice, quietly obeying and meekly submitting without any explanation from his father? Did not Samuel, when he got up that night three times and went to Eli, thinking Eli wanted him, and saying meekly, Here am I? Did not David, when he bore meekly his elder brothers taunts, reproaching him for neglecting the sheep to come and see the battle; and afterwards in bearing so patiently with Sauls fickleness and bad temper? Above all, did not Jesus wear this inner ornament all through His earthly life? And how can you tell if you have this ornament of a meek and quiet spirit? Answer some questions to yourselves, and you will know. Are you rude and rough, or gentle and polite? Are you wayward and wilful, as if you knew better than those who are older and wiser than you are; or do you at once and cheerfully obey your parents and your teachers? Now, people generally keep their best things for Sundays and special occasions, when there are strangers or visitors to see them. At other times some persons do not seem to care how they look or what they have; but this ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is meant to be worn always, out-of-doors and indoors, at work and at play, at church, at school, and at home. And I think you will agree with me that we ought to seek first that kind of adorning which will best commend us to those with whom we live. Whenever you have on the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit they cannot fail to notice it, for, like a lustrous jewel, it will glance out at every turn through a pure, transparent life, and it will make you very dear to all your friends. Yes, this ornament is the most beautiful of all. But again, this ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is most precious. The apostle Peter says it is of great price. It is precious, truly, in the sense of being scarce, like rare flowers and ferns and precious stones; for one person who possesses it, you may find a thousand without it, yet who have plenty of the commoner and cheaper kinds of ornament. But this one is so precious chiefly because it is an ornament of Gods own making. There is yet another reason why it is so precious. Do you not think the more of a thing if it has cost your parents much money and trouble to get? Well, God made a real and very great sacrifice that we might have this ornament, giving up His Son to show it us in all its loveliness, and to enable us to get it. Then, too, this adorning is most lasting. (C. S. Slater, M. A.)
Meekness
I. To show what this meekness and quietness of spirit is.
1. There is meekness toward God, and it is the easy and quiet submission of the soul to His whole will, according as He is pleased to make it known, whether by His word or by His providence.
(1) It is the silent submission of the soul to the Word of God: the understanding bowed to every Divine truth, and the will to every Divine precept; and both without murmuring and disputing.
(2) It is the silent submission of the soul to the providence of God, for that also is the will of God concerning us.
(a) When the events of Providence are grievous and afflictive.
(b) When the methods of Providence are dark and intricate, and we are quite at a loss what God is about to do with us.
2. There is meekness toward our brethren, toward all men (Tit 3:2), and so we take it here.
(1) Meekness teaches us prudently to govern our own anger, whenever anything occurs that is provoking.
(a) The work of meekness is to cairn the spirit, so as that the inward peace may not be disturbed by any outward provocation.
(b) Meekness will curb the tongue, and keep the mouth as with a bridle when the heart is hot (Psa 39:1-3).
(c) Meekness will cool the heat of passion quickly, and not suffer it to continue. As it keeps us from being soon angry, so it teaches us, when we are angry, to be soon pacified.
(2) Meekness teaches and enables us patiently to bear the anger of others, which property of meekness we have especially occasion for, in reference to our superiors and equals. And here meekness is of use, either to enjoin silence, or indite a soft answer. We must be of a quiet spirit. Quietness is the evenness, the composure, and the rest of the soul, which speaks both the nature and the excellency of the grace of meekness. The greatest comfort and happiness of man is sometimes set forth by quietness (Isa 32:17-18). In a word, quietness of spirit is the souls stillness, and silence, from intending provocation to, or resenting provocation from, any with whom we have to do. The word has something in it of a metaphor, which we would not choose but fairly prosecute, for the illustration of the grace of meekness.
1. We must be quiet as the air is quiet from winds. Disorderly passions are like stormy winds in the soul; they toss and hurry it, and often overset it (Isa 7:2), and is an apt emblem of a man in passion. Now meekness restrains these winds, says to them, Peace, be still, and so preserves a calm in the soul. It is not well to lie wind bound in dulness and indifferency; but tempests are perilous. What manner of grace is this, that even the winds and the sea obey it? If we will but use the authority God has given us over our own hearts, we may keep the winds of passion under the command of religion and reason, and then the soul is quiet, the sun shines, all is pleasant, serene, and smiling, and the man sleeps sweetly and safely on the lee side. We make our voyage among rocks and quicksands, but if the weather be calm, we can the better steer so as to avoid them:
2. We must be quiet as the sea is quiet from waves. Now meekness is the grace of the Spirit, that moves upon the face of the waters, and quiets them. It casts forth none of the mire and dirt of passion. This calmness and evenness of spirit makes our passage over the sea of this world safe and pleasant, and speedy towards the desired, harbour, and is exemplary in the eyes of others.
3. We must be quiet as the land is quiet from war. It was the observable felicity of Asas reign, that in his days the land was quiet (2Ch 14:15). Such a quietness there should be in the soul, and such a quietness there will be where meekness sways the sceptre. A soul inflamed with wrath and passion upon all occasions, is like a kingdom embroiled in war.
4. We must be quiet as the child is quiet after the weaning. How easy its days! How quiet its nights! If put into a little pet now and then, how soon it is over!
II. The excellency of meekness and quietness of spirit.
1. Consider how creditable a meek and quiet spirit is.
(1) There is in it the credit of a victory. Meekness is a victory over ourselves and the rebellious lusts in our own bosoms; it is a quieting of intestine broils, the stilling of an insurrection at home which is oftentimes more hard to do than to resist a foreign invasion. It is an effectual victory over those that injure us.
2. There is in it the credit of beauty. The beauty of a thing consists in the symmetry, harmony, and agreeableness of all the parts: now what is meekness, but the souls agreement with itself? Exorbitant passion is a discord in the soul; it is like a turnout in the face, which spoils the beauty of it.
3. There is in it the credit of an ornament. The text speaks of it as an adorning much more excellent and valuable than gold or pearls.
4. There is in it the credit of true courage. Meekness is commonly despised and run down by the grandees of the age as a piece of cowardice. He that can deny the brutal lust of anger and revenge, rather than violate the royal law of love and charity (however contrary the sentiments of the world may be), is truly resolute and courageous; the Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour. Fretting and vexing is the fruit of the weakness of women and children, but much below the strength of a man, especially of the new man, that is born from above.
5. The credit of a conformity to the best patterns. The resemblance of those that are confessedly excellent and glorious, has in it an excellence and glory. To be meek, is to be like the greatest saints. Let the true honour that attends this grace of meekness recommend it to us: it is one of those things that are honest, and pure, and lovely, and of good report; a virtue that has a praise attending it (Php 4:8). A praise, not, perhaps, of men, but of God (Rom 2:29). Consider how comfortable a meek and quiet spirit is. Inward comfort is a desirable good, which has more in it of reality. What is true comfort and pleasure but a quietness in our own bosom? Those are most easy to themselves who are so to all about them.
A meek and quiet Christian must needs live very comfortably, for-
1. He enjoys himself. Meekness is very nearly allied to that patience which our Lord Jesus prescribes to us as necessary to the keeping possession of our own souls (Luk 21:19). How calm are the thoughts, how serene are the affections, how rational the prospects, and how even and composed are all the resolves of the meek and quiet soul! It is spoken of as the happiness of the meek that they delight themselves in the abundance of peace (Psa 37:11). Others may delight themselves in the abundance of wealth.
2. He enjoys his friends: and that is a thing in which lies much of the comfort of human life. Man was intended to be a sociable creature, and a Christian much more so. But the angry man is unfit to be so that takes fire at every provocation.
3. He enjoys his God; and that is most comfortable of all. It is the quintessence of all happiness.
4. It is not in the power of his enemies to disturb and interrupt him in these enjoyments. His peace is not only sweet, but safe; as far as he acts under the law of meekness, it is above the assaults of those that wish ill to it.
Consider how profitable a meek and quiet spirit is. Meekness is gainful and profitable.
1. As it is the condition of the promise. The meek are therefore blessed, for they shall inherit the earth (Psa 37:11).
2. As it has in its own nature a direct tendency to our present benefit and advantage. He that is thus wise is wise for himself, even in this world, and effectually consults his own interest.
(1) Meekness has a good influence upon our health. If envy be the rottenness of the bones (Pro 14:30), meekness is the preservation of them.
(2) It has a good influence upon our wealth, the preservation and increase of it. As in kingdoms, so in families and neighbourhoods, war begets poverty.
(3) It has a good influence upon our safety. Consider what a preparative it is for something further.
1. It makes us fit for duty. It puts the soul in frame, and keeps it so, for all religious exercises.
2. It makes us fit for any relation which God in His providence may call us into. Those who are quiet themselves cannot but be easy to all that are about them; and the nearer any are to us in relation and converse, the more desirable it is that we should be easy to them.
3. It makes us fit for any condition, according as the wise God shall please to dispose of us. Those that through grace are enabled to quiet themselves are fit to live in this world where we meet with so much every day to disquiet us. In general, whether the outward condition be prosperous or adverse, a meek and quiet spirit is neither lifted up with the one, nor cast down with the other, but still in the same poise; in prosperity humble, the estate rising but the mind not rising with it; in adversity encouraged and cheered up; in both even, like a dye, throw in which way you will, it lights on a square side.
4. It makes us fit for a day of persecution.
5. It makes us fit for death and eternity. The meek and quiet soul is at death let into that rest which it has been so much labouring after; and how welcome must that needs be!
III. The application.
I. And now, have we not reason to lament the want of the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit among those that profess religion, and especially in our own bosoms? It is the manifest design of our holy religion to soften and sweeten our tempers, and to work off the ruggedness of them.
1. Superiors are commonly very apt to chide, and that is for want of meekness.
2. Inferiors are commonly very apt to complain. If everything be not just to their mind, they are fretting and vexing.
3. Equals are commonly very apt to clash and contend. It is for want of meekness that there are in the Church so many pulpit and paper quarrels.
II. Have we not reason to endeavour, since there is such a virtue, to attain these things? For your direction in this endeavour I shall briefly lay before you-
1. Some Scripture precepts concerning meekness.
(1) That we must seek meekness (Zep 2:3).
(2) We must put on meekness (Col 3:12).
(3) We must follow after meekness (1Ti 6:11).
(4) We must show all meekness unto all men (Tit 3:2).
2. Some Scripture patterns of meekness and quietness of spirit.
(1) Abraham was a pattern of meekness, and he was the father of the faithful (Gen 13:8).
(2) Moses was a pattern of meek ness (Num 12:3).
(3) David was a pattern of meekness, and it is promised (Zec 12:8). When his enemies reproached him, he was not at all disturbed at it (Psa 38:13).
(4) St. Paul was a pattern of meekness. He became all things to all men.
(5) Our Lord Jesus was the great pattern of meekness and quietness of spirit: all the rest had their spots, the fairest marbles had their flaws, but here is a copy without a blot.
(a) He was very meek towards God His Father, cheerfully submitting to His whole will, and standing complete in it.
(b) He was very meek towards His friends that loved and followed Him. First, in His bearing with their weaknesses and infirmities. Secondly, in His forgiving and passing by their unkindnesses and disrespects to Himself.
(c) He was very meek toward His enemies that hated and persecuted Him.
3. Some particular instances wherein the exercise of meekness is in a special manner required. The rule is general; we must show all meekness: it will be of use to observe some special cases to which the Scripture applies this general rule.
(1) We must give reproofs with meekness. It is the apostles direction (Gal 6:1).
(2) We must receive reproofs with meekness.
(3) We must instruct gainsayers with meekness (2Ti 2:24-25).
(4) We must make profession of the hope that is in us with meekness (1Pe 3:15).
(5) We must bear reproaches with meekness.
4. Some good principles or considerations which tend to make us meek and quiet.
(1) That he has the sweetest and surest peace who is the most master of his own passions.
(2) That in many things we all offend.
(3) That there is no provocation given us at any time but, if it be skilfully and graciously improved, there is good to be gotten by it.
(4) That what is said and done in haste is likely to be a matter for deliberate repentance.
(5) That that is truly best for us which is most pleasing and acceptable to God, and that a meek and quiet spirit is so.
5. Some rules of direction.
(1) Sit loose to the world, and to everything in it. The more the world is crucified to us, the more our corrupt passions will be crucified in us.
(2) Be often repenting of your sinful passion, and renewing your covenants against it.
(3) Keep out of the way of provocation, and stand upon your guard against it.
(4) Learn to pause. It is a good rule, as in our communion with God, so in our converse with men (Ecc 5:2).
(5) Pray to God by His Spirit to work in you this excellent grace of meekness and quietness of spirit. It is a part of that comeliness which He puts upon the soul, and He must be sought unto for it.
(6) Be often examining your growth and proficiency in this grace. Inquire what ground you have got of your passion, and what improvements you have made in meekness.
(7) Delight in the company of meek and quiet persons (Pro 22:24-25).
(8) Study the Cross of our Lord Jesus.
(9) Converse much in your thoughts with the dark and silent grave. (Matthew Henry.)
In the sight of God of great price.–
In Gods sight
Everything, you know, is in Gods sight. Not the tiniest atom in the heart of the earth, not the faintest twinkle of the farthest star, not a passing smile or frown on your face, or a secret thought in your mind, can be hidden from God. But more than this is meant when a thing is said to be precious in Gods sight. It means that He takes notice of it, is pleased with it, and wishes us to count it precious. Things often look very different to us from what they really are. Coloured glass may look like precious stones. Gilded wood may look like a bar of gold. But God sees things as they really are. This, you see, is beauty of mind, or, as we sometimes say, beauty of character. A statesman had once been a poor lad, but had raised himself by his talents and industry. A rich but vulgar man said to him very rudely, I remember when you blacked my fathers boots! Instead of losing his temper, he simply said, And did I not black them well? This was a beautiful reply-it was the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. (British Weekly Pulpit.)
The holy women.
Holiness the best commendation
Note that he saith not wealthy women, fair women, but holy women; here is the ground of his commendation. A little holiness is better than a great deal of riches and beauty. Beauty fades with sickness, wealth hath many ways to take it away, but grace holds ever to life eternal, and commends before God, angels, and good men. (John Rogers.)
Whose daughters ye are.–
Sarah and her daughters
1. To begin with, note what a happy circumstance it is when a godly, gracious man has an equally godly and gracious wife.
2. We notice next, as we look to Sarah, that God does not forget the lesser lights.
3. Next notice that it would be well for us to imitate God in this: in not forgetting the lesser lights. I do not know that great men are often good examples. Learn not from the great but from the good: be not dazzled by success, but follow the safer light of truth and right.
4. Further more, another reflection arises, namely, that faith reveals itself in various ways. Faith makes one person this, and another that. Sarah does not become Abraham, nor does Abraham become Sarah.
5. We are led by our text to look at the fruit of faith in Sarah.
I. It is said of her that she did well, whose daughters ye are as long as ye do well.
1. She did well as a wife. All the duties that were incumbent upon her as the queen of that travelling company were performed admirably.
2. She did well as a hostess. Though she was truly a princess, yet she kneaded the dough and prepared the bread for her husbands guests.
3. She did well also as a mother. We are sure she did, because we find that her son Isaac was so excellent a man; and you may say what you will, but in the hand of God the mother forms the boys character.
4. She did well, also, as a believer, and that is no mean point. As a believer when Abraham was called to separate himself from his kindred, Sarah went with him. She continued with him, believing in God with perseverance.
II. She proved her faith by a second evidence-she was not afraid with any amazement. She was calm, and was not put in fear by any terror. There were several occasions in which she might have been much disquieted. The first was in the breaking up of her house life. An unbelieving woman would have said, A call from God? Nonsense! Fanaticism! I do not believe in it, and when she saw that her husband would go she would have been afraid with great amazement. Then, though we do not hear much about her, we know that all those years she had to live in a tent. It is a very trying life for a housewife. Sarah travelled from day to day, and what with the constant moving of the tent, as the cattle had to be taken to fresh pastures, it must have been a life of terrible discomfort; yet Sarah never said a word about it. Remember, they were dwelling in tents as pilgrims and strangers, not for one day, or two, nor for a few days in a year, but for scores of years at a stretch. It was bravely done by this good woman that she was not afraid with any amazement. Now, this is a point in which Christian women, and, for the matter of that, Christian men also, should seek to imitate Sarah: we should not let our hearts be troubled, but rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.
1. What is this virtue? It is a calm, quiet trusting in God.
2. When is this virtue to be exercised by us? Well, it should be exercised at all times. If we are not self-composed when we are happy we are not likely to be calm when we are sad.
3. You inquire, Who are to exercise this virtue? We are all to do so; but the text is specially directed to the sisterhood. I suppose women are exhorted to it, because some of them are rather excitable, a little hysterical, and apt to be fearfully depressed and utterly carried away.
4. But this virtue especially serves in time of trouble, when a very serious trial threatens us. Then the Christian is not to say, What shall I do now? I can never endure it. I shall die of a broken heart. No. Do not talk so. Try in patience to lift up your head, and remember Sarah, whose daughters ye are if ye are not afraid with any amazement.
5. And so must it be in times of personal sickness. A Christian woman should not be afraid with any amazement either in adversity or in sickness, but her holy patience should prove her to be a true daughter of Sarah and Abraham.
6. Christian women in Peters day were subject to persecution as much as their husbands.
7. And so if you should be called to some stern duty, if you should be bound to do what you feel you cannot do, recollect that anybody can do what he can do. Be not afraid, then, of any duty, but believe that you will be able to do it, for grace will be sufficient for you.
8. At last, in the prospect of death, may you not be afraid with any amazement! Where others show their fear, and sometimes their terror, there should the believer show his peacefulness and his happy expectancy, not afraid with any amazement, whatever the form of death may be. Now, what is the excellence of this virtue? I answer by saying it is due to God that we should not be afraid with any amazement. Such a God as we have ought to be trusted. He worships best who is most calm in evil times. Moreover, the excellence of this virtue is that it is most impressive to men. Nor is the usefulness confined to others. It is most useful to ourselves; for he who can be calm in time of trouble will be most likely to make his way through it. Calmness of mind is the mother of prudence and discretion; it gives the firm foothold which is needful for the warrior when he is about to deal a victorious blow. Those who cannot be amazed by fear shall live to be amazed with mercy. How, says one, can we obtain it? Recollect, it is an outgrowth of faith, and you will have it in proportion as you have faith. Have faith in God and you will not be afraid with any amazement. This holy calm comes, also, from walking with God. No spot is so serene as the secret place of the tabernacles of the Most High. When you accept every affliction as a love token, then will your fear be ended. Next, remember the faithfulness of God to His promise, and the fact that there is a promise for your particular position. Search it out, and then grasp it, and say, He must keep it; He cannot break His word. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Likewise ye husbands.–
The duties of husbands
I. The foundation of domestic life. Dwell with your wives according to knowledge-in accord with the light of reason, sense, humanity, and especially revelation. The very attitude and demeanour of life require to be matters of study and thought.
II. The courtesy of domestic life. Giving honour to the wife as being the weaker vessel. This consists in a nameless deference, an unfailing regard, a constant forbearance, a remembrance of her bodily weakness, as well as of her subordinate position.
III. The sanctification of domestic life. As being heirs together of the grace that is given unto you. (J. J. S. Bird, B. A.)
The weaker vessel.–
The weaker vessel
Women are weaker in body than men, weaker also in mind, timorous, soon discouraged, soon provoked, quickly take hurt. Yet are not wives so weak but God hath given them competent ability of body and mind to go through with their duties, and as they be the weaker, so they have the weaker works than men, theirs being for the most part within doors.
1. Hereupon let wives submit them selves the more willingly, and the weaker they find themselves, let them trust the more on God, that they may be strong in Him.
2. For husbands, let them use their wives kindly. They must not grieve them, nor disquiet them to their undoing. They be good, costly, and very profitable vessels, for excellent use, but easily cracked; therefore had we more need have the more care of them, as we have of some choice glass.
3. This rebukes those that use their wives ruggedly, sometimes railing at them. A Venice glass well used and looked to may last long, so may a good wife, but some vex and grieve their wives, that they pine away with sorrow. What an account have these to make! (John Rogers.)
Heirs together of the grace of life.–
The blessedness of Christian connections
I. The view here given of future blessedness. The grace of life.
1. He calls it life in an eminent sense. Now, it is limited. Then the great ends of life will be supremely answered. Its duration will justify the appellation life.
2. He calls it the grace of life because it is the gift of grace, bestowed in a very gracious way.
II. The endearing and delightful way in which Christians are put in possession of this blessedness in connection with one another. As being heirs together.
1. It gratifies our generosity and benevolence.
2. It adds meekness to the intercourse of friendship.
3. Providence has so ordered it that Christians should be not only fellow heirs but fellow helpers to eternal life.
4. It provides such a cordial when friends come to part.
Lessons:
1. How richly and graciously has God ordered it, that the salvation of Christians should be linked together.
2. How anxious should those who are united by natural affection be, to become heirs together of such a life.
3. How important it is that those who are heirs together of such a life should cultivate the dispositions most suited to it,
4. How desirable it is to have reference to these views in time of need.
5. How terrible is the sentiment of the text reversed. (T. N. Toller.)
Duties of husbands and wives
1. The first duty which he enjoins is subjection (1Pe 3:1).
2. The second duty enjoined on Christian wives is chaste conversation; in other words, a deportment governed by principles of modest decorum and unblemished purity.
3. The apostles third direction respects fear, A chaste conversion, coupled with fear, by which I understand, with Dr. Doddridge, the fear of God, a holy principle of reverence for the Supreme Being, consistent with love and springing greatly from it.
4. The fourth direction to Christian females respects indifference to external ornaments of dress (1Pe 3:3).
5. The fifth advice is on the cultivation of the mind (1Pe 3:4). Whose adorning, etc.
6. A sixth precept, and the last which he urges on his female friends, is the union of decision and cheerfulness (1Pe 3:6). Doing well is practical decision. The absence of fear with amazement, or of a perturbed dissatisfaction of mind, implies cheerfulness.
The apostle suggests three motives to enforce these directions,
1. The first is the probable influence of the deport-meet of the pious female in affecting the conversion of an unbelieving husband (1Pe 3:1-2).
2. The second motive urged by the apostle is the approbation of God (1Pe 3:4).
3. The third motive arises from example (1Pe 3:5-6). But let me request attention to the exhortation which is given to Christian husbands (1Pe 3:7).
The duty of Christian men united in marriage is here represented to consist chiefly in three articles.
1. The first is domestic attachment-Dwell with them.
2. The second duty enjoined on Christian husbands is conduct governed by knowledge. Dwell with them according to knowledge.
3. The third duty which is here inculcated on believing husbands, in reference to their wives, is that of respectful as well as affectionate attention, which the apostle calls giving them honour. Dr. Doddridge supposes this to intend a suitable and, as far as may be, a liberal maintenance. Certainly this is included; but the precept appears to go much further. It is a guard against the abuse of that domestic authority which Providence has lodged in the hands of the husband. For how can despotic power reign in his breast, who honours the wife of his bosom? Various considerations to enforce these duties arise out of the apostles statement of the wife as the weaker vessel. (The Evangelist.)
Heirs of the grace of life
I. Let us attend to their joint privilege. They are heirs together of the grace of life. The happiness of the marriage relation is generally dependent on the resemblance of the persons entering into it. The significant expression used by the sacred writer implies-
1. That both are partakers of grace; in other words, that they are real Christians. It is not always so.
2. That they are not in present possession of all the happiness designed for them-the grace of life. This inheritance, in its largest extent, they do not possess; they are the heirs. They have many toilsome steps to take in the journey of their present existence before they reach their heavenly inheritance. Uncertainty hangs over every event.
3. They have glorious prospects in futurity. The heirs of God are joint heirs with Christ.
II. The influence of this privilege on the general deportment of Christians united in marriage.
1. In the promotion of personal religion. Marriage should be improved to form and refine the individual character, but the duties of the individual character can never be annihilated by the social bond. Being heirs together of the grace of life, each of you is bound to be uniformly, decidedly, eminently devoted to God and the Redeemer. The same consideration should operate.
2. On the mutual advancement of piety in each others hearts. The converted wife or the converted husband is never to be regarded by the other party as one standing in need of no helps to the advancement of the highest interests of the soul.
3. In the engagements of domestic worship and discipline. Wherever Christians pitch their tents, they should without delay erect an altar.
4. On resolutions made before God with regard to relations not yet in existence. Such relations, young people entering into the bonds of marriage ought to anticipate. We may hereafter be parents is consideration which forces itself on their minds.
5. On the general conduct. Married people, feeling reciprocally the influence of religion, will practically recommend it to the approbation of all who behold them.
III. The connection of the performance or the neglect of the duties of the marriage relation, with the acceptance and usefulness, or with the hindrance, of prayer, That your prayers be not hindered.
1. To a deep sense of the necessity of prayer, which will be encouraged in the one case, and wretchedly hindered in the other.
2. To the constant exercise of the external duty of prayer.
3. To the cultivation or the neglect of the spirit of prayer.
4. To the experience, and to the diminution of the advantages of prayer. Prayer, if an acceptable, is an operative service. (The Evangelist.)
Marriage
I. Marriage is a divine institution, and ought to be accompanied by a religious ceremony.
1. The original institution might alone suffice to satisfy our minds of this. It is an honourable estate, instituted of God in the time of mans innocency.
2. Nor can it have escaped your notice that marriage was at all times treated as a religious ceremony.
3. Moreover, I cannot conceive of anyone possessed of godly feeling within him who can contemplate a rite so instituted of God as otherwise than religious.
4. And next I ask, How can that be a mere civil contract which we are so plainly taught in the Bible is distinctly figurative of Christs love for His spouse the Church.
II. Marriage was intended to be indissoluble, and the reversal of this is a proof of our degradation by sin.
1. The original appointment implies nothing less than this.
2. Christ distinctly said that marriage was intended to be indissoluble (Mat 19:3-9).
3. The figure of the spiritual union betwixt Christ and His Church wholly fails if marriage was not intended to be indissoluble.
4. But if so, the question arises, How conies a law of divorce in Gods Word, or in our own laws? To the former question the answer is simply in the words of Christ, It was not so from the beginning, but Moses, for the hardness of your hearts, suffered this law to be given. And this, says the Fulfiller of all righteous law, is the one only cause of divorce being ever permitted among you: it was not so from the beginning.
III. Attention to the text would do much to render marriage what it was originally intended to be.
1. St. Peter tells you to regard yourselves as heirs together of the grace of life. Marriage is for this life, and in heaven they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God. And yet St. Peter introduces this reference to eternal life in connection with it; and it would be hard to say why he does so, unless it be that a right fulfilment of that condition is a great help in Christianity between man and wife. But this becomes quite certain, if only you will observe one word in the text. St. Peter does not call you heirs of the grace of life, but heirs together of the grace of life. This plainly asserts that in religious matters husband and wife are intended to be helps-meet for one another-but who will think of this that recognises marriage as a legal ceremony?-that they are not to live a life through with, perhaps, much confiding love and esteem in other matters, but without any care and interest whatsoever in each others future state.
2. One other remark here must suffice; it is on the importance of praying together. How many unhappy wives and miserable husbands would be rendered blessed if only they prayed together as heirs together of the grace of life! Who could rise to quarrel that knelt to pray? (G. Venables.)
Matrimonial affinity
There are some husbands and wives whose conduct to each other depends entirely upon surrounding circumstances. When there is plenty of money at the bank, and prosperity is shining upon the homestead, their affinity and love for each other is intense. But in the gloom of adversity, and under sombre influences, they have no mutual attraction whatsoever, and their affections are kept in isolation. This type of the matrimonial life may be called the chlorine-hydrogen type. Chlorine and hydrogen are gases having a powerful affinity for each other-that is to say, they will unite when brought together in the daylight; but if we change the conditions, if we bring them together in the dark, their affinity is never manifested; and thus, while in the sunlight they rush together with even explosive force, they will remain quiescent in the darkness, and there for all eternity would form no combination whatever. (Scientific Illustrations.)
That your prayers be not hindered.–
Unfit for prayer
The breach of conjugal love, the contentions of husband and wife, do, out of doubt, so embitter their spirits, that they are exceedingly unfit for prayer, which is the sweet harmony of the soul in Gods ears; and when the soul is so far out of tune as those distempers make it, He cannot but perceive it whose ear is the most exact of all, for He made and tuned the ear, and is the fountain of harmony. It cuts the sinews and strength of prayer, makes breaches and gaps, as wounds at which the spirits fly out. When the soul is calm and composed it may behold the face of God shining on it. And those who pray together should not only have hearts in tune within themselves, in their own frame, but tuned together; especially husband and wife, who are one, they should have hearts consorted and sweetly tuned to each other for prayer. (Abp. Leighton.)
Hindrances to prayer
I. First, there is such a thing as being hindered from prayer.
1. That may be done by falling into a generally lax, lukewarm condition in reference to the things of God. When a sick man is in a decline his lungs suffer and his voice; and so when a Christian is in a spiritual decline the breath of prayer is affected, and the cry of supplication becomes weak.
2. Prayers may be hindered by having too much to do. In this age this is a very common occurrence. We may have too much business for ourselves. The rich man in the parable had no time for prayer, for he was busy in planning new barns, but he had to find time for dying when the Lord said, This night shall thy soul be required of thee. We may even have too much to do in Gods house, and so hinder our prayers, by being like Martha, cumbered with much serving. I never heard of anyone who was cumbered with much praying.
3. There can be no doubt, also, that prayer is hindered by having too little to do.
4. very large proportion of Christians do too little. God has given them enough wealth to be able to retire from business; they have time upon their hands, and they have even to invent ways of spending that time. I wish that all could say with one of the Lords saints, Prayer is my business and praise is my pleasure; but I am sure they never will till the zeal of the Lords house shall more fully consume them.
5. Some people hinder their prayers, again, by a want of order. They get up a little too late, and they have to chase their work all the day and never overtake it, but are always in a flurry, one duty tripping up the heels of another.
II. Secondly, we must watch that we be not hindered in prayer, when we are really engaged in that holy work.
1. Let us note that some are hindered in prayer by selecting an unfit time and place. There are times when you may expect a knock at your own door, do not just then knock at Gods door. There are times that are demanded of you by the necessities of the household and your lawful calling; these are already the Lords in another way, let them be used for their own purpose. Give to God and prayer those suitable times in which you can reasonably expect to be alone. A pious lad who had no place at home to pray in, went to the stable and climbed up into the hayloft; but very soon some one came up the ladder and interrupted him: the next time he took care to pull the ladder up after him, a very useful hint for us. Select the fittest time and place, that your prayers be not hindered.
2. Worldly cares are frequent and most mischievous hindrances to prayer. A Christian man should be the most careful man in the world, and yet without carefulness. Oh, for more grace and less worry! More praying and less hoarding! More intercession and less speculating! As it is, prayers are sadly hindered.
3. Earthly pleasures, especially of a dubious kind, are the worst of hindrances. How can you come home from frivolity and sin and then look into the face of Jesus? How can the fashions of the world be followed, and communion with God be maintained?
4. Further, prayers may be hindered equally much by worldly sorrow. It is right to be sorrowful, for God intends that affliction should be grievous, and not joyous; but when sorrow is right it will drive us to prayer, and not drive us from it; and when we find our grief at the loss of some dear child, or at the decay of our property, hinders our prayers, I think we should say to ourselves, Now I must pray; for it must be wrong for me to be so rebellious against my Father as to refuse to ask anything at His hands.
5. There are cases in which prayer is very greatly hindered by bad temper. We cannot pray for forgiveness unless we forgive the trespasses of others against us. Prayer can be very terribly hindered in three ways: if we dishonour the Father to whom we pray, or the Son through whom we pray, or the Holy Ghost by whom we pray.
III. We may be hindered in the speeding of our prayers. We may pray, but yet the prayer may not be heard.
1. First, there must be holy living in a believer if his prayers are greatly to succeed with God. If you do not do Christs will He will not do your will.
2. In addition to obedience there must be faith. The prayer which avails most with God is the prayer of one who believes that God will hear him, and who therefore asks with confidence.
3. Thirdly, there must be holy desires, or else prayer will be a failure; and those desires must be founded on a promise. There is no use in asking money of a banker without a cheque: at the counter they do not know you; they know the promise to pay, and if you present that you will get the amount, but not else.
4. Furthermore; if prayer is to speed, there must be fervour and importunity. The arrow must be put on the bowstring, and the bow must be drawn with all our might.
5. There must be, next, a desire for Gods glory-for that is the white of the target-and if we do not shoot towards that, the arrow will avail nothing.
6. We must also have holy expectancy, or we shall hinder prayer. The man who shoots must look to see where his arrow goes. We must direct our prayer unto God, and look up. Presumption in prayer shoots with the bow of self-confidence, not for Gods glory, but for the gratification of itself, and therefore it fails. Some have the idea that, ask what they like of God, they are sure to have it: but I would ask them, first, Who are you? secondly, What is it you are going to ask? and, thirdly, What right have you to expect it? These inquiries must be clearly answered, otherwise prayer may be an insult to God. Straightforward transactions you may pray about, but do not mix up the Lord with your financing. I am requested to pray for a young man who has lost his situation, through a defalcation, that he may get another place, but instead of doing so I suggest that he should himself pray to be made honest. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER III.
The duty of wives to their husbands, how they are to be
adorned, and be in subjection as Sarah was to Abraham, 1-6.
The duty of husbands to their wives, 7.
How to obtain happiness, and live a long and useful life, 8-11.
God loves and succours them that do good; but his face is
against the wicked, 12, 13.
They should suffer persecution patiently, and be always ready
to give a reason of the hope that is in them; and preserve a
good conscience, though they suffered for righteousness, 14-17.
Christ suffered for us, and was put to death in the flesh, but
quickened by the Spirit, 18.
How he preached to the old world, while Noah was preparing the
ark, 19, 20.
The salvation of Noah and his family a type of baptism, 21.
Christ is ascended to heaven, all creatures being subject to
him, 22.
NOTES ON CHAP. III.
Verse 1. Ye wives, be in subjection] Consider that your husband is, by God’s appointment, the head and ruler of the house; do not, therefore, attempt to usurp his government; for even though he obey not the word-is not a believer in the Christian doctrine, his rule is not thereby impaired; for Christianity never alters civil relations: and your affectionate, obedient conduct will be the most likely means of convincing him of the truth of the doctrine which you have received.
Without the word] That your holy conduct may be the means of begetting in them a reverence for Christianity, the preaching of which they will not hear. 1Cor 14:34, and the other places referred to in the margin.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
To your own husbands; this he adds both to mitigate the difficulty of the duty,
subjection, in that they were their
own husbands to whom they were to be subject, and likewise to bound and circumscribe their obedience, that it was to be only to their own husbands, not to others; and so while he persuades them to subjection, he cautions them against unchastity.
That if any obey not the word; the word of the gospel. He exhorts not only them that had believing husbands, but unbelieving ones, to be in subjection to them.
They also may without the word: not that they could be converted to Christ without the knowledge of the word, when faith cometh by hearing, Rom 10:17, but that they who either would not endure their wives instructing them, or who had before rejected the word, yet, by seeing the effects and fruits of it in their wives, might be brought to have good thoughts of it, and thereby be the more prepared for the hearing of it, whereby faith might be wrought in them.
Be won; or gained, viz. to Christ and his church: the same metaphor Paul useth, 1Co 9:19-21; Phi 3:8.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. LikewiseGreek, “Inlike manner,” as “servants” in their sphere; comparethe reason of the woman’s subjection, 1Co 11:8-10;1Ti 2:11-14.
your ownenforcing theobligation: it is not strangers ye are required to be subject to.Every time that obedience is enjoined upon women to their husbands,the Greek, “idios,” “one’s ownpeculiarly,” is used, while the wives of men are designated onlyby heauton, “of themselves.” Feeling the need ofleaning on one stronger than herself, the wife (especially if joinedto an unbeliever) might be tempted, though only spiritually,to enter into that relation with another in which she ought to standto “her own spouse (1Co 14:34;1Co 14:35, “Let them asktheir own [idious] husbands at home”); anattachment to the person of the teacher might thus spring up, which,without being in the common sense spiritual adultery, would stillweaken in its spiritual basis the married relation [STEIGER].
that, ifGreek,“that even if.” Even if you have a husband thatobeys not the word (that is, is an unbeliever).
without thewordindependently of hearing the word preached, theusual way of faith coming. But BENGEL,”without word,” that is, without direct Gospeldiscourse of the wives, “they may (literally, inoldest manuscripts, ‘shall,’ which marks the almost objectivecertainty of the result) be won” indirectly. “Unspokenacting is more powerful than unperformed speaking”[OEligCUMENIUS]. “Asoul converted is gained to itself, to the pastor, wife, orhusband, who sought it, and to Jesus Christ; added to His treasurywho thought not His own precious blood too dear to lay out for thisgain” [LEIGHTON].”The discreet wife would choose first of all to persuade herhusband to share with her in the things which lead to blessedness;but if this be impossible, let her then alone diligently press aftervirtue, in all things obeying him so as to do nothing at any timeagainst his will, except in such things as are essential to virtueand salvation” [CLEMENT OFALEXANDRIA].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands,…. As well as subjects to princes, and servants to masters; though not with the same sort of subjection, but what is suitable to the relation they stand in to their husbands; [See comments on Eph 5:22].
[See comments on Col 3:18].
that if any obey not the word; any husband who is an unbeliever, has no love for the Gospel, and gives no credit to it, but despises, disbelieves, and rejects it, the word of truth, of faith, of righteousness, reconciliation, and salvation. The apostle, though he includes all wives, and exhorts them in general to subjection to their own husbands, yet has a particular regard to such as had unbelieving husbands, and who, on that account, were scrupulous of living with them, and of being in subjection to them; and therefore, as the Apostle Paul also did, he advises them to abide with them, and behave well to them, using much the same argument as he does in 1Co 7:10.
they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; for though the ordinary way and means of conversion is the word, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word; yet it may be sometimes done without it; or however by the agreeable conversation of professors, and so of religious wives, the hearts of such as were averse to Christianity, and the Gospel, as unbelieving husbands, may be so softened, and wrought upon, as to entertain a better opinion of it, and in process of time be inclined to hear and attend it; the consequence of which may prove their conversion, which is a gaming, or winning of souls; and which, as it is for their good, is for the glory of Christ; for as every soul that is delivered from the power of darkness, and is translated into the kingdom of Christ, is a loss to Satan, it is a gain to Christ, and to his church. The Syriac version, instead of “without the word”, reads, “without labour”; as if the winning of unbelieving husbands was easily obtained by the conversation of their wives.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Duties of Husbands and Wives. | A. D. 66. |
1 Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; 2 While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. 3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; 4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 5 For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: 6 Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. 7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.
The apostle having treated of the duties of subjects to their sovereigns, and of servants to their masters, proceeds to explain the duty of husbands and wives.
I. Lest the Christian matrons should imagine that their conversion to Christ, and their interest in all Christian privileges, exempted them from subjection to their pagan or Jewish husbands, the apostle here tells them,
1. In what the duty of wives consists.
(1.) In subjection, or an affectionate submission to the will, and obedience to the just authority, of their own husbands, which obliging conduct would be the most likely way to win those disobedient and unbelieving husbands who had rejected the word, or who attended to no other evidence of the truth of it than what they saw in the prudent, peaceable, and exemplary conversation of their wives. Learn, [1.] Every distinct relation has its particular duties, which ministers ought to preach, and the people ought to understand. [2.] A cheerful subjection, and a loving, reverential respect, are duties which Christian women owe their husbands, whether they be good or bad; these were due from Eve to Adam before the fall, and are still required, though much more difficult now than they were before, Gen 3:16; 1Ti 2:11. [3.] Though the design of the word of the gospel is to win and gain souls to Christ Jesus, yet there are many so obstinate that they will not be won by the word. [4.] There is nothing more powerful, next to the word of God, to win people, than a good conversation, and the careful discharge of relative duties. [5.] Irreligion and infidelity do not dissolve the bonds, nor dispense with the duties, of civil relations; the wife must discharge her duty to her own husband, though he obey not the word.
(2.) In fear, or reverence to their husbands, Eph. v. 33.
(3.) In a chaste conversation, which their unbelieving husbands would accurately observe and attend to. [1.] Evil men are strict observers of the conversation of the professors of religion; their curiosity, envy, and jealousy, make them watch narrowly the ways and lives of good people. [2.] A chaste conversation, attended with due and proper respect to every one, is an excellent means to win them to the faith of the gospel and obedience to the word.
(4.) In preferring the ornaments of the mind to those of the body. [1.] He lays down a rule in regard to the dress of religious women, v. 3. Here are three sorts of ornaments forbidden: plaiting of hair, which was commonly used in those times by lewd women; wearing of gold, or ornaments made of gold, was practised by Rebecca, and Esther, and other religious women, but afterwards became the attire chiefly of harlots and wicked people; putting on of apparel, which is not absolutely forbidden, but only too much nicety and costliness in it. Learn, First, Religious people should take care that all their external behaviour be answerable to their profession of Christianity: They must be holy in all manner of conversation. Secondly, The outward adorning of the body is very often sensual and excessive; for instance, when it is immoderate, and above your degree and station in the world, when you are proud of it and puffed up with it, when you dress with design to allure and tempt others, when your apparel is too rich, curious, or superfluous, when your fashions are fantastical, imitating the levity and vanity of the worst people, and when they are immodest and wanton. The attire of a harlot can never become a chaste Christian matron. [2.] Instead of the outward adorning of the body, he directs Christian wives to put on much more excellent and beautiful ornaments, v. 4. Here note, First, The part to be adorned: The hidden man of the heart; that is, the soul; the hidden, the inner man. Take care to adorn and beautify your souls rather than your bodies. Secondly, The ornament prescribed. It must, in general, be something not corruptible, that beautifies the soul, that is, the graces and virtues of God’s Holy Spirit. The ornaments of the body are destroyed by the moth, and perish in the using; but the grace of God, the longer we wear it, the brighter and better it is. More especially, the finest ornament of Christian women is a meek and quiet spirit, a tractable easy temper of mind, void of passion, pride, and immoderate anger, discovering itself in a quiet obliging behaviour towards their husbands and families. If the husband be harsh, and averse to religion (which was the case of these good wives to whom the apostle gives this direction), there is no way so likely to win him as a prudent meek behaviour. At least, a quiet spirit will make a good woman easy to herself, which, being visible to others, becomes an amiable ornament to a person in the eyes of the world. Thirdly, The excellency of it. Meekness and calmness of spirit are, in the sight of God, of great price–amiable in the sight of men, and precious in the sight of God. Learn, 1. A true Christian’s chief care lies in the right ordering and commanding of his own spirit. Where the hypocrite’s work ends, there the true Christian’s work begins. 2. The endowments of the inner man are the chief ornaments of a Christian; but especially a composed, calm, and quiet spirit, renders either man or woman beautiful and lovely.
2. The duties of Christian wives being in their nature difficult, the apostle enforces them by the example, (1.) Of the holy women of old, who trusted in God, v. 5. “You can pretend nothing of excuse from the weakness of your sex, but what they might. They lived in old time, and had less knowledge to inform them and fewer examples to encourage them; yet in all ages they practised this duty; they were holy women, and therefore their example is obligatory; they trusted in God, and yet did not neglect their duty to man: the duties imposed upon you, of a quiet spirit and of subjection to your own husbands, are not new, but what have ever been practised by the greatest and best women in the world.” (2.) Of Sara, who obeyed her husband, and followed him when he went from Ur of the Chaldeans, not knowing whither he went, and called him lord, thereby showing him reverence and acknowledging his superiority over her; and all this though she was declared a princess by God from heaven, by the change of her name, “Whose daughters you are if you imitate her in faith and good works, and do not, through fear of your husbands, either quit the truth you profess or neglect your duty to them, but readily perform it, without either fear or force, out of conscience towards God and sense of duty to them.” Learn, [1.] God takes exact notice, and keeps an exact record, of the actions of all men and women in the world. [2.] The subjection of wives to their husbands is a duty which has been practised universally by holy women in all ages. [3.] The greatest honour of any man or woman lies in a humble and faithful deportment of themselves in the relation or condition in which Providence has placed them. [4.] God takes notice of the good that is in his servants, to their honour and benefit, but covers a multitude of failings; Sara’s infidelity and derision are overlooked, when her virtues are celebrated. [5.] Christians ought to do their duty to one another, not out of fear, nor from force, but from a willing mind, and in obedience to the command of God. Wives should be in subjection to their churlish husbands, not from dread and amazement, but from a desire to do well and to please God.
II. The husband’s duty to the wife comes next to be considered.
1. The particulars are, (1.) Cohabitation, which forbids unnecessary separation, and implies a mutual communication of goods and persons one to another, with delight and concord. (2.) Dwelling with the wife according to knowledge; not according to lust, as brutes; nor according to passion, as devils; but according to knowledge, as wise and sober men, who know the word of God and their own duty. (3.) Giving honour to the wife–giving due respect to her, and maintaining her authority, protecting her person, supporting her credit, delighting in her conversation, affording her a handsome maintenance, and placing a due trust and confidence in her.
2. The reasons are, Because she is the weaker vessel by nature and constitution, and so ought to be defended: but then the wife is, in other and higher respects, equal to her husband; they are heirs together of the grace of life, of all the blessings of this life and another, and therefore should live peaceably and quietly one with another, and, if they do not, their prayers one with another and one for another will be hindered, so that often “you will not pray at all, or, if you do, you will pray with a discomposed ruffled mind, and so without success.” Learn, (1.) The weakness of the female sex is no just reason either for separation or contempt, but on the contrary it is a reason for honour and respect: Giving honour to the wife as unto the weaker vessel. (2.) There is an honour due to all who are heirs of the grace of life. (3.) All married people should take care to behave themselves so lovingly and peaceably one to another that they may not by their broils hinder the success of their prayers.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
In like manner (). Adverb closely connected with , for which see 2:18.
Ye wives (). Without article. About wives see also Col 3:18; Eph 5:22; Titus 2:4.
To your own husbands ( ). occurs also in Ephesians and Titus, but not in Colossians. It strengthens the idea of possession in the article . Wives are not enjoined to be in subjection to the husbands of other women, as some think it fine to be (affinities!)
Even if any obey not the word ( ). Condition of first class and dative case of (1Pet 1:23; 1Pet 1:25; 1Pet 2:8), that is, remain heathen.
That they be gained ( ). Purpose clause with and first future passive indicative of , old verb, to gain (from , gain, interest) as in Mt 18:15. See the future with also in Luke 20:10; Rev 3:9.
Without the word ( ). Probably here “word from their wives” (Hart), the other sense of (talk, not technical “word of God”).
By the behaviour of their wives ( ). Won by pious living, not by nagging. Many a wife has had this blessed victory of grace.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Likewise [] . Rev., in like manner; better, because likewise in popular speech has, wrongly, the sense of also. Peter means in like manner with servants (ch. 2 18).
Be in subjection [] . Lit., being in subjection, or submitting yourselves; the same word which is used of the submission of servants (ch. 2 18).
Be won [] . Rev., be gained. The word used by Christ, Mt 18:15 : “gained thy brother.”
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Likewise, ye wives,” (Gk. homoios gunaikes) “In like manner ye wives” — alluding to the manner of absolute subjection of 1) citizens to rulers and 2) servants to masters, 1Pe 2:13-15; 1Pe 2:18-19.
2) “Be in subjection to your own husbands.” Wives are admonished to be in absolute subjection (hupotassomenai) to their own husbands in everything that does not prevent personal duty to worship and to obey God. See also Eph 5:22; Eph 5:24; Gen 3:16.
3) “That if any obey not the Word.” (hina) “in order that” even if the husband be not persuaded or led to obey the call of God directly, by the Word.
4) “They also may without the word.” They may even (aneu) without (a) word – a verbal expression.
5) “Be won by the conversation of the wives.” Be gained or won by the upright course of daily conduct of their wives who walk in fear of the Lord.
GOOD EXAMPLES
Of all the commentaries upon the Scriptures, good examples are the best and the liveliest.
–Donne.
Nothing is so contagious as examples — Never was any considerable good or evil done without producing its like.
–Rochefoucauld.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
He proceeds now to another instance of subjection, and bids wives to be subject to their husbands. And as those seemed to have some pretense for shaking off the yoke, who were united to unbelieving men, he expressly reminds them of their duty, and brings forward a particular reason why they ought the more carefully to obey, even that they might by their probity allure their husbands to the faith. But if wives ought to obey ungodly husbands, with much more promptness ought they to obey, who have believing husbands.
But it may seem strange that Peter should say, that a husband might be gained to the Lord without the word; for why is it said, that “faith cometh by hearing?” Rom 10:17. To this I reply, that Peter’s words are not to be so understood as though a holy life alone could lead the unbelieving to Christ, but that it softens and pacifies their minds, so that they might have less dislike to religion; for as bad examples create offenses, so good ones afford no small help. Then Peter shews that wives by a holy and pious life could do so much as to prepare their husbands, without speaking to them on religion, to embrace the faith of Christ.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
WIFE AND MOTHER. A MODEL IN BOTH
(A Sermon to Women)
1Pe 3:1-2; Jdg 5:7.
I WANT to speak as plainly today as is our wont in addressing the men.
Our first text is addressed to the wives.
Ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the Word, they also may without the Word be won by the conversation of the wives.
In Peters mind the great work of the wife was to win her husband, and he understood that some graces were essential to that accomplishment.
Affection is the first grace of a wife! The subjection mentioned in the text is not slavery, but the sweet service of love.
Love! of mans life tis a thing apart,Tis womans whole existence.
And the model wife will make her husband feel that fact.
She will set it forth in her tender care for him; in her tidy home; in her personal toilet; and in ten thousand unspeakable, yet eloquent, ways; and when there is opportunity she will whisper it into his ear in modest, yet unmistakable words. A woman, without this grace of affection, is a travesty upon her sex, and its a pity that she should ever be called a wife. Her coldness and indifference is a shroud for domestic happiness, and her cross looks and scolding words are nails for its coffin. Dr. Talmage says, At the siege of Argus, Pyrrhus was killed by the tile off a roof, thrown by a woman; and Abimelech was slain by a stone that a woman threw from the tower of Thebes; and Earl Montfort was destroyed by a rock discharged at him by a woman from the walls of Toulouse. But without any weapon, save that of her cold, cheerless household arrangement, and slothful person, any wife may slay all the attractions of a home circle.
Her first duty is faithfulness.
Ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands.
New Testament teaching makes no provision for the so-called innocent flirtations in which some wives delight. Our modern amusements are traps set for the feet of many silly women. If Paul and Peter were alive today, and happened upon one of our 19th century dances, they would wonder whether the wives of many had ever heard of this Scripture, Be in subjection to your own husbands.
Somebody has criticized the old square dance by saying that the only danger from it is that the devil can easily cut the corners off, and make it round, and it is well known that when he has accomplished that, he has laid the dynamite for loosening the foundations of many a happy home. The average play, put before the devotees of the theater, mocks at virtue, sets the social evils in tempting perspective, and sends many a new wife back to her home, half convinced that happiness is to be had by the sale of herself and the deception of him whom she has sworn to love.
It is often remarked that our elite homes are not so happy as those of the commoner classes. The reasons are not far to seek! Chastity is more esteemed by the middle classes than by those that live the lives of butterflies, and the houses of the former have the firmer foundation in consequence.
I am not among those who believe that the world is growing better. I see progress in the Church of Christ, but the gilded vices of the present day give to me no promise of a golden age, save as they suggest that Christ must shortly come. I doubt if there was ever a time when virtue was a thing of commerce as at this present hour. Our social order and our commercial arrangements, just as certainly as our methods of amusement, are tending to the tearing down of the strongholds of womanhood.
Some years ago, Mrs. Henderson, of New York, a young widow, was among the unfortunate women who are thrown absolutely upon their own resources for a living. When she discovered that her salary would not support her in the plainest living, and reached the point where the propositions of her employer must be accepted, or starvation grappled with, she said, I prefer death, and flung herself from the attic window of her lodging house.
They brought up her corpse from the street and buried it, but for every one such there are hundreds of others that love life so tenaciously that they make the greater sacrifice, and instead of casting themselves down three stories to the street below, they plunge into the very pit, destroying the soul to save the body; and to escape a coffin, bury themselves in the shroud of sin and the deepest grave that this world knows.
For some of these one can only feel the profoundest pity, but for the wife whose only temptation to fall is her own lust, one feels contempt instead; and the godless world, in its utter indifference to righteousness, rises with condemnation on its lips; for whatever our philosophies may be, all men feel that faithfulness is a wifes first duty.
The first privilege of a wife is service. One of the temptations to which many of them are peculiarly subjected is selfishness. If I were asked the besetting sin of the sex, among those who are in comfortable circumstances, I would mention selfishness.
The young wife in a comfortable home is related to the other members of the house much as the youngest, prettiest, or weakest child is. Her very sex invites petting and indulgence. If she is wise and energetic, that will only contribute to her character and increase her happiness; but if she is selfish and opinionated, it will tend to turn her head and bring her to believe that she is something special, and a domestic disaster is the consequence.
Little Lucy Grieve, by Mrs. Humphrey Ward, is a fair representation of this class. Lucy loved David, and knew his splendid superiority; and yet she loved herself so well that she was willing to sacrifice his finest feelings, obliterate his spirit of benevolence, and destroy the remnant of affection he bore to his own unfortunate sister, that she herself might be the better dressed, more advanced in society, and the more indulged in selfishness.
Almost daily we see Lucys character illustrated in the conduct of the living.
I have read a good many poems that tenderly plead with men to remember the wifes cares, and be careful not to forget the caress; the wifes labors, and lend her a lift when possible; the wifes weariness, and overcome it by entering the house with a smile. I love all such verses! They strike in my heart a responsive cord!
There is very little danger that the women God has given us will be loved or served too well. But some of these days I intend to turn poet myself, and pen some lines to women about their duties to husbandswho delve eight to sixteen hours a day to dress them elegantly, provide them happy homes, and keep them in continual joy.
A husband gets tired sometimes. A husband meets in business the most vexatious problems, and in recent times many a husband has struggled under loads too heavy to be borne by mortal man. With the casting up of accounts daily, he has seen the fortune that cost him years of ceaseless toil, being cut down, threatened with utter wreck, and himself about to be branded with bankruptcy. I agree with Henry Ward Beecher that there is no suffering out of hell much more difficult to endure than the business mans experience, when a few days sweep from him the fortune won by weary years of labor, or when the position which he has held in honor is about to be taken from him, or the character that he has made by a course of unimpeachable conduct is about to be brought into disrepute. For a woman to come short of sympathy in an hour like that, or to insist upon an expense in excess of the income, or to pack her splendid trunk and take herself to the seaside to sport, while he, who lives for her sake, suffers, is to accept the most devilish suggestion and sell out for a paltry price her part in his affection, who would lay life on the altar of sacrifice in proof of his love.
When I was in Chicago, my brother, Dr. F. T. Riley, told me how he had been called into a home to administer an antidote to a poison a man had just taken.
When he entered the house he found the man hidden in a dark room, with the door locked. At first he refused him admittance, but finally consented to let him come in, and after much persuasion, confessed that he had just taken a half vial of the deadly stuff, and when the doctor attempted to administer the antidote, he fought to such an extent that my brother was compelled to call in several others to assist him. When the emetic had done its work and Dr. Riley asked why he had taken the poison, the man said, I have been out of employment for weeks. For my wife and child I see no prospect of a livelihood. I have an insurance of $3000. I have fixed it so that I am certain that it will come into their possession in the instance of my death, and I would rather die and let them live.
Does the average woman appreciate her husbands lovethe depth of it, the sacrifice to which it calls its subject? Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
If you would be beautiful indeed, if you would be helpmate for your husband, forget yourself; sacrifice for his sake; give him your sympathy in his time of trouble. For the man struggling against adverse circumstances, there is more assistance in the sympathetic manner of an affectionate wife, than any bank beneath Gods stars can bring him. Speak your love in the very hour of his struggle and save him.
It will do no good to weep at his coffin, or cover his grave with the flowers of insurance money. Better one word while he lives than a thousand sobs after he has gone. Better the flowers of your affection for one minute while he is above ground, than perennial roses on his grave.
But the most solemn duty of a wife is to save her husband. Our text says, If any obey not the Word, they also may without the Word be won by the conversation of the wives (1Pe 3:1).
Of course Peter meant won to Christ! No matter what else you do for him, you have largely failed in the life-effort unless you take him to Heaven with you.
In that task, you must never tire. In that effort, you must never despair. He may be indifferent to Gods Word; then you must be Christs epistle to him. He may hate the preacher; then your life must preach. He may despise the sight of a church-house; then you must make home a sanctuary of Gods presence. Wherever he goes, whatever he is, your prayers must follow him and your faith must prevail.
Years ago, in the city of Chicago, a man gambled away ten thousand dollars in a day on the Chicago Board of Trade, and followed his loss with a stupendous drunk. He sought out an attorney to see if he could not recover this money. The lawyer was a man of God, and cared more to bring this soul to Christ than to get a client for himself. Instead of pleading for him before the judge, he pled with him for Jesus sake. In the course of his conversation he said, I gave my Bible away today, have you one? To which the sobered man answered, Yes, but its down in my trunk somewhere. I have been a bad man, Mr. B–, but God gave me a blessed wife, and in spite of all my indifference and opposition to the truth, she never lets me leave home without packing that Bible into my trunk. The attorney went to the hotel room and fished it out of the trunk and found it a beautiful Book. There were many marked passages in it; perfumed ribbons and pretty pressed flowers between the pages, which that Virginia girl had laid there with her own loving hand. When, after midnight, as the Christian lawyer turned the leaves of that Bible, and read to him the passages which his own wife had marked, the man broke down utterly and said,
Oh, Sir, pray for me! I want to be a Christian. For fourteen years I have despised that Book and treated it with neglect, and also the interest and affection which my wife has evidenced in putting it in my trunk. But now, Sir, I want to be a Christian; I want to be saved!
The Book which her own beautiful hand has prepared shall be a blessed Bible to me!
For fourteen years she had known that he was neglecting it, and yet for fourteen years she had gone right on putting it in his trunk at every departure, marking new places, shedding new tears upon the sacred page and putting up new prayers to God that He would hear.
And lo! at last, in a far city, by a strange hand, God brought that Book forth and opened it before his eyes, and the perfumed leaves and ribbons wafted to him the full story of her love, while the printed words spoke the eternal love of God; and the man who had so long faced toward hell, turned about and faced toward Home and Heavenher Heaven.
THE MODEL MOTHER
A mother in Israel
The first evidence of a model mother is the maternal spirit. That spirit is a virtue today as never before. The generation of women that loved children lived to bear the most of us, but in most instances are not worthily succeeded. The philosophy of the first social circles of today is childlessness, and that wretched philosophy has so far prevailed that children are coming to be regarded as social inconveniences and domestic nuisances. This is not natural, but is a result of the frivolous views society entertains of happiness, and the flippant price it puts upon human life.
Nature looks in the opposite direction, as you may know by beholding the baby girl when she is surrounded by her dolls. And if mothers were either broadminded or warmhearted, and so kept by Godly philosophies as to rightly instruct their daughters, not one in a thousand of young married women would have a spirit averse to maternity. But alas for the wretched philosophy that many, otherwise beautiful, mothers have brought to their own daughtersa philosophy that makes married life itself a thing of unhappy apprehension, that makes Gods best gift to parents an unwelcome arrival, and renders those appointed to handle immortality in its plastic state, unwilling to touch it at all. And this is not the worst; this philosophy goes so far with many a modern woman that there is need that those of us who stand in the pulpit thunder the commandment, Thou shalt not kill, and we might add, Thou shalt not destroy thyself, for infanticide is also matricide.
The model mother must also remember that it is her commission to make character. It is not enough to bring the little life into the world. Beauty must clothe it. When the mother caresses her own baby, she ought to know that she handles precious material in plastic state, and must account for what comes of it.
Life is a cycle and the teaching of today will come back to you in the fixed form of twenty years hence.
Neros mother was a murderess. No wonder at Nero. Byrons mother was proud, ill-tempered, and violent. Therein is the explanation of poor Byron himself. George Washingtons mother was noble and pure. Therein is the explanation of Washingtons graces. Walter Scotts mother loved poetry and painting, and Scotts proudest literary efforts were the result. Wesleys mother was a Godlike woman. No wonder that John and Charles were the Christian men they were. Charles Spurgeons mother was famed for her graces. To such mothers God gives such sons.
In reading Gordons life recently, I came upon that passage wherein he says, in writing to his wife and children, I have spent two days here, much of the time alone in the dear home where mother spent her last years. So far as seeming lonely, I should be glad to spend days here where everything reminds me of the beloved one. I have many times gone into her vacant bedroom, and kneeled where she so often knelt and prayed for her children. Her family was her parish; to them she ministered, and for them she ceased not to pray to the end. A. J. GordonGods first American ministerwas what he was, largely in consequence of that mothers work.
The model mother lives to make character. But, as with the wife, so the model mothers most responsible office is to save.
If you succeed in all else and fail in that, you would not be satisfied, nor would your children call you blessed.
One of the most astonishing things is the circumstance that some women are content to bring mortal souls into the world, and so little concerned to get them home to God. In my work as a pastor, it is not the least unusual to meet mothers that love society above the souls of their own children, that positively oppose their becoming religious, that prefer they should go to the house of mirth rather than the place of preaching, sit before the most questionable theatrical performance, rather than in the sanctuary of the Most High, accept the embraces of lecherous men, in the dance, rather than the love of the Son of God. I know this is severe speech; but I also know that it is none too strong to express the real in life.
Years since, a mother found her boy frequenting the Y. M. C. A., and becoming much interested in the subject of Christianity. She was sorely disappointed at this discovery. She had her heart set on making him a social beau and sending him into what she called the first circles. She rushed him off to Yale, and shortly she had her desire and more, for he was not only a society man, but accepted with it its cigars, social glass, and attendant evils. When she learned that he was drinking heavily, she sought to reclaim him by sending him many letters, but he tore them up without reading them, saying, When I wanted to do right, mother opposed it. I dont know why she should be solicitous now seeing I am going the way that she chose for me. Finally he went away to Chicago and this woman visited Mr. Moody and begged him to seek him out and try to accomplish his salvation. Moody made an appointment with him, but the young man failed to keep it. He says, I tried a good many times to reach him after that, but could not. While I was travelling one day on the New Haven Road, I bought a New York paper and read in great head-lines that he had been drowned in Lake Michigan. His father came on and carried the body back to Boston. The broken-hearted mother, when she saw him lowered into the grave, said in sobs, Oh, if I had only helped him when he wanted to be holy! If I could think now that he was in Heaven, I would have peace. It was my conduct that costs me all this, and my sorrow shall never cease.
There are many mothers who have little disposition to see their children saved, but for their paltry frivolities, pay the price of these mortal souls.
I thank God, on the other hand that there are many mothers who will never be satisfied unless they can bring up the last boy and the last girl God has given them, in the beauty of holiness, into Heaven.
The quaint John Randolph said, When I try to make myself an infidel, I feel the hand of mother on my head, and hear her prayers for my soul, and start back from all infidelity.
One winter, while aiding in a meeting in Illinois, an Englishman told me the story of his conversion, and said, I came away to America a godless boy. One day I got a letter from my brother reporting the news. After having finished it, he added a postscript, Mother is still praying for you. I could visualize her at the bedside on bended knees. From that hour I was under conviction of sin and could not be satisfied until I had found in Jesus my Saviour.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
THE CHRISTIAN SPIRIT IN SOCIAL RELATIONS
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
THE main contention of St. Peter is that the Christian life and obligations are not intended to be, and never should be, made a disturbing force in social and family relations. Our Lord warned His disciples that Christianity would become such a disturber, by reason of the opposition which it would excite; but the disturbing force must never be in the Christian. As much as lieth in him he must follow peace with all men. Relations to masters and rulers have already been dealt with: the apostle now applies the Christian principles to the more limited, but oftentimes more difficult, spheres and relations of the home.
1Pe. 3:1. In subjection.The apostle is not dealing in a general way with the relations in which wives should stand to husbands. That must always depend on the sentiments and customs of particular ages and nations. St. Peter is giving precise advice to certain persons who were placed in difficult circumstances, and needed apostolic direction. The wives addressed had become Christians, but, in many cases, their husbands had not. The question naturally arose: Was becoming Christian to break, or to spoil, the marriage relation? And the apostle replies, Certainly not. Keep the old relationsof subjection or of equality, whichever they might beonly take care to put the new Christian tone upon them all, and get your power out of the better doing of all marital duties. The same advice is given to husbands. The subjection required is that which, in a natural way, belongs to womans dependent, receptive nature. It should never be thought of as a subjection of inferiority. Without the Word.Direct efforts to teach and influence will often only irritate and provoke resistance. The silent persuasion of a dutiful and gracious behaviour is well-nigh irresistible. The wife, without setting up for a preacher, ought, by the discreet charm of her piety, to be the great missionary of the faith (M. Renan).
1Pe. 3:2. Behold.Keep their eyes on. Chaste.In general sense pure and beautiful, but with a hint of the fear husbands would then have concerning the attendance of wives at the private Christian meetings. About this scandals were very freely raised. Fear.Of being misunderstood, or of giving the faintest cause for suspicion. Perhaps there is also a hint of womans weakness, trepidation from the apprehension of real or imaginary dangers.
1Pe. 3:3. Adorning.Characteristic adorning, as a wife possessing the new spiritual life in Christ. The limitation of the advice to Christian women needs to be constantly kept before us, or the sharp points of the counsels will be missed. Outward adorning.Care for merely personal appearance. Characteristic of the worldly mind is supreme interest in appearance. A proper concern about dress and manners is quite consistent with supreme concern for the inward things of character. The terms plaiting, wearing, putting on, suggest elaborate processes by which time is wasted.
1Pe. 3:4. Hidden man of the heart.As if there were a spiritual counterpart of the body, and that really called for appropriate dress and decoration. The invisible person. The inner self, which is the true self. Compare St. Pauls inward man. Not corruptible.Contrast with material things, which moth and rust doth corrupt. Meek.Not self-assertive. Quiet.Self-controlled. That does not readily give way under provocation.
1Pe. 3:5. The holy women.This appeal would be specially forcible to Jewesses, who regarded Scripture women as models of womanhood, and wifehood, and motherhood. Trusted.Lit. hoped; with special reference to Sarah, who hoped and waited quietly for the fulfilment of the promise made to her.
1Pe. 3:6. Daughters.Compare children of Abraham, as those who have Abrahams faith. Daughters of Sarah; those who have Sarahs spirit of submission and hope. Not afraid.This clearly has reference to particular conditions of the time; probably to the slanders and persecutions to which the Christians were exposed. Special efforts would be made to frighten the wives into giving up their profession. Menaces of evil may assail the Christian wife, but let her be calm and confident, and let her pursue the pathway of obedience to the will of God, and the holy courage of Sarah will sustain her amid whatever terrors may arise.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.1Pe. 3:1-6
The Message of Christianity to Wives.To understand what Christianity has done for woman, and especially for woman in marriage relations, it would be necessary to present, with much and careful elaboration, the customs and sentiments, in apostolic times, of different classes of society, in the different nations to which Christianity found entrance. It must, however, suffice to present the distinction between the Eastern and the Western modes of treating woman. In the East woman is almost everywhere an inferior being, a slave and a drudge, kept shut up in private apartments, allowed no freedom, no society, no education. The only exception given in ancient history is that of the Egyptians, whose respect for woman, and recognition of some approach to wifely equality, help to explain the steadiness and the high tone of their civilisation. The Pagansespecially of the Western worldin a way honoured woman, and the Romans secured at once nobility and stability, by cultivating the family virtues. There was indeed a sad side to the Pagan interest in woman, and it has to be kept in view when the apostolic counsels are considered. St. Peter, however, has chiefly in his mind the Jewish Christians who were living among Pagan populations, and might be badly influenced by the tone of Society, and the family customs with which they were surrounded. That woman was honoured and trusted in the Mosaic system is evident from the references and teachings of the Old Testament; and if the relations of a Jew with his wife were such as they should be, Christianity needed to do no more, and it could do no more, than put a new tone upon those relations. Indeed, Christianity needs to be understood as the power that relieves everything good of the pressure of surrounding evil, and puts a new tone and a new force into everything that is right, and wise, and worthy, and beautiful. The point which appears to be before St. Peters mind at this time is this: Christianity, as an actual fact, has been found very seriously to disturb existing social relations. Rightly enough; necessarily enough; but still anxiously, and oftentimes as occasioning serious distress. It did actually disturb the marriage relations, more especially in those cases in which the wife became a Christian, and had to find fitting expression for the new Christian spirit in the old Pagan home. St. Peter presents some practical principles.
I. Christianity does not break up home relations.It is a fixed apostolic principle that wherein a man is called, therein he is to abide with God; that is, whatever may be his class relation, and whatever his occupation or business (provided it is honest), when he is converted, he is to remain in it, and find expression for his new Christian life in connection with it. And this principle can be applied to wives. If they are called, being wives, they are to remain in that marital relation, whatever difficulties may gather round them, and find expression for the new Christian life in the associations of their home life. And it would not be difficult for them to do this, if they properly apprehended Christianity as a new life, sanctifying their daily life, and not a more creed to believe, or ritual to observe, or relation to sustain. The difficulty which was felt when Christianity entered the old Pagan homes is felt to-day when Christianity enters the Hindoo home, and becomes a converting and saving power to the women of the homes. For them to be baptized would be for them to be turned out of their homes, and exposed to a life of misery and even shame. For them to remain and force Christian practices upon their households would mean constant conflict and distress for everybody. And it is necessary to see clearly that Christianity never proposes the breaking up of home relations. It would be a new spirit in the heart of a wife, and do its gracious work through the moral influence of a sanctified life. Under no conceivable circumstances is any woman justified in breaking away from her home relations on the ground of her Christianity. Her new life must find its sphere in the old relations.
II. Christianity perfects the harmony of the home relations.It does this in two ways.
1. It is the most efficient power to enable a wife to bear the disabilities and difficulties of her home life. It nourishes just those passive, gentle graces which enable her to bear, and suffer, and endure. And
2. It guides her in the moulding and training of the character of the inmates, so that efficiently, but very unconsciously, she gets them all into harmony. And in her harmonising work she has not only the power of her own cultured character and influence, she has also the Divine power, which she draws down for her help, by her soul-openness and dependence, and by her daily prayer. It must be added that her harmonising work, being moral, cannot be sudden, and is not likely to be apparent to any one. It is the ministry of a life, and it often takes a life.
III. Christianity triumphs over the difficulties that arise in the home relations.We need not think of contentions. Where these are happily unknown, home life has its anxieties. The men are harassed and worried; the members are afflicted. Business cares, bodily diseases, frailties in childrens characters, failure in plans for the childrens well-being, all make varied difficulties. Sincere and earnest Christian feeling in the wife is the great secret of triumph in and over all such things. The ruffled find her at peace; the troubled are sure of her sympathy; the disappointed are cheered by her hopefulness. Her piety helps her to see a bright light in every cloud; her faith enables her to see God ever near, just behind the cloud.
IV. Christianity works in homes through its power in personal character.The hidden man of the heart: the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit: so long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. It may be true that the supreme power of Christianity in everybody, male and female, is its power in character; but the public activities of men seem to overshadow this truth. We see it quite clearly in woman. Her mission for Christ in the world lies mainly in that influence she can win just by being beautiful in character, through the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
1Pe. 3:1. The Wifes Sphere in the Home.The philosophy of marriage, as our Lord unfolds it, is this: a man and a woman made one all around the circle of their being; married in heart and thought and life; joined in desires and purposes and aims; in affections and interests one. Here is the starting point for the interpretation of the wifes sphere and duty in the model home. Matthew Henrys exposition must be quoted once more: In creating womanfor she was a new and fresh creation, and the last thing God did create, and hence His masterpieceGod did not take her out of the head of man to be over him, nor from his feet to be under him, but out of his side to be equal with him, from under his arm to be sheltered and protected by him, and from near his heart to walk in sympathy and helpfulness by his side. God made for Adam but one Eve, not two, nor ten. Mormonism has no authority from God. What God has joined together, let not man put asunder. The union made by ordinance of God cannot be broken by ordinance of man, save by the one exception which Jesus Christ instituted. Hence the part of the wife in the happy home is equal in position and influence to that of the husband, but not the same. Woman is not merely a copy of mana faded, second impression from the same platebut another creation, enlarging and enriching life. It brought new and higher elements into the circle of being, adding to lifes joys and possibilities, and making man himself more, through her. The husband and wife are the two halves of one whole, and the whole is designed by God to be greater and better than the sum of the parts. Let her, then, not assume headship, much less lordship, putting on airs as if the Millennium would come when she got her fancied rights. The wife must see that she reverence her husband. Neither let her be fretted and chafed by an overbearing man, making her feel that she is an inferior by some jumping-jack of a husband. The Scotch have a proverb, You may ding the devil into a wife, but you can never ding him out. The husband and wife are in a true sense one. Whatever is good for him is good for her. Whatever is due from him to her is also equally duo from her to him. They move together. He owes no duty to her that she does not owe to him a counterpart. It is an even thing. What the wife requires of her husband, that let her give to him. She is married for better or for worse; let her resolve that it shall be for better. Matches are not made in heaven, and will be for the worse if there be no watchful, patient care to work them out on earth for heaven. It is the duty of the wife to cultivate the practical home-making, God-given gift, keeping her house bright and genial. In a churchyard in England I found this eulogy on a wifes tablet: She always made home happy. Blessed is the home that shelters mutual love: but the ideals must be reduced to reality. Work for the husband is better than worship of him, if the buttons are not sewed on. The word wife means a weaver, and lady a loaf-giver. She can be no idle dreamer. If, before marriage, the maiden weaves cobwebs of fancy, after marriage she must weave the solid cloth of gold. That is an ornament which adorns. She is never so amiable or beautiful as when useful. Spurgeon, a prime minister of England, says: I have no faith in that woman who talks of grace and glory abroad and uses no soap and water at home. The wifes sphere has home for its centre, and its circumference cuts, in its curves, all that is true and beautiful and good. It is not money that makes a happy home. Rich as Vanderbilt, the wife must seek to be an intelligent mistress of the house, with a smile that brightens and a touch that beautifies. Rich or poor, she must know how to guide affairs, and strive for the tact and taste that makes homely duties handsome. She layeth her hands to the spindle, she clotheth her husband in scarlet. In the home she may say she rules in queenly fashion: I am sovereign by the grace of God. My home to me a kingdom is, and to all that enter this realm I will hold out the golden sceptre of blessing. Marriage, to a woman, is more than a kings coronation. The wedding ring is as much a symbol of power and influence in the home as the monarchs signet. There is great force hidden in a sweet command. No life can be tame or limited when high aims are followed. The strength of a wife to lift up others in trouble, and hold them to worthy aims, is very great. Let the wife accept that mission cheerfully, if it be assigned to her, and work under pressure and without recognition, long and painfully, if it is called for. The reward is sure. God sees and remembers all. He that seeth in secret shall reward her openly. The pleasant home-making talent of the wife will curb bad temper and evil propensity. Thus, to suppress a moments anger may save a week of sorrow. She will strive to preserve all amenities of dress and manner, keeping the home orderly and inviting. Carefulness and courtesy in the home are never lost. Roughness and indifference are never safe, and coarseness breeds contempt. The wise wife will continue to do those things which first won her husbands love. Treat your husbands return from business cares with a joyous and smiling welcome, and make the home bright and winsome while he stays. He will stay the longer and be back the sooner. If you pout out, Oh, you have come at last, have you? You care nothing for me, that is plain! I have no charm, I see, for you any longer, you are in danger of throwing away the key to his heart. Never do it. He cant be harassed in business all day and harassed by his wife at night. He will want to go out to see a man, or to go to the post office and just step into the club house. Peevishness and fault-finding will never do. Study to be a real help-meet to your husband, and never a drag on himto be one meet to help such a one as he is. Contact with a noble-minded woman is good for any man. There has been a good wife, as a rule, close beside every eminent man. Seldom will a man become any greater than his wife will let him. She must strive to fit herself for his growing fortunes and to rise with him, and be a true helper in all the spheres to which he is called. That is the wifes sphere, and if she does not keep even with him she will pull him down. A wife that is her husbands help-meet, growing as he grows, is his best fortune. Whoso findeth such a wife findeth good. He will not say, I fell in love; he will say, I rose. But he will be thoughtfully tender of such a wife, and very careful to put no hindrance in her way. He will lend her every aid in family cares, that they may ascend the hill together. He is the sturdy oak, and she the ivy entwining. He will throw out his strong, protecting arms that she may reach the topmost bough in grace and beauty. Pity for the ivy that will not climb! In order to do this, there must be a life-long assimilation. When husband and wife first come together, they are alike at only a few points, and know really little about each other. They must study each other, and see the faults and virtues of each other, mutually helping and strengthening each other. So will they conform to one another, and grow more and more together, avoiding stirring up the bad in each, and developing the good. We all have our faults. Expect faults, and be not surprised at finding them. It is a great thing to kindly help one to get rid of them and beyond them. Very likely here is where the young wife will have her first cry. She has been such a darling in the home, and such a pet in society; and so long has she had her own way that when her husband gets tired of her egotism and selfishness, and brings her up with a square turn to consider that there are two to be consulted in that firm instead of one, it will overwhelm her. Hasnt her husband always said that they are one?Two hearts with but a single thought! and has she not been given to think that she is the one! And now, she thinks, he is a monster, and that life is not worth the living. But she is good and true at heart, and will find her head soon, and be a wiser and better wife. She will be married to her husband, after that, at a higher point in her soul. In this way, by self-denial and forbearance, they will, step by step, become truly joined in the nobler ranges, and secure a happy marriage union.C. L. Goodell, D.D.
1Pe. 3:3-4.The Higher Life for Woman.There are two passages, and this is one of them, from which there has been derived by the Puritan and so-called Christian teachers the doctrine that it was wicked for women to wear jewellery and precious stones. They have not been so particular about plaiting the hair that, I know of, although that comes in under condemnation in the same way. Now, the whole point is lost where it is fixed on these things. The point is, that one should not expend the whole of life on making the outside beautiful, but that one should see to it that the inside is adorned also. You are not to cheat the soul of all its gems and virtues for the sake of making yourself attractive exteriorly by adornments of that kind. That is the point, but it has been commuted into a general declaration against ornaments of beautywhether of the hair, or of the apparel, or of precious stones. Nothing could be farther from the spirit of the text than that. This, we are to bear in mind, is addressed in its original form to Oriental women. They were in the condition mainly that multitudes of men think they ought to be in now. They were stayers at home; they were managers of the household; they received no gifts of education whatever. It was not necessary that a woman should be expensively educated for the sake of making bread or mending stockings, and so they were but little better than slaves of the harem. Even in the very highest point of its splendour there was not in all Athens a single woman who was permitted to be educated, if she wished to have the reputation of virtue. Knowledge with women in Grecian days was a token of impudicity. If a woman meant to live as a courtesan, no pains were spared to educate her in taste, in knowledge, in philosophy, even in statesmanship. Here is the root of the explanation in regard to those dissuasions in the writings of the New Testament, that women should not speak in public. In the corrupt and degraded sentiment of those Oriental ages, for a woman to be able to speak in meeting and to rise to do it, would have fixed upon her the stigma of being common and corrupt. Therefore it was a wise decree of the apostle that, in such an age, and under such public ideas of what was feminine and pure, and what was unfeminine and impure, must be silent. They must conform in the churches to the public sentiment of their time, until Christianity should have changed the times, and rendered possible a larger liberty, felicitous and beneficial. Now, in such a case as that of women, whose desire to please and love of pleasure is strongnot perhaps stronger than in men, but under circumstances in which there were fewer ways of pleasing than men possesswhat could they do but make their persons attractive? They were forbidden to make themselves beautiful within, and so they made themselves as beautiful as they could without, with braided hair, with all manner of pearls and precious stones, with all fancifulness and beauty of dress. But St. Peter and St. Paul alike said: Do not spend yourself on external garnishing; look inward, and cultivate the inward life, or, as St. Peter here calls it, the hidden man of the soul. In short, St. Peter and St. Paul were both in favour of higher education for women. They did not believe that the line of her life should not rise above the bread-trough, or the handling of the instruments by which she was to obtain victory in the industries of life. They believed that a woman should have a higher life, a higher inward development; and should not therefore turn to frivolous pleasures and external beauty.H. Ward Beecher.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
1Pe. 3:1. A Wifes Power to Win.As I was conversing, says a writer in the New York Observer, with a pious old man, I inquired what were the means of his conversion. For a moment he pausedI perceived I had touched a tender string. Tears gushed from his eyes, while, with deep emotion, he replied: My wife was brought to God some years before myself. I persecuted and abused her because of her religion. She, however, returned nothing but kindnessconstantly manifesting an anxiety to promote my comfort and happiness; and it was her amiable conduct when suffering ill-treatment from me that first sent the arrows of conviction to my soul.
1Pe. 3:3. Pride in Dress.Goldsmith tells of a mandarin who took much pride in appearing with a number of jewels on every part of his robe. He was once accosted by a sly old fellow, who, following him through several streets, bowed often to the ground, and thanked him for his jewels. What does the man mean? cried the mandarin. I never gave you any of my jewels. No, replied the other; but you have let me look at them, and that is all the use you can make of them yourself. So the only difference between us is, that you have the trouble of watching them; and that is an employment I dont much desire.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
3. Toward Husbands 3:16
1Pe. 3:1-2 In like manner, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, even if any obey not the word, they may without the word be gained by the behavior of their wives; beholding your chaste behavior coupled with fear.
Expanded Translation
In the same way you wives be subjecting yourselves to and obeying your own husbands, in order that (for this purpose: ) even if any (of the husbands) refuse to yield and comply to the word (teachings of Scripture) they may be won over (to Christ) without a word (talking, speech), but rather by means of the behavior and conduct of their wives, when they behold your pure and chaste behavior joined with reverence and respect (of your husband).
In like manner,
Relating this passage to the previous context, especially Chap. 1Pe. 2:13-25. Peter had previously written to citizens and servants to relate all of life to God, behaving as Christians at all times and in all circumstances. Actually, the subject of the previous verses has been obedient subjectioneven if one is mistreated. The case had just been cited of Christ, who suffered wrongfully and yet did not sin or rise up in rebellion against those who mistreated Him.
ye wives, be in subjection
See the same word defined in 1Pe. 2:18.
to your own husbands; that,
OWN HUSBANDSCompare Eph. 5:22.
THATThe Greek word expresses purpose; herefore, we have here the purpose of her subjection to her husband.
obey not
See our notes in 1Pe. 2:8 where the same word is translated disobedient. Previously Peter had exhorted servants to be in subjection to their masters even if their masters were froward. Here he exhorts wives how to act even if they have un-Christian mates.
the word
i.e., the Gospel Message. They have not been obedient to the teachings of Christ.
they may without the word be gained by the behavior
BE GAINEDkerdaino, means to gain in various senses in the New Testament. Here, to win over, to embrace the Gospel. See 1Co. 9:19-22.
BEHAVIORanastrophe, mode of life, conduct, deportment. The King James conversation now conveys a thought too limited for this word, though anastrophe would certainly include her speech.
What does this latter statement mean? There are at least two possibilities: (1) That the phrase the word is used here as it is previously in the verse to refer to the Gospel Message. The idea would then be that the husband is influenced much more by the conduct of the wife than he is by the Gospel Message. However, this interpretation would seem to minimize the value of the Gospel teaching. We know of nothing in the entire New Testament which indicates that any person could ever come to know Christ without previously having been taught something about Him. In the Book of Acts, for example, one is consistently taught the Word before he is baptized, (2) That the phrase the word in its second appearance in the verse, has reference to the speech or verbal statements (teachings?) of the wife to her un-Christian husband. In the original language, the first word has the definite article. But the second word has no article. As a result, almost every modern speech translation renders this last phrase that they may, without a word, be won . . . or, that they may be won over without argument through the behavior . . .
Peter is emphasizing the influence of a Christian wifes conduct upon her un-Christian husband. Rather than trying to argue, contend, or out-talk ones husband on religious issues, the Apostle would instruct the wives to let their consecrated lives, their humble subjection, their meek and quiet spirit, to be of such a nature that it would stand out in bold relief against his ungodliness and rebellion. Comp. 1Pe. 2:12. There is also a similarity to the thought expressed here and the one in Rom. 12:20.
Her behavior, her Christian conduct, her humble demeanor, Peter knew, would do ten times as much good as a trainload of sermons from her lips. How true to life is this statement! Observe that un-Christian husbandthe one who for years has turned down the Gospel Message. Finally, he yields his heart to Christ. Now observe the conduct of the same mans wife. It invariably meets the requirements of this very verse!
beholding your chaste behavior
BEHOLDINGDefined under 1Pe. 2:12.
CHASTEhagnos, pure, chaste, modest, innocent, blameless. The word first of all had reference to purity of morals. But sometimes it was used in the more general sense of ones over-all conduct; innocent, blameless. The more primary meaning is assumed by most translators here, and is nearly always necessary in the behavior of a Christian wife if her un-Christian husband is to be turned to Christ.
coupled with fear
See our discussion of the word fear under 1Pe. 2:18. The meaning is similar here.
Certainly, if this exhortation is heeded, the husband will be turned to Christ many times when other means fail and particularly when her attempts at teaching, rebuking and verbally condemning him accomplish little. He realizes she means business. She practices her religion. Her example proves the sincerity of her claims. All of her sweet-spirited Christian conduct, it is hoped, will serve to shame him in his disobedience and lead to his repentance and conversion.
1Pe. 3:3-4 Whose adorning let it not be the outward adorning of braiding the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
Expanded Translation
Whose adornment must not be outward or external: braiding (plaiting) of the hair, and putting on things made of gold or wearing garments; but rather let it be the hidden person of the heart that receives your primary attention, in the incorruptible (imperishable) clothing of a meek and tranquil spirit which is in the sight of God, of surpassing value.
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outward adorning of braiding the hair,
BRAIDING THE HAIRemplokes, braiding or plaiting (of hair). It frequently had reference to an elaborate gathering of the hair into knots.Thayer.
and of wearing jewels of gold,
This is all one word in the originalchrusios. The literal translation here, because the word is in the plural, is of gold things or things of gold. The word means golden, made or adorned with gold, golden in color or appearance. Moulton & Milligan say the word was used first of a gold coin, and secondly of gold ornaments (here). They cite a statement written in a letter about A.D. 260: When you come bring your gold ornaments, but do not wear them in the boat.
or of putting on apparel
APPARELhimationgarments, clothes, raiment. The word consistently refers to exterior or outer clothing in the New Testament, the coat rather than the cloak (Mat. 5:40).
outward adorning
ADORNINGThis is the final word in the Greek text, though it appears at the front of the sentence in the English text. Kosmos is a word of wide significance in the original. Here it is used in the more primary sense of order. Thayer says of it, 1. in Greek writing, from Homer down, an apt and harmonious arrangement or constitution, order. 2, As in Greek writing from Homer down, ornament, decoration, adornment. Compare here 1Ti. 2:9, where the context is very similar.
let it be the hidden man of the heart,
HIDDENkruptoshidden, concealed, secret, clandestine, A similar word, kruptle, means a vault or closet, a cell for storage, Compare our English words cryptic, cryptogram, etc.
in the incorruptible apparel
INCORRUPTIBLEaphthartos. See our comments under 1Pe. 1:4, where the same word is defined. Here, as there, the meaning is perpetuity in contrast to decay. The clothes and garments of the outward person will soon pass away, But the benefits of a meek and quiet spirit will last into eternity.
of a meek and quiet spirit
MEEKpraos: gentle, mild, meek.
QUIEThesuchios: quiet, tranquil, peaceful, Note its only other appearance in the New Testament, 1Ti. 2:12. The prophet said in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength (Isa. 30:15).
of great price
Poluteles (from polu, much, and telos, revenue): precious, excellent, expensive, of surpassing value, requiring a great outlay.
Here we have what God esteems as very valuable and important in the life of a womanthe proper adornment of her inward person. But what is it that the twentieth century woman is so bent on adorning? It is just the opposite! To her, the outward person is of surpassing value, and she is often willing to give a great outlay if she thinks by that means she will add to her external beauty. My ways are not your ways, saith Jehovah.
On the above verses there is an excellent statement in Bushs Illustrations of the Holy Scriptures, p. 642, where he quotes Paxton:
The eastern females wear their hair, which the prophet emphatically calls the instrument of their pride, very long, and divided into a great number of tresses. In Barbary, the ladies all affect to have their hair hang down to the ground, which, after they have collected into one lock, they bind and plait with ribands; a piece of finery which the apostle marks with disapprobation: [and this very passage is quoted in its entirety.] Not that he condemns in absolute terms all regard to neatness and elegance in dress and appearance, but only an undue attention to these things. His meaning plainly is: Whose adorning, let it not chiefly consist in that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, but rather let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is, in the sight of God, of great price. The way in which the apostle uses the negative particle in this text, is a decisive proof that this is his true meaning; it extends to every member of the sentence; and by consequence, if it prohibits the plaiting of hair, it equally prohibits the putting on of apparel. But it never could be his design to forbid women to wear clothes, or to be decently and neatly dressed; therefore, the negative must have only a comparative sense, instructing us in the propriety and necessity of attending more to the dispositions of the mind, than to the adorning of the body. . . . The men in the East, Chardin observes, are shaved; the women nourish their hair with great fondness, which they lengthen by tresses, and tufts of silk, down to the heels.
1Pe. 3:5-6 For after this manner aforetime the holy women also, who hoped in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands: as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord: whose children ye now are, if ye do well, and are not put in fear by any terror.
Expanded Translation
For after this manner (that I have just mentioned) the holy women of past time also, who placed their hope in God, adorned themselves: being submissive to their own husbands. As an example of this, I cite the case of Sarah, who obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord (sir, master); whose children (daughters) you have now become, if you will do well (live right) and not be put in a state of fear by any thing or person which causes terror.
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after this manner
Referring to the manner described in 1Pe. 3:1-4, i.e., an inward subjecting of themselves to their husbandsinnocent and blameless behavior, with reverential fear. They were to have a meek and quiet spirit, as they subjected themselves.
who hoped in God
Compare 1Pe. 1:3. It is true that the position of Sarah and the holy women of the Old Testament was one of expectancy, or looking forward to the fulfillment of some promiseof a son. Some have thought, then, that the description of them as hopeful women is intended to make the readers feel the superiority of their own position. Gods promises to them (such as that of the coming Messiah) were fulfilled, not just hoped for.
The meaning, however, may be more general, and have reference simply to their unqualified trust in Jehovah as they went about their daily lives. Notice the similarity of Pauls description of the widow indeed in 1Ti. 5:5 : Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, hath her hope set on God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.
adorn themselves, being
Their adornment was this type of subjection.
after this manner
Referring to the manner described in 1Pe. 3:1-22 :1Pe. 1:4.
calling him Lord
LORDkurios, a title of reverence and respect. Thayers definition is He to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has the power of deciding; master, lord. The word is properly translated sir a number of times in the New Testament: Luk. 13:25, Joh. 4:11; Joh. 4:15; Joh. 4:19; Joh. 5:7. It is to be carefully distinguished from masters (despotes) in 1Pe. 2:18. Trench says, a man, according to the latter Greek grammarians, was despotes (master) in respect of his slaves . . . therefore oikodespotes (housemaster), but kurios (lord) in regard of his wife and children; who in speaking either to him or of him, would give him this title of honor . . . Undoubtedly there lives in kurios (lord) the sense of an authority owning limitationsmoral limitations it may be; it is implied, too, that the wielder of his authority will not exclude, in wielding it, a consideration of their good over whom it is exercised; while the despotes (master) exercises a more unrestricted power and absolute domination, confessing no such limitations or restraints.[9]
[9] Synonyms of the New Testament, p. 96.
The actual occurrence of Sarah referring to Abraham as Lord is in Gen. 18:12.
whose children ye are
Still addressing the wives of (un-Christian) husbands. See 1Pe. 1:14 on children. They were her daughters when they behaved as she did.
if ye do well and are not put in fear by any terror
Note the Expanded Translation. Thayer would render the latter part of this phrase, to be afraid with terror. Notice the similarity to Pro. 3:25 : Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh.
To be afraid of sudden alarms and panics argues a lack of trust in Gods providence, power, and protection. Such a disposition would, therefore, be unbecoming to the daughters of Sarah, who hoped in God. The alarms which they naturally might fear are, of course, quite general; but especially here, we may suppose, dread of what their unbelieving husbands might do to them. They must quietly, serenely, trustingly live the life to which God has called them.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
III.
(1) Likewise ye wives . . .Third division of second prudential rule: subordination conjugal. Here, again, the form in the original is participial, joining this injunction on to 1Pe. 2:13; 1Pe. 2:18, where the word is the same in Greek, wives, in the same way submitting yourselves. Whether this imposes for all time upon Christian wives as complete a submission towards their husbands as is here enjoined might perhaps be questioned, because the special reason for the command in this place was to allay suspicions engendered by the boldness with which Christianity proclaimed the freedom of the individual. St. Peter has just been giving injunctions for absolute submission, even to injustice, on the part of slaves; and the progress of Christianity has abolished slavery altogether. The measure of the Christian wifes submission may safely be left to her own enlightened conscience, guided by other passages of the New Testament not written, like this, for a special emergency.
Your own husbands.This does not order submission to the husband in contrast to submission to other directors, but rather gives a reason for obedience. The Christian wife that hath love to God, says Leighton, though her husband be not so comely, or so wise, or any way so amiable, as many others, yet because he is her own husband, and because of the Lords command in the general, and His providence in the particular disposal of His own, therefore she loves and obeys.
That if any obey not the word.Rather, in order that even supposing some (at present) disobey the word. The word is, of course, the Gospel, the declaration of the fulfilment of the prophecies in Jesus. And those who disobey the word are, according to constant usage, the Jews. The present verb is used of the Jews in Act. 14:2; Act. 17:5; Act. 19:9; Rom. 10:21; Rom. 11:31; Rom. 15:31, besides St. Peters own use in 1Pe. 2:8; 1Pe. 4:17. The only places where it is distinctly used of others are Rom. 2:8 (of Jew and Gentile together), Rom. 11:30 (where the Gentiles are compared with the Jews), Heb. 3:18 (of the Israelites in the wilderness), Heb. 11:31 (of the men of Jericho), 1Pe. 3:20 (of the refractory antediluvians). In any case it must mean a wilful refusal to submit to the Word, in spite of being intellectually convinced. (See especially 1Pe. 2:8.) For every reason, therefore, it is more probable that the case here supposed is that of Hebrew (Christian) women, married to men of their own race who reject the gospel.
They also may . . .The order here is not so neat as in the original, and it spoils the point to insert the definite article before word. It should run, In order that . . . through their wives conversation, without a word, they may (literally, shall) be gained. There is something almost playful in the substitution of their wives instead of you, and in the without a word contrasted with the word before. St. Peter seems to enjoy laying the little innocent plot. He was himself, as the Prayer Book reminds us, a married man. And what he means here, is not that those who have resisted the public preaching in the synagogues, should even without that public preaching be won; rather, that though the gospel as uttered verbally only provokes them to opposition, the gospel as submissively acted by their wives, without a word said on the matter, ought to convert them. This model of submission and humility, says M. Renan, meaning the Lamb of God, is made by Peter the law for all classes of Christian society. The wife above all, without setting up for a preacher (sans faire la prcheuse), ought, by the discreet charm of her piety, to be the great missionary of the faith. The word rendered won keeps up the playfulness of that which goes before; it means to turn a profit, and there is just enough of ruse in it to make the enforcement of submission to a husband of opposed religious views seem an enticing little speculation. The tense of the original verb indicates that the scheme is certain to succeed. (Comp. Mat. 18:15; 1Co. 9:19-20.) Archbishop Leighton points out that in Hebrew the name of the book of Ecclesiastes; or, the Preacher, is a feminine, and the same is the case in Psa. 68:11, and elsewhere.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(13-4: 6) EXHORTATION TO KEEP A PURE CONSCIENCE.It is the only charm against persecution. It is like Christ to suffer with a good conscience; and He had His reward for it, in bringing us, and even the spirits of men who had died impenitent, to God thereby. It is the very meaning of the baptism by which He saves us. To feel its beauty and safety, we have but to consider the ugliness and danger of our former life.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
PRUDENTIAL RULES OF CONDUCT IN VIEW OF THE HOSTILE ATTITUDE OF THE HEATHEN.As slanders against the Christian name are rife, and bringing practical persecution on the Church, they are exhorted to extreme care about their conduct, especially in regard (1) to purity, and (2) to due subordination, whether as subjects to the officers of state, or as slaves to their masters, or as wives to their husbands (1Pe. 2:11 to 1Pe. 3:12.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 3
THE SILENT PREACHING OF A LOVELY LIFE ( 1Pe 3:1-2 ) 3:1-2 Likewise, you wives, be submissive to your husbands, so that, if there are any who refuse to believe the word, they may be won for Christ without a word because they have seen your pure and reverent behaviour.
Peter turns to the domestic problems which Christianity inevitably produced. It was inevitable that one marriage partner might be won for Christ, while the other remained untouched by the appeal of the gospel; and such a situation inevitably had difficulties.
It may seem strange that Peter’s advice to wives is six times as long as that to husbands. This is because the wife’s position was far more difficult than that of the husband. If a husband became a Christian, he would automatically bring his wife with him into the Church and there would be no problem. But if a wife became a Christian while her husband did not, she was taking a step which was unprecedented and which produced the acutest problems.
In every sphere of ancient civilization, women had no rights at all. Under Jewish law a woman was a thing; she was owned by her husband in exactly the same way as he owned his sheep and his goats: on no account could she leave him, although he could dismiss her at any moment. For a wife to change her religion while her husband did not was unthinkable.
In Greek civilization the duty of the woman was “to remain indoors and to be obedient to her husband.” It was the sign of a good woman that she must see as little, hear as little and ask as little as possible. She had no kind of independent existence and no kind of mind of her own, and her husband could divorce her almost at caprice, so long as he returned her dowry.
Under Roman law a woman had no rights. In law she remained for ever a child. When she was under her father she was under the patria potestas, the father’s power, which gave the father the right even of life and death over her; and when she married she passed equally into the power of her husband. She was entirely subject to her husband and completely at his mercy. Cato the Censor, the typical ancient Roman, wrote: “If you were to catch your wife in an act of infidelity, you can kill her with impunity without a trial.” Roman matrons were prohibited from drinking wine, and Egnatius beat his wife to death when he found her doing so. Sulpicius Gallus dismissed his wife because she had once appeared in the streets without a veil. Antistius Vetus divorced his wife because he saw her secretly speaking to a freed woman in public. Publius Sempronius Sophus divorced his wife because once she went to the public games. The whole attitude of ancient civilization was that no woman could dare take any decision for herself.
What, then, must have been the problems of the wife who became a Christian while her husband remained faithful to the ancestral gods? It is almost impossible for us to realize what life must have been for the wife who was brave enough to become a Christian.
What, then, is Peter’s advice in such a case? We must first note what he does not advise.
He does not advise the wife to leave her husband. In this he takes exactly the same attitude as Paul takes ( 1Co 7:13-16). Both Paul and Peter are quite sure that the Christian wife must remain with the heathen husband so long as he does not send her away. Peter does not tell the wife to preach or to argue. He does not tell her to insist that there is no difference between slave and freeman, Gentile and Jew, male and female, but that all are the same in the presence of the Christ whom she has come to know.
He tells her something very simple–nothing else than to be a good wife. It is by the silent preaching of the loveliness of her life that she must break down the barriers of prejudice and hostility, and win her husband for her new Master.
She must be submissive. It is not a spineless submission that is meant but, as someone has finely put it, a “voluntary selflessness.” it is the submission which is based on the death of pride and the desire to serve. It is the submission not of fear but of perfect love.
She must be pure. There must be in her life a lovely chastity and fidelity founded on love.
She must be reverent. She must live in the conviction that the whole world is the Temple of God and that all life is lived in the presence of Christ.
THE TRUE ADORNMENT ( 1Pe 3:3-6 ) 3:3-6 Let not your adornment be an outward thing of braided hair and ornaments of gold and wearing of robes, but let it be an adornment of the inward personality of the heart, wrought by the unfading loveliness of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. For it was thus in days of old the holy women, who placed their hopes in God, adorned themselves in submission to their husbands. It was thus that Sara obeyed Abraham calling him, “Lord.” And you have become her children, if you do good, and if you do not become a prey to fluttering fears.
Bengel speaks of “the labour bestowed on dress which consumes much time.” Such labour is no modern thing. We have already seen that in the ancient world women had no part in public life whatsoever; they had nothing to pass their time; for that reason it was sometimes argued that they must be allowed an interest in dress and adornment. Cato the Censor insisted on simplicity; Lucius Valerius answered: “Why should men grudge women their ornaments and their dress? Women cannot hold public offices, or priesthoods, or gain triumphs; they have no public occupations. What, then, can they do but devote their time to adornment and to dress?” Undue interest in self-adornment was then, as it still is, a sign that the person who indulged in it had no greater things to occupy her mind.
The ancient moralists condemned undue luxury as much as the Christian teachers did. Quintilian, the Roman master of oratory, wrote: “A tasteful and magnificent dress, as the Greek poet tells us, lends added dignity to the wearer: but effeminate and luxurious apparel fails to adorn the body, and only reveals the sordidness of the mind.” Epictetus, the philosopher, thinking of the narrow life to which women were condemned in the ancient world, said, “Immediately after they are fourteen, women are called ‘ladies’ by men. And so, when they see that they have nothing else than to be bedfellows of men, they begin to beautify themselves and put all their hopes on that. It is, therefore, worthwhile for us to take pains to make them understand that they are honoured for nothing else but only for appearing modest and self-respecting.” Epictetus and Peter agree.
There is at least one passage in the Old Testament which lists the various items of female adornment and threatens the day of judgment in which they will be destroyed. The passage is Isa 3:18-24. It speaks of the “finery of the anklets, the headbands and the crescents; the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarfs; the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes and the amulets; the signet rings and nose rings; the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks and the handbags; the garments of gauze, the linen garments, the turbans and the veils.”
In the world of the Greeks and the Romans it is interesting to collect the references to personal adornments. There were as many ways of dressing the hair as there were bees in Hybca. Hair was waved and dyed, sometimes black, more often auburn. Wigs were worn, especially blonde wigs, which are found even in the Christian catacombs; and hair to manufacture them was imported from Germany, and even from as far away as India. Hairbands, pins and combs were made of ivory, and boxwood, and tortoiseshell; and sometimes of gold, studded with gems.
Purple was the favourite colour for clothes. One pound weight of the best Tyrian purple wool, strained twice through, cost 1,000 denarii, 43.50 British pounds. A tyrian cloak of the best purple cost well over 100 British pounds. In one year silks, pearls, scents and jewellery were imported from India to the value of 1,000,000 British pounds. Similar imports of luxury came from Arabia.
Diamonds, emeralds, topazes, opals and the sardonyx were favourite stones. Struma Nonius had a ring valued at 21,250 British pounds. Pearls were loved most of all. Julius Caesar bought for Servilia a pearl which cost him 65,250 British pounds. Earrings were made of pearls and Seneca spoke of women with two or three fortunes in their ears. Slippers were encrusted with them; Nero even had a room whose walls were covered with them. Pliny saw Lollia Paulina, wife of Caligula, wearing a dress so covered with pearls and emeralds that it had cost 450,000 British pounds.
Christianity came into a world of luxury and decadence combined.
In face of all this Peter pleads for the graces which adorn the heart, which are precious in the sight of God. These were the jewels which adorned the holy women of old. Isaiah had called Sara the mother of God’s faithful people ( Isa 51:2); and if Christian wives are adorned with the same graces of modesty, humility and chastity, they too will be her daughters and will be within the family of the faithful people of God.
A Christian wife of those times lived in a society where she would be tempted to senseless extravagance and where she might well go in fear of the caprices of her heathen husband; but she must live in selfless service, in goodness and in serene trust. That would be the best sermon she could preach to win her husband for Christ. There are few passages where the value of a lovely Christian life is so vividly stressed.
THE HUSBAND’S OBLIGATION ( 1Pe 3:7 ) 3:7 Likewise, you husbands, live understandingly with your wives, remembering that women are the weaker sex and assigning honour to them as fellow-heirs of the grace of life, so that there may be no barrier to your prayers.
Short as this passage is, it has in it much of the very essence of the Christian ethic. That ethic is what may be called a reciprocal ethic. It never places all the responsibility on one side. If it speaks of the duties of slaves, it speaks also of the obligations of masters. If it speaks of the duty of children, it speaks also of the obligations of parents (compare Eph 6:1-9; Col 3:20-25; Col 4:1). Peter has just laid down the duty of wives; now he lays down the duty of husbands. A marriage must be based on reciprocal obligation. A marriage in which all the privileges are on one side and all the obligations on the other is bound to be imperfect with every chance of failure. This was a new conception in the ancient world. We have already noted the woman’s total lack of rights then and quoted Cato’s statement of the rights of the husband. But we did not finish that quotation and we do so now: “If you were to catch your wife in an act of infidelity, you can kill her with impunity without a trial; but, if she were to catch you, she would not venture to touch you with her finger and, indeed, she has no right.” In the Roman moral code all the obligation was on the wife and all the privilege with the husband. The Christian ethic never grants a privilege without a corresponding obligation.
What are the obligations of the husband?
(i) He must be understanding. He must be considerate and sensitive to the feelings of his wife. Somerset Maugham’s mother was a very beautiful woman with the world at her feet but his father was unhandsome. Someone once asked her: “Why do you remain faithful to that ugly little man you married?” Her answer was: “Because he never hurts me.” Understanding and considerateness had forged an unbreakable bond. The cruelty which is hardest to bear is often not deliberate but the product of sheer thoughtlessness.
(ii) He must be chivalrous. He must remember that women are the weaker sex and treat them with courtesy. In the ancient world chivalry to women was well-nigh unknown. It was, and still is, no uncommon sight in the East to see the man riding on a donkey while the woman trudged by his side. It was Christianity which introduced chivalry into the relationship between men and women.
(iii) He must remember that the woman has equal spiritual rights. She is a fellow-heir of the grace of life. Women did not share in the worship of the Greeks and the Romans. Even in the Jewish synagogue they had no share in the service, and in the orthodox synagogue still have none. When they were admitted to the synagogue at all, they were segregated from the men and hidden behind a screen. Here in Christianity emerged the revolutionary principle that women had equal spiritual rights and with that the relationship between the sexes was changed.
(iv) Unless a man fulfils these obligations, there is a barrier between his prayers and God. As Bigg puts it: “The sighs of the injured wife come between the husband’s prayers and God’s hearing.” Here is a great truth. Our relationships with God can never be right, if our relationships with our fellow-men are wrong. It is when we are at one with each other that we are at one with him.
(1) THE MARKS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE ( 1Pe 3:8-12 )
3:8-12 Finally, you must all be of one mind; you must have sympathy with each other and you must live in brotherly love; you must be compassionate and humble; you must not return evil for evil, nor insult for insult; on the contrary, you must return blessing; for it was to give and to inherit blessing that you were called.
He that would love life, And see good days, Let him keep his tongue from evil, And his lips from speaking guile: Let him turn away from evil and do right; Let him seek peace, and pursue it, For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, And his ears are open to their prayer; But the face of the Lord is against those that do evil.
Peter, as it were, gathers together the great qualities of the Christian life.
(i) Right in the forefront he sets Christian unity. It is worth while to collect together the great New Testament passages about unity, in order to see how great a place it occupies in New Testament thought. The basis of the whole matter is in the words of Jesus who prayed for his people that they might all be one, as he and his Father were one ( Joh 17:21-23). In the thrilling early days of the Church this prayer was fulfilled, for they were all of one heart and of soul ( Act 4:32). Over and over again Paul exhorts men to this unity and prays for it. He reminds the Christians of Rome that, though they are many, they are one body, and he pleads with them to be of one mind ( Rom 12:4; Rom 12:16). In writing to the Christians of Corinth, he uses the same picture of the Christians as members of one body in spite of all their differing qualities and gifts ( 1Co 12:12-31). He pleads with the quarrelling Corinthians that there should be no divisions among them and that they should be perfectly joined together in the same mind ( 1Co 1:10). He tells them that strifes and divisions are fleshly things, marks that they are living on purely human standards, without the mind of Christ ( 1Co 3:3). Because they have partaken of the one bread, they must be one body ( 1Co 10:17). He tells them that they must be of one mind and must live in peace ( 2Co 13:11). In Christ Jesus the dividing walls are down, and Jew and Greek are united into one ( Eph 2:13-14). Christians must maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, remembering that there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all ( Eph 4:3-6). The Philippians must stand fast in one spirit, striving together with one mind for the faith of the gospel; they will make Paul’s happiness complete, if they have the same love and have one accord and one mind; the quarrelling Euodias and Syntyche are urged to be of one mind in the Lord ( Php_1:27 ; Php_2:2 ; Php_4:2 ).
All through the New Testament rings this plea for Christian unity. It is more than a plea; it is an announcement that no man can live the Christian life unless in his personal relationships he is at unity with his fellow-men; and that the Church cannot be truly Christian if there are divisions within it. It is tragic to realize how far men are from realizing this unity in their personal lives and how far the Church is from realizing it within herself. C. E. B. Cranfield writes so finely of this that we cannot do other than quote his whole comment in full, lengthy though it is: “The New Testament never treats this agreeing in Christ as an unnecessary though highly desirable spiritual luxury, but as something essential to the true being of the Church. Divisions, whether disagreements between individual members or the existence of factions and parties and–how much more!–our present-day denominations, constitute a calling in question of the Gospel itself and a sign that those who are involved are carnal. The more seriously we take the New Testament, the more urgent and painful becomes our sense of the sinfulness of the divisions, and the more earnest our prayers and strivings after the peace and unity of the Church on earth. That does not mean that the like-mindedness we are to strive for is to be a drab uniformity of the sort beloved of bureaucrats. Rather is it to be a unity in which powerful tensions are held together by an over-mastering loyalty, and strong antipathies of race and colour, temperament and taste, social position and economic interest, are overcome in common worship and common obedience. Such unity will only come when Christians are humble and bold enough to lay hold on the unity already given in Christ and to take it more seriously than their own self-importance and sin, and to make of these deep differences of doctrine, which originate in our imperfect understanding of the Gospel and which we dare not belittle, not an excuse for letting go of one another or staying apart, but rather an incentive for a more earnest seeking in fellowship together to hear and obey the voice of Christ.” There speaks the prophetic voice to our modern condition.
(2)THE MARKS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE ( 1Pe 3:8-12 continued) (ii) Second, Peter sets sympathy. Here again the whole New Testament urges this duty upon us. We are to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep ( Rom 12:15). When one member of the body suffers all the other members suffer with it; and when one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with it ( 1Co 12:26), and it must be so with Christians, who are the body of Christ. One thing is clear, sympathy and selfishness cannot coexist. So long as the self is the most important thing in the world, there can be no such thing as sympathy; sympathy depends on the willingness to forget self and to identify oneself with the pains and sorrows of others. Sympathy comes to the heart when Christ reigns there.
(iii) Third, Peter sets brotherly love. Again the matter goes back to the words of Jesus. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another…. By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” ( Joh 13:34-35). Here the New Testament speaks with unmistakable definiteness and with almost frightening directness. “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love remains in death. Any one who hates his brother is a murderer” ( 1Jn 3:14-15). “If anyone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar” ( 1Jn 4:20). The simple fact is that love of God and love of man go hand in hand; the one cannot exist without the other. The simplest test of the reality of the Christianity of a man or a Church is whether or not it makes them love their fellow-men.
(iv) Fourth, Peter sets compassion. There is a sense in which pity is in danger of becoming a lost virtue. The conditions of our own age tend to blunt the edge of the mind to sensitiveness in pity. As C. E. B. Cranfield puts it: “We got used to hearing on the radio of a thousand-bomber raid as we ate our breakfast. We have got used to the idea of millions of people becoming refugees.” We can read of the thousands of casualties on the roads with no reaction within our hearts, forgetting that each means a broken body or a broken heart for someone. It is easy to lose the sense of pity and still easier to be satisfied with a sentimentalism which feels a moment’s comfortable sorrow and does nothing. Pity is of the very essence of God and compassion of the very being of Jesus Christ; a pity so great that God sent his only Son to die for men, a compassion so intense that it took Christ to the Cross. There can be no Christianity without compassion.
(v) Fifth, Peter sets humility. Christian humility comes from two things. It comes, first, from the sense of creatureliness. The Christian is humble because he is constantly aware of his utter dependence on God and that of himself he can do nothing. It comes, second, from the fact that the Christian has a new standard of comparison. It may well be that when he compares himself with his fellow-men, he has nothing to fear from the comparison. But the Christian’s standard of comparison is Christ, and, compared with his sinless perfection, he is ever in default. When the Christian remembers his dependence on God and keeps before him the standard of Christ, he must remain humble.
(vi) Lastly, and as a climax, Peter sets forgiveness. It is to receive forgiveness from God and to give forgiveness to men that the Christian is called. The one cannot exist without the other; it is only when we forgive others their sins against us that we are forgiven our sins against God ( Mat 6:12; Mat 6:14-15). The mark of the Christian is that he forgives others as God has forgiven him ( Eph 4:32).
As was natural for him, Peter sums the matter up by quoting Psa 34:1-22, with its picture of the man whom God receives and the man whom God rejects.
THE CHRISTIAN’S SECURITY IN A THREATENING WORLD ( 1Pe 3:13-15 a) 3:13-15a Who will hurt you, if you are ardent lovers of goodness? Even if you do have to suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. Have no fear of them; do not be troubled; but in your hearts give Christ a unique place.
In this passage we can see how Peter was soaked in the Old Testament; there are two Old Testament foundations for it. It is not so much that he actually quotes them, as that he could not have written the passage at all unless the Old Testament had been in his mind. The very first sentence is a reminiscence of Isa 50:9: “Behold, the Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty?” Again, when Peter is talking about the banishing of fear, he is thinking of Isa 8:13, “But the Lord of hosts, him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.”
There are three great conceptions in this passage.
(i) Peter begins by insisting on a passionate love of goodness. A man may have more than one attitude to goodness. It may be to him a burden or a bore or something which he vaguely desires but the price of which he is not willing to pay in terms of effort. The word we have translated an ardent lover is zelotes ( G2207) ; which is often translated Zealot. The Zealots were the fanatical patriots, who were pledged to liberate their native land by every possible means. They were prepared to take their lives in their hands, to sacrifice ease and comfort, home and loved ones, in their passionate love for their country. What Peter is saying is: “Love goodness with that passionate intensity with which the most fanatical patriot loves his country.” Sir John Seeley said, “No heart is pure that is not passionate; no virtue safe which is not enthusiastic.” It is only when a man falls in love with goodness that the wrong things lose their fascination and their power.
(ii) Peter goes on to speak about the Christian attitude to suffering. It has been well pointed out that we are involved in two kinds of suffering. There is the suffering in which we are involved because of our humanity. Because we are men, there come physical suffering, death, sorrow, distress of mind and weariness and pain of body. But there is also the suffering in which we may be involved because of our Christianity. There may be unpopularity, persecution, sacrifice for principle and the deliberate choosing of the difficult way, the necessary discipline and toil of the Christian life. Yet the Christian life has a certain blessedness which runs through it all. What is the reason for it?
(iii) Peter’s answer is this. The Christian is the man to whom God and Jesus Christ are the supremacies in life; his relationship to God in Christ is life’s greatest value. If a man’s heart is set on earthly things, possessions, happiness, pleasure, ease and comfort, he is of all men most vulnerable. For, in the nature of things, he may lose these things at any moment. Such a man is desperately easily hurt. On the other hand, if he gives to Jesus Christ the unique place in his life, the most precious thing for him is his relationship to God and nothing can take that from him. Therefore, he is completely secure.
So, then, even in suffering the Christian is still blessed. When the suffering is for Christ, he is demonstrating his loyalty to Christ and is sharing his sufferings. When the suffering is part of the human situation, it still cannot despoil him of the most precious things in life. No man escapes suffering, but for the Christian suffering cannot touch the things which matter most of all.
THE CHRISTIAN ARGUMENT FOR CHRIST ( 1Pe 3:15 b-16) 3:15b-16 Always be prepared to make your defence to anyone who calls you to account concerning the hope that is in you; but do so with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are abused, those who revile your good behaviour in Christ may be put to shame.
In a hostile and suspicious world it was inevitable that the Christian would be called upon to defend the faith he held and the hope by which he lived. Here Peter has certain things to say about this Christian defence.
(i) It must be reasonable. It is a logos ( G3056) that the Christian must give, and a logos ( G3056) is a reasonable and intelligent statement of his position. A cultivated Greek believed that it was the mark of an intelligent man that he was able to give and to receive a logos ( G3056) concerning his actions and belief. As Bigg puts it, he was expected “intelligently and temperately to discuss matters of conduct.” To do so we must know what we believe; we must have thought it out; we must be able to state it intelligently and intelligibly. Our faith must be a first-hand discovery and not a second-hand story. It is one of the tragedies of the modern situation that there are so many Church members who, if they were asked what they believe, could not tell, and who, if they were asked why they believe it, would be equally helpless. The Christian must go through the mental and spiritual toil of thinking out his faith, so that he can tell what he believes and why.
(ii) His defence must be given with gentleness. There are many people who state their beliefs with a kind of arrogant belligerence. Their attitude is that anyone who does not agree with them is either a fool or a knave and they seek to ram their beliefs down other people’s throats. The case for Christianity must be presented with winsomeness and with love, and with that wise tolerance which realizes that it is not given to any man to possess the whole truth. “There are as many ways to the stars as there are men to climb them.” Men may be wooed into the Christian faith when they cannot be bullied into it.
(iii) His defence must be given with reverence. That is to say, any argument in which the Christian is involved must be carried on in a tone which God can hear with joy. No debates have been so acrimonious as theological debates; no differences have caused such bitterness as religious differences. In any presentation of the Christian case and in any argument for the Christian faith, the accent should be the accent of love.
(iv) The only compelling argument is the argument of the Christian life. Let a man so act that his conscience is clear. Let him meet criticism with a life which is beyond reproach. Such conduct will silence slander and disarm criticism. “A saint,” as someone has said, “is someone whose life makes it easier to believe in God.”
THE SAVING WORK OF CHRIST ( 1Pe 3:17-22 ; 1Pe 4:1-6 )
3:17-22;4:1-6 For it is better to suffer for doing right, if that should be the will of God, than to suffer for doing wrong. For Christ also died once and for all for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but he was raised to life in the Spirit, in which also he went and preached to the spirits who are in prison, the spirits who were once upon a time disobedient, in the time when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being built, in which some few–that is, eight souls–were brought in safety through the water. And water now saves you, who were symbolically represented in Noah and his company, I mean the water of baptism; and baptism is not merely the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge to God of a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, because he went to heaven, after angels and authorities and power had been made subject to him.
Since, then, Christ suffered in the flesh, you too must arm yourselves with the same conviction that he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, and as a result of this the aim of such a man now is to spend the time that remains to him of life in the flesh no longer in obedience to human passions, but in obedience to the will of God. For the time that is past is sufficient to have done what the Gentiles will to do, to have lived a life of licentiousness, lust, drunkenness, revellings, carousings, and abominable idolatry. They think it strange when you do not rush to join them in the same flood of profligacy and they abuse you for not doing so. They will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is why the gospel was preached even to the dead, so that, although they have already been judged in the flesh like men, they might live in the Spirit like God.
This is not only one of the most difficult passages in Peter’s letter, it is one of the most difficult in the whole New Testament; and it is also the basis of one of the most difficult articles in the creed, “He descended into Hell.” It is, therefore, better first of all to read it as a whole and then to study it in its various sections.
The Example Of The Work Of Christ ( 1Pe 3:17-18 a)
3:17-18a For, it is better to suffer for doing right, if that should be the will of God, than to suffer for doing wrong. For Christ also died once and for all for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.
Although this passage is one of the most difficult in the New Testament, it begins with something which anyone can understand. The point that Peter is making is that, even if the Christian is compelled to suffer unjustly for his faith, he is only walking the way that his Lord and Saviour has already walked. The suffering Christian must always remember that he has a suffering Lord. In the narrow compass of these two verses Peter has the greatest and the deepest things to say about the work of Christ.
(i) He lays it down that the work of Christ was unique and never need be repeated. Christ died once and for all for sins. The New Testament says this same thing often. When Christ died, he died once and for all ( Rom 6:10). The priestly sacrifices in the Temple have to be repeated daily but Christ made the perfect sacrifice once and for all when he offered himself up ( Heb 7:27). Christ was once and for all offered to bear the sin of many ( Heb 9:28). We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ once and for all ( Heb 10:10). The New Testament is completely sure that on the Cross something happened which never needs to happen again and that in that happening sin is finally defeated. On the Cross God dealt with man’s sin in a way which is adequate for all sin, for all men, for all time.
(ii) He lays it down that that sacrifice was for sin. Christ died once and for all for sins. This again is frequently said in the New Testament. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures ( 1Co 15:3). Christ gave himself for our sins ( Gal 1:4). The function of the High Priest, and Jesus Christ is the perfect High Priest, is to offer sacrifice for sins ( Heb 5:1; Heb 5:3). He is the expiation for our sins ( 1Jn 2:2).
The Greek for for sins is either huper ( G5228) or peri ( G4012) hamartion ( G266) . It so happens that in the Greek version of the Old Testament the regular phrase for a sin-offering is peri ( G4012) hamartias ( G266) (Hamartias, G266, is the singular of hamartion, G266) , as, for instance, in Lev 5:7 and Lev 6:30. That is to say, Peter is laying it down that the death of Christ is the sacrifice which atones for the sin of men.
We may put it this way. Sin is that which interrupts the relationship which should exist between God and men. The object of sacrifice is to restore that lost relationship. The death of Christ upon the Cross, however we explain it, avails to restore the lost relationship between God and man. As Charles Wesley put it in verse:
No condemnation now I dread:
Jesus, and all in him, is mine!
Alive in him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
It may be that we will never agree in our theories of what exactly happened on the Cross, for, indeed, as Charles Wesley said in that same hymn: “‘Tis mystery all!” But on one thing we can agree–through what happened there we may enter into a new relationship with God.
(iii) He lays it down that that sacrifice was vicarious. Christ died once and for all for sins, the just.for the unjust. That the just should suffer for the unjust is an extraordinary thing. At first sight it looks like injustice. As Edwin H. Robertson put it: “Only forgiveness without reason can match sin without excuse.” The suffering of Christ was for us; and the mystery is that he who deserved no suffering bore that suffering for us who deserved to suffer. He sacrificed himself to restore our lost relationship with God.
(iv) He lays it down that the work of Christ was to bring us to God. Christ died once and for all for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. The word for “to bring” is prosagein ( G4317) . It has two vivid backgrounds.
(a) It has a Jewish background. It is used in the Old Testament of bringing to God those who are to be priests. It is God’s instruction: “You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tent of meeting” ( Exo 29:4). The point is this–as the Jews saw it, only the priests had the right of close access to God. In the Temple the layman might come so far; he could pass through the Court of the Gentiles, the Court of the Women, the Court of the Israelites–but there he must stop. Into the Court of the Priests, into the nearer presence of God, he could not go; and of the priests, only the High Priest could enter into the Holy of Holies. But Jesus Christ brings us to God; he opens the way for all men to his nearer presence.
(b) It has a Greek background. In the New Testament the corresponding noun prosagoge ( G4318) is three times used. Prosagein ( G4317) means to bring in; prosagoge ( G4318) means the right of access, the result of the bringing in. Through Christ we have access to grace ( Rom 5:2). Through him we have access to God the Father ( Eph 2:18). Through him we have boldness and access and confidence to come to God ( Eph 3:12). In Greek this had a specialized meaning. At the court of kings there was an official called the prosagogeus, the introducer, the giver of access, and it was his function to decide who should be admitted to the king’s presence and who should be kept out. He, as it were, held the keys of access. It is Jesus Christ, through what he did, who gives men access to God.
(v) When we go beyond these two verses, further into the passage, we can add two more great truths to Peter’s view of the work of Christ. In 1Pe 3:19 he says that Jesus preached to the spirits in prison; and in 1Pe 4:6 he says that the gospel was preached to them that are dead. As we shall go on to see, this most probably means that in the time between his death and his resurrection Jesus actually preached the gospel in the abode of the dead; that is to say, to those who in their lifetime had never had the opportunity to hear it. Here is a tremendous thought. It means that the work of Christ is infinite in its range. It means that no man who ever lived is outside the grace of God.
(vi) Peter sees the work of Christ in terms of complete triumph. He says that after his resurrection Jesus went into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to him ( 1Pe 3:22). The meaning is that there is nothing in earth and heaven outside the empire of Christ. To all men he brought the new relationship between man and God; in his death he even brought the good news to the dead; in his resurrection he conquered death; even the angelic and the demonic powers are subject to him; and he shares the very power and throne of God. Christ the sufferer has become Christ the victor; Christ the crucified has become Christ the crowned.
(1) The Descent Into Hell ( 1Pe 3:18 b-20;4:6)
3:18b-20 He was put to death in the flesh, but he was raised to life in the Spirit, in which also he went and preached to the spirits who are in prison, the spirits who were once upon a time disobedient in the time when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being built…. For this is why the gospel was preached even to the dead, so that, although they have already been judged in the flesh like men, they might live in the spirit like God.
We have already said that we are here face to face with one of the most difficult passages, not only in Peter’s letter, but in the whole New Testament; and, if we are to grasp what it means, we must follow Peter’s own advice and gird up the loins of our mind to study it.
This passage has lodged in the creed in the phrase: “He descended into hell.” We must first note that this phrase is very misleading. The idea of the New Testament is not that Jesus descended into hell but that he descended into Hades. Act 2:27, as all the newer translations correctly show, should be translated not: “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,” but, “Thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades.” The difference is this. Hell is the place of the punishment of the wicked; Hades was the place where all the dead went.
The Jews had a very shadowy conception of life beyond the grave. They did not think in terms of heaven and of hell but of a shadowy world, where the spirits of men moved like grey ghosts in an everlasting twilight and where there was neither strength nor joy. Such was Hades, into which the spirits of all men went after death. Isaiah writes: “For Sheol cannot thank thee, death cannot praise thee; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for thy faithfulness” ( Isa 38:18). The Psalmist wrote: “In death there is no remembrance of thee; in Sheol who can give thee praise?” ( Psa 6:5). “What profit is there in my death if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise thee? Will it tell of thy faithfulness?” ( Psa 30:9). “Dost thou work wonders for the dead? Do the shades rise up to praise thee? Is thy steadfast love declared in the grave, or thy faithfulness in Abaddon? Are thy wonders known in the darkness, or thy saving help in the land of forgetfulness?” ( Psa 88:10-12). “The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any that go down into silence” ( Psa 115:17). “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going” ( Ecc 9:10). The Jewish conception of the world after death was of this grey world of shadows and forgetfulness, in which men were separated from life and light and God.
As time went on, there emerged the idea of stages and divisions in this shadowland. For some it was to last for ever; but for others it was a kind of prison-house in which they were held until the final judgment of God’s wrath should blast them ( Isa 24:21-22; 2Pe 2:4; Rev 20:1-7). So, then, it must first of all be remembered that this whole matter is to be thought of, not in terms of hell, as we understand the word, but in terms of Christ’s going to the dead in their shadowy world.
(2) The Descent Into Hell ( 1Pe 3:18 b-20;4:6 Continued)
This doctrine of the descent into Hades, as we must now call it, is based on two phrases in our present passage. It says that Jesus went and preached to the spirits who are in prison ( 1Pe 3:19); and it speaks of the gospel being preached to the dead ( 1Pe 4:6). In regard to this doctrine there have always been differing attitudes amongst thinkers.
(i) There are those who wish to eliminate it altogether. There is the attitude of elimination. Some wish to eliminate it altogether and attempt to do so along two lines.
(a) Peter says that in the Spirit Christ preached to the spirits in prison, who were disobedient in the time when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah, when the ark was being built. It is argued that what this means is that it was in the time of Noah himself that Christ did this preaching; that in the Spirit long ages before this he made his appeal to the wicked men of Noah’s day. This would completely do away with the idea of the descent into Hades. Many great scholars have accepted that view; but we do not think it is the view which comes naturally from Peter’s words.
(b) If we look at Moffatt’s translation, we find something quite different. He translates: “In the flesh he (Christ) was put to death, but he came to life in the Spirit. It was in the Spirit that Enoch also went and preached to the imprisoned spirits who had disobeyed at the time when God’s patience held out during the construction of the ark in the days of Noah.” How does Moffatt arrive at this translation?
The name of Enoch does not appear in any Greek manuscript. But in the consideration of the text of any Greek author, scholars sometimes use a process called emendation. They think that there is something wrong with the text as it stands, that some scribe has perhaps copied it wrongly; and they, therefore, suggest that some word should be changed or added. In this passage Rendel Harris suggested that the word Enoch was missed out in the copying of Peter’s writing and should be put back in.
(Although it involves the use of Greek some readers may be
interested to see how Rendel Harris arrived at this famous
emendation. In the top line in italic print, we have set down
the Greek of the passage in English lettering and beneath each
Greek word its English translation:
thanatotheis ( G2289) men ( G3303) sarki ( G4561)
having been put to death in the flesh
zoopoietheis ( G2227) de ( G1161) pneumati ( G4151)
having been raised to life in the Spirit
en ( G1722) ho ( G3588) kai ( G2532) tois ( G3588)
in which also to the
en ( G1722) phulake ( G5438) pneumasi ( G4151)
in prison spirits
poreutheis ( G4198) ekeruxen ( G2784)
having gone he preached.
(Men ( G3303) and de ( G1161) are what are called particles;
they are not translated but merely mark the contrast between
sarki, G4561, and pneumati, G4151) . It was Rendel Harris’
suggestion that between kai ( G2532) and tois ( G3588) the
word Enoch ( G1802) had dropped out. His explanation was that,
since most manuscript copying was done to dictation, scribes were
very liable to miss words which followed each other, if they
sounded very similar. In this passage:
en ( G1722) ho ( G3588) kai ( G2532) and Enoch ( G1802)
sound very much alike, and Rendel Harris thought it very likely
that Enoch ( G1802) had been mistakenly omitted for that reason).
What reason is there for bringing Enoch ( G1802) into this passage at all? He has always been a fascinating and mysterious person. “And Enoch walked with God; and he was not; for God took him” ( Gen 5:24). In between the Old and New Testaments many legends sprang up about Enoch and famous and important books were written under his name. One of the legends was that Enoch, though a man, acted as “God’s envoy” to the angels who sinned by coming to earth and lustfully seducing mortal women ( Gen 6:2). In the Book of Enoch it is said that he was sent down from heaven to announce to these angels their final doom (Enoch 12: 1) and that he proclaimed that for them, because of their sin, there was neither peace nor forgiveness ever (Enoch 12 and 13).
So then, according to Jewish legend, Enoch did go to Hades and preach doom to the fallen angels. And Rendel Harris thought that this passage referred, not to Jesus, but to Enoch, and Moffatt so far agreed with him as to put Enoch into his translation. That is an extremely interesting and ingenious suggestion but without doubt it must be rejected. There is no evidence for it at all; and it is not natural to bring in Enoch, for the whole picture is of the work of Christ.
(3) The Descent Into Hell ( 1Pe 3:18 b-20;4:6 Continued)
We have seen that the attempt at the elimination of this passage fails.
(ii) The second attitude is limitation. This attitude–and it is that of some very great New Testament interpreters–believes that Peter is indeed saying that Jesus went to Hades and preached, but that he by no means preached to all the inhabitants of Hades. Different interpreters limit that preaching in different ways.
(a) It is argued that Jesus preached in Hades only to the spirits of the men who were disobedient in the days of Noah. Those who hold this view often go on to argue that, since these sinners were desperately disobedient, so much so that God sent the flood and destroyed them ( Gen 6:12-13), we may believe that no man is outside the mercy of God. They were the worst of all sinners and yet they were given another chance of repentance; therefore, the worst of men still have a chance in Christ.
(b) It is argued that Jesus preached to the fallen angels, and preached, not salvation, but final and awful doom. We have already mentioned these angels. Their story is told in Gen 6:1-8. They were tempted by the beauty of mortal women; they came to earth, seduced them and begat children; and because of their action, it is inferred, the wickedness of man was great and his thoughts were always evil. 2Pe 2:4 speaks of these sinning angels as being imprisoned in hell, awaiting judgment. It was to them that Enoch did, in fact, preach; and there are those who think that what this passage means is not that Christ preached mercy and another chance; but that, in token of his complete triumph, he preached terrible doom to those angels who had sinned.
(c) It is argued that Christ preached only to those who had been righteous and that he led them out of Hades into the paradise of God. We have seen how the Jews believed that all the dead went to Hades, the shadowy land of forgetfulness. The argument is that before Christ that was indeed so but he opened the gates of heaven to mankind; and, when he did so, he went to Hades and told the glad news to all the righteous men of all past generations and led them out to God. That is a magnificent picture. Those who hold this view often go on to say that, because of Christ, there is now no time spent in the shadows of Hades and the way to paradise is open as soon as this world closes on us.
(4) The Descent Into Hell ( 1Pe 3:18 b-20;4:6 Continued)
(iii) There is the attitude that what Peter is saying is that Jesus Christ, between his death and resurrection, went to the world of the dead and preached the gospel there. Peter says that Jesus Christ was put to death in the flesh but raised to life in the Spirit, and that it was in the Spirit that he so preached. The meaning is that Jesus lived in a human body and was under all the limitations of time and space in the days of his flesh; and died with that body broken and bleeding upon the Cross. But when he rose again, he rose with a spiritual body, in which he was rid of the necessary weaknesses of humanity and liberated from the necessary limitations of time and space. It was in this spiritual condition of perfect freedom that the preaching to the dead took place.
As it stands this doctrine is stated in categories which are outworn. It speaks of the descent into Hades and the very word descent suggests a three-storey universe in which heaven is localized above the sky and Hades beneath the earth. But, laying aside the physical categories of this doctrine, we can find in it truths which are eternally valid and precious, three in particular.
(a) If Christ descended into Hades, then his death was no sham. It is not to be explained in terms of a swoon on the Cross, or anything like that. He really experienced death, and rose again. At its simplest, the doctrine of the descent into Hades lays down the complete identity of Christ with our human condition, even to the experience of death.
(b) If Christ descended into Hades, it means that his triumph is universal. This, in fact, is a truth which is ingrained into the New Testament. It is Paul’s dream that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth ( Php_2:10 ). In the Revelation the song of praise comes from every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth and under the earth ( Rev 5:13). He who ascended into Heaven is he who first descended into the lower parts of the earth ( Eph 4:9-10). The total submission of the universe to Christ is woven into the thought of the New Testament.
(c) If Christ descended into Hades and preached there, there is no corner of the universe into which the message of grace has not come. There is in this passage the solution of one of the most haunting questions raised by the Christian faith–what is to happen to those who lived before Jesus Christ and to those to whom the gospel never came? There can be no salvation without repentance but how can repentance come to those who have never been confronted with the love and holiness of God? If there is no other name by which men may be saved, what is to happen to those who never heard it? This is the point that Justin Martyr fastened on long ago: “The Lord, the Holy God of Israel, remembered his dead, those sleeping in the earth, and came down to them to tell them the good news of salvation.” The doctrine of the descent into Hades conserves the precious truth that no man who ever lived is left without a sight of Christ and without the offer of the salvation of God.
Many in repeating the creed have found the phrase “He descended into hell” either meaningless or bewildering, and have tacitly agreed to set it on one side and forget it. It may well be that we ought to think of this as a picture painted in terms of poetry rather than a doctrine stated in terms of theology. But it contains these three great truths–that Jesus Christ not only tasted death but drained the cup of death, that the triumph of Christ is universal and that there is no corner of the universe into which the grace of God has not reached.
The Baptism Of The Christian ( 1Pe 3:18-22)
3:18-22 For Christ also died once and for all for our sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but he was raised to life in the Spirit, in which also he went and preached to the spirits who are in prison, the spirits who were once upon a time disobedient in the time when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being built, in which some few–that is, eight souls–were brought in safety through the water. And water now saves you, who were symbolically represented in Noah and his company, I mean the water of baptism; and baptism is not merely the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge to God of a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, because he went to heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been made subject to him.
Peter has been speaking about the wicked men who were disobedient and corrupt in the days of Noah; they were ultimately destroyed. But in the destruction by the flood eight people–Noah and his wife, his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth, and their wives–were brought to safety in the ark. Immediately the idea of being brought to safety through the water turns Peter’s thoughts to Christian baptism, which is also a bringing to safety through the water. What Peter literally says is that baptism is an antitype of Noah and his people in the ark.
This word introduces us to a special way of looking at the Old Testament. There are two closely connected words. There is tupos ( G5179) , type, which means a seal, and there is antitupos ( G499) , antitype, which means the impression of the seal. Clearly, between the seal and its impression there is the closest possible correspondence. So there are people and events and customs in the Old Testament which are types, and which find their antitypes in the New Testament. The Old Testament event or person is like the seal; the New Testament event or person is like the impression; the two answer to each other. We might put it that the Old Testament event symbolically represents and foreshadows the New Testament event. The science of finding types and antitypes in the Old and the New Testaments is very highly developed. But to take very simple and obvious examples, the Passover Lamb and the scapegoat, who bore the sins of the people, are types of Jesus; and the work of the High Priest in making sacrifice for the sins of the people is a type of his saving work. Here Peter sees the bringing safely through the waters of Noah and his family as a type of baptism.
In this passage Peter has three great things to say about baptism. It must be remembered that at this stage of the Church’s history we are still dealing with adult baptism, the baptism of people who had come straight from heathenism into Christianity and who were taking upon themselves a new way of life.
(i) Baptism is not merely a physical cleansing; it is a spiritual cleansing of the whole heart and soul and life. Its effect must be on a man’s very soul and on his whole life.
(ii) Peter calls baptism the pledge of a good conscience to God ( 1Pe 3:21). The word Peter uses for pledge is eperotema ( G1906) . In every business contract there was a definite question and answer which made the contract binding. The question was: “Do you accept the terms of this contract, and bind yourself to observe them?” And the answer, before witnesses was: “Yes.” Without that question and answer the contract was not valid. The technical word for that question and answer clause is eperotema ( G1906) in Greek, stipulatio in Latin.
Peter is, in effect, saying that in baptism God said to the man coming direct from heathenism: “Do you accept the terms of my service? Do you accept its privileges and promises, and do you undertake its responsibilities and its demands?” And in the act of being baptized the man answered: “Yes.”
Some use the word sacrament. Sacrament is derived from the Latin sacramentum, which means a soldier’s oath of loyalty on entering the army. Here we have basically the same picture. We cannot very well apply this question and answer in infant baptism, unless it be to the parents; but, as we have said, baptism in the very early church was of adult men and women coming spontaneously from heathenism into the Church. The modern parallel is entering upon full membership of the Church. When we enter upon Church membership, God asks us: “Do you accept the conditions of my service, with all privileges and all its responsibilities, with all its promises and all its demands?” and we answer; “Yes.” It would be well if all were clearly to understand what they are doing when they take upon themselves membership of the Church.
(iii) The whole idea and effectiveness of baptism is dependent on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the grace of the Risen Lord which cleanses us; it is to the Risen, Living Lord that we pledge ourselves; it is to the Risen, Living Lord that we look for strength to keep the pledge that we have given. Once again, where infant baptism is the practice, we must take these great conceptions and apply them to the time when we enter upon full membership of the Church.
-Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT)
Fuente: Barclay Daily Study Bible
5. Duties of wives, 1Pe 3:1-6, and husbands, 1Pe 3:7.
1. Likewise On the principle laid down in 1Pe 2:18.
Ye wives The same precept is found in Eph 5:22; Eph 5:24, and Colossians 2:28, yet not with the reason here assigned. That the husband does not obey the word of the gospel, constitutes no exception to the rule of subjection, but is rather a special ground of its obligation, in order that he may be won to Christ by the powerful argument of the wife’s holy and obedient conduct.
Without the word Not, as Alford, the wives’ word, in preaching to or exhorting them, but, as before in the verse, the word of the gospel, the preached word, which had not yet won them to faith in Christ.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘In the same way, you who are wives, be subject in obedience to your own husbands, so that, even if any obey not the word, they may without the word be gained by the behaviour of their wives, beholding your chaste behaviour in fear.’
Becoming a Christian clearly opened up new avenues of thought in people’s minds. The fact that in Christ all were equal had caused a revolution in thinking. Not only did it give slaves status, but it also gave ‘lower class’ women status. And it is apparent here, as it is apparent in Paul’s letters, that some Christian women were beginning to exercise their new found freedom to such an extent that they did not consider themselves bound to be obedient to their husbands. Thus he draws their attention to what, according to the Scriptures, their responsibilities are in Christ.
They are to be subject in obedience, because from the beginning that has been God’s ordinance. And in this regard they are to consider what effect their behaviour might have on their husbands, and indeed on wider society. If they behave chastely and demonstrate the fear of God they might well win their husbands to consider the claims of Christ without even having to say anything to them.
The point here is not that becoming a Christian has not altered their status. The point is rather that it has. Chastity was not a common feature of life in those days in pagan societies, and husbands had had to get used to the idea that their wives would indulge in a little licentious living (often disguised as piety – see Rev 2:22), even if only in the temples, however little they liked it (and after all they did it themselves). But now here they found that their wives had suddenly become chaste and responsive to their husbands wishes. And all because they had become servants of Jesus Christ. It would impress them as nothing else could, and could well also win them to Christ. And to Christian wives that should be an important aim. Whereas if they simply instead turned their attentions towards Christian men it would have invalidated their witness.
‘If any obey not the word.’ That is they have heard it and rejected its message. Thus they are in no condition to listen to any testimony that she might give. But she is assured that if her life is her witness then such a witness might reach him in a way that the word had not. We are reminded of the exhortation of Jesus, ‘let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father Who is in Heaven’ (Mat 5:16).
‘In fear.’ That is, because they walk in the fear of God. Compare 1Pe 1:17; 1Pe 2:18; and see 1Pe 4:5. Christians are to live in the light of the fact that account must in the end be given for all their actions.
Notice also the contrast between the husband’s not obeying the word with the wife’s having effectively begun to obey the word. It is the main theme of Peter’s letter. The aim was that Christian obedience to the word should be the testimony of the church in every aspect of their living.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Wives Are To Submit In Obedience To Their Husbands Who Are To Respond With Compassion And Care Because They Are Joint-Heirs Of The Grace Of Life ( 1Pe 3:1-7 ).
Peter’s view of the new people of God (he never uses the term ‘church’ in the Greek text) as the sons and daughters of Abraham (compare Gal 3:29) comes out almost unconsciously here. To him it was so certain a fact that it did not have to be dwelt on. Abraham and Sarah are the rock from which they were hewn (see Isa 51:1-2, and compare Gal 4:21-31). And the theme of obedience continues as wives are called on to submit in obedience to their husbands, as Sarah did to Abraham. Abraham and Sarah provided a clear example of the rightness of the principle of the obedience of a wife to her husband, as one who was under his protection.
It is noteworthy that, as in the case of his words about the authorities, there is no suggestion here of wives being persecuted by, or of suffering because of, their husbands. No doubt some did (as no doubt some suffered under the authorities). But while Peter guards against it by his final advice to husbands, he clearly does not see it as relevant to the issue in hand. His central theme here is not one of suffering, but of obedience. The clearest example of obedience in suffering has been on the part of household servants.
As we shall see there are, in fact, hints in the narrative that suggest that this womanly ‘subjection’ may mainly have been seen in terms of sexual relationships. But that is a matter of interpretation.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Their Obedience And Heavenly Connection Is To Be Revealed By Their Lives And By Their Due Submission To Lawful Authority In The Same Way As Christ Submitted Himself Through Suffering And Thereby Wrought Salvation For His People ( 1Pe 2:11 to 1Pe 3:12 ).
Peter now tells them how, as sojourners and pilgrims in the world, they are to behave in order to fulfil the role given to them by God in 1Pe 2:1-10. They are first of all to live in obedience and in accord with their environment so that none can accuse them of disobeying earthly authority (1Pe 2:13; 1Pe 2:18 ; 1Pe 3:1; 1Pe 3:8), or of being troublemakers, and this even if they are unfairly treated. By doing so they will be demonstrating their own freedom from the world, and that their whole thought is of God. They will be revealing, not that they are subject to the world, but that the world, as it is, is not important. They will be revealing that they are obedient to their heavenly calling, that they are obedient to God’s authority over their lives, and that they are like the One Who Himself revealed His own full obedience to Him. For, he reminds them, Christ did the same in carrying forward God’s saving purposes (1Pe 2:21; 1Pe 3:17-18). So they must be obedient as He was obedient.
It will be noted that the persecution that is to be spoken of is not seen as coming from the legal authorities, but as arising out of their private household situations. There would not yet appear to be official persecution, although that would not necessarily make it easier to bear.
Analysis of the Section.
They are to walk as sojourners in the world, abstaining from letting the their humanness, with its worldly ways and principles take over, so that their spiritual inner man with its thoughts fixed on God might be in genuine control, and so that the genuineness of what they have become might be revealed to all. The light of their good works is to shine before men in such a way that in the final analysis, despite blips along the way, (for they are being described as ‘evildoers’), those men will have to admit to their final true goodness in the last Day (1Pe 2:11-12).
They are thus to be subject to, and obedient with regard to, the political authorities so that by their well doing the false reports about them as evildoers might be quashed (1Pe 2:13-17).
Those who are household servants among them must be subject to their masters, even the more cruel ones, despite the fact that they are wrongly accused, in the same way as Christ submitted to the cross when He was wrongly accused (1Pe 2:18-25).
Those who are wives are to be subject to their husbands so that their well doing might be known to their husbands, and the husbands are to behave well towards their wives (1Pe 3:1-7).
All are to be considerate towards each other (1Pe 3:8-12).
He is making clear by this that while fulfilling their holy calling, and recognising their otherworldliness, they are not to get out of tune with the authorities that this world has set in place. (That is the way that those who are disobedient to God behave). His point is that being spiritual does not mean avoiding worldly obligations, it means striving to maintain harmony in the world (Mat 5:9), with the good of all in the world in mind. So whether it be with regard to rulers, masters or husbands, those who truly follow Him will seek to avoid causing unnecessary disharmony by open disobedience, but will rather be obedient, if necessary returning good for evil in the same way as Jesus did, because their aim is only to do good and is to win people over, which includes impressing unbelievers with their well doing and avoiding giving them offence unnecessarily.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Duties of Marriage 1Pe 3:1-7 deals with the duties of a husband and wife within the institution of marriage. In 1Pe 3:1-6 Peter charges the wives to be submissive to their husbands. In 1 Peter 3 :2 Peter tells the wives how to win their husbands by good works without preaching the Word to them. He made a statement like this to the believers in general in 1Pe 2:12, which tells them to walk in good works before unbelievers so that they may glorify God in the day of visitation. Thus, Peter applies this principle to a woman married to an unbeliever in 1Pe 3:1-6.
1Pe 2:12, “Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.”
Having just charged wives to be submissive to their husbands (1Pe 3:1-6), it is important for Peter to explain the reciprocating role of husbands to submissive wives. The husband is to honor their wives as weaker vessels (1Pe 3:7). In other words, when the wives humble themselves, the husbands are to exalt them.
Love and Respect – 1Pe 3:1-7 may be summed up in Eph 5:33, “Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.” This type of response requires believers to daily crucify their flesh in order to fulfill this biblical command. For example, when a wife is not loved, she responds by not showing respect unto her husband; and when a husband is not honored, he responds by not show love towards his wife. Thus, the themes of love and respect are woven within the fabric of this passage of Scripture.
1Pe 3:1 Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;
1Pe 3:1
Like Christ is the head of man, so man is the head of the woman.
1Co 11:3, “But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.”
1Pe 3:2 “they also may be won” Comments – This verb tells us that the action now has the potential, but not the absolute certainty of happening. That is, the husband will have to make the ultimate decision to his eternal destiny. The wife is simply a motivator and encourager towards the right decision. This verse means that the wife can put the husband into a very likely position of being born again, but not absolute guaranteed.
1Pe 3:2 While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.
1Pe 3:2
Mat 12:41, “The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.”
Heb 11:7, “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.”
1Pe 3:3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;
1Pe 3:3
[95] J. Vernon McGee, The First Epistle of Peter, in Thru the Bible With J. Vernon McGee (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Pub., 1998), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), comments on 1 Peter 3:3.
[96] Adam Clarke, The First Epistle of Peter, in Adam Clarke’s Commentary, Electronic Database (Seattle, WA: Hendrickson Publishers Inc., 1996), in P.C. Study Bible, v. 3.1 [CD-ROM] (Seattle, WA: Biblesoft Inc., 1993-2000), comments on 1 Peter 3:3.
1Pe 3:4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
1Pe 3:4
1Pe 3:4 Word Study on “quiet” Strong says the Greek word “quiet” ( ) (G2272) means, “still (undisturbed, undisturbing).” The Latin word used here is “sedates,” from which we get the English word “sedated.”
1Pe 3:5 Comments – Peter describes the value of a meek and quiet spirit by calling it of great price in the sight of God. This description stands in contrast to the adornment of costly gold, braided hair and expensive clothing. Man’s spiritual well being is always of greater value than material possessions.
1Pe 3:4 Scripture References – Note related verses:
Pro 19:13, “A foolish son is the calamity of his father: and the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping.”
Pro 21:19, “It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman.”
Pro 27:15, “A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike.”
1Pe 3:5 For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands:
1Pe 3:5
1Pe 3:6 Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.
1Pe 3:6
1Pe 3:6 Comments – Joseph Prince teaches that the Lord spoke to him and said that Sarah was the only woman in the Old Testament whose youth was renewed in her old age, and this is why Peter calls Christian women daughters of Sara. [97] She was so beautiful at that in her old age Pharaoh and Abimelech king of Gerar took her as his wife (Gen 12:14-15; Gen 20:1).
[97] Joseph Prince, Destined to Reign, on Lighthouse Television (Kampala, Uganda), television program, 8 December 2009.
1Pe 3:7 Peter Charges Husbands to Honor their Wives Having just charged wives to be submissive to their husbands (1Pe 3:1-6), it is important for Peter to explain the reciprocating role of husbands to submissive wives. The husband is to honor their wives as weaker vessels (1Pe 3:7). In other words, when the wives humble themselves, the husbands are to exalt them.
1Pe 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.
1Pe 3:7
1Pe 3:7 “giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel” Comments – Today, in underdeveloped countries, as in the New Testament times, women and children suffer tremendous abuse. Even today in developed countries, there is still much wife abuse. This occurs because the man is physically stronger than women and children. He thus uses this advantage to dominate over others.
How much more appropriate is Peter, being married, unlike Jesus and Paul, to mention the aspect of the wife. Women, in general, are not able to endure hardness and resist temptations like a strong man of God. Many Ministers have learned this about their wives, though they are to love them still.
1Pe 3:7 “and as being heirs together of the grace of life” Comments – Peter’s statement in 1Pe 3:7, “and as being heirs together of the grace of life” implies that a husband and wife will partake of the same eternal rewards in Heaven.
1Pe 3:7 Comments – Husbands have the tendency to not show their wives gratitude or respect and even to despise their “weaker” state by considering them difficult and foolish during times of disagreements. When there is a disagreement, men tend to walk away from the situation and leave the wife to herself. But how wonderful when we, as men, learn to drop our feelings, go quietly to the wife without trying to figure out her side of the misunderstanding, take her by the hand and simply prayer together, asking God for wisdom. Why ignore such a wonderful opportunity for pray in this time of need? I have learned that it really works and the Lord gives His wisdom generously and quickly (Jas 1:5). How easily is the situation diffused. But the husband has to learn to crucify his feelings, take a leading role, and pray with his wife during these times when emotions are tense, instead of “looking down on her” (note the comment of “weaker vessel” in this verse) as immature or foolish. This is one cause of hindered prayers, when we ignore prayer and sulk in our emotions.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Obedience to Christ Jesus (Illustration of Sermon): Perseverance – The Believer’s Response is to Decide to Walk in Love and Submission with His Fellow Man in Light of This Blessed Hope Once we have been enlightened to our blessed hope of the Heavenly Father (1Pe 1:3-12), and exhorted to choose to sanctify ourselves by growing in maturity through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit (1Pe 1:13 to 1Pe 2:10), Peter illustrates what a lifestyle of sanctification looks like as we obey to Jesus Christ with good works by submitting to authority and enduring persecution for righteousness sake (1Pe 2:11 to 1Pe 4:11).
In 1Pe 2:11 to 1Pe 4:11 we are told that our obedience to Christ is based upon our willingness to persevere in the midst of persecutions. Obedience requires some degree of suffering. Paul wrote in Hebrews, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered,” (Heb 5:8). This is why the opening verse of this next section explains that we serve Him by “abstaining from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul,” (1Pe 2:11). The preceding passage (1Pe 2:4-10) explains that we as a people of God have been separated unto a holy calling. Thus, the believer’s next response to this blessed hope of election (1Pe 1:3-12) and exhortation to holiness (1Pe 1:13 to 1Pe 2:10) is to serve Him in obedience. Within the context of 1 Peter our souls are “fully hoping in the grace being brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1Pe 1:13), so that our minds are to be focused upon our eternal inheritance, rather than worldly lusts. These fleshly lusts mentioned in 1Pe 2:11 pull our focus away from Heaven and turns our hope towards the cares of this world.
Having exhorted us into a lifestyle of holiness by explaining that we are elected as a chosen people through the purchased blood of Christ (1Pe 1:13 to 1Pe 2:10), Peter then gives us practical advice on conducting ourselves in the fear of God and love towards mankind (1Pe 2:11 to 1Pe 4:11). In the previous passage of 1Pe 2:4-10 Peter has drawn a picture of what a mature Church looks like when the believers corporately grow into spiritual maturity through the Word of God, which he exhorts in 1Pe 2:1-3. Peter will then give practical examples of our “spiritual sacrifices” in the lengthy passage of submission. We are to do good works as a testimony to the Gentiles of our blessed hope (1Pe 2:11-12) by submitting to those in authority over us: all believers to government (1Pe 2:13-17), slaves to their masters (1Pe 2:18-25), wives to husbands (1Pe 3:1-6), and husbands honoring wives (1Pe 3:7). In summary it is a walk of love from the heart (1Pe 3:8-12). However, this love walk will mean persecution and suffering, but Christ serves as our example of suffering for righteousness sake (1Pe 3:13 to 1Pe 4:11). Our choice to submit to those in authority is actually our way of entrusting ourselves into the hands of a faithful creator (1Pe 4:19).
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Introductory Remarks 1Pe 2:11-12
2. Submission to Authority Within Society 1Pe 2:13 to 1Pe 3:12
3. Walking in Love 1Pe 3:13-22
4. Crucifying the Flesh 1Pe 4:1-6
5. Exhortation to Watch and Pray 1Pe 4:7-11
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Submission to Authority within Society – With this mindset of being chosen servants of a holy God to bring the Gentiles into a saving knowledge of God’s plan of redemption we will understand why we must submit ourselves to those in authority over us in the fear of God (1Pe 2:13 to 1Pe 3:12). It is important to note that Peter points out in particular the submissive roles of slaves and women in society, roles that are often abused by those in authority in these pagan societies.
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Believers Submit to Government 1Pe 2:13-17
2. Slaves Submit to their Masters 1Pe 2:18-25
3. Wives Submit to Their Husbands 1Pe 3:1-7
4. Charge to All Believers on Submission 1Pe 3:8-12
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Exhortations to the Married.
v. 1. Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that, if any obey not the Word, they may also without the word be won by the conversation of the wives,
v. 2. while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.
v. 3. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;
v. 4. but let it be the hidden man of the he art, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
v. 5. For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands;
v. 6. even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord; whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.
v. 7. Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered. Having spoken of the relation of citizens to their rulers and of servants to their masters, the apostle here addresses himself to those that are living in the holy estate of marriage, giving to both the wives and the husbands certain rules of conduct. Speaking to the wives first, he writes: In like manner you wives, be submissive. to your own husbands, in order that, if some are disobedient to the Word, they may be gained through the behavior of the women without a word, if they observe your chaste behavior in fear. That is the first point that the apostle makes, the necessity for submissiveness, for subordination on the part of the wife. Not, indeed, as if the subjection and obedience of the wife were on the same level as that of the domestic slaves, since it is the result of mutual agreement and therefore is a relative obedience rather than an absolute subjection. But that is God’s order: the headship of the husband should be unquestioned in a Christian home. This point, moreover, was here broached with a good reason. For it happened comparatively often in those early days that Christian women had heathen husbands. In the case of these husbands particularly, though other witnesses are not excluded, it was true that they who were disobedient to the Word of the Gospel, who were unbelievers, might be influenced and put into a state of mind favorable to the acceptance of Christianity by the conduct and behavior of their wives, even if these should not speak a single word of reproach, remonstrance, or admonition. For the entire conduct of the Christian women was to be a powerful argument for the truth and power of Christianity. As the men noticed with what care these Christian women kept themselves unspotted from the prevalent sins of unchastity, with what meekness and diligence they did the work of the household, with what reverent deference they observed the will of the housefather, it was bound to make an impression on them. A man would then also argue from the existence of these wifely virtues to the power of the Christian faith, the result being that his interest in the Gospel might lead him to the acceptance of the Word. Thus he would be gained for Christ, and Christ Himself would be his gain.
To this end, however, Christian women were to remember: Whose adornment should not be the outward braiding of hair, and putting round golden jewelry, or putting on (showy) dresses, but the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible beauty of gentleness and of a quiet spirit, which is precious before God. See Isa 3:17-23. The apostle mentions only a few of the evidences of worldliness and vanity which threaten women in particular. There was the elaborate coiffure which was built up with braids and golden combs, 1Ti 2:15, and nets and artificial aids; there was the putting on of golden ornaments, of rings and bracelets and pendants round the forehead, the arm, the ankle, the finger; there was the vesting in costly and showy garments all customs affected by the fine society ladies of the world. Note that Peter does not inveigh against neat dresses and modest, simple jewelry, but against that show of dress and finery which indicates that the heart is taken captive by such transitory, vain baubles. The true ornament of a Christian woman is the hidden man of the heart, the new spiritual nature and life. This new, divine life will ever manifest itself in a disposition and in deeds of gentleness and meekness, in a quiet spirit, without pride, assumption, anger, and passionate boisterousness, Rom 7:22. These virtues will clothe a Christian woman better than the costliest mantle which this world can supply, and, what is more, such conduct is precious in the sight of God. Note: This lesson should be heeded especially by many of the foolish young women, married and unmarried, who in our days are following the example of the painted and gaudily dressed women of the world.
Christian women will always be ready to follow the example of the sainted women of the Bible: For so did also the holy women formerly adorn themselves, who hoped in God, being subject to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, of whom you have become children, if you do well, and do not yield to any sudden terror. The meek and quiet attitude which has been praised by the apostle will naturally be accompanied by that conduct which unhesitatingly acknowledges the headship of the man. This is the chief, the finest ornament of a wife professing Christianity, as the example of the women of the Bible shows. Their hope was directed toward God and His promises; they knew that the reward of God was greater than anything that the world might offer and give, if they should want to follow its vanities. The apostle singles out Sarah as an exceptional pattern in this respect, in her submission to her husband. She acknowledged, she called him lord, the head of the household. She was perfectly willing to occupy a subordinate position, to be a true helpmeet to Abraham, Gen 18:12. And so Christian wives will become true children, true daughters of Sarah, if their entire life is spent in doing good, if they are continually active in good works, if they conduct themselves according to the will of God in their married state. At the same time they are to fear no terrors, not to yield to false fear in any matter. The reference is most likely to the incident related Gen 21:10, where Sarah did not hesitate to insist upon expelling the bond-woman with her son, since Isaac alone was the child of promise. Where the will of God, therefore, is clear, either in command or in prohibition, a Christian woman will not let a false dread keep her from obeying the Lord first of all.
That the husbands, according to this word, have no absolute power over their wives is indicated also in the next verse: You husbands likewise (give due honor to them), dwelling with the feminine, as with the weaker vessel, according to knowledge, giving honor to them as also fellow-inheritors of the grace of life, lest your prayers be hindered. The idea of giving due consideration and honor to every person in the station assigned to him by God governs the thought also here. Both the husband and the wife are vessels according to God’s creation, but the man is the stronger, the woman the weaker vessel. But now the husband should show that he appreciates the greater responsibility laid upon him by God in caring for the weaker vessel, his wife, in the proper manner, especially according to knowledge, with the application of Christian common sense. The husband should always be conscious of this fact and let this consideration govern his entire treatment, his entire attitude toward his wife, in all the conditions and circumstances of life. See 1Th 4:4. With all the intimacy that obtains between husband and wife, the former must never forget that he owes his helpmeet a measure of honor, namely, that which belongs to her as coheir of the grace of life. As Christians they both have their hope and faith set on the same salvation, and they should wander hand in hand to reach that glorious goal. If the husband does not observe this rule, hut attempts to lord it over his wife in a manner for which he has no authority, then the sighing of his wife will be an obstruction in the way of his prayers, her groaning will accuse him before the Lord even before the words which he foolishly considers a prayer have reached the Throne of Grace. The love and wisdom which the married life requires, especially among Christians, should cause all those that have entered into the blessed state of matrimony to seek wisdom from on high in daily, fervent prayer.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Expositions
1Pe 3:1
Likewise, ye wives. St. Peter has spoken of the duties of servants: why does he omit those of masters? There must have been Christian masters in Asia Minor, as is plain from Eph 6:9; Col 4:1. But we notice that St. Paul, though he has a few words for masters, addresses slaves at much greater length. Probably Christian masters were comparatively few, while large numbers of slaves had embraced the religion which could do so much to comfort and elevate the oppressed. Again, the immediate purpose of the apostle is to inculcate submission to authority; therefore, having enforced upon Christian servants the example of their Lord, he proceeds to speak of the duty of Christian wives. Christianity was in its infancy; it was to be the means of abolishing slavery, and of raising woman to her proper place in society; but as yet slaves were cruelly oppressed, and women were ill treated and despised. Aristotle tells us that among the barbarians (and a large proportion of the population in the greater part of Asia Minor was barbarian, i.e. non-Greek) the woman and the slave hold the same rank (‘Pol.,’ I. Col 2:4). In Greek communities the case was different; but even among the Greeks women occupied a very subordinate position. Christianity would introduce a great and sweeping change in the relations of the sexes, as well as in the relations of master and slave. But the change must be gradual, not violent; it must be brought about by the softening and purifying influences of religion, not by revolt against recognized customs and established authority. Indeed, Christianity would introduce an element of divisionthe Lord had said so (Luk 12:51-53); families would be divided. It could not be otherwise; Christians must not set even family ties above the love of Christ. But Christian wives must be peacemakers; they must, as far as possible, live at peace even with unbelieving husbands. They would often have much ill treatment to endure in those coarse, cruel days; they must bear it with the quiet strength of gentleness. Be in subjection to your own husbands; literally, submitting yourselves. The participle, as in 1Pe 2:18, seems to look back to the imperative, “submit yourselves,” in 1Pe 2:13. The present participle implies that this voluntary submission is to be habitual. The adjective “your own” () emphasizes the duty. That, if any obey not the Word, they also may without the Word be won by the conversation of the wives. There is a well-supported reading, “Even if any.” Husband and wife would often be converted together; but if this should not be the case, and if the unbelieving husband should set himself in direct opposition to the Word of God (for the words “believe not” have more than a negative meaning, as in 1Pe 2:7), still Christian wives must submit themselves. They must do this for the glory of God, and with the hope of saving their husbands’ souls; that those unbelieving husbands may be won to Christ and to everlasting life by the silent eloquence of the quiet self-restraint and holy behavior of their wives, without argument or preaching on the wives’ part. A self-denying holy life will do more to win those with whom we live in close intercourse than even holy words, and much more than debate and controversy. This seems to be the meaning of rather than the other possible interpretation, “without the preaching of the Word.” Be won; literally, be gained. Each soul converted is a gain to Christ, to the kingdom of heaven, to itself, in this case also to the wife who is the happy instrument of saving her husband. The word rendered “conversation” here, as elsewhere, means “conduct, behavior.” (Compare, on the whole subject, the teaching of St. Paul, Eph 5:22-24; Col 3:18; 1Ti 2:9-11.)
1Pe 3:2
While they behold (see note on 1Pe 2:12, where the same verb occurs) your chaste conversation coupled with fear; literally, your chaste behavior, in fear. Bengel and others understand the fear of God. Certainly the holy fear of God is the sphere in which true Christians must always live. But the close connection with the word “chaste ( ), and the parallel passage, Eph 5:33 (in the Greek), make it probable that the fear here inculcated is reverence for the husbandan anxious avoidance of anything that might even seem to interfere with his conjugal rights and authority.
1Pe 3:3
Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair. A common Hebraism, like our Lord’s injunction in Joh 6:27, “Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which cndureth unto everlasting life.” St. Peter does not forbid the moderate use of ornaments, but asserts their utter worthlessness compared with Christian graces. The ladies of the time seem often to have had their hair dressed in a very fantastic and extravagant manner. And of wearing of gold; rather, golden ornaments. Or of putting on of apparel. This verse shows that, although the mass of believers at this time belonged to the poorer classes, yet there must have been a proportion of persons of rank and wealth among the Christians of Asia Minor.
1Pe 3:4
But let it be the hidden man of the heart. The “hidden” is here equivalent to the “inward man” of Rom 7:22; 2Co 4:16; Eph 3:16. It is that life which is “hid with Christ in God” (Col 3:2), the life of Christ (“the Second Man”) in the heart, fashioning that heart after the likeness of Christ, forming in it “the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (Col 3:10). This is hidden; it does not display itself like those conspicuous ornaments mentioned in the last verse. In that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit; literally, in the incorruptibility of the meek and quiet spirit. This ornament is incorruptible; not like those corruptible things. The meek spirit does not flash into anger, does not answer again, takes harsh words gently and humbly. The quiet spirit is calm and tranquil; peaceful in itself, it spreads peace around. Which is in the sight of God of great price. The adjective is used in Mar 14:3 of the ointment with which Mary anointed our Lord, and in 1Ti 2:9 of the “array“ which St. Paul discourages for Christian women. Those adornments are costly in the sight of the world; the meek and quiet spirit is precious in the sight of God.
1Pe 3:5
For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God; rather, who hoped in God ( ); whose hope was set toward God and rested in God. Bengel says,” Vera sanctitas, spes in Deum.” St. Peter is the apostle of hope. Adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands. The apostle bids Christian women to consider the example of the saintly women of the Old Testament. With their hope resting upon God, they could not care for finery and costly jewels. They adorned themselves with the more costly ornament of a meek and quiet spirit: they showed their meekness by living in subjection to their husbands. Submission to authority is the key-note of this part of the Epistle.
1Pe 3:6
Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. St. Peter singles out Sarah, as the mother of the chosen people. She obeyed her husband habitually (the imperfect is the reading of some of the oldest manuscripts; the aorist, also well supported, would represent her obedience as a whole, the character of her life now past); she called him lord (comp. Gen 18:12, .) Whose daughters ye are; literally, whose children ye became. This is another indication that the Epistle is addressed, not only to Jewish Christians, but also, and that in large measure, to Gentile converts. Gentile women became by faith the daughters of Sarah; just as we read in St. Paul’s Epistles that “they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham” (Gal 3:7); anti that Abraham is “the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised” (Rom 4:11); comp. Gal 4:22-31, where St. Paul tells us that we, like Isaac, are the children of promise; children, “not of the bondwoman, but of the free.” As long as ye do well. This clause represents one Greek word (“doing good”). Some commentators regard the words from “even as Sara” to “whose daughters ye are” as a parenthesis, and refer the participle to “the holy women” mentioned in Gal 4:5. This does not seem natural. It is better to regard the second half of this verse as a continuous sentence, and to understand the participle as meaning “if ye do well.” The doing well, etc., is a mark that Christian women have become children of Sarah by faith. And are not afraid with any amazement. The Greek word for “amazement” () does not occur in any other place of the New Testament, though we meet with the corresponding verb in Luk 21:9; Luk 24:1-53 :87. There seems to be a reference to Pro 3:25, “Be not afraid of sudden fear ‘ ( ), is “dismay, scared terrified excitement,” very different from the calm thoughtful , the fear lest they should fail in proper respect for their husbands, and that out of the holy fear of God, which St. Peter inculcates upon wives (Pro 3:2). The Christian wife might often experience cruel treatment from an unbelieving husband, but she was not to live in a flutter of excited terror; she was to be calm and quiet, trusting in God. As to the construction, the accusative may be cognate, as the Authorized Version takes it; or the accusative of the object, as in Pro 3:25. The last view is, perhaps, the -most suitable: “And are not afraid of any sudden terror.”
1Pe 3:7
Likewise, ye husbands. As wives are exhorted to be in subjection to their own husbands, so husbands also must do their duty to their wives. The construction (participial as in 1Pe 3:1) seems, like 1Pe 3:1, to look back to 1Pe 2:13. The relation, indeed, is no longer directly one of subjection, and marriage is an ordinance of God; but Christian husbands must submit themselves to the duties arising out of the marriage tie; and marriage involves a civil contract, though to us Christians it is a holy estate instituted of God, and a parable of the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his Church. St. Peter, we observe, does not consider the case of a Christian husband with an unbelieving wife; probably that would be very uncommon. Dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel; literally, living together with the feminine as with the weaker vessel. This connection seems best suited to the balance of the sentence, and also to the sense. The apostle bids the husband, first, to give due consideration to his partner on the ground of her comparative weakness; and, secondly, to give her due honor as being an heir, like himself, of the grace of life. The disparity of the sexes was the cause of the degradation of woman among the heathen; Christianity makes it the ground of tender consideration. Christian love should abound in knowledge (Php 1:9); it should throw its softening light upon all the relations of life. Man and woman are alike vesselsvessels made by God for his service (comp. Isa 64:8; Jer 18:6, etc.; also 1Th 4:4, 1Th 4:5); the woman is the weaker, and must, for that very reason, be treated with gentleness. For “according to knowledge,” comp. 2Pe 1:5. Christians must be thoughtful; they must consider what becomes them in all the relations of life; not act carelessly and at random. And as being heirs together of the grace of life; rather, rendering honor as to those who are also fellow-heirs, or, according to another well-supported reading, rendering honor (to them) as being also fellow-heirs (with them). The sense is not materially affected: husband and wife are joint-heirs of the grace of life, that is, of God’s gracious gift of everlasting life. That your prayers be not hindered; or, according to another reading, be not cut off. If husband and wife live together without mutual reverence and affection, there can be no sympathy in united prayer; the promise made by Christ in Mat 18:19 cannot be realized. Nor can either pray acceptably if they live at variance; jealousies and bickerings are opposed to the spirit of prayer; they hinder the free flow of prayer, and mar its earnestness and devotion.
1Pe 3:8
Finally. St. Peter is bringing to a close the exhortations to submission, which depend on the imperative in 1Pe 2:13. He turns from particular classes and relations to the whole Christian community, and describes what they ought to be in five Greek words, the first three of which are found nowhere else in the Greek Scriptures. Be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another; literally, sympathizing; feeling with others, rejoicing with them that do rejoice, and weeping with them that weep. Love as brethren. An adjective () in the Greek; the corresponding substantive occurs in 1Pe 1:22. Be pitiful. This word () has undergone a remarkable change of meaning. In Hippocrates, quoted by Huther, it is used literally of one whose viscera are healthy; it is also sometimes used figuratively, as equivalent to ; “goodhearted” with the heathen would mean “brave;” with Christian writers “tender,” “pitiful.” Be courteous. This represents a reading () which has very little support. The true reading is , humble-minded.
1Pe 3:9
Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing. St. Peter. like St. Paul (Rom 12:17; 1Th 5:15), repeats his Master’s teaching in the sermon on the mount (Mat 5:39). He forbids revenge in word, as well as in deed. But contrariwise blessing. The word “blessing” is not the substantive, but the participle (), and thus corresponds with the participle “rendering” (comp. Mat 5:44, “Bless them that curse you”). Knowing that ye are thereunto called; rather, as in the Revised Version, for hereunto were ye called. The word “knowing” is omitted in the best manuscripts. Some commentators take these words with the preceding: “Ye were called to bless others, that so ye may inherit a blessing.” But, on the whole, it seems better to connect them with the following clause: That ye should inherit a blessing. Christians bless others, not in order that they should inherit a blessing, but because it is God’s will and their duty; and that duty follows from the fact that God has made them inheritors of his blessing. “Benedictionem aeternam,” says Bengel, “cujus primitias jam nunc pit habent.” God has blessed them; therefore they must bless others.
1Pe 3:10
For he that will love life; literally, he that willeth to love life. St. Peter deviates somewhat from the Septuagint Version of Psa 34:12-16, which he is quoting. The literal rendering of it is, “What man is he that desireth life, loving good days?” His connection of the participle with is remarkable. Perhaps the meaning is best given by Bengel, “Qui vult ita vivere, nt ipsum non taedeat vitro”” Who wishes to live so that he will not weary of life;” so that he may love it, so that he may have a life really worth living. There is a love of life which can only lead to the loss of the true life (Joh 12:25). St. Peter is teaching us to love life wisely, not with that selfish love which Christ condemns. And see good days. Not necessarily in outward prosperity, but in the favor of God; days of suffering may be good days in the truest souse. Let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. We have here the usual parallelism of Hebrew poetry. The word “refrain” (, literally, “let him make it cease”) implies a natural tendency to sins against charity.
1Pe 3:11
Let him eschew evil, and do good; literally, let him turn away from evil. Let him seek peace, and ensue it. Let him seek it as a hidden treasure, and pursue it as if it might escape from him.
1Pe 3:12
For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers. The apostle adds the conjunction “for” (, because) to mark the connection. God’s people must turn away from evil and do good, because the all-seeing eye is upon them; they will find strength to do so, because God heareth prayer. Perhaps when the apostle was writing these words he remembered how once “the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter.” But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. The preposition in the two clauses is the same (, over, or upon). The Lord’s eye is upon the good and the evil. The apostle omits the words that follow in the psalm, “to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth,” perhaps because he wishes us to regard the spiritual rather than the temporal consequences of our actions.
1Pe 3:13
And who is he that will harm you? The apostle, as he began his quotation from Psa 34:1-22, without marks of citation, so adds at once his inference from it in the form of a question. The conjunction “and” connects the question with the quotation. If God’s eye is over the righteous, and his ear open to their prayers, who shall harm them? St. Peter does not meanWho will have the heart to harm you? He knew the temper of Jews and heathens; he knew also the Savior’s prophecies of coming persecution too well to say that. The words remind us of the Septuagint rendering of Isa 50:9, ; None can do real harm to the Lord’s people; they may persecute them, but he will make all things work together for their good. If ye be followers of that which is good; rather, if ye become zealous of that which is good, with the oldest manuscripts. The Authorized Version adopts the reading , followers or imitators, which is not so well supported. The genitive admits the masculine translation, “of him that is good,” but it is probably neuter in this place (comp. Isa 50:11). With the masculine rendering, comp. Act 22:3, “and was zealous toward God ( ).“
1Pe 3:14
But and if ye suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye; better, but although ye should suffer. St. Peter knew that persecution was coming; he wished to prepare his readers for it. He recalls to their thoughts the eighth beatitude, almost reproducing the Lord’s words (Mat 5:10). Such suffering (, lenius verbum quam ,“ Bengel) would do them no real harm; nay, it would bring with it a true and deep blessing. “Righteousness” here seems synonymous with “that which is good” in the last verse. Christians had often to suffer, not only because of their confession of Christ, but because of the purity of their lives, which was a standing reproach to the heathen. Compare St. Augustine’s well-known saying, “Martyrem tacit non poena, sed causa.” And be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled. From Isa 8:12. The genitive may be taken as objective: “Be not afraid of the terror which they cause;” or as subjective, “with the terror which they feel.” The former view is more suitable here.
1Pe 3:15
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. From Isa 8:13. The reading of the best and oldest manuscripts here is , “Sanctify the Lord Christ,” or, “Sanctify the Christ as Lord.” The absence of the article with is in favor of the second translation; but the first seems more natural, more in accordance with the original passage in Isaiah, and the common expression, , is in its favor. Whichever translation is adopted, St. Peter here substitutes the Savior’s Name where the prophet wrote, “the Lord of hosts, Jehovah Sabaoth”a change which would be nothing less than impious if the Lord Jesus Christ were not truly God. “Sanctify him,” the apostle says (as the Lord himself teaches us to say, in the first words of the Lord’s Prayer); that is, regard him as most holy, awful in sanctity; serve him with reverence and godly fear; so you will not “be afraid of their terror.” The holy fear of God will lift you above the fear of man. “Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread” (Isa 8:13; see also Le Isa 10:3; Isa 29:23; Eze 38:23). St. Peter adds the words, “in your hearts,” to teach us that this reverence, this hallowing of the Name of God, must be inward and spiritual, in our inmost being. And be ready always to give an answer to every man; literally, ready always for an apology to every man. The word is often used of a formal answer before a magistrate, or of a written defense of the faith; but here the addition, “to every man,” shows that St. Peter is thinking of informal answers on any suitable occasion. That asketh you a reason of the here that is in you; literally, an account concerning the hope. Hope is the grace on which St. Peter lays most stress; it lives in the hearts of Christians. Christians ought to be able to give an account of their hope when asked, both for the defense of the truth and for the good of the asker. That account may be very simple; it may be the mere recital of personal experienceoften the most convincing of arguments; it may be, in the case of instructed Christians, profound and closely reasoned. Some answer every Christian ought to be able to give. With meekness and fear. The best manuscripts read, “but with meekness and fear.” The word “but” () is emphatic; argument always involves danger of weakening the spiritual life through pride or bitterness. We must sometimes “contend earnestly for the faith;” but it must be with gentleness and awe. We should fear lest we injure our own souls by arrogant and angry controversy; we should seek the spiritual good of our opponents; and we should entertain a solemn awe of the presence of God, with a trembling anxiety to think and to say only what is acceptable unto him.
1Pe 3:16
Having a good conscience. This word “conscience” () is one of the many links between this Epistle and the writings of St. Paul. St. Peter uses it three times; St. Paul, very frequently. There is a close connection between this clause and the preceding verse. A good conscience is the best reason of the hope that is in us. An apology may be learned, well-expressed, eloquent; but it will not be convincing unless it comes from the heart, and is backed up by the life. Calvin (quoted by Huther) says, “Quid parum auctoritatis habet sermo absque vita.” That, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers. The Revised Version follows the Sinaitic Manuscript in reading, “Wherein ye are spoken against,” and omitting “as of evil-doers? It is possible that the received reading may have been interpolated from 1Pe 2:12, where the same words occur; except that there the mood is indicative, here, conjunctive, “wherein they may possibly speak evil of you.” They may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ; rather, as the Revised Version, they may be put to shame; that is, “proved to be liars”. The word translated “falsely accuse” is that which is rendered “despitefully use” in Mat 5:44. Luk 6:28. It is a strong word. Aristotle defines the corresponding substantive as a thwarting of the wishes of others out of gratuitous malice (‘Rhet.,’ Luk 2:2). For “good conversation,” see 1Pe 1:15, 1Pe 1:18. The Christian’s life is in Christ, in the sphere of his presence, he dwelling in us, and we in him.
1Pe 3:17
For it is better. St. Peter meets the common objection that suffering could be borne more easily if it were deserved; the Christian must take the cross, if it comes, as from God, sent for his good. If the will of God be so; literally, if the will of God should so will. denotes the will in itself; , its active operation (Wirier, 3:65. ). That ye suffer for well-doing, than for evil-doing. The construction is participial, as in 1Pe 2:20. As there, the participle expresses, not merely the circumstances, but the cause of the suffering; they would have to suffer, not simply while they were doing well, but because they did Well.
1Pe 3:18
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins; rather, because Christ also once suffered. Two of the oldest manuscripts read “died;“ but “suffered” corresponds best with the previous verse. The connection isIt must be better to suffer for well-doing, because Christ himself, the All-innocent One, thus suffered, and they who so suffer are made most like unto him. The apostle refers us again to that transcendent Example which was ever before his eyes (compare the close parallel in Heb 9:26-28). Christ suffered once for all (); so the sufferings of the Christian are soon over” but for a moment.” For sins (); concerning sins, on account of sins; he, himself sinless, suffered concerning the sins of others. The preposition is constantly used in connection with the sin offering in the Septuagint (see Le 6:25, ; comp. Le 1Pe 5:8-11, etc.; also Heb 10:6, Heb 10:8, Heb 10:18, Heb 10:26). The Just for the unjust; literally, just for unjust. There is no article. The apostle began to speak of the death of Christ, both here and in 1 Peter it., as an example; in both places he seems to be led on by an instinctive feeling that it is scarcely seemly for the Christian to mention that stupendous event without dwelling on its deeper and more mysterious meaning. The preposition used in this clause () does not necessarily convey the idea of vicarious suffering, as does; it means simply “in behalf of,” leaving the character of the relation undetermined; here the context implies the particular relation of substitution (comp. Rom 5:6; also St. Peter’s description of our Lord as “the Just,” in Act 3:14). That he might bring us to God. The Vatican and other manuscripts read “you.” St. Peter opens out one of the deeper aspects of the death of Christ. The veil that hid the Holiest was then rent in twain, and believers were invited and encouraged to draw near into the immediate presence of God. The verb used here is ; the corresponding substantive () occurs in Eph 2:18; Eph 3:12; also in Rom 5:2. In those places it is rendered “access”we have access to the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ. Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. The Greeks words are, , the article inserted before in the received text being without authority. We observe the absence of any article or preposition, and the exact balance and correspondence of the two clauses. The two datives must be taken in the same sense; it is impossible to regard one as the dative of the sphere, and the other as the dative of the instrument; both are evidently datives of “the sphere to which a general predicate is to be limited” (Winer, 31:6. a); they limit the extent of the participles. Thus the literal translation is, “Being put to death in flesh, but quickened in spirit.” For the antithesis of “flesh” and “spirit,” common in the New Testament, comp. Rom 1:3, Rom 1:4, “Made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness;” and 1Ti 3:16, “Manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit;” see especially the close parallel in 1Pe 4:6, “That they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” It seems to follow, from the opposition of flesh and spirit, and from a comparison of the passages quoted above, that by in this verse we are to understand, not God the Holy Ghost, but the holy human spirit of Christ. In his flesh he was put to death, but in his spirit he was quickened. When the Lord had said, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit;” when he bowed his head, and gave up the spirit;then that spirit passed into a new life. So Bengel excellently says, “Christus, vitam in semet ipso habens, et ipse vita, spiritu vivere neque desiit, neque iterum coepit; sed simulatque per mortificationem involucre infirmitatis in carne solutus erat, statim vitae solvi nesciae virtus modis novis et multo expeditissimis sese exserere coepit.” Christ, being delivered from the burden of that suffering flesh which he had graciously taken for our salvation, was quickened in his holy human spiritquickened to new energies, new and blessed activities. So it shall be with those who suffer for well-doing; they may even be put to death in the flesh, but “if we die with him, we shall also live with him.” It is far better ( ) to depart and to be with Christ, to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. They that are Christ’s shall, like their Master, be quickened in the spirit; they pass at once into the new life of Paradise; their works follow them thither; it may be, we cannot tell, they will be employed in blessed work for Christ, being made like unto him not only in some degree during their earthly life, but also in the intermediate state of rest and hope.
1Pe 3:19
By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; rather, in which ( ). The Lord was no longer in the flesh; the component parts of his human nature were separated by death; his flesh lay in the grave. As he had gone about doing good in the flesh, so now he went in the spiritin his holy human spirit. He went. The Greek word () occurs again in 1Pe 3:22, “who is gone into heaven.” It must have the same meaning in both places; in 1Pe 3:22 it asserts a change of locality; it must do the like here. There it is used of the ascent into heaven; it can scarcely mean here that, without any such change of place, Christ preached, not in his own Person, but through Noah or the apostles. Compare St. Paul’s words in Eph 4:9 (the Epistle which seems to have been so much in St. Peter’s thoughts), “Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?” And preached (). It is the word constantly used of the Lord from the time when “Jesus began to preach (), and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mat 4:17). Then, himself in our human flesh, he preached to men living in the fleshto a few of his own age and country. Now the range of his preaching was extended; himself in the spirit, he preached to spirits: ” ; spiritu, spiritibus.” says Bengel; “congruens sermo.“ He preached also to the spirits; not only once to living men, but now also to spirits, even to them. The calls for attention; it implies a new and additional fact; it emphasizes the substantive ( ). The preaching and the condition of the hearers are mentioned together; they were spirits when they heard the preaching. It seems impossible to understand these words of preaching through Noah or the apostles to men who passed afterwards into the state of disembodied spirits. And he preached in the spirit. The words seem to limit the preaching to the time when the Lord’s soul was left in Hades (Act 2:27). Huther, indeed, says that “as both expressions ( and ) apply to Christ in his entire Person, consisting of body and soul, what follows must not be conceived as an activity which he exercised in his spirit only, and whilst separated from his body.” But does apply to body and soul? Men “are not able to kill the soul.” And is it true, as Huther continues, that the first words of this verse are not opposed to the view that Christ preached in his glorified body, “inasmuch as in this body the Lord is no longer , but entirely “? Indeed, we are taught that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; “and that that which “is sown a natural body is raised a spiritual body” ( ); but Christ himself said of his resurrection-body, “A spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have” (Luk 24:39). He preached to “the spirits in prison ( ).“ (For , comp. Rev 20:7; Mat 5:25, etc.). It cannot mean the whole realm of the dead, but only that part of Hades in which the souls of the ungodly are reserved unto the day of judgment. Bengel says, “In carcere puniuntur sontes: in custodia servantur, dum experiantur quid facturus sit judex?” But it seems doubtful whether this distinction between and can be pressed; in Rev 20:7 is used of the prison of Satan, though, indeed, that prison is not the into which he will be cast at the last.
1Pe 3:20
Which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a-preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. Omit the word “once” (), which is without authority. Wherein; literally, into which; they were saved by entering into it. The last words may mean, “they were carried safely through the water,” or, “they were saved by water;” that is, the water bore up the ark (Gen 7:17, Gen 7:18). The argument of 1Pe 3:21 makes the second interpretation the more probable. The verse now before us limits the area of the Lord’s preaching: without it we might have supposed that he preached to the whole multitude of the dead, or at least to all the ungodly dead whose spirits were in prison. Why does St. Peter specify the generation that was swept away by the Flood? Did they need the preaching of the Christ more than other sinful souls? or was there any special reason why that grace should be vouchsafed to them rather than to others? The fact must have been revealed to the apostle; but evidently we are in the presence of a mystery into which we can see only a little way. Those antediluvians were a conspicuous instance of men who suffered for evil doing (see 1Pe 3:17); as Christ is the transcendent Example of one who suffered for well-doing. It is better to suffer with him than with them: they are in prison. His chosen are with him in Paradise. But St. Peter cannot rest in the contemplation of the Lord’s death as an example; he must pass on to the deeper, the more mysterious aspects of that most stupendous or’ events. The Lord suffered concerning sins, for the sake of unrighteous men; not only did he die for them, he did not rest from his holy work even while his sacred body lay in the grave; he went and preached to some whose sins had been most notorious, and most signally punished. The judgment had been one of unexampled awfulness; eight souls only were saved in the ark, many thousands perished. It may be that St. Peter mentions the fewness of the saved to indicate one reason for this gracious visit. It seems that the awful destruction of the Deluge had made a deep impression upon his mind; he mentions it twice in his Second Epistle (1Pe 2:5; 1Pe 3:6); he saw in it a solemn anticipation of the last tremendous judgment. Doubtless he remembered well how the Lord, in his great prophetic discourse upon the Mount of Olives, had compared the days of Noah to the coming of the Son of man (Mat 24:37-39); those words seem to give a special character to the Deluge, separating it from other lesser judgments, and investing it with a peculiar awfulness. It may be that the apostle’s thoughts had dwelt much upon the many mysterious problems (such as the great destruction of infant life) connected with it; and that a special revelation was vouchsafed to him to clear up some of his difficulties. These spirits, in prison at the time of the descent into Hades, had aforetime been disobedient. The Greek word () means literally “disbelieving;” but here, as in 1Pe 2:7 and elsewhere, it stands for that willful unbelief which sets itself in direct opposition to the will of God. They were guilty of unbelief, and of the disobedience which results from unbelief. Noah was a “preacher of righteousness” (2Pe 2:5, where the Greek word is , the substantive corresponding with the verb here); the vast structure of the ark was a standing warning as it rose slowly before their eyes. The long-suffering of God waited all those hundred and twenty years (Gen 6:3), as now the Lord is “long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2Pe 3:9). But they heeded neither the preaching of Noah nor the long-suffering of God; and at last “the Flood came, and took them all away. So shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Eight only were saved then; they doubtless suffered for well-doing; they had to endure much scorn and derision, perhaps persecution. But they were not disobedient. “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house.” The eight were brought safe through (); they were saved through the water; the water bore them up, possibly rescued them from persecution. But the rest perished; the destruction of life was tremendous; we know not how many thousands perished: they suffered for evil-doing. But the degrees of guilt must have varied greatly from open pro-faulty and hostility to silent doubt; while there were many children and very young persons; and it may be that many repented at the last moment. It is better to suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing; but even suffering for evil-doing is sometimes blessed to the salvation of the soul; and it may be that some of these, having been “judged according to men in the flesh,” now “live according to God in the spirit” (1Pe 4:6). For it is impossible to believe that the Lord’s preaching was a “concio damnatoria.” The Lord spoke sternly sometimes in the days of his flesh, but it was the warning voice of love; even that sternest denunciation of the concentrated guilt and hypocrisy of the Pharisees ended in a piteous wail of loving sorrow. It cannot he that the most merciful Savior would have visited souls irretrievably lost merely to upbraid them and to enhance their misery. He had just suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust: is it not possible that one of the effects of that suffering might have been “to bring unto God” some souls who once had been alienated from God by wicked works, but had not wholly hardened their hearts; who, like the men of Tyro and Sidon, Sodom and Gomorrah, had not the opportunities which we enjoy, who had not been once enlightened and made partakers of the heavenly gift and the powers of the world to come? Is it not possible that in those words, “which sometime were disobedient,” there may be a hint that that disobedience of theirs was not the “eternal sin” which, according to the reading of the two most ancient manuscripts in Mar 3:29, is the awful lot of those who have never forgiveness? The Lord preached to the spirits in prison; that word () is commonly used of the heralds of salvation, and St. Peter himself, in the next chapter, tells us that “the gospel was preached () to them that are dead.” The gospel is the good tidings of salvation through the cross of Christ. The Lord had just died upon the cross: is it not possible that, in the moment of victory, he announced the saving power of the cross to some who had greatly sinned; as at the time of his resurrection “many bodies of the saints who slept arose”? There is one more question which forces itself upon usWhat was the result of this preaching? Did the spirits in prison listen to the Savior’s voice? Were they delivered from that prison where they had been so long confined? Here Scripture is almost silent; yet we read the words of hope in 1Pe 4:6, “For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” The good news was announced to them that they might live; then may we not dare to hope that some at least listened to that gracious preaching, and were saved even out of that prison by the power of the Savior’s cross? May we not venture to believe, with the author of the ‘ Christian Year,’ that even in that dreary scene the Savior’s eye reached the thronging band of sou]s, and that his cross and Passion, his agony and bloody sweat, might (we know not how or in what measure) “set the shadowy realms from sin and sorrow free?” It seems desirable to add a brief summary of the history of opinion on this much-controverted passage. The early Greek Fathers appear to have held, with one consent, that St. Peter is hero speaking of that descent into Hades of which he had spoken in his first great sermon (Act 2:31). Justin Martyr, in his’ Dialogue with Trypho’ (sect. 72), accuses the Jews of having erased from the prophecies of Jeremiah the following words: “The Lord God of Israel remembered his dead who slept in the land of the tomb, and descended to them to preach to them the good news of his salvation.” Irenseus quotes the same passage, attributing it in one place to Isaiah, in another to Jeremiah, and adds that the Lord’s purpose was to deliver them and to save them (extrahere eos et salvare cos). Tertullian says that the Lord descended into the lower parts of the earth, to make the patriarchs partakers of himself (compotes sui; ‘De Anima,’ c. 55). Clement of Alexandria quotes Hermas as saying that “the apostles and teachers who had preached the Name of the Son of God and had fallen asleep, preached by his power and faith to those who had fallen asleep before them” (‘Strom.,’ Jer 2:9). “And then,” Bishop Pearson, from whose notes on the Creed these quotations are taken, continues, “Clement supplies that authority with a reason of his own, that as the apostles were to imitate Christ while they lived, so did they also imitate him after death, and therefore preached to the souls in Hades, as Christ did before them.” The earliest writers do not seem to have thought that any change in the condition of the dead was produced by Christ’s descent into Hades. The Lord announced the gospel to the dead; the departed saints rejoiced to hear the glad tidings, as now the angels rejoice over each repentant sinner. Origen, in his second homily on 1 Kings, taught that the Lord, descending into Hades, brought the souls of the holy dead, the patriarchs and prophets, out of Hades into Paradise; no souls could pass the flaming sword till he had led the way; but now, through his grace and power, the blessed dead who die in the Lord enter at once into the rest of Paradisenot yet heaven, but an intermediate place of rest, far better than that from which the saints of the old covenant were delivered. In this view Origen was followed by many of the later Fathers. But St. Peter says nothing of any preaching to departed saints. Christ “went and preached,” he says, “unto the spirits in prison, which sometime were disobedient.” Hence Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine, and others were led to suppose that the Lord not only raised the holy dead to a higher state of blessedness, but preached also to the disobedient, and that some of these believed, and were by his grace delivered from “prison.” Some few, as Cyril of Alexandria, held that the Lord spoiled the house of the strong man armed ( ), and released all his captives. This Augustine reckoned as a heresy. But in his epistle to Euodius Augustine, much exercised (as he says, “vehementissime commotus”) by the difficulties of the question, propounded the interpretation which became general in the Western Church, being adopted by Bode, Thomas Aquinas, De Lyra, and later by Beza, Hammond, Leighton, Pearson, etc. “The spirits in prison,” he says, “are the unbelieving who lived in the days of Noah, whose spirits, i.e. souls, had been shut up in the flesh and in the darkness of ignorance, as in a prison [comp. ‘ Paradise Lost,’ 11:723]. Christ preached to them, not in the flesh, inasmuch as he was not yet incarnate, but in the spirit, i.e. according to his Divine nature (secundum divinitatem).“ But this interpretation does not satisfy St. Peter’s words. The hypothesis that Christ preached through the instrumentality of Noah does not adequately represent the participle ; the word cannot be taken metaphorically of the flesh in which the soul is confined. If, with Beza, we understand it as meaning “who are now in prison,” we escape one difficulty, but another is introduced; for it is surely forced and unnatural to make the time of the verb and that of the dative clause different. The words must describe the condition of the spirits at the time of the Savior’s preaching. Some commentators, as Socinus and Grotius, refer St. Peter’s words to the preaching of Christ through the apostles. These writers understand of the prison of the body, or the prison of sin; and explain St. Peter as meaning that Christ preached through the apostles to the Jews who were under the yoke of the Law, and to the Gentiles who lay under the power of the devil; and they regard the disobedient in the time of Noah as a sample of sinners in any age. But this interpretation is altogether arbitrary, and cannot be reconciled with the apostle’s words. Other views arethat our Lord descended into hell to triumph over Satan (on which see Pearson on the Creed, art. 5.); that his preaching was a concio damnatoriaan announcement of condemnation, not of salvation (which is disproved by 1Pe 4:6); that the spirits in prison were holy souls waiting for Christ, the prison being (according to Calvin) “specula, sire ipse excubandi actus;” that they were heathens, who lived according to their light, but in idolatry. We may mention, in conclusion, the monstrous explanation of the heretic Marcion, that they were those who in the Old Testament are called ungodly, but were really better than those whom the Old Testament regards as saints.
1Pe 3:21
The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us. The reading of the Textus Receptus , represented by “whereunto,” is without authority; all the uncial manuscripts have , “which,” in the nominative case. The oldest manuscripts also read “you” instead of “us.” The antecedent of the relative must be the word immediately preceding, , water; the word “baptism” is added in apposition, to define more clearly the apostle’s meaning; the water which saves is the water of baptism. Thus the literal translation will be, “Which (as) antitype is saving you also, (namely) baptism;” that is, the water which is saving you is the antitype of the water of the Flood. That water was made the means of saving a few; it bore up the ark in which they were. It saved them, perhaps, from the malice of the ungodly; it saved them from that corruption which was almost universal; it was the means of saving the race of men as by a new birth through death into a new life, a new beginning; it washed away the evil, those who suffered for evil-doing, and so saved those who had doubtless been suffering for well-doing. Thus it is the figure () of the antitype () baptism; the two (the water of the Flood and the water of baptism) correspond as type and antitype. The is the counterpart of the ; and as sometimes means the original, sometimes the figure, there is a correspondent variation in the meaning of . Delitzsch says, on Heb 9:24, “We have found at 1 Peter 8:5 used in the sense of an original figurea model from which a copy is made; such copy from an original (or architype) is that designated as here. again (as at Rom 5:14) is used in the sense of a prophetic foretype, of which the accomplishment is reserved for the future ( ); and that accomplishment is again called (antitype); e.g. baptism, at 1Pe 3:21, is in this sense an of the Deluge. The earthly reflection of the heavenly archetype, and the actual fulfillment of the prophetic , are each called .” Here the water of the Flood is the prophetic foretype; baptism is the accomplishment. “Baptism,” St. Peter says, “is saving you,” the few Christians, separating you from the vast number of Gentries, whom in some sense it condemns through their rejection of God’s offered mercy (comp. Heb 11:7), saving you from the corruption of their evil example, bringing you into the ark of Christ’s Church, bearing up that ark through the grace of the new birth. The apostle says, “Baptism is saving you;” he does not say, “hits saved;” he is using the present tense in its proper sense of an incomplete action; it brings us into a state of salvation, into covenant with God. But it is only the beginning, the birth; the growth must follow; the death unto sin, the new birth unto righteousness, must be realized in actual life; otherwise, alas! we shall have received the grace of God in vain (comp. Tit 3:5). (Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God.) St. Peter hastens to explain his statement. Baptism doth save us, but not the mere outward ceremony; you may “make clean the outside” with the most scrupulous care; you may be very careful in putting away the filth of the flesh; but more is needed than the old Jewish washings, the frequent purifications. Comp. Justin Martyr, ‘ Dial. cum Trypho,’ p. 331 (quoted by Huther), (the Jewish washing) . Observe that St. Peter uses the word here rendered “putting away” () again in the Second Epistle (2Pe 1:14) of putting off the earthly tabernacle (comp. also 1Pe 2:1, where he uses the corresponding participle, ). The next clause presents great difficulty. Is the genitive subjective or objective? What is the meaning of ? The word occurs only in one other place in the Greek Scriptures (Dan 4:14 [in the Authorized Version, Dan 4:17]), where it is translated “demand;” the corresponding verb is of frequent occurrence; as in Rom 10:20, “them that asked not after me;” and 2Ki 11:7 (2Sa 11:7, in the Authorized Version), where it is joined with the preposition , as in this verse. Thus seems to mean an “inquiry,” and the genitive is probably subjective. The inner meaning of baptism is not that the flesh puts away its filth, but that a good conscience inquires after God. The outward and visible sign doth not save if separated from the inward and spiritual grace. The first is necessary, for it is an outward sign appointed by Christ; but it will not save without the second; those who draw near to God must have their bodies washed with pure water, but also their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience (Heb 10:22). The inner cleansing of the soul results in a good conscience, a consciousness of sincerity, of good intentions and desires, which will instinctively seek after God. And that good conscience is the effect of baptism, when baptism has its perfect work, when those who have once been grafted into the true Vine abide in Christ, when those who have once been baptized in one Spirit into one body keep the unity of the Spirit, Christ dwelling in them, and they in Christ. Archbishop Leighton explains the word as “the whole correspondence of the conscience with God, and with itself as towards God, or in the sight of God.” If the genitive is regarded as objective, the meaning will be, “an inquiry addressed to God for a good conscience;” the soul, once awakened, seeks continually fuller purification, hungers and thirsts after righteousness. This gives a good sense, but seems less suitable in this context. It is possible also to join the preposition with in the sense of a good conscience in relation to God; but it seems much more natural to connect it with . Some commentators follow AEcumenius in paraphrasing by ; they take the ground that, in legal language, the word was used in the sense of a contract, and they see in St. Peter’s words a reference to the covenant made with God in baptism, and to the questions and answers in which, from the earliest times, that covenant was expressed; being used in a general sense so as to cover answers as well as questions. This is a possible alternative, but the word seems to have acquired this meaning in later times. By the resurrection of Jesus Christ. These words refer back to “baptism doth also now save us.” Baptism derives its saving effect from the resurrection of our Lord; without that resurrection it would be an empty form (see note on 1Pe 1:3).
1Pe 3:22
Who is gone into heaven. The word here rendered “gone” is that used in 1Pe 3:19, “he went and preached ()” (comp. Eph 4:9, “Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?”). And is on the right hand of God (comp. Psa 110:1; Rom 8:34; Col 3:1; Eph 1:20; Heb 1:3). It is better to suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing, for he who is the signal Example, who suffered, the Just for the unjust, is now exalted to the right hand of the Majesty on high; and “is able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. God “hath set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.” All the angels of God, in the various grades of the heavenly hierarchy, are made subject to Christ. The words seem to include, especially when read in comparison with Col 2:15, the evil angels also; they are made subject against their will to Christ; they asked him once if he was come to torment them before the time. He can restrain their malice and save his people from their power.
HOMILETICS
1Pe 3:1-7 – Duties of husbands and wives.
I. DUTIES OF WIVES.
1. Obedience. Holy matrimony is a very sacred thing. It is not a mere human ordinance ( , 1Pe 2:13); it is not a creation of human law. Human law, indeed, surrounds it with its sanctions, regarding it as a civil contract; but it was instituted of God in the time of man’s innocency; it is an image of the mystical union between Christ and his Church. It is a school of holy love, a discipline of sweet self-denials for the loved one’s sake, which ought to help Christian people greatly in the pursuit of holiness. But it is Christianity that has restored wedlock to what it was at the first, and given it a yet deeper and a far holier meaning. The frequency of divorce among both Jews and heathens; the dislike of marriage, which had become so serious at Rome; the Greek habit of regarding the wife as the mistress of her husband’s house, the mother of his children, but not as the helpmeet, the partner of his cares, the sharer of his joys and sorrows; the depreciation of woman;all this had made the ordinary view of marriage very different from what God had intended it to be, from what it now is in Christian families. It is to Christianity, not to civilization (for the Greeks and Romans were as civilized as we are), that we owe the sweet sanctities of wedded life and the quiet happiness of home. But at first Christianity introduced a fresh element of division. From time to time one member of a family circle would have to put the constraining love of Christ above the love due to father or mother, husband, wife, or child. The case of a Christian wife with an unbelieving husband would be one of especial difficulty. She would probably have to hear her religion derided, her Savior insulted; she would have to endure constant reproaches and sarcasms, often hardships, and even brutal cruelty. St. Paul had considered the case in 1Co 7:13-17. St. Peter here counsels submission; the power of gentleness might succeed in winning those who could be won in no other way. Let Christian wives be very careful to respect their husband’s authority; let them fear to give them so much as the shadow of a reason to suspect their purity. Let the holy fear of God lead them to regard even the unbelieving husband with due reverence; let them carefully avoid giving any unnecessary offense, or unduly putting forward the differences, great and fundamental as they were, which separated them from one another. Thus let them hope and pray for their husbands’ conversion. The silent eloquence of a holy, self-denying life will generally be more powerful than argument and controversy. Thus they would have the best hope of winning their husbands to Christ, of “gaining them,” as the word literally means. Compare Archbishop Leighton, “A soul converted is gained to itself, gained to the pastor, or friend, or wife, or husband who sought it, and gained to Jesus Christ; added to his treasury, who thought not his own precious blood too dear to lay out for this gain.” The earnest words of Christian men and women are sometimes greatly blessed, but a humble holy life will often win souls which no eloquence could touch.
2. Simplicity in dress. Christian women should be quiet and modest in their attire. St. Peter’s language is, of course, comparative, like Hosea’s words, twice quoted by our Lord, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.” He does not mean to forbid all plaiting of hair or wearing of gold any more than putting on of apparel; he means that these are poor and contemptible compared with the costlier ornaments which he recommends in their stead. Christian women should be simple and unaffected in dress as in behavior. In general, the best rule is to avoid singularity. “There may be,“ Leighton says, “in some an affected pride in the meanness of apparel, and in others, under either neat or rich attire, a very humble, unaffected mind … ‘Magnus qui fictilibus utitur tanquam argento, nec ille minor qui argento tanquam fictilibus,’ says Seneca. ‘Great is he who enjoys his earthenware as if it were plate, and not less great is the man to whom all his plate is no more than earthenware.'” In this, as in other aspects of Christian duty, the enlightened conscience is the best guide. But Christians must never allow their thoughts to dwell on these things; they must learn not to care for finery, not to love display. To quote Leighton again, “Far more comfort shalt thou have on thy deathbed to remember that at such a time, instead of putting lace on my own clothes, I helped a naked back to clothing, I abated somewhat of my former superfluities to supply the poor man’s necessities; far sweeter will this be than to remember that I could needlessly cast away many pounds to serve my pride, rather than give a penny to relieve the poor.”
3. The true adorning. The soul is far more precious than the body. It is of far greater importance to adorn the soul than to decorate the body. The soul is unseen, so is its garniture; it is hidden from the eye of man, but seen of God. The proper ornament of Christian women is “the hidden man of the heart”the hidden life of the regenerate soul. It is hidden; it will not always be asserting itself; it is retiring in its modest beauty. But that inner man is very fair and lovely, for it is renewed after the image of the Savior; its beauty lieth in the incorruptibleness of a meek and quiet spirit. The beauty of the Christian life consists in these softer graces rather than in self-assertion and denunciation of the faults of others. Christian women should be meek and calm, not angry, not fretful; they should bear their daily cross quietly and submissively; they should not allow the unkind words or deeds of others to excite them to wrath. This true adorning of the soul is incorruptible; it is not lost by death, it will follow the holy dead into the paradise of God; and it is of great price in the sight of God. The world admires rich dress and costly jewels; God prizes the meek and quiet spirit. Which of the two should Christians seek to pleaseGod or the world?
4. The example of holy women. They hoped in God. They who have that high and holy hope cannot care for the pomps and vanities of this sinful world. They adorned themselves with the more precious ornaments, meekness and humility and wifely obedience. Such a one was Sarah, the wife of the father of the faithful. Christian women are her daughters in the faith, while they persevere in the way of holiness, and preserve a calm unruffled spirit, not easily excited, not terrified by every sudden scare, but resting in the Lord.
II. THE DUTIES OF HUSBANDS.
1. Arising from the greater weakness of the wife. Husband and wife are both vessels: they should be “vessels unto honor, sanctified and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” But both are weak; the woman, as a rule, is the weaker. The weaker the vessel the more tenderly it should be treated. The husband must dwell with his wife according to knowledge; he must treat her with thoughtful consideration. True love, especially if refined by religion, will give him tact and discernment; he will care for his wife, nourish and cherish her, “even as the Lord the Church” (Eph 5:29).
2. Arising from their mutual hope of heaven. Husband and wife are fellow-heirs of the grace of life; each must honor the other. There is no true love which is not founded in mutual respect, and that respect will be truest and deepest when each regards the other as a Christian soul, living in the faith of Christ, looking for the blessed hope of eternal life with God. Then husbands and wives love one another best when they love God first of all. “That love which is cemented by youth and beauty, when these moulder and decay, as soon they do, fades too. That is somewhat purer, and so more lasting, which holds in a natural or moral harmony of minds; yet these likewise may alter and change by some great accident. But the most refined, most spiritual, and most indissoluble, is that which is knit with the highest and purest spirit. And the ignorance or disregard of this is the great cause of so much bitterness, or so little true sweetness, in the life of most married persons; because God is left out, because they meet not as one in him” (Leighton).
3. Danger of neglecting these duties. Their prayers would be hindered. The apostle takes it for granted that the Christian man and wife live in constant prayer. The heirs of the grace of life must pray; they must hold frequent converse with him who gives that life, on whom all their hopes depend. He takes it for granted that they know something of the sweetness and blessedness of prayer. Knowing this, as they do, they must be very jealous of anything that can make their prayers less acceptable, less earnest. Then let them live together in holy love. Jars and bickerings disquiet the soul, disturb its communion with God, put it out of harmony with the spirit of prayer. They cannot pray aright who sin against the law of love. God hath made husband and wife one by holy matrimony. They must not allow misunderstandings and jealousies to put them asunder even for a season, lest they sin not only against one another, but also against God, and so their prayers should be hindered, and be unable to reach the throne of grace.
LESSONS.
1. Let Christian wives remember their promise of obedience. If their husbands are not living in the faith of Christ, let them try to win them by holy example and the quiet strength of gentleness.
2. Let them study simplicity in dress and ornament, seeking to adorn their souls rather than their bodies.
3. Let them be followers of holy matrons, not of the gay and thoughtless.
4. Let Christian husbands be tender and loving.
5. Let husband and wife live together in the fear of God and in constant prayer.
1Pe 3:8-17 – General exhortations.
I. THE GREAT DUTY OF CHRISTIAN LOVE.
1. Among the brethren. “This one verse” (eighth), Leighton says, “hath a cluster of five Christian graces or virtues. That which is in the middle, as the stalk or root of the rest, love; and the others growing out of it, two on each sideunanimity and sympathy on the one, and pity and courtesy (or humility) on the other.”
(1) “Be ye all of one mind.” Christians should be united, they should mind the same thing. Divisions, St. Paul says,mean that we are still carnal (2Co 3:4): “While one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?” The Church would still be one, one body in Christ, if all her members were spiritual, if very many had not grieved or even quenched the Spirit by pride and unbelief and many forms of sin. The Christian must long and pray for that unity for which the blessed Lord prayed in his great high-priestly prayer. And the best menus for promoting that unity is that each individual Christian should strive to live in the fellowship of the Spirit. The more that one Spirit fills all the members of the Church, the nearer will they be drawn to one another, and to the one Lord who is the Head of the body which is the Church.
(2) “Have compassion one of another.” The Church should be one, not only in thought and doctrine, but also in feeling; there should be a true sympathy among its members. They should be able to rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. We should rejoice in the comforts and happiness of others, but especially in their spiritual advancement, in the luster of their graces: envy and jealousy rend the body of Christ and destroy individual souls. We should weep for the misfortunes and distresses of others, and especially, like the psalmist, “because men keep not thy Law.” We should feel a keen and lively sympathy with the Church as a whole: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” We should rejoice in its triumphs, and sorrow in its trials. A holy sympathy should pervade all the members of the one body.
(3) “Love as brethren.” This is the central duty of Christians towards one another; all other duties are so many forms of love. “He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law.” St. Peter has already exhorted us to an unfeigned love of the brethren (1Pe 1:22); he reminded us then that Christians are brethren, not only as creatures of the same God, but also in virtue of that new birth which has made them children of the heavenly Father in a deeper and holier sense. There must be no variance among the children of God; they must “love as brethren,” “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
(4) “Be pitiful.” Love cannot lie dormant in the heart; it shows itself in tenderness and pity. There is much sorrow in the world, far more sorrow than joy; hence there is much room for the exercise of tenderness. Christian tenderness is not a weak thing; it is strong and manly; the strongest are often the most tender. The very word here rendered “pitiful,” or “tender-hearted,” means, in classical Greek, “courageous.” The change of meaning is instructive, and marks a characteristic difference between Christian and heathen ethics.
(5) “Be courteous.” True religion softens the roughest natures, and produces a sweetness and spiritual refinement far more beautiful and attractive than that superficial polish which comes only of education and habit. The best Christian is ever the truest gentleman. But in this place the true reading is, be “humble-minded.” Courtesy, indeed, and humility have a near connection; he thinks most of the feelings of others who thinks least of himself. True Christians must be lowly; their Lord set them the example; only humble-minded men can follow the steps of the lowly Savior.
2. Towards enemies. Christians must remember the Master’s teaching. With the heathen revenge was regarded as manly, as a duty to one’s self; to submit calmly to injury was reckoned as slavish, unworthy of a free-born man. The Lord reversed this. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy,” was the old rule; “But I say unto you,” the Lord said with that authority which astonished the listening multitude, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.” St. Peter echoes the teaching which had so much struck him; he remembered, it may be, his own passionate vehemence, the blow which he had struck in the Lord’s defense, and the Lord’s gentle rebuke. He knew how hard it was for human nature to learn that holy lesson, how instinctively railing rises to our lips when men rail at us. Christians have not learned that lesson in eighteen centuries and more; each man has to learn it for himself. St. Peter repeats and enforces it: “Ye are called to inherit a blessing,” he says; “ye hope one day to hear those words of welcome, ‘Come, ye blessed of my Father.’ Then learn yourselves to bless others; render not evil for evil, but remember your daily prayer, ‘Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.'”
II. THIS DUTY ENFORCED BY THE SCRIPTURES.
1. The precept. If we would make our life a thing to be loved, a life worth living; if we would see each day as it passes blessed with peace and calm satisfaction;then, the psalmist says, we must
(1) be careful to govern the tongue. The tongue is “a world of iniquity.” A very large proportion of the sins of our daily life arise from an unbridled tongue. There are the grosser sins of the tongue, profane and impious words, filthy and impure language, falsehood and guile; and besides these, there are other forms of sin, not so coarse and revolting, but far more commonsins against the law of Christian charity; slander and evil-speaking; and all that light, careless, unprofitable talk which fills up so much of our time. The Christian must refrain his lips from these things; his mouth must speak wisdom.
(2) We must do good. The Lord went about doing good. His servants must follow his holy example. They must turn aside from every form of evil; they must follow peace with all men. The Lord is the Prince of Peace. “Peace on earth” was the celestial anthem that celebrated his birth. His followers must love peace; they must seek it amid the discord of opposing wills, though it seem hidden from them: they must pursue it, though it may seem to flee before them through the strifes and envies of men. Among murmurings, among jealousies, among angry words and party animosities, the Christian must carefully seek for peace, and eagerly pursue it.
2. The sanction. We are in the sight of God; his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. If we can only realize that great truththe eye of the Lord is upon uswe must try to please him and to do his will. His will is that we should love one another, that we should speak no guile, that we should follow after peace. Let those who would live a godly life try daily to bring home to their hearts the thought that the eye of God is reading their souls; that thought will make us humble and contented, will save us from the countless temptations that surround us, will keep us from breaking, by word or deed, the holy law of love. That searching eye is upon the righteous and the wicked; it found among the crowd of guests the one unhappy man who had not on a wedding garment; it pierces through the outside of pretence and hypocrisy down into the very heart. Let us not shrink from bringing this great truth to bear upon our lives; let us walk before God, as Abraham did, knowing that our whole inward life of thought, as well as the outward life of word and action, lies mapped out clear and plain to his all-seeing eye. That thought will give solemn meaning, depth of purpose, dignity to the most commonplace life. And it will give strength; for the Lord’s ear is open to the prayer of the righteous; he hears those who come before him in that righteousness which is through faith in Christ; in answer to their prayer he gives his Holy Spirit, and with that Holy Spirit comes the gift of a higher life, the gift of strength and energy, and that best gift of all, holy heavenly love.
III. THE DUTY OF PATIENCE IN SUFFERING.
1. The true Christian cannot be really hurt by external troubles. If we are zealous of what is good, no one can harm us. In truth a man can be really hurt only by himself, through his own consent; for those who suffer for righteousness’ sake are blessed; their suffering does them no real harm; it is turned by the grace of God into a blessing. Suffering is a test of our religion; it shows what it is worth. The mere outward semblance of religion fails under it; deep spiritual religion grows brighter and more refined in the furnace of affliction. But only true religion can endure that searching fire. True religion is zealous, fervent, growing; it cannot be lukewarm; it zealously seeks everything that is really good, zealously supports every good work. The true Christian cannot he hurt by external troubles, for they will only deepen and purify that religion which is the life of his soul, the joy of his heart. Sickness, pain, povertyany trouble meekly borne, is blessed to the soul’s inward happiness; but especially blessed is that suffering which is borne for righteousness’ sake. When a man is content to suffer voluntarily in the cause of truth and righteousness, he is brought very near to Christ the Lord, for he is imitating his example, sharing his cross. The kingdom of heaven is his, for he is very near to the King; and the King dwelleth in his heart, filling him with his sacred presence.
2. Advice to suffering Christians.
(1) In their relations to God. They must not fear, they must not allow themselves to be distressed and agitated by surrounding troubles. Restless excitement is destructive of that tranquility which is the characteristic Christian temper. And the antidote to anxious fear is the hallowing presence of the Lord within us. The apostle bids us, especially in times of trouble and anxiety, to sanctify the Lord Christ in our hearts. The Christian heart should be a sanctuary, cleansed and purified for his indwelling by the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit. There Christ dwelleth enthroned; doubts and fear vanish when the Christian soul falls down and worships him, crying, “My Lord, and my God!” Therefore we are bidden to sanctify him, to regard him as alone holy, the Most Holy One, holiest of holies; to hallow his holy Name, to reverence his most sacred presence within us, and in all awe and love and thankfulness to offer unto him the deepest adoration of our hearts. Outward worship is not enough; outward forms of reverence have their value when they are the expression of the inward reverence of the heart; but it is in the heart that we must sanctify the Lord Christ, if we are to be blessed with that holy tranquility of spirit which results from his sacred presence. As we sanctify him, he sanctifieth us; the more we learn to regard him with a deep, awful, loving reverence, the more does he shed his sanctifying grace throughout our soul, cleansing it from all that is unworthy, and creating it anew after his own image. When our heart is his sanctuary, “he shall be for a sanctuary” to us; he dwelling in us and we in him; and then we need not fear. “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,” said David, “I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.” He who fears God aright fears nothing else but God; he who sanctifieth the Lord Christ in his heart hath a sacred presence there which keeps him calm and tranquil amid dangers and anticipations of coming troubles.
(2) In their relations to men. As they must live for Christ, so they must, when occasion serves, speak for him. The best evidence of the power of religion is the holy lives of Christians. But men will sometimes ask for a reason of the hope that is in them. That hope seemed a strange thing in the days of persecution and unbelief; men thought it wild folly, fanaticism. Christians had often to speak or to write in defense of their faith. We should be ready to do so still both for the glory of God and for the sake of the inquirer’s soul. Therefore we should imitate the Bereans, who “searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” We should take care that our faith is established on the holy Word of God; those who are able should pursue such other studies as may assist us in the defense of the faith. “But,“ the apostle adds (the conjunction is emphatic), “with meekness and fear.” There is always danger in theological controversydanger lest, in heated argument, we transgress the law of love and truth; and danger lest we tread irreverently on holy ground, and speak thoughtlessly of holy things. There must be a mingling of awe and sweetness and wisdom in the temper of him who would by his words win souls to God and the truth. And he must have a good conscience. A good conscience is the consciousness of good thoughts, motives, desires; the Christian must exercise himself, like St. Paul, “to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men.” Such an inner consciousness will give warmth, reality, energy, to his words when he is contending for the faith. Words will not convince if they are out of harmony with the life; unreality will soon betray itself. A good life without words is a better defense of religion than the most learned apology without a godly life. The good life puts to shame the false accusations of the enemies of Christianity; it proves the truth and the strength of Christian motives. But the good life must flow from the good conscience. Men sometimes begin at the wrong end; they try first to reform the outward life; they should begin with the mind and conscience. “If Christians in their progress in grace would eye this the most, that the conscience be growing purer, the heart more spiritual, the affections more regular and heavenly, their outward carriage would be holier; whereas the outword work of performing duties, and being much exercised in religion, may, by the neglect of this, be labor in vain, and amend nothing soundly. To set the outward actions right, though with an honest intention, and not so to find out and regard the inner disorder of the heart, whence that in the actions flows, is but to be still putting the index of a clock right with your finger, while it is foul or out of order within, which is a continual business, and does no good. Oh! but a purified conscience, a soul renewed and refined in its temper and affections, will make things go right without, in all the duties and acts of our callings” (Leighton).
3. Christians have comfort in their sufferings. For
(1) they know, if they are called to suffer, that it is the will of God, and that his will is better than our will. He willeth that we should be saved, that we should come to repentance and live; he willeth our sanctification; and he makes our earthly afflictions, if we bear them patiently, work together for our souls’ good. And
(2) it is better to suffer while well-doing and (as was once the case often, and is sometimes the case now) for well-doing than for evil-doing. The world thinks otherwise; people often say that they could bear this or that trouble better if they had deserved it. But those who say that seldom bear deserved afflictions well; and the Christian knows that suffering for well-doing, when it comes, is the highest form of suffering, for it makes the suffering Christian most like unto the suffering Lord. If only he has a good conscience, if his conversation (his life and conduct) is in Christ, in the sphere of his presence,he can look inward and find Christ, he can look upward and see by faith the prize of the high calling; and then he can say, even in the midst of suffering, “Blessed be the Name of the Lord.”
LESSONS.
1. Let us love the brethren; then we shall be of one mind and one heart; we shall be pitiful, courteous, humble.
2. Remember the Lord’s words, “Vengeance is mine;” “Love your enemies.”
3. The eye of the Lord is upon you; speak and do only what is acceptable to him.
4. Make your heart a temple of God; reverence his presence there.
5. Be very careful, when it is your duty to contend for the faith, to speak with meekness and reverence.
1Pe 3:18-22 – Consider Christ.
I. His SUFFERINGS.
1. Their cause. Even he suffered. The universality of suffering is a common topic of consolation. “Man is born to trouble.” But the thought of the suffering Savior is a source of sweeter comfort and holier patience. A great saint has said, “They feel not their own wounds who contemplate the wounds of Christ.” He endured the cross, despising the shame, for the joy that was set before him. If we, in our sufferings, look unto Jesus, sacred thoughts of his cross will fill our heart more and more, and prevent us from dwelling overmuch on our own afflictions. He is the transcendent Example of suffering for well-doing. But his death is unique; it stands alone in its unapproachable glory; it is surrounded with an atmosphere of awful and yet most blessed mystery. He is not simply a martyr for the truth; he suffered, indeed, for well-doing, but he suffered also on account of sins. Sin was the cause of his death, but not his sin; he was absolutely sinless. He was just, the Just One; but he gave himself in his wondrous love to suffer for the unjust, for their sake, in their behalf, that he might do them good. Their sin caused his death; if man had not sinned, there had been no need that the Son of God should die. The sin of the world was a burden that none but he could bear; he took it upon him. As the high priest bore the names of the tribes of Israel on his shoulders and on his breast, so Christ the great High Priest bore the names of his chosen in his heart, and the tremendous burden of the world’s sin upon his innocent head. And this he did of his own free will, in his own generous love; we must think of him when we are called to suffer, especially when we suffer for well-doing.
2. Their purpose. It was “that he might bring us to God.” Our sin had separated us from God; we were afar off from him. “But now hath he reconciled us by his cross, having slain the enmity thereby.” He has suffered our punishment; therefore, if we are his, we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Apart from God there can be no holiness, no happiness, no true life. Separation from God means darkness, misery, spiritual death. Christ suffered that he might bring us to God; then we must follow him by the way which he trod, the way of the cross. He himself is the Way; and we can walk in that way only by imitating him; if, then, we would come to the Father by the new and living Way, which is Christ himself, we must learn to imitate Christ, always in patient submission to the will of God, sometimes in patient suffering for the truth’s sake.
3. Their extent. Christ’s sufferings extended even unto death; they could reach no further. “He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” It was his own free act; he laid down his life of himself; none could take it from him. The heathen thought it a good omen when the victim came quietly to the altar. No victim ever came with such entire consent of will as the Lord Jesus Christ; for he knew with perfect foreknowledge all the circumstances of his bitter Passion, and at each moment of that long agony he submitted himself of his own will to the tortures inflicted by those poor weak creatures whom he might by one word have swept into utter death. He set us the example of obedience unto death. Let us learn of him. “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life.” The Lord was quickened in the spirit; so shall it be with his chosen. From the moment of death they are blessed; for they shall be with him in Paradise. From that moment they are quickened in the spirit; the spirit is filled with a new life, with new powers and energies; the life of departed saints is “far better” than this earthly life; indeed, they are absent from the body; they have not yet reached that perfect consummation and bliss both in body and soul, which can be realized only in God’s everlasting glory; but they are with the Lord; they rest from the labors of this anxious, restless life; their works do follow them; they are quickened in the spirit to a new life of love and blessedness, and, it may be, of holy work for Christ. That work will be full of happiness; there will be no more suffering, no more weariness. The natural tendency of goodness is to produce happiness; those tendencies are marred and impeded here; there they will have their perfect work; perfected holiness will issue in perfected happiness.
II. HIS WORK OF PREACHING.
1. The Preacher. It was the Lord himself, the Word of the Father. He is the Word: “God has spoken to us by his Son.” He preaches the Word, the Word of eternal life. He preached all the years of his earthly ministry; and when his holy body lay in the grave, after he had been put to death in the flesh, still he preached in the spirit. The ministers of God’s holy Word and sacraments must ]earn of the great Preacher; they must preach faithfully, diligently, for his sake, for the love of the souls whom he loved; they must count it not a labor, but a high and holy privilege, to preach the gospel of salvation. He preached in the spirit; then we may be sure that the spirits and souls of the righteous do not sleep idly in the intermediate state. Even Dives in torment prayed for his five brethren; can we doubt but that departed saints pray still for those whom they loved on earth, for whom they were wont to pray? It is full of sweetness to believe that they still think of us; that they are witnesses (Heb 12:1) of our heavenward course; that they help us with their prayers; that as the number of the blessed who have died in the Lord increases in ever vaster multitude, so a fuller volume of prayer rises from Paradise up to the glory-throne. They pray, we may be sure; it may be (for St. Peter throughout this passage is speaking of Christ as our Example) they also spread the glad news of the gospel among the kingdoms of the dead.
2. The listeners. They too were absent from the body; but they were not in Paradise, on the happy sides of Hades; they were in prison. They were in some dreary place, apart from the souls of the blessed; for they had once been disobedient through unbelief. There had been a preacher among them thenNoah, “a preacher of righteousness;” but they heeded him not. They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the very day that Noah entered into the ark. Noah and his sons ate and drank too; but his main work was to preach righteousness, and to build the ark according to the word of God. Still God’s ministers preach; still the Church, which is the ark, bears witness to the mercy and long-suffering of God, and bids the world to escape from the wrath to come. And still, alas! vast multitudes live on in unbelief, eating and drinking and spending their whole time in worldly pursuits, as if eating and drinking were the end of life, as if this world with its vain pomp and glory were to abide for ever. So it was with these unhappy men; the long-suffering of God waited many years while the ark was a-preparing; as, blessed be his holy Name, it is waiting now till the number of his elect is complete. Then few only were saved; now, alas! it is the few who find the strait and narrow path. The “prison” must be the end of unbelief and disobedience; the word suggests fearful thoughts and dark unsatisfied questions. The Lord preached even there; he brought, we may be sure, the glad tidings of salvation: may we not venture to trust, in humble hope, that some who had not listened to Noah, the preacher of righteousness, listened then to Christ, the Preacher of salvation?
III. THE BAPTISM WHICH HE ORDAINED.
1. The outward and visible sign. It is water”water wherein a person is baptized.” Water once saved the world, water cleansed it from that wickedness which was bringing down the wrath of God; the world passed then through a baptism of water which was death unto sin, but a new birth unto righteousness; there was a new beginning, new possibilities, new hopes. And water saved the few that had entered into the ark; it bore up the ark, and saved those in it from the wrath of men and from the contagion of surrounding pollution. Yet one of those few brought upon himself his father’s curse. So baptism, the antitype of the water of the Flood, is now saving those who by it are admitted into the ark of Christ’s Church. It is saving us, for it is the beginning of our salvation, bringing us, as it does, into covenant with God. But it is only the beginning; still the Lord adds daily to the Church those who are being saved ( , Act 2:47). But that salvation has to be worked out by the grace of God who worketh within his chosen.
2. The inward and spiritual grace. Ananias said to St. Paul, “Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins.” But mere outward washing cannot cleanse the soul. The conscience must be good, the heart must be sprinkled from an evil conscience. The inward and spiritual grace is a death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness; the conscience will bear witness whether this, the inner meaning of our baptism, is realized in our life. Conscience, Leighton says, is God’s deputy in the soul: “Its business is to sit and examine and judge within; to hold courts in the soul…. Not a day ought to pass without a session of conscience within; for daily disorders arise in the soul, which, if they pass on, will grow and gather more, and so breed more difficulty in their trial and redress.” The good conscience will inquire after God, will be ever seeking God. If we have not that good conscience, we are not abiding in the grace of our baptism, and then the holy sacrament ordained for our salvation loses its saving power.
3. The connection between them. Baptism becomes a means of grace through the appointment of the risen Savior. His people could not rise with him in baptism save through the power of his resurrection; that resurrection is the pledge of new life, new energies, new hopes, to all who are baptized in one Spirit into the one mystical body of Christ. He can give grace through the sacraments, for all power is given unto him; he is at the right hand of God, ever interceding for us, able to save us to the uttermost. There is no guardian, no helper, like unto him, for all the highest spiritual intelligences are made subject unto him; the elect angels are his ministers; he gives them charge over his chosen; the evil angels are under his control; he can restrain their malice, he can baffle their devices.
LESSONS.
1. Christ suffered in his flesh; let us take suffering patiently.
2. He suffered, “the Just for the unjust.” Sometimes God’s holiest servants are called to the greatest suffering; they will not complain; they are being made, in their poor measure, like their Lord.
3. He suffered to bring us to God; let us come in faith and love and gratitude.
4. He preached to the spirits in prison; may we listen while we are in the flesh, on the earth!
5. Let us strive by his grace to realize the deep meaning of our baptism, the death unto sin, the new birth unto righteousness.
HOMILIES BY A. MACLAREN
1Pe 3:13 – The armor of righteousness.
This is a promise in the shape of a question, which makes the affirmation stronger, not weaker. It is the question of triumphant faith, a trumpet-blast of confident defiance of all foes, like the wonderful series of similar challenges in the Epistle to the Romans (Rom 8:31-35), or that in Isaiah (Isa 1:9), the Septuagint Version of which is evidently the basis of our text. We have probably here a consideration additional to that preceding, in order to confirm the conclusion of the blessedness of holiness. The apostle has been quoting, with evident delight in the flowing periods, the assurance of the psalm, that God’s watchful eye is upon the righteous. Here he as it were saysand, besides, it is the general experience of the worldlovers of good get good from men. As Christ said, “Sinners also love those that love them.”
I. THE SORT OF MEN THAT GENERALLY GO UNHARMED. The Revised Version reads “zealous” instead of “followers,” and probably is right in the substitution. If “followers,” or more literally, “imitators,” were retained, it would be most natural to translate “him who is” instead of “that which is” good. But the antithesis with the previous verse (“them that do coil”) and with the word translated “harm,” which is from the same root as that rendered “evil,’ makes the neuter more probable. If, then, we take “zealous for that which is good” as the description of the kind of men to whom the promise implied in our text is made, we may say that it is not the actual possession of purity and virtue which draws men’s affections, so much as a certain enthusiasm for goodness and aspiration after it. It is possible to be good in a very disagreeable fashionto be pure as the eternal snows on the Alps, and cold and forbidding as they. And it is possible to have the whiteness of even an austere morality lit up with a rosy gleam of ardor and emotion which shall make it lovely as that same snow as it blushes in the rising sun. The morality which casts, for the most part, a shield around its possessor is “morality touched by emotion,” in which good is evidently loved as well as practiced, and practiced because it is loved. It is precisely there that so much goodness presents an unlovely face to the world. The doer does net seem to find delight in it himself, and so the onlookers have little in him. If our practice of purity be obviously reluctant and constrained it will net dispose men to look on us with respect or favor. We must be “zealous of good” if we are to claim the benefit of this promise. And it is extremely improbable that such zeal or enthusiastic emotion shall be continuously cherished towards a mere neuter abstractthat which is good. A living Person is needed to evoke it. If the abstract “good” be the personal God our Father; if it be incarnated in Jesus Christ our Brother who loves us, and to whom as their conscious and responsive Object our hearts may turn;then there may be such zeal, but scarcely if we have to be zealous only for that cold and vague impersonal ideagoodness. It is very hard to keep up enthusiasm for anything ending in “ness.” Men must have a person to love, and their desire after purity is deepened and changed into a more ardent earnestness when “that which is good” takes human form and becomes “him who is good, the perfect Christ, the Image of God, the only Good.” All earnest seeking after moral excellence leads the seeker at last to Jesus Christ, and the merchantman’s quest for many goodly pearls ends in the finding of one entire and perfect chrysolite in which all fragmentary preciousnesses are sphered.
II. THE SAFETY OF THESE ENTHUSIASTS FOR THE GOOD. There is an antithesis in the original which is lost in our versions, but may be represented by some such rendering, “Who is he that will do bad things to you, if you be zealous of the good?” That principle thus forcibly put, by the triumphant challenge of the question and by this sharp antithesis, may be illustrated by several considerations which are linked together in such a way that each comes into play where the preceding ceases or fails.
1. The first of these is that, as a rule, a character of obvious single-minded enthusiasm for goodness conciliates. Men are not so bad but that there is a place in their hearts and consciences which can be touched by goodness, especially if it is accompanied with that self-forgetfulness and consciousness of imperfection which zeal for goodness will always bring. When good men are disliked it is very often not for their goodness but for some accompaniment of it which would be better away, such as their want of tact or of sympathy, their apparent sense of superiority, or the like. But even if men are not won to love purity, or even to be at ease in the presence of good men, they will very seldom go so far as to put dislike into action and do harm to one who does good to them. The traveler without a revolver is safest. Fire at the gaping crowd on the banks, and they will overwhelm you. Meet them with a smile and a handful of gifts, and you will almost always make friends. Gentleness and patience, sympathy and love, clear a path for their possessors. It is not vinegar, as the old legend has it, which will split the rocks. “When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.” Of course, this is not true without exception, as the whole history of good men shows, and as Peter goes on to admit. Sometimes, righteousness excites men’s enmity, and, when it fails, then the second consideration comes in.
2. That is, that God will protect those who for righteousness‘ sake suffer. The grand promises which Peter has been quoting from the thirty-fourth psalm come into play. A tacit comparison is suggested between the good man’s enemies and his defenses. “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,” and that being so, though deadly foes prowl round him with their cruel eyes gleaming like a lion greedy of his prey, the question of our text rings out the same assurance as Paul’s proud challenge, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” Many a time the persecutor has had. to confess that just as he seemed to have the prey in his power
“The man sprang to his feet,
Stood erect, caught at God’s skirts and prayed!
So I was afraid.”
The man whom an angel had brought out of prison when the morning of his martyrdom was dawning might well preach that God would take care of his children even when man’s wrath was hottest.
3. But that Divine protection is not always granted. Peter had indeed experienced deliverance at the eleventh hour, but his Lord had told, him that one day the putting off of his tabernacle was to come by violence; and more, one of the apostles had already trod that brief and bloody path of martyrdom which he knew lay before him and before many of those to whom his writings would come. What, in such extreme cases, should be the worth of such a saying? Is it not grimly contradicted by the scaffold and the fire? No; for even if these two outer walls of defense are carried by the enemy, and men’s malice is not softened but rather embittered by goodness, and God’s love does not see fit to shield us from the blow, the inner line of fortification remains impregnable. In the utmost extremity of outward suffering, ay, even from the midst of the fire, the Christian may ring out the triumphant words of our text; for no real harm can touch us if we be zealous of that which is good. The evil in the evil will be averted. The bitter will be changed into sweet, as in the old legend the shower of burning coals became a shower of rubies. The poison will be wiped from the arrow. The loving heart that cleaves to Christ and desires most to be united to him will not count that an evil which brings it nearer its home and its joy, nor think the wildest storm a calamity which blows it to Christ’s breast. The same events may be quite different in their character to different men. Two men may be drowned in one shipwreck. To the one it may be the opening of the door of his Father’s house to the weary pilgrim and the very crown of God’s mercies. To the other it may be misery and truly a sinking in a boundless sea of death. All depends on our relation to God, who is the Source of all good. If we love him in Christ, and are seeking as our highest aim amid the illusory and fleeting good of earth to press closer to him, then he will deliver us from all real evil; and “who is he that will harm you, if ye be zealous of that which is good?” “All things work together for good to them who love God.”A.M.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON
1Pe 3:3, 1Pe 3:4 – true apparel and ornament of women.
That attention to dress and personal decoration is natural to woman, is obvious from an observation of the customs of every nation in every age. The Apostle Peter must not be understood as in this place censuring such attention, but as pointing out that there is apparel, that there is ornament, far preferable to any bodily costume and jewelry that taste can devise and wealth can purchase. Christian women of every position in life are exhorted to provide themselves with these precious and incomparable recommendations; to cultivate, above all things, “a meek and quiet spirit.”
I. SUCH APPAREL AND ORNAMENTATION COMMAND THE ADMIRATION OF ALL WHOSE ADMIRATION IS DESIRABLE. Empty fools may admire as supremely admirable in woman the outward display of riches and of fashion, with which the worldly sometimes seek to dazzle and captivate those who are as worldly as themselves. To men of sense such things are utterly indifferent; to men of discernment and character gentle and virtuous dispositions and habits are in a woman beyond all price. Such qualities as Jesus found in the sisters of the home at Bethany won his friendship, and similar qualities will never cease to elicit the approval and appreciation of the upright and the pure.
II. SUCH APPAREL AND ORNAMENTATION ARE INSEPARABLE FROM THE CHARACTER THEY ADORN, AND ARE IMPERISHABLE. Poverty may deprive a woman of the power to dress with expensiveness; advancing years may make the adventitious attractions excused in youth unseemly and ridiculous. But “the meek and quiet spirit” remains unchanged with changing time. Often does it happen that the feminine character, refined and sweetened by the experience of life and by ministrations of pity and of self-denial, shines with a fairer luster with advancing years.
III. SUCH APPAREL AND ORNAMENTATION ARE ACCEPTABLE AND PRECIOUS IN THE SIGHT OF GOD HIMSELF. The approval of our fellow-creatures may be sought with too earnest diligence, and their attachment may be valued beyond its true value. But the qualities which are commended by him who alone judgeth with perfect justice are qualities which cannot be cultivated with too great assiduity and care. Our Lord has spoken with severity of those who seek honor from men in preference to that honor which cometh from God. Of the “meek and quiet spirit” we are told that it is “of great price in the sight of God.” What greater inducement than this could be offered to Christian women to look with comparative unconcern upon all those social and external recommendations which are so often over-estimated, and to cultivate with all diligence and devotedness the graces of the Christian character and the charities of the Christian life?J.R.T.
1Pe 3:7 – The twofold claim of womanhood.
In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female; the man and the woman, as possessors alike of our common humanity, participate alike in the privileges of Christianity, and come alike under the law of Christian principle and motive. And if this is so in the Church, it is the case in ordinary social life, that, whilst the man and the woman have their several and distinct places to fill and services to render, in their relations to each other duty is reciprocal. The New Testament is altogether opposed to the too common notion that the rights are all on the side of the man, and the duties all on the side of the woman. St. Peter is no more stringent in laying down the obligations of wives, than in prescribing the treatment due to them from their husbands. Himself a married man, as the Marriage Service in our Prayer-book reminds us, he writes explicitly and wisely to husbands as to the spirit and tone which should be apparent in their domestic life. The grounds upon which he here bases his injunctions are very different from each other, and yet thoroughly harmonious.
I. THE CLAIM OF WOMAN TO JUST AND CONSIDERATE TREATMENT IS BASED UPON HER PHYSICAL WEAKNESS. The fact is unquestionable that woman is less robust in constitution, less powerful muscularly, and of more delicate nervous organization, than man. Now, this fact is often made a reason for overbearing demeanor, contemptuous language, unjust dealing, and even brutal abuse, on the part of the man towards the woman. This is so, not only in savage communities, but not infrequently even among civilized nations. Irresponsible power and selfishness concur in leading to feminine degradation. But the apostle brings forward the fact that woman is the weaker vessel as a reason why husbands should live with their wives in a reasonable and kindly manner, and should render to them all due respect.
1. Human sympathy requires that this should be so. There is a natural principle within leading us to cherish kindness towards the weak and defenseless; and this principle is to be encouraged as against selfishness and brutal indifference and injustice.
2. In addition to this natural feeling, there is a cultivated habit of chivalry which tends to the exaltation of woman in human society. Not simply of the young and beautiful, the highborn and accomplished, but of all who are stamped with the seal of true, gentle, and virtuous womanhood. It is in this sense only that we can speak approvingly of sentiments of chivalry.
II. THE CLAIM OF WOMAN TO JUST AND CONSIDERATE TREATMENT IS BASED UPON HER SPIRITUAL EQUALITY. Granted that there is on the average physical inferiority in the one point of strength, it must be maintained that, in a higher plane, inferiority vanishes. Husbands are reminded that their wives, being Christians like themselves, are joint-heirs with them of the grace of life. If, then, the former motive was addressed to compassion, this appeals to reverence. God himself acknowledges “the weaker sex” as appointed unto immortal blessedness through his Son, our Redeemer. How justly, then, are men required to give all honor to those who are fellow-inheritors with themselves of a domain and a dominion so unspeakably glorious!
1. The woman is by the Father of the spirits of all flesh regarded with the same interest as the man. Womanhood is God’s own creation, and the feminine characteristics and graces are revelations of God’s own thoughts and purposes. Humanity without the feminine element would be incomplete, one-sided, and lacking in the harmony of “perfect music set to noble words.”
2. The woman is equally with the man redeemed by the Friend and Savior of mankind. Our Lord’s ministry upon earth was a ministry to both sexes. He counted holy women among his friends; he comforted sorrowful women in their distress; he saved sinful women from their debasement. And his death was for all mankind; his mediation brings near to God all who were afar offwoman as well as man.
3. The woman is appointed with the man to share the happiness and the service of heaven. The grace which bestows eternal life is extended to the wife as well as to the husband. As there is a place for woman in God’s gracious heart, so is there a place for her in God’s glorious and blessed home. Such are the high considerations which hallow and dignify the Christian home!J.R.T.
1Pe 3:13 – Christian zeal.
Zeal is a habit of feeling and purpose. It supposes that a certain cause, a certain end of action, is apprehended by the understanding and approved by the judgment. As the etymology of the word implies, this quality is one characterized by warmth, fervor, ardor, in the pursuit of the object approved. It manifests itself in effort, in endurance, in perseverance. Zeal is in itself neither good nor bad; but it is always powerful, giving efficiency to toil, and an impetus to the cause which calls it into activity. In a bad project zeal does harm, for it assists in diffusing error and immorality. In a holy enterprise zeal does good; no great and worthy cause was ever brought to success and victory without zealous labors. There are cases in which abundant zeal compensates slender abilities and mean position. Yet it is possible for zeal to outrun judgment and discretion.
I. OF WHAT DOES CHRISTIAN ZEAL CONSIST?
1. Its spring, its source, is grateful love and ardent consecration to God as revealed in Jesus Christ. Here no fanaticism is possible. There is the best reason and ground for such emotions; the danger is in the direction of indifference and coldness. Interest in Divine truth cannot be too keen; consecration to Divine service cannot be too complete.
2. Its tokens and evidences are theseearnestness in devotion, in praise and prayer, both public and private; earnestness in the discharge of daily duty, however secular, yet sanctified by the Christian motive and spirit; earnestness in discouraging and repressing all sin; earnestness in exerting social influence for the spread of truth and righteousness.
II. WHY SHOULD CHRISTIANS BE ZEALOUS?
1. The Scriptures expressly enjoin and encourage zeal. “Be zealous!’ is the admonition the ascended Savior addresses to his Church. “It is good always to be zealously affected in a good cause,” is the assertion of an apostle.
2. Our Lord Christ was supremely zealous, He was “clothed with zeal as with a cloak.” In his conduct was a fulfillment of the words, “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.” Zealous in love, he loved to the end; zealous in labor, he finished the work given him to do.
3. The best and most useful men have been zealous. This is true of the apostles, of the great thinkers and scholars of the Church, of the Reformers, of leaders in benevolent effort and missionary enterprise.
4. The presence or absence of zeal affects the character beneficially or injuriously. Its absence is accompanied by spiritual declension; its presence promotes the true prosperity of the Church and the advance of the gospel; and these in turn react upon the individual character and further its higher development and everlasting well-being – J.R.T.
1Pe 3:14-17 – Sufferers fortified.
There were providential reasons why the early Christians should have been exposed to many trials of faith, purity, and patience. This reason is obvious to usthat thus opportunity was afforded for the administration of such fortifying and consolatory principles as are serviceable to the afflicted and the tempted in every age.
I. THE TRIALS AND SUFFERINGS CHRISTIANS SHOULD EXPECT. These, of course, are many and various; but it is instructive to notice what those are which are here singled out and placed in prominence, doubtless by the wisdom of the inspired apostle.
1. Christians may expect to suffer for well-doing. That is, they will have to endure injustice from the world, which will not appreciate their character and their efforts for its good.
2. They may expect to be evil spoken of, as if evil-doers. That is, they will have to endure calumny from those who will take pleasure in detracting from their merits, magnifying their faults, misrepresenting their motives, and traducing their life.
II. THE REFLECTIONS BY WHICH IN SUCH CASES CHRISTIANS MAY BE COMFORTED.
1. They should not forget that it is the will of God that his people should suffer, even wrongfully.
2. They should cherish the assurance that none can really harm them.
3. They should consider that their lot is compatible with happiness.
4. And they may even believe that some who have ill treated and slandered them may come to be ashamed of their sinful conduct.
III. THE PRACTICAL PRINCIPLES BY WHICH CHRISTIANS MAY IN SUCH CASES FORTIFY THEMSELVES.
1. Let them sanctify in their hearts Christ as Lord.
2. Let them be prepared with a reasonable account of their hope, the hope which sustains and cheers the afflicted follower of Christ.
3. Let them discard all fear of their sinful adversaries, and confront them with boldness and cheerfulness – J.R.T.
1Pe 3:18 – Sacrificial sufferings.
To Peter, the memory of his Lord’s Passion must have been peculiarly pathetic and peculiarly precious. He could not but connect the Master’s constancy with the servant’s unfaithfulness, and the servant’s penitence with the Master’s grace and pardoning favor. The woe he had witnessed could never be long absent from his recollection. And the bearing of Christ’s sufferings upon human redemption and upon Christian consecration must have constantly occurred to him when communicating Divine truth, and inspiring his fellow-believers to devotion and endurance. In this verse, compact with precious fact and doctrine, we have set before us
I. THE FACT OF CHRIST‘S SUFFERING.
II. THE CHARACTER IN WHICH CHRIST SUFFERED. It is here that the mystery of the fact is to be found. The Sufferer was the Righteous One, blameless in character, upright in conduct, beneficent in ministry. Yet he suffered, notwithstanding all this. That the unrighteous should suffer, this appears to us natural; they eat of the fruit of their doings; they reap as they have sown. But in the agony and death of Jesus of Nazareth we see the undeserved sufferings of” the Holy One and the Just.”
III. THE PERSONS FOR WHOM CHRIST SUFFERED. This consideration increases the mystery and enhances the interest of the Passion of our Redeemer. At first sight it seems as though, if undeserved sufferings are to be endured, this must be at least on behalf of the virtuous, the meritorious, the pious. But it was otherwise, it was exactly contrary, with the sufferings of Christ. He died for the unrighteous, for those who had violated the laws of God and the laws of man!
IV. THE CAUSE BY AND FOR WHICH CHRIST SUFFERED. He was brought to the cross by the sins of men; and it was on account of those sins that he deliberately and graciously consented to die. The connection between sin and suffering is obvious in God’s providential treatment of men; it is equally obvious in God’s merciful redemption of men by his Son Jesus Christ.
V. THE INTENT AND AIM WITH WHICH CHRIST SUFFERED. Nothing more sublime in itself, or more welcome to the sinner’s ear, can be found than the statement in this verse of the purpose for which our Lord Jesus accepted the death of humiliation and shameit was “that he might bring us to God.” Surely the simplest and yet the grandest statement of Immanuel’s voluntary and sacrificial death!
VI. CHRIST‘S SUFFERING OUR EXAMPLE AND MOTIVE. Let Christians see to it that, if they suffer, it be not for ill-doing, but (like their Lord) for well-doing. Such endurance may be wholesome discipline for them, and it may be the means of good to others – J.R.T.
HOMILIES BY C. NEW
1Pe 3:1-6 – The Christian wife called to heart-culture as the means of winning the unconverted husband.
The subject of this section is the necessity for a life becoming the Christian name; this is applied to Christian citizens and to Christian servants, and, here, to Christian wives. The reason for the conspicuous place here assigned to wives is obvious. The writer is addressing Churches in pagan countries, many of whose members were wives of heathen husbands. What were these to do? were they to continue in that relationship, or did their Christianity sever the marriage bond? That question occurred more than once; it was brought before Paul by the Church at Corinth, and he deals with it in 1Co 7:1-40. There was probably another reason for this. Dr. John Brown says, “When we reflect on the character of the conjugal relation among heathens, how much there was of the harshness of the tyrant in the husband, and of the baseness of the slave in the wife, and how much pollution and cruelty prevailed in the home, few things were more calculated to strike heathen observers favorably than the power of Christianity in introducing an order and purity and enjoyment into the domestic circle beyond what heathen philosophy had ever dreamt of.” Peter’s words are often applicable still. Two hearts, two lives, are often bound together by the closest human tics, one devoted to Christianity, the other not. The case here, however, is not of those who had been united after one had become a Christian; the nature of spiritual life and the direct Word of God forbid union of that kind, and there is no consolation here for the trouble that comes from disobedience in this respect. Here the wife is supposed to have become a Christian since she gave herself to the ungodly husband. The Divine finger is laid on the secret of many a troubled life, when husbands are here spoken of that “obey not the Word;” but the hand that pains is that which heals, for there is hope and strength and comfort for the wounded spirit in “Ye wives, be in subjection,” etc.
I. THE CHRISTIAN WIFE IS HERE CALLED TO CONSISTENT CHRISTIAN CHARACTER.
1. And the first point included is faithful fulfillment of the duties of her relationship. “Be in subjection to your husbands;” equivalent to a summary of the various duties of the position. The expression is harsh at first, but the harshness wears off as we think of it, for love is always in subjection, He whose life was the embodiment of love came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. Love cannot help serving. This word lays no burden on love but what she lays on herself. Nor is this a one-sided requirement; for the same Word says, “Husbands, love your wives”so that the subjection is mutual” submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” Yet, though the harshness be removed, the command remains and means something, and it is remarkable that in the three instances in the Epistles where the duties of wives are referred to, the same idea of subjection occurs (Eph 5:22; Col 3:18; and here). Woman was made for a “helpmeet for man;” “Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee;” “Man was not created for the woman, but the woman for the man.” The subjection, therefore, was to be real, yet not that of a servant, but of a companion; man’s other self, yet still subject.
2. Possession of that pure character which springs /rein the fear of God. “Chaste conversation;” equivalent to pure manner of life, a character unsullied, and this arising from the fear of God in the heart. The godly wife of an ungodly man is exposed to great difficulty; the husband, troubled by no scruples, will often expect of her what her conscience condemns; and that position is as perilous as it is painful. Now, this word requires no swerving a hair-breadth from righteousness, not even under pressure of the husband’s love and plans. “Whoso loveth husband more than,” etc.
3. Manifestation of the graces of spirituality. “Whose adorning,” etc. This does not necessarily condemn what is simply ornamental. Did we only use what is necessary for bare existence, many of our fellow-creatures could not live. God’s works also are marked by beauty, needless but for gratification, and we may well copy him within his own lines. But do not let these be your adornment, do not let these be what men think of first when they see you, nor find in them your attraction; but let your adornment be the graces of the inner life. Let Christian women set themselves against the dress curse, one of the greatest curses of the day, and put character first, as God does.
II. THIS IS SET FORTH AS THE MEANS OF WINNING THE UNCONVERTED HUSBAND. These heathen husbands did not frequent the sanctuary, nor listen to the Word, and thus their case seemed hopeless. But the Divine Word may be carried to heart and mind as much by a Divine life as by a Divine book. Feeding on this book, we become its embodiment, living Epistles of Christ, read of all; and the promise is as true of the Word lived as of the Word spoken, “My Word shall not return unto me void.” Verses 5 and 6: not simply the hope to win the husband should lead to living thus, but not otherwise could the wife prove herself a daughter of Abraham, a member of the true Israel. The membership of the Christian wife in God’s family is of itself the ground of her doing what is here required; all this is owed to God as your blaster; but there is an additional motive for this in its effect on the husband. See how this operates.
1. A true Christian life is a standing proof of the Divinity of Christianity. How can the doubting husband be undeceived? By the life of the wife.
2. An exemplification of the beauties of holiness is a constant persuasion. Acts of forgiveness, endurance, sacrifice, adherence to right, etc., gradually tell even on the hardened, and often loudly plead for Christ.
3. Conquest by the passive virtues is God‘s own method. Men dislike direct assaults on their moral nature, but often open their hearts spontaneously to what seems to make no onset. God recognizes that in his dealings with us. The meaning of his cross is, in fact, that he expects to subdue us by suffering for us and bearing with us. We may expect to win by the same means.
III. THIS IS ONLY ACCOMPLISHED BY PERSONAL HEART–CULTURE. How can we gain this becoming character? The passage answers, “By heart-work.” Christian character grows from within.
1. Life is a reflex of faith. “What a man believes, that is he.” Love, peace, purity, power, etc., are the proper fruits of trust in God; therefore strengthen your faith.
2. Character is according to companionship. We become like those with whom we associate. They take knowledge of those who have been with Jesus. God impresses his image on the soul that is much with him – C.N.
1Pe 3:7 – The Christian husband called to enjoy spiritual blessings with the Christian wife.
A happier case is supposed than the preceding. The husband is “won;” they are “heirs together of the grace of life;” and there opens before them the possibility of blessing they have never known. But even this bus a touch of sadness in it. If it be painful for the one member in this relationship having a piety in which the other has no share, it is only one degree less so when they share it equally, but live as though they did not. Sharing in all else, but units and solitary in things eternal. Two fellow-travelers walking to Emmaus, each talking with Jesus as they go, but neither with the otherthat is the case supposed here. (“According to knowledge;” equivalent to knowledge of what is possible and due to two hearts bound together, first by natural relationship, and then by common love to God.)
I. THE BLESSEDNESS OF MUTUAL PIETY IN HUSBAND AND WIFE. They are both “heirs of the grace of life;” but the fear is that they do not dwell with one another as “heirs together.” Two persons may make the same journey, and never speak. How different that from two who go in every respect together, having common interest in all that happens! The one is far less blessed than the other. Peter here urges the greater blessedness. Think how much it involves.
1. It produces the closest possible union. For that there must be no secrets, nothing reserved. Thus we can get nearer to God than to any other; we can never lose ourselves but in the heavenly Father. But those we love best on earth may come closer to us in this respect than they sometimes do; and some Christian husbands and wives may thus be more to each other than they are, sharing not only temporal, but spiritual affairs. In this way there may be a union unutterably more intense, precious, and fruitful, than before.
2. It provides much powerful support. Our deepest spiritual experiences cannot be told; many others should not be. In some things God would have us for himself. But there is much also of the spiritual life whose utterance to a fellow-creature is a distinct need of the soul; as our Lord himself, in taking the favored three apart with him at some of the crises of his historythe Transfiguration, for instance, and Gethsemaneseemed to express the need of human sympathy, although in its highest degree he had the Divine. God, moreover, has given us our fellows to be a helpmeet to us, as well as himself, and we are only complete with both. It would lighten the spiritual burden and brighten the spiritual journey for husband and wife to commune together of the way they go.
3. It gives the most blessed of all anticipations. “Till death us do part” is only true of those whose union is not in the Lord. Absence for the day’s work, or across broad seas, does not part husband and wife; they are still one, still one another’s. To more does death rend in twain Christian spirits; the oneness remains, and there will be a meeting again soon; and that meeting will be heaven. If supreme love to God, which is required of us on earth, be consistent with profound and tender love to a fellow-creature, which is also required, they will be mutually consistent in the higher world. Yea, then God will be more to us, being shared with the other at our side, and the benediction of his presence will impart an added rapture because it is given to us both. Of those who are gone before it is said, “They without us are not yet made perfect.” “So”i.e. “together “”we shall ever be with the Lord.” That is our prospect. Then let us by a mutual piety anticipate heaven now.
II. THIS BLESSEDNESS DEMANDS MUTUAL PRAYER FOR ITS ENJOYMENT. In “that your prayers be not hindered,” is not the apostle thinking of mutual prayer? If mutual prayer be wanting, is not the blessedness of mutual piety also wanting as the result? Tertullian wrote, “What a union is that which exists between two believers, who have in common the same hope, the same desire, the same service! Like brother and sister, united both in spirit and in flesh, they kneel together, they pray and fast together, they teach and support each other with gentleness, they share one another’s trials, and conceal nothing from each other, and they rival each other in singing with their heart to God. Christ is pleased to see and hear these things. He sends down his peace upon them. Where two are thus met he is with them, and where he is the evil one cannot come.” That is, perhaps, Peter’s thought here.
1. Mutual prayer is the first and most natural form of spiritual intercourse. If we cannot break through our reserve so far as to pray together, it is unlikely that we have any communion on spiritual topics. It would seem the first instinct of a Christian man to ask her he loves best to kneel with him at the throne of grace. Probably this prayer is the door to spiritual intercourse, the removal of the barriers of timidity through which we must pass to the enjoyment of a mutual piety.
2. The utterance before God of a common experience tends to conscious spiritual oneness. We never know how much we are one with other saints till we join with them in prayer; then we find ourselves sorrowing, rejoicing, hoping, loving, fearing, trusting alike, and are thereby drawn closer together still. That principle operates even more certainly in the mutual prayer of husband and wife.
3. The fact of mutual prayer tends to mutual spiritual fidelity. Would not mutual prayer go far to be a remedy for the difficulty which it is to be of spiritual use to those nearest to us? The parent who prays with his household, the husband with his wife, will find it specially hard to sin against or with them. As the spirit of prayer prevails, the spirit of unkindness, indifference, evil example, etc., will lessen. “That your prayers be not hindered” is thus the warning to those who would be “heirs together of the grace of life.”
III. THIS PRAYER REQUIRES THE FULFILLMENT OF MUTUAL DUTIES FOR ITS SUCCESS. If prayer helps duty, so duty helps prayer. Is not the fact that some Christians in the same home seldom pray together, due to the fact of an inconsistent lifethe life of a kind which makes the proposal to pray impossible? That seems to be the idea here: “Ye husbands, dwell with them, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers,” etc.
1. The consideration of what we owe to one another will prevent the neglect of mutual prayer. “Honor” is due to the wife on the physical groundshe is “weaker,” which brings corresponding duties to the stronger; and on the spiritual groundshe is partaker of the same immortal nature, with its great conflicts and high responsibilities, equally an heir of Divine grace, which brings corresponding duties to the fellow-heir. The consideration of that should lead to united prayer.
2. The fulfillment of what we owe will afford the right spirit for prayer. As long as the wife is defrauded of what she has a right to, mutual prayer, if not impossible, will be robbed of its sweetness and power. Unkindness and bitterness kilt prayer. Mutual prayer can only flourish in the atmosphere of mutual love – C.N.
1Pe 3:8 – The conduct that becomes the Christian towards other Christians.
“Finally, be ye all like-minded, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous.” Only a colon separates this passage from what follows: ought it not, therefore, to be taken with the subsequent verses? I think not. Peter is evidently thinking here of the mutual relation of believers; whilst in the next verse he passes to the thought of how Christians should treat their persecutors: “Not rendering railing for railing,” etc. Then why should there only be a colon between the two? Because the two are so closely connected. It is in fellowship with our brethren that we find much of the inspiration we need for facing and conquering persecution from without.
I. BROTHERLY LOVE THE IDEAL OF A CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Is it possible for a Christian to have no practical relationship with the Church? I do not say that it is not possible, but such a position is very unlikely. A Christian is he who is born into the family of God, and a certain close relationship to the Father’s other children is, in the nature of the case, almost inevitable.
1. By brotherly love we come nearest to the spirit of the Father. The feelings which are classed under the term “love” vary considerably. Love may be due to admiration for the personal qualities of another, to a common interest in Church matters, to a sense of obligation, the fruit of gratitude; but there is nothing essentially Christian in all that. Brotherly love is to love another because he is our brother, and for no other reason; not because there is anything lovely in him, but just because we have a common father. Brotherly love towards God’s childrenthat is Divine; that is to be of one spirit with the Father; that is to feel in measure as he does.
2. By brotherly love we come nearest to the example of Christ. The Church is to be a perpetual representation of Jesuswhat he was and is. By his gracious Spirit he is embodied in his people; and they most truly approach his likeness who love those who are his. He loves the world; he died to save it; but he has a love of fellowship for those who come to him out of the world that he can have for no others, his love, his joy, his work, his life, his glory, all theirs; reaching the climax in the prayer, “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.’
3. By brotherly love we come nearest to the fulfillment of our mission as a Church. The Church has a mission to itself as well as to the world. Christians are banded together in fellowship for mutual help; they are united that they may build up one another; and this building up is to be done by love. What will not love do for the brethren? It will encourage the timid, help the weak, uphold the infirm, seek the wandering, give the vigor of joy to those who are strong, will stoop even to wash the disciples’ feet. The Church, fulfilling her mission to herself in love, thereby begins her mission to the world.
II. WE HAVE HERE A WARNING– AGAINST TWO HINDRANCES TO THIS IDEAL.
1. Divergence of aim. “Be ye all like-minded.” That does not mean unanimity of sentiment and action in all matters; for that is manifestly impossible. Variety of thought and feeling and action there must obviously be; but there is, of course, a limit to this variety. The Church cannot fulfill her calling as the “pillar and ground of the truth” unless there be a consent of opinion as to what that truth in its essential features is. We have different work, different positions in the Church, and sometimes different views as to the best things to do; but if Christian love is to be maintained, as the different colors into which the prism diverges the lightred, and purple, and orange, and the restall blend and are lost in the pure white ray they form, so we must learn the secret of blending our differences in a holy unanimity. Perhaps nothing is harder than to sink, and that gracefully, so that no one knows we are doing it, our personal feeling into the common feeling of the rest. How can all be like-minded? In the Revised Version the word “courteous” drops out, and in its place we have “humble-minded.” That is it; heart-culture, personal discipline, stern struggle, are needed if we are to be like-minded, laying a strong hand on self, and keeping it under when it wants to rise.
2. Exclusiveness of feeling. “Compassionate“ (the Greek word is , our word, “sympathy,” fellow-feeling). Our Churches are not always conspicuous for that. They are often broken up into little sets, little bands of friends complete in themselves; then farewell to the reign of Christian love, with its benediction, and in its place expect hard thoughts, bitter feelings, wounded spirits, lonely lives, and the curse that means. But how can we get this compassion? The apostle adds, “tenderhearted” (as the same Greek word is rendered in Eph 4:32), and in that he may be showing us how to secure the like-heartedness. It comes from keeping the heart tender. We must live much with Christ; a tender heart will come from that, and a like tenderness with his people.
III. WE HAVE HERE THE INFLUENCE OF OUR ATTAINMENT OF THIS IDEAL (OF BROTHERLY LOVE) ON THE WORLD. The Church has a mission to those who are without; but that will not be fulfilled till her mission to herself is fulfilled. A Church building up herself in love will be the Church which compels the Gentiles to “glorify God in the day of visitation.”
1. The Spirit works where love is. Absence of love is to him an ungenial atmosphere; it grieves him and tempts him to depart, or to withhold his gracious influences.
2. The beauty of piety reveals itself where love is. Love which is independent of the restraints of natural affection, and loves men not because they are good, but because God loves them; love which is disinterested and strong to sustain and protect, and tender to make common cause with those who need it, and which sheds a holy grace over the life;that love will at least constrain the world to acknowledge its Divinity, and we may expect to hear more frequently that welcome utterance, “I will go with you, for I perceive that God is with you.” And God himself will triumph over such, in the ancient words, “I drew them with cords of love.”C. N.
1Pe 3:9-17 – The conduct becoming the Christian towards his persecutors.
Peter’s Epistles were written on the very eve of the persecution by Nero, who, anxious to divert the suspicions of the people who accused him of setting fire to Rome, charged the Christians with the crime, and caused them to be seized and tortured and slain. Some were crucified; some were clothed in the skins of wild beasts, that they might be torn by the dogs; some, having been rubbed over with pitch, were made to serve as torches to light up the imperial gardens,this gratified at once sovereign and people. It is true that this severity was confined to the neighborhood of Rome, but Rome was the center of life to her provinces; the pulsations of the heart thrilled to the most distant parts of the empire. The words of our text have a new meaning as they rise before us on this dark background. Some may askWhat is the bearing of this on us? The answer is, that when Paul said, “They that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution,” he uttered what would be a fact to the end of the age. The fire, the rack, the headsman’s axe, are gone; but in their place there are words that burn, looks that go like poisoned shafts to the soul, and treatment that stings like a scourge. As long as the truth which the Church is called to maintain and to live before a world that hates it is what it is, as long as our spiritual life needs trial for its cleansing and development, so long will Christ’s people find how true it is that, because they are not of the world, but Christ hath chosen them out of the world, therefore the world hateth them. We can only glance at the bare outline of such a long passage as this. It contains three requirements, each of which has a benediction attached to it.
I. CALL TO BLESS THOSE WHO PERSECUTE US. From the ninth verse to the twelfth: you can hardly read these words without feeling you are listening to one who heard the sermon on the mount, and is inspired with its spirit; and we cannot help noting the change they imply in Peter himself. But perhaps it was what he saw in his Lord, more than what he heard from him, to which the change was due; Christ’s character carrying his words home with transfiguring force. We do not wonder that it was Peter who wrote, “Not rendering evil for evil,” etc., and it is the word and example of the same gracious Lord that lays the same burden on us. And mark the blessing to ourselves that grows out of that. Never give place to evil in word, or act, or thought, let the provocation be what it may. Yea, not only so, return evil with good, recompense wrong with right, and your fidelity to Christ will make an open way through the skies, through which you shall see his smile and hear his “Well done!” and find for your prayers and spirit a clear path to his throne.
II. CALL TO BE FEARLESS ABOUT WHAT OUR PERSECUTORS CAN DO TO US. “And who is he that will harm you,” etc.? Persecution need not harm us, brethren; it is only one of God’s refining fires, that, when thus he has tried us, we may come forth as gold. And what is the remedy for this fear? Peter is thinking of a passage in Isaiah where Judah is called, instead of fearing idolatrous Syria and trusting in Sennacherib, to fear and trust in the Lord. “Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear.” Now, with that Old Testament passage before us, the change which the Revisers have made here is very striking. Instead of” Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts,” it is, “Sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord.” Peter, the Jew, who knew that perhaps the very highest title which could be ascribed to Jehovah was “the Lord of hosts,” did not hesitate to give that title to Christ. Peter had known him in the humiliation of his human life; he had even washed Peter’s feet, yet Peter uses his name and that of “the Lord of hosts” as convertible termsspeaks of these two as one. Peter, at least, had no doubt of the Deity of Jesus. And this attitude also has a blessing attached to it, “If ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, blessed are ye.”
III. CALL TO MAINTAIN A GOOD CONSCIENCE IN THOSE THINGS ABOUT WHICH OUR PERSECUTORS REPROACH US. “And be ready always to give an answer,” etc. A good conscience, a good conduct, a good answerI think that is the order here. A good conscience. Be sure that you are suffering for goodness and not for badness; be sure that you have an unclouded sky between you and God; be sure that, when your heart does not condemn you, you hear him saying, “Neither do I condemn thee.” And out of that will come what Peter calls “your good conversation,” i.e. conduct. For as the sunshine develops and perfects the hidden beauties of nature and the fruits of the earth, so does the light of God’s favor resting upon the conscious soul draw forth into character the graces of the spiritual life. The clear conscience that catches Heaven’s smile is always followed by a brave and beautiful piety, which is its own justification against those who speak evil of it. And see the blessing attached to that! There is a broad sense, no doubt, in which we might apply these words to the Christian hope generally, and the duty of being able to give an intelligent and saris-factory reason for its possession; but their meaning here seems to be more defined. The good conduct that issues from the good conscience and puts to shame the evil speakers, leads them to question us about the hope which they see hidden within us and sustaining us, and they come to envy it, and secretly to want to know what it is. Now, says Peter, “be ready to tell them; let them know that it is the grace of Christ which renews and sanctifies.” One of the benedictions of persecution endured and triumphed over is that it may bring the very persecutors themselves to the feet of Jesus. Then, brethren, can we not endorse the truth in the verse which closes this long passage, “It is good, if the will of the Lord be so, that ye suffer for well-doing.” It is good in its purifying efficacy on ourselves; it is good in its tendency to glorify God; it is good as a saving power on our fellow-men – C.N.
1Pe 3:18-22 – The remembrance of atonement by our Lord, a help to persecuted Christians.
We omit for the present the clause in the nineteenth verse, and will consider that afterwards. “For Christ hath once suffered for sins,” etc. The death of Christ is not only the purchase of our redemption, it is also the power by which we enter into what redemption means. Christ’s cross is not only the secret of pardon, but also of holiness. Christ alone will not avail us; it must be Christ crucified, every step of the way, till what has been the inspiration of our spiritual life down here, of every duty, every conflict, every joy, every hope, will be the inspiration of our song up there: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.” Let us see how Christ’s sufferings bear on the conduct of his persecuted people.
I. THE SUBSTITUTIONARY SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. “Christ hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.”
1. A plain statement of the substitutionary character of our Lord‘s sacrifice. How does Christ save? By substitution. In that word is the explanation of our Lord’s sacrifice and of his sufferings; they were endured by him as our Substitute, in our stead. They were undoubtedly the expression of his perfect consecration to the Father, the great proof of his obedience; they were also the great revelation of God’s love and mercy to the sinful, of his yearning for the restoration of the lost; but they were this, without which they would have been in every other respect unavailing, they were the endurance in the stead of the sinner, of that which alone makes his righteous forgiveness possible. But it is said that Jesus was simply revealing what God was willing to bear for man’s redemption, and that it is by this revelation of love he saves us. That is not what Scripture says. “God made him to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him;” “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree [or, ‘to the tree,’ and left them there].” But, says another, “Christ saves by his holy example, leading us to holiness, and not by his cruel sufferings. So far from that, the apostles, in their teaching, gave weight to the death of Christ as the world’s hope. “In him we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins,” “We are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ;” “Without shedding of blood there is no remission.” Others say that this was a mere Jewish mode of expression; the apostles were only meeting Jewish prejudice when they spoke thus. But we find they use the same words in writing to the Gentilesto the Churches at Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, etc. It is also said that there is an element of injustice in the idea of substitution. Is it not unjust to inflict the punishment incurred by one on another who is innocent? But that is not the case here. Jesus was Godthis was God himself making the atonement necessary for our forgiveness by shedding his own blood.
2. The necessity for such a sacrifice is implied in its design. What was its design? “To bring to God,” says the text. But there are two great obstacles to our coming back to Godone on his part, and one on ours. How can he receive us sinners? How can we dare to come? How can God receive us? “Cannot I,” says a father, “forgive my child just because I will?” No, you cannot, if, like the great Father, you have been compelled to declare what the penalty of transgression must be. That is God’s position. He can only forgive if he forgives righteously. How shall he do that? The substitution of Christ is the answer. Apart from that, how could we dare to go to him? Some say Christ saves by revealing God’s love, by alluring us to follow his example of self-sacrifice. If that is all the gospel you have for me, I am condemned the more; for I am conscious of the unutterable distance between what Jesus was and what I am. I dare not go to God, and I must pass into the unseen hopeless. But when we follow the meaning of these words, “Christ hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God,” we can go hack to God then, and are welcomed for Christ’s sake.
II. THE RESULT OF THIS TO HIMSELF.
1. Quickened spiritual power. “Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.” It should read, “in the spirit,” not “by the Spirit.” There is no reference here to the work of God the Spirit, to whom elsewhere the resurrection of Christ is attributed; it is here simply a contrast between Christ’s flesh and his spirit. His spirit did not die; it was raised by the death of the flesh into new energy, and he became able to do what before was impossible. He had often thought of this: “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”
2. Influence on spirits in prison. This subject we will leave for the present.
3. Ascension to heavenly authority. “Who is gone into heaven,” etc. What see we now? “I looked, and behold in the midst of the throne, a Lamb as it had been slain.” Redemption enthroned. All things required to glorify redemption. Devils restrained by the Redeemer’s will; angels his swill-winged messengers; providences, his servants; history, the unfolding of his purpose; the kingdoms of this world become his kingdom; and he ever living to secure this glorious consummation. But this had been impossible apart from the atonement; it was only through the cross that Jesus changed the throne of heaven from that of almightiness and mercy to that of redemption.
III. THE BEARING OF THIS ON PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS.
1. It sets forth Christ‘s claim on our suffering for him. There surely is nothing like a remembrance of his cross to constrain us to take up ours.
2. It reminds the persecuted of the spiritual quickening that may come through the suffering. For what was true of Jesus is to be as true of us: “Put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit.” The storm which shakes us to the center sends our roots down deeper, mooring us the faster to the Rock of Ages. Suffering has a rare tendency to send us down to the foundation of things, a rare tendency to send us home to the Life of all, and closer contact with him means more life from him.
3. This points to the glorious end of the suffering of the saints. First the cross, then the crown. Jesus once suffered, then heaven and the right hand of God, and “angels and authorities and powers subject unto him.”C.N.
1Pe 3:19, 1Pe 3:21. – The crucified Savior quickened in spirit preaching to the spirits in prison.
We have already seen that through our Lord’s sufferings he secured quickened spiritual powerinfluence over spirits in prison, and ascension to heavenly authority. This passage reveals him quickened in spirit, preaching to the “spirits in prison.” Now, if that be the apostle’s line of thought, the correct meaning of this passage, whatever it be, will fall in naturally with it. May I venture to show why I cannot accept either of two common explanations of these words? It is thought by some that after our Lord’s death (possibly in the interval between his death and resurrection) his disembodied spirit passed into the unseen world, and preached the gospel to the disobedient dead. Now, if that be the proper meaning of the words, if they cannot mean anything else, we must accept it. That the words taken by themselves will bear that meaning cannot probably be denied: then why should we hesitate to adopt it? I might remind you that as far as those three days are concerned, we seem to be told that they were spent in Paradise with the Father and the redeemed. “This day,” he said to the penitent thief, “thou shalt be with me in Paradise;” “Father,” he said, “into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the spirit.” Then, if this passage does mean that Christ preached to the dead, it only speaks of the dead in the days of Noah; it seems incredible that these comparative few should be singled out from the great mass of mankind for so great a blessing. I might remind you, too, that if these words mean that the impenitent dead have a second chance, they stand alone in Scripture, at least as far as I am aware. But weightier than all is the fact that the plain teaching of this book is to the contrary. I know the tenacity with which we cling to the hope that those who have never heard the gospel shall yet hear it, if not here, hereafter; and that many have cherished this hope, partly on the strength of these words. My hope of that is not less because I do not see it encouraged here. I know God well enough, and I know this book well enough, to know that no man will be condemned because of Adam’s sin; through Christ every man stands on a fair footing; the condemning sin is rejection. Then the Savior must be presented to each hereafter, if not here. I cling to the hope that the preaching of the Savior on the other side of the grave will bring multitudes to heaven who died without a gospel. But for you who have the gospel now, this is your day of grace; with you, salvation is now or never. It has been supposed that these words refer to Christ, by his Spirit, preaching in the days of Noah to men who were then on earth, but who, when the apostle wrote, were in the unseen world”spirits in prison.” But there are two fatal objections to this meaningone is, that there is nothing here about God the Spirit, as I have already shown; and the other is that such a meaning is foreign to the drift of thought in the chapter. It is not easy to see what room there is in that for the interjection of a reference to the Spirit of God striving with men nearly three thousand years before; it seems altogether irrelevant to the apostle’s argumentthat alone condemns it.
I. WHAT, THEN, IS THE MEANING OF THE PASSAGE? There is no necessity to refer the words, “spirits in prison,” to those who have passed into the unseen world; for in Scripture the ungodly are constantly spoken of as in a state of imprisonment, bondage, captivity. “Spirits in prison” may then be said to be a frequent designation of the unredeemed on earth; indeed, the very word “redemption” carries this idea. Some may object that the context seems to imply that the spirits referred to are the spirits of the dead. Not necessarily so. If we refer the expression not to certain individuals, but to the whole lost race, the difficulty vanishes. Christ did not preach to the same persons that were disobedient before the Flood, but to the same race, the same spiritual condition. But did Christ thus preach? Certainly, through his servants. It has been said that the more correct title of the Acts of the Apostles would be the Acts of the Risen Lord. But why this reference to the days of Noah? If you look through Peter’s Epistles you will see that he seems to have regarded the Flood as a dividing-line between two worlds, which afford points of contrast. We have this contrast here. The power of God over “spirits in prison” was straitened formerly,after all the years through which his long-suffering waited, only “few, that is eight souls, were saved;” but since Christ suffered for sins, this is the record,” The same day there were added to the Church about three thousand souls;” and the record ends with the great multitude which no man can number, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb.
II. THE DESIGNATION OF THOSE TO WHOM CHRIST PREACHED, “SPIRITS IN PRISON.” “Spirits:” what are they? Ah! who can tell? Immortal natures, whose greatness is not hinted at in the frail tabernacle in which they dwell. Spirits never destined to find their home in the dust, or their joys on earth, but to rise in the free vast world of spirits to the Father of spirits, wearing his likeness, fulfilling his will, sharing his glory, standing before his throne. Think of these in prison, bound by the fetters of sin, groping in darkness, in the narrow chamber of an ever-narrowing lifebound, with Satan for the gaoler. The power with which the crucified Christ preached to these. The power over men and on men’s behalf which our Lord possesses, he acquired through his cross; only if he were “lifted up” would he be able to draw all men unto him.
III. THE FREEDOM IN THE CLEANSING OF THE CONSCIENCE WHICH RESULTED FROM HIS PREACHING. The twenty-first verse is very complicated; the mixture of metaphor, too, is not in accord with modern ideas, but it is frequent in Scripture. Here there are two incongruous figures blended, but the idea is this: Peter had said that Noah was saved by water, and he adds as it were, “And by the way it is water that saves you, that which is typified in the water of baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the interrogation of a good conscience towards God, through the resurrection of Christ. Sin is the great bond that holds Satan’s captives fastsin in the conscience; there is no freedom for the soul till that is removed. Salvation, i.e. freedom, comes through cleansing (water); cleansing comes through a crucified Savior; “the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin.” Brethren, therein lies Christ’s delivering power – C.N.
HOMILIES BY U.R. THOMAS
1Pe 3:8-12 – Unity between Christian people.
Peter had, so this passage suggests, well learnt the lesson about forgiveness to which he had listened as he heard the sermon on the mount, and he had equally well drunk in the spirit of the great intercessory prayer he had heard in the upper room, “That ye all may be one.” For he is here gathering up all his teaching about social life in the strong words now before us: “Finally,” etc. He is enjoining, in simple detail and with a sublime motive, unity between Christian people.
I. WHEREIN DOES UNITY BETWEEN CHRISTIAN PEOPLE CONSIST? St. Peter, as Leighton suggests, here denotes five graces, of which “love” is the stalk, having two on either side. “Like-minded;” not simply what our word “mind” usually meansthought, opinion; but judgment, purpose, affection. “Compassionate,” or sympathetic; i.e. feeling with others. “Loving as brethren.” True family life is a model of Church life. “Tender-hearted;” insensitiveness disqualifies for Christian life. “Humble-minded;” the old version has “courtesy; ‘ this is the genius or secret of courtesy. The lowly temperament makes little of itself and much of others: its possessor, and he alone, is the gentleman.
II. HOW IS UNITY BETWEEN CHRISTIAN PEOPLE MANIFESTED? The tone of social relationship hero enjoined is pitched in a far higher key than the prevalent one, “retaliate,“ etc.; it is in harmony with the sermon on the mount. “Not rendering evil for evil, nor reviling for reviling.” The first excluding all the actions, the second all the words, of resentment. “But contrariwise blessing.“ This is a distinct reminiscence of the sermon on the mount.
“The sandal tree perfumes, when riven,
The axe that laid it low.
Let him that hopes to be forgiven,
Forgive and bless his foe.”
III. WHAT IS THE METHOD FOR ATTAINING THIS CHRISTIAN UNITY?
1. There is first of all a direction as to the detail of speech. “Refrain,” etc.
2. There is then a wide and deep precept applying to the whole of life. “Turn away from evil, and do good.” The negative and the positive are here.
IV. WHAT ARE THE MOTIVES FOR DOING ALL AND BEING ALL THAT WILL ENSURE THIS UNITY?
1. The Christian man is called to inherit blessing.
2. The cultivation of the essential spirit of Christian unity ensures the summum bonum of individual life. “Love life; see good days.”
3. The relationship of God is the great determining condition and motive in all that leads to this Christian unity. “The eyes of the Lord face,” etc – U.R.T.
1Pe 3:13-18 – Suffering for righteousness.
I. THE FACT THAT GOOD MEN SUFFER, FOR THEIR GOODNESS, FROM THEIR FELLOW–MEN. Though Peter used the word “if,” it was not because such suffering was unlikely or infrequent, but because it was not universal, and because the reflections on which he had been dwelling seemed calculated to make such suffering impossible.
1. For it might seem as though the promised guardianship of God would have ensured the security of good men. But no.
2. Or it might have seemed that an upright benevolent life would have evoked nothing but kindness and gratitude from one’s fellow-men. But no. “Who is he that will harm you?” read in the lurid light of persecution, cannot mean, “Who is he that will have the Will to harm you?” However mysterious it may be, it is an unquestioned and unquestionable fact that men suffer for righteousness’ sake. It was so from Daniel to Peter, from Moses to Paul. “If you would follow the Church’s history,” it has been too truly said, “it is by the track of her blood.”
II. THE INSPIRED DIRECTION FOR MEN IN SUCH WRONGFUL SUFFERING. “Fear not their fear;” that is, the fear their threats seek to awaken. “Sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord;” give him the shrine of worship. “Ready always to give a reason.” Be, in Newman’s sense, ready with an “apologia.” “Having a good conscience;” that is, one keenly alive and free from reproach. “That they may put to shame them that revile.” Wear the silver shield of innocent lives, so be “defenders of the faith.”
III. THE LOFTY PRIVILEGE OF THOSE WHO SUFFER FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS‘ SAKE. “Blessed are ye.” Here, again, as often in this Epistle, is an echo of the sermon on the mount. All the Beatitudes pledge you blessing. “Better, if the will of God should so will, suffer for well-doing,” etc. God wills suffering. God wills suffering for well-doing. But there is no element of reproach in that, not to say of remorse. Suffering is of service, and it is “better” the suffering (which all need) should not come from our sin. “For Christ also suffered for sins, the Righteous for the unrighteous.” Fellowship with him is ensured.
IV. THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF MEN WHO SUFFER IN THIS SPIRIT BEING REALLY INJURED. “And who is he that can harm you?” Canon Mason says this form of inquiry, beginning “and,” has always in it a ring of scornful assurance. Here is the “charm” for Christians to wear” a good conscience.” Then to all wrongful treatment of malign men you can say,
“Strike! you cannot harm.
Strike! you may embarrass my circumstances, undermine my health,
maim my limbs, rob me of reputation, take away my life;
but strike! you cannot harm me.
Such a man
Can the darkening universe defy
To quench his immortality,
Or shake his faith in God.”
U.R.T.
1Pe 3:18-20 – The mission of our Savior.
I. The CHARACTER Of the mission of the Savior.
1. His mission was one of suffering. He “suffered.” Christianity is not the worship of sorrow, according to the cavil of some; but it is the worship of One who had much to do with sorrow, touched it at its every pore.
2. His mission was one of innocent suffering. Many suffer wrongfully, he absolutely innocently. “The Righteous.”
3. His mission was one of vicarious suffering, “for,” i.e. on account of, the unrighteous.
4. His mission was one unconquered by suffering. “Being put to death in the flesh, he was quickened in the spirit.”
II. The PURPOSE of the mission of the Savior. “That he might bring us to God.” Implying:
1. We are away from God. Not
(1) locally, but in
(2) estrangement of heart. That is the “far country.”
2. We can be restored to God. The great gulf is not fixed. The golden wind of the gospel is “reconciliation.”
3. God himself brings us back by Christ. No mutual quarrel; God always pitiful. “Long suffering,” etc. Guthrie well says, “The central truth of the Bible is not that God loves us because Christ died, but that Christ died because God loves.”
III. THE EXTENT OF THE INFLUENCE of the Savior’s mission. The literature of 1Pe 3:19 is a library. But apart from any confusion created by that literature, is it not clearly taught?
1. That Christ had a mission to disembodied spirits after his death. Killed in the flesh, in the spirit he triumphed, and in the spirit went on that wider, deeper mission.
2. His mission to disembodied spirits was in harmony with that of all his life. He “preached.” Some read it, “He sealed with the curse of damnation.” Is it not rather, as everywhere, “proclaimed repentance, pardon,” “heralded love and mercy and hope”?
3. This mission was to disembodied spirits in a state or place of misery. “Prison.” Some change the word to “Paradise.” Dare we do that? It is rather the abode of the guilty, the disobedient, of whom the apostle gives a dark specimen (1Pe 3:20). Dean Alford says, “This throws a blessed light on one of the darkest enigmas of Divine justice.” Yet mark, there is no light view of sin here. It is awful for spirits to be in prison, and in prison for twenty-four centuries – U.R.T.
HOMILIES BY R. FINLAYSON
1Pe 3:1-7 – Subjection of wives to their husbands, with subjoined injunction to husbands.
I. SUBJECTION OF WIVES TO THEIR HUSBANDS.
1. Duty stated. “In like manner, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands.” The space which is here given to wives, especially in comparison with what is given to husbands, points to the great influence of women in the early Christian Church. The injunction to wives comes under the being subject to every ordinance of man (1Pe 2:13). Christianity was to be advanced by the subjection of Christians to magistrates placed over them. It was also to be advanced by the subjection of Christian slaves (who were comparatively numerous) to their masters. In like manner it was to be advanced by the subjection of Christian wives (who were comparatively numerous) to their husbands. The duty of subjection is here stated without limitation (which is only introduced in the following verse). It is, however, to be borne in mind that all the subjection enjoined is for the Lord‘s sake (1Pe 2:13), so that we have virtually here Paul’s injunction in Eph 5:22, “Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.“ The subjection of wives is founded on an appointed superiority of husbands to their wives. It is not that wives belong to their husbands; for husbands also belong to their wives (Eph 5:28). There is a very great amount of equality between wives and their husbands; there is the closest of companionships in married life. But in the interest of order in family life, rule must be placed somewhere; and so it has been placed by God in the hands of those whose duty it is to provide for the maintenance and comfort of their wives. Where, then, there is a difference of judgment in connection with the joint management of a household (which ought not very often to occur), it is the duty of the wife to subject her will to the will of her husband.
2. Wives in a special situation. “That, even if any obey not the Word, they may without the Word be gained by the behavior of their wives.” Subjection is due in every case, even in so unfavorable a case as that which is now to be dealt with. This was the not infrequent case (all the more, therefore, calling for apostolic legislation) of Christian wives having heathen husbands. We are not to understand that it was open for Christian women to take heathen husbands; but after marriage it might happen (more than the converse) that the wives were converted to Christianity, while their husbands remained in heathenism. The principle of the apostolic legislation is that, even in an unfavorable position, subjection is due. It is implied that wives, when converted, would seek to gain their husbands by the Word. That would be the prompting both of natural affection and of Christian compassion. They could not keep Christ and their new-found joys to themselves. They must tell, in the first place, those in whom they had the deepest interest the gospel of Christ, viz. that as manifesting the Father’s love, and impelled by love himself, the Son of God did not eschew human nature, but in it lived a perfect human life and died a death of atonement for sin, to [,ring men out of their sins to a glorious life with himself which is never to know an end. This had been a source of unparalleled joy to them; and they told their husbands about Christ, because they wished them to be sharers with themselves in their joy. The result might be the gaining of their husbands, i.e. first to Christ and the advancement of his kingdom, and then to themselves (to their deep and lasting satisfaction). It is one of Leighton’s rich sayings, “A soul converted is gained to itself, gained to the pastor, or friend, or wife, or husband who sought it, and gained to Jesus Christ; added to his treasury [and, we may add, to his instrumentality], who thought not his own precious blood too dear to lay out for this gain.” But the word of the gospel is not always obeyed. What if, with the telling and retelling of the Word (blessed and authoritative as it is), husbands do not obey the Word? What if the continued telling of the Word is only to be the occasion of domestic dispeace? Does the duty of subjection then cease? No; the duty of telling the Word then ceases, but not the duty of subjection. Another method is to be tried by them, which may result in the gaining of their husbands. This is behavior without the Word; i.e. acting the gospel, or the silent influence of the life, especially the earnest endeavor to show what gospel subjection is. The hope is held out that this method may succeed where the other fails. If, then, a wife finds herself yoked to a husband who is not converted (whether she has been to blame for her position or not), her duty is with all earnestness to press the Word on him, but not to force it to no purpose but only to produce dispeace; her duty is to cease mentioning the disagreeable subject, and to try the method of the utmost excellence of Christian behavior without the Word. The trial may be prolonged; but length will be forgotten if the Divine answer comes at last in the conversion of the husband.
3. Rules of behavior.
(1) Rule of purity. “Beholding your chaste behavior coupled with fear.” The feeling from which good wifely behavior proceeds is fear. Wives are to have fear in the sense of reverence towards their husbands as placed over them in the Lord. They are also to have fear in the sense of shrinking from the not doing of all that is required in the relation. This limits the subjection in forbidding bad compliance, i.e. doing a wrong thing because the husband requires it. If a wife were required to give up her religion, it would be her duty not to obey out of regard to him to whom her husband is subject, and apart from whom he has no authority. But if wives feel that they are thus limited, they will be all the more anxious within the lawful sphere to do their duty. The quality of behavior here fixed upon is chastity, which is to be understood in a certain wide sense. It is a word which is appropriate to wifely behavior. Women are especially endowed with feelings of modesty. In the married relation, while they bestow all love and attention on their husbands, there will be nothing in word, in look, in dress, in act, inconsistent with what modesty requires. “Shamefacedness” is the word used by Paul. To this, then, Christian wives are directed in dealing with their heathen husbands after the Word has been ineffectual. Let their husbands behold, see with their own eyes from day to day, their modest behavior, springing out of the feeling which belongs to subjection; and when the Word-method has failed, this (especially when contrasted with the behavior of heathen wives) may succeed.
(2) Rule of a meek and quiet Spirit. “Whose adorning let it not be the outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.” The rule is expressed positively in figurative language. The negative may seem to be too literal. What has religion to do with the style of putting up the hair, or with what is put on the person? It is a fallacy to suppose that there is any sphere from which religion is excluded. At the same time, religion does not do violence to any natural feeling. It is implied here that it is natural for women to love to adorn themselves. A wife who has not some regard for ornament in her house or person, who is plainness, if not a slattern, who has not a flower to delight the eye, is not likely to have much influence with her husband even for Christianity. We must, therefore, understand the apostle as forbidding the things mentioned without proper subordination, or as ministering to womanly vanity. Especially are we to think of them as forbidden in this aspect, that as immodest, or as encroaching on time, or as heaping up expense, they form a temptation to a wife to be undutiful to her husband. If she would gain him for what is good, she must, without disregard of the lower ornamentation, show proper regard to the higher ornamentation. Let her adorning be not a conspicuous style of the hair, or conspicuous jewels, or conspicuous apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heartnot that alone apart from moral characterization, but, while it has its seat in the heart, and is not attractive to the outward eye, let it be in and with the incorruptible. Plaited hair, jewels of gold, apparel, are subordinate as belonging to the category of the corruptible. The incorruptible in adorning that is singled out is a meek and quiet spirit. The first word points to not being easily provoked; the second word points to being in love with a quiet life. A Christian wife might have much to bear from her unenlightened husband, from his imperious temper, from his bad behavior, from his neglect; she might have to bear from him on account of her religion; he might resent her choosing her own religion and (by implication) condemning his; but let her be meek under his wronging of her, and let her say or do nothing to cause dispeace. This in the sight of men may be a very poor ornament; she may seem to be regarding herself as no better than his slave. But God is also looking on the spirit which she is manifesting, and in his sight (which is its highest recommendation) it is of great price. The way God takes to overcome evil in us is, under our provocations, to heap goodness on us. If a Christian wife would conquer her unbelieving husband for Christ, she must in this imitate the Divine procedure.
4. Models of behaviour.
(1) The holy women of old time. “For after this manner aforetime the holy women also, who hoped in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands.” In heathen mythology, Penelope, Andromache, Alccstis, are regarded as models of wifely excellence. But Peter, saturated with Old Testament ideas, does not fall back on Greek aforetime, but only on Old Testament aforetime. He sets up as models to those whom he is addressing the holy women, i.e. those who were in covenant with God, and whose conduct was conditioned by the holiness of God. This implied their being believers, and as believers they are further described as those who bolted in God, i.e. raised their expectation from what they believed God to be, and from what they believed God to promise. They looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, and to a future beyond death to be made glorious through his mission to earth. We have not much information as to the facts upon which Peter proceeds; but he plainly certifies it of the holy women as a class, that they adorned themselves after this manner, i.e. with a meek and quiet spirit. They were kept from thinking about mere outward ornamentation, because they looked for something substantial from God. They did this as what was proper to them as subjected to their husbands. Instead of being self-assertive, they were compliant, under the impelling and also restraining of fear. The rule for the holy women of the New Testament time extending down to our day is not different from what was the rule for the holy women of the Old Testament time, resting as it does on a Divine appointment in the earthly constitution. To the models set up by Peter we must add Christian modelswomen who, saturated with gospel ideas, have been adorned with that which in the sight of God is of great price.
(2) Sarah. “As Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose children ye now are, if ye do well, and are not put in fear by any terror.” The words founded on are to be found in Gen 18:12. Sarah’s calling Abraham her lord was not confined to the one occasion; it was characteristic of her, showed the habit of her mind toward her husband, and on that ground it is entitled to the weight which is here attached to it. The occasion was also closely connected with the history of redemption, bearing on the birth of Isaac. The apostle could not have found a better model; for Sarah was specially significant, even as Abraham was. If the one was father “of all them that believe though they be not circumcised,” the other was mother. What constitutes daughterhood is here not faith, but the evidencing of faith. It is, on the one hand, doing well. Sarah did well in obeying Abraham, and also remarkably in that through faith “she received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.” It is, on the other hand, not doing evil, or, as it is here put in the way of consequence, not being nut in fear by any terror. This was what was to be avoided in Sarah as a model. On the occasion referred to she was made afraid by her evil-doing (laughing at the first mention of a child), and by her fear was led into more sin (in denying that she laughed), thus bringing shame not only on herself, but on her husband. Holy women will not thus compromise their husbands, but, mindful of what is due to them, will concur with them, where the blessing promised to faith is to be obtained.
II. SUBJOINED INJUNCTION TO HUSBANDS.
1. Duty. “Ye husbands, in like manner, dwell with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor unto the woman, as unto the weaker vessel, as being also joint-heirs of the grace of life.” Having dwelt at length (in the interest of Christianity) on the subjection of wives, he feels it necessary to subjoin an injunction to husbands, which he did not feel it to be necessary in the case of magistrates and of masters (few of those being connected with the Christian Church). It is not said that husbands are in like manner to be subject; the likeness can only, therefore, refer to what lies over against the subjection. As subject, the woman is weakthe weaker vessel, not so strong as the man. In this lies a danger to the womanthe danger of being trampled upon. Hence the need of husbands being enlightened in their treatment of their wives. “Dwell with according to knowledge as with the weaker vessel the womanly,” is the literal translation and the proper connection. Weakness in the woman calls for knowledge in the man. He is to love, says the Apostle Paul; and the idea is similar here. He is to act according to knowledge, i.e. of the Divine intention or order. He is to put his strength at the service of love, with his strength shielding her weakness and (generally) promoting her good. It is under this enlightenedness that honor comes. Honor is to be paid by husbands to their wives (both being regarded as Christians) on the ground that they are also joint-heirs of the grace of life. They are even, as we would seem to be taught here, to be honored on the ground of nature. “God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked.” But they are also to be honored as heirs together of the grace of life, i.e. as honored participators (for inheriting here points to honor) with their husbands in the grace that is needed for life or that makes life a blessing, both here and hereafter. It is only in the earthly sphere of things (which is also temporary)that there is not perfect equality; in the heavenly sphere there is no difference. Women stand in the same relation to God, have the same unction on their life, look forward to the same eternal home as their husbands, and by this consideration the honor otherwise due to them and to be apportioned to them must be regarded as greatly heightened.
2. Motive. “To the end that your prayers he not hindered.” The duty enjoined must be attended to by husbands, that the prayers offered by them with their wives, and as heads of the household, be not hindered. There is a pointing to this that “the prayers of families are as often defeated by the want of any such concert in the aims, plans, tempers, works, and aspirations of the house, as are necessary to a common suit before God. The prayers should agree with as many other prayers and as many other circles of causes as possible; for God is working always towards the largest harmony, and will not favor, therefore, the prayer of words when everything else in the life is demanding something else, but will rather have respect to what has the widest reach of things and persons making suit with it. At this latter point it is that prayers most commonly fail, viz. that they are solitary and contrary, having nothing put in agreement with them; as if some one person should be praying for fair weather, when everybody else wants rain, and the gaping earth and thirsty animals and withering trees are all asking for it together. What is prayed for in the house by the father ishow commonly!not prayed for by the mother in her family tastes and tempers, and is even prayed against, in fact, by all the instigations of appearance and pride and show which are raised by her motherly studies and cares. The father prays in the morning that his children may grow up in the Lord, and calls it even the principal good of their life that they are to be Christians, living to God and for the world to come. Then he goes out into the field, or the shop, or the house of trade, and his plans and works pull exactly contrary to the pull of his prayers and all his teaching in religion. What is wanted, therefore, is to put all the causes, all the prayers, into a common strain of endeavor, reaching after a common good in God and his friendship” (Bushnell) – R. F.
1Pe 3:8-22 – Injunctions to all.
I. UNION AMONG THEMSELVES. “Finally, be ye all like-minded, compassionate, loving as brethren, tender-hearted, humble-minded.” “Finally” does not point to the close of the Epistle, but to the close of a particular series of injunctions. He has been addressing various classes represented in the Churches; he might have included others, but he will simply address all. He has it principally in his mind to address them on their attitude toward a hostile world; he is preparing the way in exhorting them to union among themselves. Let them all be like-minded, i.e. have the same exalted opinion of Christ and the same views as to the methods of advancing his cause. Let them also be affected along with it (as the literal translation is), i.e. have the same feelingsthe same sympathy with truth and antipathy to error, the same feeling of gladness when the cause is triumphing, and the same feeling of depression when it receives a temporary check, yet of hope of its ultimate triumph. Let them also love the brethren, i.e. be drawn to them who have the same views and the same feelings. Let them also be tender-hearted, i.e. considerate of their brethren in distress. Kindness such as was exhibited by the Gentile Christians to the poor saints in Judaea has great influence in promoting unity. Let them be humble-minded, i.e. willing to sink, not the truth, but self; for there is nothing more destructive of unity than self-assertion. It is with a feeling of regret that we have to part with the precept, “Be courteous,” as being a distinct recognition of what are called by-works, or accessory virtues. “They are valid only as small coin, and yet conduce to strengthen man’s virtuous sentiments, were it even merely by awakening the endeavor to bring this outward form as near as possible to a reality, in rendering us accessible, conversible, polite, hospitable, and engaging in our daily intercourse; which things do promote the cause of virtue by making it beloved“ (Kant).
II. BEARING TOWARD A HOSTILE WORLD.
1. To bless because called to obtain a blessing.
(1) To bless. “Not rendering evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, but contrariwise blessing.” There is a law of non-retaliation under which we are placed as laid down by the Master. The magistrate is warranted in proceeding on the principle of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth (administering punishment and administering it in proportion to the offense); and we may be warranted, as Paul was, in taking advantage of the law to shield us from wrong (where more good is not to be gained by waiving our rights). It does not belong to us to say authoritatively what justice demands; and certainly in any action we take or word we utter we are not simply to gratify vengeful feeling. When men emit their malice on us in evil or railing, we are not to reciprocate their feeling in rendering evil for evil or railing for railing; but, as standing on higher ground, and owning another Master (Luk 6:27-29), we are to bless them, i.e. both in act and in word to study their good.
(2) Because called to obtain a blessing. “For hereunto were ye called, that ye should inherit a blessing.” We may well study the good of those who injure us, when we think of the large blessing which on our conversion we were called to inherit. God did not then take justice out of us, deal with us according to our deserts, but acted in the most liberal, kingly manner; and should not we deal nobly with others?
2. Citation from the thirty-fourth psalm.
(1) How the blessing is viewed. “For, He that would love life, and see good days.” This confirmatory citation (introduced without a formula) extends over three verses. The Septuagint rendering here is, “What man is he that desireth life, that loveth to see good days?” It is implied that it requires an effort to love life, i.e. to have it wisely loved. It requires an effort to see good days, i.e. days in which the blessing of God is enjoyed. The psalmist had probably in his mind length as one element; so “many” is introduced into the Old Testament translation. But it is to be remembered that days, however long or outwardly prosperous, are not good days without the Divine blessing.
(2) Conduct by which the blessing is conditioned.
(a) Righteousness in speech. “Let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile.” When tempted to use bitter or calumnious words, or to use honeyed words for evil ends, let him put a stop to itholding back his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile. For evil feelings indulged in speech, or deceit in speech found out, may rob him of much of the pleasure of life, if not of life itself.
(b) Righteousness in act. “And let him turn away from evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and pursue it.” When tempted to follow mischief which he has devised, or to declare a state of war, let him turn away his feet from the mischief and contrive well doing, let him make peace his object sought, and let his chase after it (as it were fleeing from him) be keen. For evil feelings indulged in act, peace once broken, may lead to the embittering or shortening of life.
(3) Reference to the Divine dealing. “For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears unto their supplication: but the face of the Lord is upon them that do evil.” The anthropomorphism is markedthe eyes, ears, face, of the Lord. God is no respecter of persons; but he is favorable to the righteous, i.e. the right-speaking and right acting. His sympathies are with them; his providence is in league with them. His eyes are upon them, i.e. to note their condition, to delight in their struggles after conformity to his will, and to send them tokens of his favor. His ears are unto their supplication, i.e. to mark it, to answer it, especially when it rises out of experience of wrong. On the other hand, God is unfavorable to them that do evil things, i.e. make a practice of it, refusing Divine mercy and paying no heed to Divine threatenings. There is not much expressed here; it is only the disjunctive word that suggests the face of God as not full of pleasure, but full of displeasure, upon them that do evil. “With the froward thou wilt show thyself froward.” It is well that there should be a deep and widespread impression of the truth that God is contrary to them that are contrary to his laws, and forbids them in their contrariety to have what he promises to the righteouslife and good days.
3. Application of the citation. “And who is he that will harm you, if ye be zealous of that which is good?” The Septuagint rendering of Isa 50:9 is, “Behold the Lord, the Lord will help me; who is he that will harm me?“ There is a way in which we can be proof against harm, i.e. any real injury to our happiness. It is by being zealots, not unenlightened zealots, but zealots of the good, i.e. all that is prescribed by God. So long as the Israelites were zealous in their attachment to God and his ordinances they were invulnerable.
4. Blessedness of suffering for righteousness‘ sake.
(1) The pronouncing blessed. “But and if ye should suffer for righteousness’ sake, blessed are ye.” While proof against harm, they might be called to suffer. In the event of their suffering for righteousness’ sake they would come within the scope of the Savior’s beatitude, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The preaching of righteousness in the life is offensive to the world, and provokes its dislike and malice. But those who are persecuted because of the right ordering of their life are not to be commiserated: they are to be pronounced blessed. They have the satisfaction of being at peace with their conscience, the satisfaction of enjoying the approval of their God, who will not forget their faithfulness.
(2) Feeling accompanying the blessedness. “And fear not their fear, neither be troubled.” It is remarkable how much the apostle’s thought runs in Old Testament language. The language here and in the beginning of the next verse is based on Isa 8:12, Isa 8:13. Their persecutors would seek to inspire them with fear, to throw them into a state of perturbation; but let them not fear their fear, neither be troubled. “Should the empress determine to banish me, let her banish me; ‘ the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.’ If she will cast me into the sea, let her cast me into the sea; I will remember Jonah. If she will throw me into a burning fiery furnace, the three children were there before me. If she will throw me to the wild beasts, I will remember that Daniel was in the den of lions. If she will condemn me to be stoned, I shall be the associate of Stephen, the proto-martyr. If she will have me beheaded, the Baptist submitted to the same punishment. If she will take away my substance, ‘naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return to it'” (Chrysostom).
(3) Means of being undisturbed in the blessedness.
(a) Adoration of Christ. “But sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord.” Peter gives a Christian coloring to the Old Testament language. Our hearts are our temple; there we are to sanctify Christ, i.e. to hold him as holy. We are to fear him as shown to be holy in his redemption-work, and also as by his redemption-work made our Lord. In the quiet of our hearts habitually fearing him as our Redeemer whose every word is to be obeyed, the fear of man will not find admission.
(b) Apology in presence of men. That we are to be ready with our apology. “Being ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness and fear.” Peter begins,” Being ready always with an apology,“ i.e. answer, or defense. It is not intended that we should master Christian apologeticsbe able to answer every objection which infidels may start. The apology which is contemplated here is of a much more simple nature, viz. that we should be able to make a plain statement of the considerations that have had weight with us in leading us to be Christians. We are here regarded as having a hope in us, i.e. as a living, active principle. It is true that we belong more to the future than to the present. What is fulfilled is but small in comparison with what is yet to be fulfilled. This hope is rationally produced, and we ought to be able to give a rational account of it. Can we give a clear statement of its nature, and of the grounds on which it rests? It is the hope of salvation, i.e. of ultimate complete deliverance from the power of sin. It is the hope of eternal life, i.e. of the present life being perfected. It is the hope of a resurrection, i.e. of the body laid in the grave being raised. It is the hope of glory, i.e. of our whole nature having a shining form. It is the hope of the glorious appearing of Christ, i.e. to have his own glory fully manifested and to consummate ours. It is the hope of being forever with the Lord, i.e. happy in his presence and fellowship. We rest our hope on the work of Christ. We feel that his righteousness is reason for the accusings of conscience being silenced, and for God bestowing on us all manifestations of his love. We rest our hope on the promise of God in Christ. We have not only fact to rest on, but the expression of fact in word, and to his word God has added his oath, “That by two immutable things [the word and the oath both based on fact] in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.” We further rest our hope on our experience. “Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope.“ What we have already experienced of God does not discourage us; on the contrary, it is strong reason for our looking for the plenitude of the Divine blessing. We are to be ready always with our apology; that does not mean that we are to be always putting forward our apology, for we must use discretion. But we are to be ready with our apology whenever occasion offers. The occasion contemplated is any one asking us a reason concerning the hope that is in us. We are then to be equal to the occasion; we are not to let slip the opportunity of our commending our Master. Let us not be silent through ensnaring fear; but let us come forward and tell what Christ has done for us, and what we expect from him. But let us put forward our apology with meekness. “Then must ye not answer with proud words, and bring out the matter with a defiance and with violence, as if ye would tear up trees” (Luther). Let us also put forward our apology with fear, i.e. the fear of damage being done to the cause by the weakness of our apology, leading us to make God our Counsellor.
(c) Way in which we are to be ready with our apology. “Having a good conscience; that, wherein ye are spoken against, they may be put to shame who revile your good manner of life in Christ.” We must have materials for our apology, else we shall never be ready with it. These materials are to be supplied from a good life, which is here viewed in connection with having a good conscience, i.e. habitually acting according to our convictions of duty. When spoken against, we shall best put our revilers to shame by recounting facts which can bear the light. In the absence of these, no amount of skill of speech will make us good apologists, whom fear cannot disturb.
(4) The blessedness brought out by contrast. “For it is better, if the will of God should so will, that ye suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing.” It is better, subject to the condition of the Divine willing of suffering. He does not say how it is better. His former thought was that in suffering for our faults there is not the noble element that there is in suffering for well-doing. Thus is he helped to rise to the sublime height of Christ‘s suffering.
5. Blessedness of suffering for righteousness‘ sake illustrated by the example of Christ.
(1) In bringing us to God Christ suffered not for his own sins. “Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.” Stress is to be laid here, as at the close of the second chapter, on the exemplary character of Christ’s sufferings. But Peter could not regard these in their lower aspect without also bringing in their higher aspect. The great object of Christ was to bring us to God, i.e. not merely into a state of reconciliation to God, but into a state of fellowship with God. His suffering was for this end. He suffered for sins; and so far he might seem to have the character of an evil-doer. But the sins were not his own; as it is added that he was the Righteous One (Peter’s designation of Christ in Act 3:14) for the unrighteous, i.e. us who needed to be brought to God. The idea of substitution is not brought forward, but it is in the background. We are rather to think of advantage conferred as giving Christ indisputable authority as example. Do we suffer for well-doing? Christ, it is said, also suffered, by whose well-doing (the thought is) we are so mightily advantaged. But the apostle has a look beyond this; of which he gives a hint in the word “once.” Christ suffered once; i.e. suffered, and then passed into a state in which he suffers no more. So we are to understand that we have this to comfort us (Christ being our Example), that our suffering is only once; it is what comes after suffering that is permanent.
(2) His being put to death was followed by his being quickened. “Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit.” There is a resuming of the thought of suffering in connection with its worst and last phase. Though the Righteous One, he was treated as a malefactor, and put to death (“killed” is Peter’s word in Act 3:15); he thus came within the scope of his own beatitude, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” His suffering in the interest of human well-being was followed, as has already been indicated, by his suffering no more. It is now declared that it was followed by his being quickened. It is further declared that it was followed by his resurrection and ascension; and before he leaves his theme, it is declared that it is yet to be followed by his coming to judgment. Thus no sooner did he suffer, than he came to be in the ascendant. The starting-point of his after-suffering career was his being quickened. His being put to death was in the flesh; i.e. on the side of his nature by which he was connected with earth and had a mortal existence. His being quickened is contrasted in being not in the flesh, but in the spirit; i.e. on the side of his nature by which he was above earth and had an immortal existence. At death there takes place a separation of soul and body. During the time Christ’s body was in the grave his soul was in Hades. It was Peter who showed himself alive to this important fact in his comments on the words of the sixteenth psalm, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,” in his sermon on the day of Pentecost. The expression of the fact in the Apostles’ Creed is that he “descended into Hades.” By “Hades” is denoted the invisible world, with the special association of the world of the dead. Between our death and the resurrection we are to be in art incomplete state in so far as soul and body are not to be united. Our Lord’s identification with us extended to his being for a determined time in this incomplete state. At our death (if we axe in Christ) we believe that there is to be a quickening of us in spirit in connection with our being placed under higher conditions. So we would seem to be taught here, regarding our Lord, that the extinguishing of his life in the flesh was immediately followed by a quickening in that which could not die, and had a separate existence. While his body was not yet quickened, there was a bursting forth of glorious activity in his spirit in the new sphere of things and altered conditions into which he passed.
(3) Being quickened, he was also active in Hades. “In which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which aforetime were disobedient, when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a-preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.” In the spirit quickened, he was also active in a particular form. The congenial abode of Christ in Hades was Paradise, or the abode of the blessed dead. But he did not simply abide in Paradise; he went from it to the abode of the unsaved dead. This is here called a prison, being the place where there is meantime abridgment of liberty. He penetrated even to this department of Hades, and preached. This is a word of evangelical sense in the New Testament, and [is to be interpreted in accordance with the reference to Christ’s death going before, and also in accordance with the preaching of the gospel in 1Pe 4:6. We may understand that in Paradise he not only manifested himself as the Incarnate One, but also announced his death and his soon-to-be accomplished resurrection. And we are not to think of other announcement than this in the place where spirits are imprisoned. It is not said that he preached unto all the spirits in prison, but only unto a section of them, viz. the spirits of them that perished in the Flood. It cannot be said of the antediluvians referred to that they were very unfavorably situated for trial. There was addressed to them a call to repentance; for Noah preachedpreached what their sins would bring upon them (according to the revelation made to him), but also preached the means of deliverance. He preached not only by word, but by act. And God was not in haste to destroy. “My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” During all the time the ark was a-preparing the long-suffering of God waited, i.e. not to destroy. But the men of Noah’s time were disobedient, i.e. refused, made light of proffered deliverance; and as they were overtaken by an earthly judgment, which was so complete that only eight souls (“so few as eight”) were saved by means of the water, with regard to which the others, to their destruction, were skeptical. And they are here represented in the next world as spirits in prison. And yet to them Christ went and announced his death and coming resurrection. There is a certain mystery resting upon this fact which it was not the purpose of God by Peter to remove. It was sufficient to emphasize the fact that, so far from being crushed by death, he was gloriously active, even in the world of the unsaved dead. Seeing that the full significance of the fact has not been disclosed, it would be wrong to be dogmatic; at the same time, we are bound not to let go the fact which is to be regarded as an important addition to the facts contained in the Gospels. What has been given as the interpretation was substantially what prevailed until the time of Augustine. The Augustinian interpretation, the influence of which is evident in our translation, starts frown the assumption that Peter does not intend to bring out an antithesis between what was done to Christ in the flesh and what was done to Christ in the spirit. It also proceeds on the assumption that it was not Christ that preached, but Noah. There was not a proper going from one place to another, and after Christ’s death. The preaching was not founded on Christ’s death. It was addressed not properly to spirits, but to men in the flesh. These were not literally in prison, but in the prison of sin. They were not properly aforetime disobedient, but disobedient when Noah preached. Thus does the long-prevailing Augustinian interpretation break down along the whole line.
(4) Not held in Hades, he reappeared in resurrection-form and with resurrection-power on earth. “Which also after a true likeness doth now save you, even baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the interrogation of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Water saved the eight; so water saves us still, i.e. in the antitype, the type being now baptism. How does baptism save us? It may be said of the Flood that it was the baptism of the earth. It was associated with the washing away of the filth of the old world; it was also associated with the bringing forth of a renovated world. So baptism is associated with the putting away of the filth of the flesh; it is also associated (which is to the purpose here) with the interrogation of a good conscience toward God. At baptism there used to be transacting by question and answer such as this: “Dost thou renounce Satan?” “I do renounce him.” “Dost thou believe in Christ?” “I do believe in him.” “Dost thou take thy stand by Christ?” “I do take my stand by him.” Of the new life thus entered on by explicit covenant the efficient cause was the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thus the apostle gets back to his line of thought. So far from being crushed by death Christ was not held within the world of the dead. The quickening which pervaded his spirit extended also, and from his spirit, to his body. He reappeared for a time on earth in resurrection-form, bringing in glorious resurrection-power first for the souls of menof which the earthly channel is baptism.
(5) Having risen from earth, he now reigns from the right hand of God in heaven. “Who is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.” So far from being crushed by death, Christ is now established at the right hand of God. After having, as typified in baptism, efficiently left a channel of regenerating influence for men, he left earth. As he went from one department of Hades into another, so he went up from earth into heaven. In heaven he is at the right hand of Godgloriously reigning there, angels and authorities and powers, even all the orders of the heavenly hierarchy, being made subject unto him. If Christ, then, suffering for righteousness’ sake, thus came to be in the ascendant, shall not we, suffering for righteousness’ sake, come to be in the ascendant too, all the more that He is now in a position to bring this about for us?R.F.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
1Pe 3:1. Likewise ye wives, &c. The tabernacle of the sun is set high in the heavens; but it is, that it may have influence below upon the earth: and the word of God, which is spoken of there immediately after, as being many ways like it, holds resemblance in this particular; it is a sublime heavenly light, and yet descends, in its use, to the lives of men, in the variety of their stations; to warm and to enlighten, to regulate their affections and actions, in whatsoever course of life they are called to. By a perfect revolution or circuit, (as there it is said of the sun,) it visits all ranks and estates, Psa 19:6. His going forth is from the end of heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it, and there is nothing hid from the heat of it. This word disdains not to teach the very servants, in their low condition and employments, how to behave themselves, and sets before them no meaner example than that of Jesus Christ, which is the highest of all examples. And here the apostle proceeds to give rules adapted to that relation which is the main one in families, husbands and wives: for the order, it is indifferent, yet, possibly he begins here at the wives, because his former rules were giventoinferiors, to subjects and servants; and the duty that he commends particularly here to them, is subjection; likewise, ye wives, be in subjection, &c.
After men have said all they can, and much it may be to little purpose, in running the parallel between these two states of life, marriage and celibacy, the result will be found, I conceive, all things being truly estimated, very little odds, even in natural respects, in the things themselves, saving only as the particular condition of persons, and the hand of divine Providence, turns the balance the one way or other: and the writings of satires against either, or panegyrics on the one in prejudice of the other, is but a caprice of men’s minds, according to their own humour: but in respect of religion, the apostle, having scanned the subject to the full, leaves it indifferent, only requiring in those that are so engaged, hearts as disengaged as may be, that they that marry be as if they married not, &c. 1Co 7:29; 1Co 7:31. Within a while it will be all one, as he adds that grave reason, for the fashion [ ] of this world passeth; it is but a pageant, a show of an hour long, [ ] goes by, and is no more seen: thus the great pomps and solemnities of marriages of kings and princes in former times, where are they? Oh! how unseemly is it to have an immortal soul drowned in the esteem and affection of any thing that perishes, and to be cold and indifferent in seeking after a good that will last as long as itself. Aspire to that good which is the only match for the soul, that close union with God which cannot be dissolved; which he calls an everlasting marriage, Hos 2:19 which will make you happy, either with the other, or without it. All the happiness of the most excellent persons, and the very top of all affection and prosperity meeting in human marriages, are but a dark and weak representation of the solid joy which is in that mysterious divine union of the spirit of man with the Father of spirits, from whom it issues.
The common spring of all mutual duties, on both sides, is to be supposed love: that peculiar conjugal love which makes them one, will infuse such sweetness into the authority of the husband, and obedience of the wife, as will make their lives harmonious; like the sound of a well-tuned instrument: whereas without that, having such an universal conjuncture of interest in all their affairs, they cannot escape frequent contests and discords; which is a sound more unpleasant than the jarring of untuned strings to an exact ear. And this should be considered in the choice, that it be not, as it is too often, (which causes so many domestic ills,) contracted only as a bargain of outward advantages, but as an union of hearts: and where this is not, and there is something wanting in this point of affection, there, if the parties, or either of them, have any saving knowledge of God, and access to him in prayer, they will be earnest suitors for his help in this, that his hand may set right what no other can; that he, who is Love itself, may infuse that mutual love into their hearts now, which they should have sought sooner. And they, thatsensibly want this, and yet seek it not of him, what wonder is it though they find much bitterness and discontent; yea, where they agree, if it be only in natural affection, their observance of the duties required, is not by far either so comfortable and pleasing, or so sure and lasting, as when it arises from a religious and Christian love in both, which will cover many failings, and take things by the best side.
Love is the prime duty in both, the basis of all: but because the particular character of it, as proper to the wife, is conjugal obedience and subjection, therefore that is usually specified, Eph 5:22. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord: so here. Now, if it be such obedience as ought to arise from a special kind of love, then the wife would remember this, that it must not be constrained uncheerful obedience: and the husband would remember, that he ought not to require base and servile obedience; for both these are contrary to that love, whereof this obedience must carry the true tincture and relish, as flowing from it; there it will hold right, where love commands, and love obeys.
This subjection, as all other, is qualified thus, that it be in the Lord. His authority is primitive, and binds first, and all others have their patents and privileges from him; therefore he is supremely, and absolutely, to be observed in all. If the husband would draw the wife to an irreligious course of life and looseness, he is not to be followed in this, but in all things indifferent this obedience must hold; which forbids not, neither, a modest advice and representation to the husband of that which is more convenient: but that done, a submissive yielding to the husband’s will is the suiting of this rule. Yea, possibly, the husband may not only imprudently, but unlawfully, will that, which, if not in its own nature a thing unlawful, the wife by reason of his will may obey lawfully, yea, could not lawfully disobey.
Now, though this subjection was a fundamental law of pure nature, and came from that hand which made all things in perfect order, yet sin, which has embittered all human things with a curse, has disrelished this subjection, and made it taste somewhat of a punishment, Gen 3:16 and that as a suitable punishment of the woman’s abuse of that power which she had with the man, to the drawing of him to disobedience against God.
The bitterness in this subjection arises from the corruption of nature in both; in the wife a perverse desire rather to command, or at least a repining discontent at the obligation to obey; and this is increased by the disorder, and imprudence, and harshness of husbands, in the use of their authority.
But in a Christian, the conscience of divine appointment will carry it, and weigh down all difficulties; for the wife considers her station, that she is set in it, , it is the rank which the Lord’s hand hath placed her in, and therefore she will not break it; out of respect and love to him, she can digest much frowardness of a husband, and make that, her patientsubjection, a sacrifice unto God. “Lord, I offer this to thee, and for thy sake I humbly bear it.”
The worth and love of a husband may causethat respect, where this rule moves not: but the Christian wife, who hath love to God, though her husband be not so comely, nor so wise, nor any way so amiable as many others; yet because he is her own husband, and because of the Lord’s command, therefore she loves and obeys.
That if any obey not the word, This supposes a particular case, and applies the rule to it; takes it for granted, that a believing wife will cheerfully observe and respect a believing husband; but if he is an unbeliever, yet that unties not this engagement; yea, there is something in this case which presses it and binds it the more, a singular good, which probably may follow upon obeying such; by that good conversation, they may be gained who believe not the word; not that they could be fully converted without the word; but having a prejudice against the word, that may be removed by the carriage of a believing wife, and they may be somewhat mollified, and prepared, and induced to hearken to religion, and take it into consideration.
This gives not Christians warrant to draw on this task, and make themselves this work, by choosing to be joined to an unbeliever, either a profane or mere natural husband or wife; but teaches them, being so matched, what should be their great desire, and their suitable carriage, in order to the attainment of it. And in the primitive Christian times this fell out often, that, by the gospel preached, the husband might be converted from gross infidelity, Judaism, or Paganism, and not the wife, or the wife, which is the supposition here, and not the husband; and there came in the use of this consideration.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Pe 3:1 . From here to 1Pe 3:6 an exhortation to wives.
] not simply particula transeundi (Pott); on account of the subsequent it stands related rather to the exhortation contained in what precedes; the participle here as in chap. 1Pe 2:18 .
] Form of address, like (as opposed to Steiger); vid. , 1Pe 3:2 ; (instead of ) is used here, not because the thought is a general one (de Wette, Wiesinger), nor “because Peter means to say that the heathen men should be won over by their own wives” (Schott), but because the apostle wishes clearly to point out how the wives too may be able to advance the kingdom of God. The words are addressed generally to all Christian wives, though, as the sequel shows, with special reference to those who have unbelieving husbands.
] is used here, not by way of contradistinction (Glossa inter.: suis viris, non adulteris, or according to Calvin: ut Ap. castitatis uxores admoneat avocetque a suspectis obsequiis virorum aliorum; so, too, Fronmller), but only to express the idea of belonging together more strongly than the simple pronoun; cf. also Winer, p. 145 f. [E. T. 191 f.].
With the thought here expressed, cf. Eph 5:22-24 ; Col 3:18 ; 1Ti 2:9 . It is self-evident, although many interpreters have discussed the question at considerable length, that the subjection of the wife to the husband is of quite a different kind from that of the slave to the master. The apostle, however, does not go into the subject further, but contents himself with simply emphasizing that point. [166]
] , i.e. “ even then when ,” supposes not only a possible, but a particularly unfavourable case; that is to say, when men who are joined to Christian wives oppose the , even then may such be gained over by the Christian walk of their wives; [167] must be conceived as referring to heathen men with Christian wives.
With , cf. chap. 1Pe 2:8 .
The expression denotes here, as in chap. 1Pe 2:7 , not a simple negation only, (Pott: ad religionem christianam nondum accessisse), but an opposition to.
] must be supplied to ; it is not wives in general who are here meant, but only the wives of heathen husbands.
; quite generally: the Christian walk of women, with special reference, however, to their relation to their husbands; it is precisely obedience that most easily wins the heart.
] Huss incorrectly: sine verbo praedicationis publicae (so, too, Fronmller); the words are used here to emphasize more strongly , and must be held to refer to the conduct of wives (de Wette, Wiesinger). Schott wrongly unites with the preceding into one idea; Peter could never have meant to say that the walls of women should be a silent one . The apostle’s thought is this: if the husbands oppose the Word, the wives should all the more diligently seek to preserve a Christian walk, in order by it to win over their husbands, even without words, i.e. “without preaching and exhortation on their part” (de Wette). Oecumenius incorrectly refers these words to the conduct of husbands in the sense: cessanti omni verbo et contradictione.
] that is to say, for the faith, and by it for the kingdom of God; cf. 1Co 9:19 ff.; so, too, Schott indeed, who, however, unjustifiably thinks that the apostle’s meaning is, that the preservation of the marriage relation is the primary object which is to be attained by the good behaviour of the wives. On the indie, with , cf. Winer, p. 269 ff. [E. T. 361].
[166] For similar remarks of the ancients, see in Steiger; that of the humorist Philemon (in a Fragment, ver. 123) is particularly significant: , , , .
[167] Hofmann maintains that if the protasis be thus understood, the apodosis is not suited to it, “inasmuch as no other case could be supposed in which the husband could be won, without words, by the conduct of his wife, than that of his being disobedient to the Word,” and that the difficulty can only be removed if be interpreted as equal to . But the difficulty Hofmann alludes to clearly still remains, though in fact it has no existence if only the idea receive the precision it is entitled to.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
1Pe 3:1-7
Analysis:Exhortations addressed to married people, enjoining duties affecting their mutual relations, from a Christian point of view
1Likewise, ye wives,1 be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if2 any obey not the word,3 they also may without the word4 be won by the conversation of the wives; 2, 3While they behold5 your chaste conversation coupled with fear.6 Whose7 adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair,8 and of wearing of gold,9 or 4of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible,10 even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit,11 which is in the sight of God of great price. 5For after this manner in the old time12 the holy women also, who trusted13 in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their 6own husbands: Even14 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are,15 as long as16 ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.17187Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1Pe 3:1. Likewise, wives, be in subjection to your own husbands.The Apostle now passes on to conjugal duty, intending to make convey the idea that the obedience of wives to their husbands is as sacred an obligation as that of servants to their masters. What may be the reason of his not noticing the duties of believing masters to their servants, to which Paul, in Eph 6:9; Col 3:25, has special reference? It is probably to be found in the circumstance that in the Churches to which he wrote this Epistle were only few believing masters, or none that had slaves. Estius sees in this circumstance an additional reason that this Epistle was addressed to the Jews of the dispersion, among whom were many slaves, but few masters. , address as in 1Pe 2:18; 1Pe 3:7; Eph 5:22; Eph 5:25., Participle, as ch 1Pe 2:18, governed by the principle, 1Pe 2:17, Fear God, etc., cf. Col 3:18; Gen 3:16.
To your own husbands.Cf. 1Co 14:35; 1Co 7:2; Eph 5:21; Eph 5:25; Eph 5:28; Eph 5:33. is not without emphasis; it adverts to an antithesis; it is to remind the wives, as Calvin rightly observes, of the duty of chastity, and warn them of all suspicious obedience to strange men. Believing wives married to unbelieving or pagan husbands might, even apart from the then prevalent demoralization of the conjugal estate, be tempted to seek close intercourse with enlightened men, strong in faith, and to be led by them; such a course might easily shake the confidence of the conjugal relation; hence the Apostles delicate caution. The Apostle takes it for granted that the greater number of husbands of believing wives are also believers in the publicly preached word; but even if ( ) this should not be the case, the wives must persevere in self-sacrificing, self-denying obedience, and thus seek to win their husbands, not by talking and arguing, but by the powerful preaching of a quiet conversation. , without open preaching and peculiar arts of speech on the part of the wives. , by means of their behaviour and obedience; this is their principal task., cf. 1Co 9:19; 1Co 9:22; 1Co 7:17. To gain for Christ, for the Gospel, for the kingdom of heaven, for themselves. Calov remarks that the expression alludes to the great value of the soul, and to the holy joy in their conversion. The greatest gain is that of the converted themselves, Php 3:8. [Leighton observes: A soul converted is gained to itself, gained to the pastor, or friend, or wife, or husband who sought it, and gained to Jesus Christ: added to His treasury, who thought not His own precious blood too dear to lay out for this gain.M.]Grotius cites the language of the heathen orator Libanius, which shows how primitive Christian wives followed these exhortations. He exclaims: What wives have these Christians!
1Pe 3:2. When they behold your conversation, chaste in fear., cf. 1Pe 2:12, an insight flowing from close observation. .The allusion is probably (with reference to 1Pe 2:17) to the fear of God, not to the fear of the husband, as in Eph 5:33. not=chaste in its restricted sense, but because of its close connection with and with the sequel, denotes chaste in a wider sense,=pure, holy, cf. Jam 3:17.So Calov, not only with reference to conjugal fidelity and cleanness of the body.
1Pe 3:3. Your adornment let it not be the outward (adornment) of braiding the hair, and putting round golden ornaments, or of putting on of dresses.This verse is closely connected with the foregoing. This holy conversation in the fear of God is described first negatively: In contrast with the means used by wordly-minded women to attach their husbands, the Apostle specifies the means whereby a Christian wife may hope to win even a resisting husband. sc. , cf. 1Ti 2:9.The Genitives are those of nearer definition, and describe the act of adorning, not the objects of adornment., the artificial braiding of hair; female vanity is inexhaustible in the invention of new styles and fashions. Calov cites a passage from Jeromes Epistle to Demetrius, in which he adverts to this subject, and quotes Cyprians sharp censure of women on this score. The views, which even the more serious heathen held concerning such trifles, have been collected by Steiger from Plato, Sophocles and Plutarch. .Peter, of course, adverts simply to the costliness of dresses. [But does not allude rather to putting them on in an unbecoming and indecent manner? Alford says that within the limits of propriety and decorum, the common usage is the rule. True, but where are those limits? Are they observed in the full dress of the best society of either hemisphere? Is full dress not a misnomer, and ought not our Christian matrons to use their influence in having full dress made more dress?M.] Calov:Peter forbids not any and every adornment, but a modest and seemly adorning of the body, conformably to their several stations, is allowed, cf. 1Co 12:23.
1Pe 3:4. But let it be the hidden man of the heartprice. =, Rom 7:22; 2Co 4:16; Eph 3:16. This hidden man is not, as Steiger holds, = , but that which the Spirit of God forms and develops in the secret workshop of the heart, namely, the new way of thinking, feeling and willing, the new spiritual life, the new nature, the inmost kernel of mans religion, in as far as he has within him something flowing from the life of Jesus. [In other words the inner man is the Christian, the regenerated, daily-renewed man, adorned with the beauty of holiness with his (heart) affections centred in God.M.]. . Contrasted with those perishable, worthless trifles, 1Pe 3:3. A neuter adjective is used for an abstract noun (v. Winer, p. 266). Beza: = sinceritas, incorruptio. = mild, gentle, meek, Mat 21:5; 1Co 13:4, etc.; Eph 4:2; Col 3:12; Mat 11:29; Jam 1:20; Jam 3:13; 1Co 4:21; Gal 6:1; 2Ti 2:24. The contrary of self-will, pride, presumption, obstinacy, hardness, anger and envy., calm, tranquil, without passionate excitement. Bengel:mansuetus, qui non turbat, tranquillus, qui turbas aliorum placide fert. relates not to the Holy Spirit, but to the spiritual life, infused into believers by the Holy Ghost. may be connected either with or with . Bengel connects it with the latter, as being the principal subject, [but the meek and quiet spirit seems to be the main thing desired.M.].= 1Pe 1:19.[cf. Mar 14:3; 1Ti 2:9; Pro 1:13.M.]. , coram Deo, qui interna, non externa, spectat, cui placere curant pii. Bengel.
1Pe 3:5. For after this manner formerly also the holy women, who hoped in God, adorned themselves, etc. refers to what immediately precedes. The proof of it [the meek and quiet spirit.M.] is their obedience. , Luk 1:70; Act 3:21; Eph 3:5; 2Pe 1:21; those women of blessed memory and singled out in the history of salvation; their personality is defined by their hope in God. If God is all in all in a mans heart, it has renounced the idol vanity and expelled passionate excitement, cf. 1Ti 5:5. Tertullian:Be clothed with the silk of honesty, the byssus of holiness and the purple of chastity: thus adorned, God will be your friend. Bengel:vera sanctitas, spes in Deum: est hoc epitheton pars subjecti.
1Pe 3:6. As Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord.This obedience is illustrated by the example of Sarah, whom the Rabbis also were wont to set up as a pattern. She showed her obedience first in leaving with her husband the land of her nativity in reliance upon the promises of God, secondly in regarding Abraham as her Lord and calling him so, Gen 18:12, notwithstanding they were both descended from a common earthly parent, Gen 20:12. denotes the continuance of her obedience, which was rewarded by Abraham in his turn obeying her, Gen 16:2; Gen 21:12.Grotius remarks that when the corruption of morals had become general at Rome, wives were called mistresses [of course in a good sense.M.]
Of whom ye have become children. . This is one of the Apostles frequent allusions to Isaiah; cf. Isa 51:1-2. Look upon the rock whence ye are hewn (Abraham) and to the hole of the pit (or well) whence ye are digged (Sarah). Sarah is here mentioned as the first mother of the people of Israel.It is not but , because the expression children of Sarah has not only a carnal but also a spiritual import. Steiger argues from this passage that the Apostle was addressing Gentile Christians as he would hardly have said to Jewesses, ye have become Sarahs children without adding some such explanation as this; You have now become Sarahs children indeed or after a spiritual manner; but the opposite conclusion seems more in place. Did our Lord make such a qualification when He said to Zaccheus, the Jewish publican-in-chief, He also is a son of Abraham? Luk 19:9. Did He do it in the case of the infirm woman of whom He said that she was a daughter of Abraham? Luk 13:16; Joh 8:39. Even John the Baptist destroyed the delusion that those are Abrahams children who are descended from him after the flesh, Mat 3:9. Believing Jewesses would have no difficulty in understanding what was meant, while to Christian Gentile women it would hardly have been equally intelligible and applicable. Weiss remarks, To be called the daughters of Sarah was no particular distinction conferred upon Gentile women, but to be designated as the children of their venerated ancestress and that in the highest sense [i. e., of similarity of disposition), was the loftiest praise bestowed upon Jewesses. This conclusion is corroborated by the quotation from Isaiah 51
If ye do good and are not afraid of any sadden fear., not in that – – – – or because– – – -, or if – – – -, but: as those who – – – – [so German.M.]. You evidence your relationship to Sarah by doing good. Grotius recalls the amiable reception which Sarah accorded to the stranger guests and the readiness with which she obeyed Abraham on that occasion, Gen 18:6; and in connection with the sequel refers to Genesis 20. But the sense is probably more general and the reference is rather to zeal in well-doing, as in 1Pe 2:15; 1Pe 2:20. may be a quotation from Pro 3:25 : ., terror caused by something external. As those who are so full of trust in God, that they are not tenderly moved by any evil or by menaces similar to those Sarah had to pass through at the court of Pharaoh and Abimelech, cf. Heb 11:11. The sentence contains also an exhortation to strive more and more for the courage and manly fortitude of their ancestress, cf. 1Pe 3:14. [Estius says on : quod dum facitis, non est quod metuatis quidquam mali: velut, ne maritis vestris displiceatis, si minus corrupt inceditis: aut ne serviliter vos tractent, si faciles ad obsequium vos prbeatis; ut solet sexus muliebris vanis pavoribus esse obnoxius. Sed et si forte nacti estis maritos iniquiores, silentio potius ac patientia, quam multis verbis studete eorum animos lenire. cf. Luk 21:9; Luk 24:37.M.]
1Pe 3:7. Ye husbands, in like manner, dwelling according to knowledge with the feminine, as with the weaker vessel. refers back to 1Pe 2:17 as in 1Pe 3:1. Weiss wrongly maintains that the exhortation to Christian husbands is out of place in this connection because it does not coincide with the point of view indicated at 1Pe 2:11-12. But why should it not coincide, if the Apostle addresses in turn the different conditions and classes of Christians, and shows to each how they should walk worthily among the Gentiles, honour all men and fear God? It would rather have been a grave omission, had he not reminded husbands of their duties; the exhortation was indeed peculiarly needed in order to avoid all misunderstanding and abuse of the obedience of women.His first precept to husbands relates to =to dwell together, to have intercourse in general and then, as some of the ancients understand the word, with particular reference to conjugal intercourse. It should take place , according to knowledgederived from reason and from the Gospel in respect of their peculiar relations and wants. should be joined to ; otherwise would have no object, would have two . is widely used of vessels, clothes and things in general, Deu 22:5; Luk 17:31; then of men with reference to their dependence and frailty and their destination for some particular purpose. We are like vessels in the potters hand, Jer 18:6; Isa 29:16; Isa 45:9; Isa 64:8. He can break or preserve, reject or prefer them to honour, Jer 19:11; Jer 22:28; Jer 48:38; Hos 8:6; Psa 2:9; Rev 2:27; Rom 9:21-22; 2Ti 2:20. In particular, the body is called the vessel containing the soul, 1Th 4:4-5. Here applies equally to husband and wife as is evident from the comparative ; it designates both as the handiwork of God, organized and designed for each other. The husband should be particularly moved to a considerate, loving and careful treatment of his wife by the thought:God himself has thus appointed and made the nature of woman.. Calov:Women are weak in point of sex, the constitution of their body, mind and judgment, art, aptitude and wisdom in the conduct of affairs. [Rather a sweeping judgment of woman, and as ungenerous as untrue. Woman is physically mans inferior, but it is doubtful whether she is so mentally. This is not in the writers opinion a question of superiority or inferiority, but one of diversity. There are mental qualities in which woman excels man and others in which he excels her. They seem to be well balanced under equal advantages afforded to each. His experience in schools constrains him to admit that up to the age of sixteen, girls are decidedly brighter and better students than boys. If they do not progress after that period in an equal ratio, the fault belongs to vicious social habits and to the superficial and fanciful ideas as to the maximum attainments of females, but not to the natural endowment of their mind. It came forth from the Creators hand perfect after its kind, everyway adapted to mans mind and the two equally and healthily developed, working together in one direction, supply each others defects and strengthen each others powers. United, this natural diversity blends in harmony. An excellent discussion of this subject maybe found in Adolphe Monods La Femme, Paris. 1860.M.] Luther:Woman is weaker in body, more timid and less courageous than man, hence your treatment of her should be accordingly. But as womans weakness is relative, man also being a weak, frail vessel, he, mindful of his own weakness, ought the more readily to sympathize with the weaker, .
Giving honour as to those who are also fellow-inheritors of the grace of life, in order that your prayers be not hindered.The second precept is: : to accord , what is due; with reference to 1Pe 2:17. The honour due to, them, honourable treatment which implies also care for their bodily wants.The reason of this esteem: they also are fellow-heirs of the grace of life; this is a higher reason than the former, flowing from the natural relation of the sexes. Woman becomes mans equal in virtue of the gift of the grace of life accorded to and hoped for by both.. Griesbach and others read , masculine; this reading gives the same sense, but the former is preferable, for they are destined with other believers to inherit the kingdom of heaven, denotes the participation, cf. 1Pe 1:4; 1Pe 1:10; 1Pe 1:13; Rom 8:17; Eph 3:6; Heb 11:9. The hypothesis is that both husband and wife are believers, or if either part be as yet unbelieving, it may become believing. ; ; = , the gracious gift of life, of eternal life beginning here and consummated above, ci. Gal 3:28. Others explain: grace communicating life, or life given out of grace, i. e., flowing from it. . (Griesbach and others read = to be interrupted, lamed). This expression is used of the pruning, cutting down and tearing up of trees, hence to cut off [to cut off occasion.M.], to hinder, render ineffectual. Common and private prayer, its power and effect are hindered, where such esteem is wanting, for prayer, in order to be effectual, exacts a reconciled mind, Mat 5:23; Mat 6:14; 1Ti 2:8; 1Jn 3:21. [Cum vir et uxor non sunt bene Concordes, minus possunt oratione vacare et eorum orationes sunt minus exaudibiles. Lyra.M.]. Roos: There is no room for prayer that may be answered where the husband despises and tyrannizes his wife and where a marriage is marred by discord. Grotius: Harsh treatment leads to insult and strife, which hinder the power and efficacy of prayer. Mat 18:19; Sir 25:1. Wiesinger: The consciousness of having sinned against the hope of salvation forces itself as an obstruction between God and him who prays, and thus bars the way of prayer.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The conjugal state is not a human-Divine , like the secular rule, 1Pe 2:13, but instituted by God Himself, Gen 2:18; Gen 2:24; Mat 19:5; it is a relation of life adapted even to the royal priesthood, to the holy people of Gods possession, in which they are to show forth the praises (virtues) of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvellous light, 1Pe 2:9. On the other hand, we ought not to deny the existence of a pure celibacy; so Thiersch.
2. Although the necessity of the wife obeying the husband is recognized outside of Christianity, the equality of husband and wife, in virtue of Divine appointment and grace, were altogether unknown; hence there is every where (i. e., outside of Christendom) a great degradation of the female sex. Christianity, observes Steiger, is equi-distant from the moral degradation of the female sex, which the Mohammedans and Rabbis would almost deprive of immortality, and from the secular exaltation and deification, which, especially since the middle ages, has been defended as Christian by those who confounded Germanism with Christianity, while it secured to woman anything but happiness.
3. Peter, defining prayer as the centre and support of conjugal life, takes as lofty a conception of the matrimonial covenant as Paul, although the Pauline idea that the marriage of Christians is a figure of the relation of Christ to His Church does not occur in Peter (cf. Ephesians 5).
4. True love in the conjugal state depends upon and is rooted in mutual esteem; where this is wanting, the conjugal state is shaken at its very foundation; but it is not only esteem of the personal qualities and excellencies of either part, but also, and chiefly, the appreciation flowing from the thought: Thy partner, like thyself, is a child of God, purchased with the same precious blood of Christ, and called, like thyself, to be an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
There must be some special reason why wives are reminded of their duties before the husbands, and charged with obedience as their principal and foremost task.Christian wives need not ask, which husbands must we obey? The direction is unmistakable: your own husbands; consequently, also unbelieving, harsh, and wayward husbands.Noble art!to be silent with the mouth, and to speak in the life. Augustine tells of Monica, his mother, that she spoke of Christ to her husband by her feminine virtues, and that, after having borne his violence without a murmur or complaint, she gained him at the close of his life to Christ, without deploring in the believer what she had suffered at his hands as an unbeliever.
1Pe 3:2. There is often a veil before the eyes of a hard husband; doubt not that it can be removed, so that he may admiringly look upon the mystery of a profoundly-Christian mind, and with melted heart fall down at the feet of Jesus.Fondness of rule and dress is a bad propensity, which is sometimes found even in Christian wives.The proud daughters of Eve may see themselves reflected, as in a mirror, in Isaiah iii.What is the heavenly bridal array of the believing daughters of Sarah?Where hope in God is firmly established, no evil can terrify us.It is the greatest calamity of wedded life to see prayer hindered and room given to Asmodeus [the devil matrimonial or disturber of married life.M.].How do husband and wife walk in the light of Divine truth?It is the greatest folly if husbands act the part of tyrants to their wives.
Starke:Although wives should mainly fear God that they may shun evil and do good, yet ought they to fear their husbands also, that is, not only to give them no cause for suspicion and jealousy by unseemly speech, behaviour or works, Pro 7:10, but they should also make it their study to please them.Holy women, influenced by the Holy Spirit, will observe the proper medium in dress, cf. Est. ii: 16; Gen 24:22; Rom 12:2.Are you astonished to see persons covered with gold and pearls, with jewels and similar vanities? Rest assured that a believing soul, resplendent in virtues, is far more glorious and pleasant to God and His angels, Psa 45:14-15.The most respectable dress! Is it to be this? You say, it does not suit me, it is old, and makes no show. Well, that depends upon whom you want to please: God?if so, it should be glorious, but inward; or the devil, the prince of this world?then you need not care for Peter or Christ, dress after your own fashion, Pro 7:10.As the Old and the New Testaments have only one Messiah, one faith, one hope and one charity, so they have only one inward soul-ornament, Act 15:11; Isa 61:10.Wives may lessen or increase the cares of their husbands, Pro 31:12.If a husband and wife do not live after Gods ordinance, their prayers and worship are utter vanity and loss, 1Ti 2:8.
[Leighton:
1Pe 3:1. The common spring of all mutual duties on both sides is supposed to be love: that peculiar conjugal love that makes them one, will infuse such sweetness into the authority of the husband and obedience of the wife, as will make their lives harmonious, like the sound of a well-tuned instrument; whereas without that, having such an universal interest in all their affairs, they cannot escape frequent contests and discords, which is a sound more unpleasant than the jarring of untuned strings to an exact ear.M.]
[Publius Syrus:Casta ad virum matrona parendo imperat. The submissive wife rules by obedience.M.]
[Jay:
1Pe 3:2. Chaste conversation implies diffidence, the blushings of reserve, the tremulous retiring of modesty, the sensation that comes from the union of innocence and danger, the prudence which keeps far from the limits of permission, the instinctive vigilance which discerns danger afar off, the caution which never allows the enemy to approach near enough even to reconnoitre.M.]
[Leighton:With fear.Fearing the least stain of chastity, or the very least appearance of any thing not suiting with it. It is delicate, timorous grace, afraid of the least air, or shadow of any thing that hath but a resemblance of wronging it, in carriage, or speech, or apparel, as follows in the 3d and 4th verses.M.]
[Plutarch:
1Pe 3:3. Conjug. Prcep. c. 26. An ornament, as Crates said, is that which adorns. The proper ornament of a woman is that which becomes her best. This is neither gold, nor pearls, nor scarlet, but those things which are an evident proof of gravity, regularity and modesty. The wife of Phocion, a celebrated Athenian general, receiving a visit from a lady who was elegantly adorned with gold and jewels, and her hair with pearls, took occasion to call the attention of her guest to the elegance and costliness of her dress; My ornament, said the wife of Phocion, is my husband, now for the twentieth year general of the Athenians. Plutarch in Vit. Phoc.Plato De Repub.:Behaviour and not gold is the ornament of a woman. To courtesans, these things, jewels and ornaments, are advantageous to their catching more admirers; but for a woman who wishes to enjoy the favour of one man, good behaviour is the proper ornament, and not dresses. And you should have the blush upon your countenance, which is the sign of modesty, instead of paint; and worth and sobriety, instead of gold and emeralds.
The sense of antiquity on this subject was very strong. Clemens Alex. Pdag. Lib. 3, cap. 4, says: The women that wear gold, plait their hair, paint their faces, have not the image of God in the inward man, but in lieu of it, a fornicating and adulterous soul. The Apostolical Constitutions, Lib. 1, cap. 8, 8, forbid women to wear exquisite garments fitted to deceive, or gold rings upon their fingers, because all these things are signs of whoredom. Jamblichus in Vita Pythag., Lib. 1, cap. 31, p. 165, maintains that no free women wore gold, but whores only.An inquiry into the sources from which false hair, now so generally worn by women, is procured, might possibly abolish this vicious and unchristian fashion.M.]
[Leighton:
1Pe 3:3-4. The soul fallen from God hath lost its true worth and beauty, and therefore it basely descends to these mean things, to serve and dress the body, and take share with it of its unworthy borrowed ornaments, while it has lost and forgotten God, and seeks not after Him, knows not that He alone is the beauty and ornament of the soul, Jer 2:32, and His Spirit and the grace of it, its rich attire, here particularly specified in one excellent grace; and it holds true in the rest.M.]
[Philip Henry:Besides this (secret prayer) he and his wife constantly prayed together morning and evening, and never, if they were together at home or abroad, was it intermitted; and, from his own experience of the benefit of this practice, he would take all opportunities to recommend it to those in that relation, as conducing very much to the comfort of it, and their furtherance in that which he would often say is the great duty of yoke-fellows, and that is to do all they can to help one another to heaven. He would say that this duty of husbands and wives praying together is intimated in that of the Apostle, 1Pe 3:7, where they are exhorted to live as heirs of the grace of life, that their prayers (especially their prayers together) be not hindered; that nothing may be done to hinder them from praying together, nor to hinder them in it, nor to spoil the success of their prayers. This sanctifies the relation, and fetches in a blessing on it, makes the comforts of it more sweet, and the cares and crosses of it more easy, and is an excellent means of preserving and increasing love in the relation. Many to whom he had recommended the practice of this duty have blessed God for him, and for his advice concerning it.An Account of the Life and Death of Mr. Philip Henry, by his Son, p. 58, Lond., 1712, quoted by Brown.M.]
[Gataker (quoted by Brown):Let such married persons as God hath blessed in this kind (by their being equally yoked in the best sense) learn what cause they have to be thankful to God, either for other. Let the jars and discord that they see between other men and women mismatched, and the cross and cursed carriage of them, either toward other, together with the manifold annoyances and grievous mischiefs and inconveniences that ensue ordinarily thereupon, be a means to put them in mind of Gods great mercy and goodness toward them, and to make them more thankful to Him for the same. And since they have received either other from God, let them therein show their thankfulness to God by endeavouring to bring either other nearer unto God, by helping either other forward in the good ways of God. Do either with other as Anna did with her son Samuel: as she had him of God, so she bestowed him on God again: return each other again to God, and labour to return them better than they received them. The better they shall make each other, and the nearer they shall bring each other to God, the more good, through Gods goodness, shall they have either of other. The more man and wife profit in the fear of God, the more comfortably and contentedly shall they live together, the better shall it be for them both. From A Good Wife Indeed. The same author has also sermons entitled, A Good Wife, Gods Gift, Marriage Prayer, and Marriage Duties, which are well worth consulting.Fordyces Sermons to Young Women, in 2 vols., London, 1794 (rare) are also very valuable.M.]
[Bp. Jeremy Taylor:(Marriage Ring): Marriage was ordained by God, instituted in paradise; the relief of a natural necessity, and the first blessing from the Lord. Marriage is a school and exercise of virtue. Here is the proper scene of piety and patience, of the duty of parents and the charity of relatives; here kindness is spread abroad, and love is united and made firm, as a centre. Marriage is the nursery of heaven, fills up the numbers of the elect, and hath in it the labours of love and the delicacies of friendship, the blessing of society and the union of hands and hearts. Marriage is the mother of the world, and preserves kingdoms, and fills cities, and churches, and heaven itself. Like the useful bee, marriage builds a house, and gathers sweetness from every flower, and labours, and unites into societies and republics, and sends out colonies, and feeds the world with delicacies, and obeys their king, and keeps order, and exercises many virtues, and promotes the interest of mankind, and is that state of good things to which God hath designed the present constitution of the world.M.]
Footnotes:
[1]1Pe 3:1. [Cod., A. B. and Sinait. omit . goes back to 1Pe 2:13M.]
[2]1Pe 3:1. [ , even if; the force of is, put the worst case, even if your husbands are positively disobedient to the word, your duty is clear.M.]
[3]1Pe 3:1. [; another reading is . Rec Cod. Sin.On with a Fut. Indic. see Winer, 6th ed. p. 258, and cf. Rev 22:14; translate that they shall be won.M.]
[4]1Pe 3:1. [ , without word. Translate the whole verse: Likewise, wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that even if any obey not the word, they shall be won without word by means of the conversation of the wives.M.]
[5]1Pe 3:2. [=having beheld, when they behold.M.]
[6]1Pe 3:2. [The German renders your conversation chaste in fear.M.]
[7]1Pe 3:3. [=of whom, i.e., your adornment.M.]
[8]1Pe 3:3. [ =braiding of hair, cf. 1Ti 2:9.M.]
[9]1Pe 3:3. [=putting round (the head, the arm, the ankle or the finger). Translate the verse: Your adornment let it be not the outward of braiding of hair, and putting round golden ornaments, or of putting on of dresses.M.]
[10]1Pe 3:4. [ =in the incorruptible ornament of.M.]
[11]1Pe 3:4. [ =the meek and quiet spirit, which, etc.M.]
[12]1Pe 3:5. [ =formerly also.M.]
[13]1Pe 3:5. [ (Part, of Imperfect, according to Winer, 6th ed., p. 305)=who hoped.M.]
[14]1Pe 3:6. [No necessity for even; the Greek has simply .M.]
[15]1Pe 3:6. [ =of whom ye have become children.M.]
[16]1Pe 3:6. [ states the condition on which they have become Sarahs children; render, therefore, if, instead of as long as.M.]
[17]1Pe 3:6. [ =and are not afraid of any sudden fear. =fear from without, some external cause of terror. See additional observations under Exegetical and Critical.M.]
[18]1Pe 3:7. [This verse needs entire recasting; the E. V. is involved. We translate, closely following the original: Ye husbands, in like manner, (refers to , 1Pe 2:17) dwelling, according to knowledge with the feminine, as with the weaker vessel, giving honour as to those who are also fellow-inheritors of the grace of life, in order that your prayers be not hindered. So Alford. The Cod. Sin. reads , companying with, for , and supplies , manifold before .M.]
[19]1Pe 3:8. [It is better to retain in English the adjectival construction of the original, substituting being, in Italics. instead of be ye.M.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The greater Part of this Chapter is Exhortation. Some few, but deep Things of Divine Truths, towards the Close of this Chapter, are touched upon.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; (2) While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. (3) Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; (4) But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. (5) For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: (6) Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. (7) Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered. (8) Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: (9) Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. (10) For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: (11) Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. (12) For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. (13) And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? (14) But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; (15) But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: (16) Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. (17) For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.
It is a blessed and sweet testimony to the purity of the faith, in the lives of the regenerated, when, from Christ formed in the heart as the cause, all the gracious consequences flow as the effect. And where the hidden man of the heart, as the Apostle calls it, is truly formed; there all the relative and social afflictions, in the several circumstances of public and domestic life, will be the result. The tree made good by grace, in the renewed life, the fruit will be also good. But without this change of nature, by grace, after all the high-sounding commendations, which, from age to age, human philosophy hath said so much about, in praise of moral virtue; there can be no bottom to work upon.
I admire the Apostle’s expression, the hidden man of the heart; and which, he saith, is not corruptible. And indeed, it is impossible it should. For it ariseth from the quickening, and regenerating work of God the Spirit; and, therefore, liveth and abideth forever. The properties of it in the source and spring from whence it flows, are hidden; but the blessed consequences, in the streams, arise above ground, and are seen. The world knoweth us not, (said John,) because it knew him not, 1Jn 3:1 . Who shall say, how the Lord hath access to our spirits, so as to keep alive the grace he hath first imparted at regeneration; to excite and call forth the desires of the soul upon the Person, and work, and offices, and relations of Christ? Who shall number the incomings of grace, or the outgoings of the spirit; in prayer, in praise, in the longings after Christ, or the soul-embraces of Christ? These are transactions of the new born child of God; both in joy and grief, perfectly unknown to the world, and in which the stranger cannot intermeddle. The follower of the Lord Jesus, like Jesus himself, hath bread to eat, which the men of the world know not of; but which are in the daily feastings, of the hidden man of the heart, from the manifestations of Jesus.
Reader! are you in the habit of these things? Do you know them? Yes! if so be the Spirit of Christ dwell in you. Then you can speak of this hidden man of the heart; and though hidden from the world, yet well known and sweetly enjoyed by you. And you can tell me also, that sometimes, what from the dullness and deadness of your affections, what from sin and Satan, the world, and numberless other thwarting circumstances, this life is hidden for the moment, from yourself. The holy flame is not extinguished, for all the waters cannot quench it; but the ashes cover it from view. And what a mercy is it, that amidst such rubbish, as the best of men carry about with them, in the mass of sin and death of their bodies; the Lord keeps it by his grace, still alive. The Holy Ghost sweetly assigns the cause by his servant, the Apostle Paul. Your life is hid with Christ in God. And hence also, the blessed promise that follows is made secure. When Christ who is your life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory, Col 3:3 . See Commentary also there.
If I pause over those verses, in which the Apostle speaks of the plain attire, and lowly deportment of the holy women, our venerable mothers in Israel; it shall only be to remark, with what grace their appear to our imagination from the account. I have often thought, that there is a sanctity in the very garments of those professing godliness, which rebukes the light and frivolous dress of the carnal. The mother of Sisera, however unconscious of it, paid a very high respect to the daughters in Israel, when, to the everlasting reproach of her own infamous character, she concluded her son (though gone, like Judas in after ages to his own place,) had robbed their industry, Jdg 5:28 to the end.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
In the Sight of God
1Pe 3:4
God sees; the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself mighty on behalf of them that trust in Him. His eyes are weapons, His eyes are lightnings, His smile makes the morning, His frown makes the night; He is a great God above all gods; He stands where other gods cannot climb.
Peter says in this text, Let it be in the hidden man of the heart; let it be in the meek and quiet spirit; let it be in one sense invisible that it may in another sense be more visible; let your good works have a good background. Spirit sees spirit. Spirit cannot communicate with flesh; they have no dealings one with the other in the deepest spiritual sense. God is a spirit; therefore God communicates with the spirit of man, which is akin to His own. How He does this He has never condescended to explain; but that communication is made to us from the spiritual world is certain; otherwise many ideas, suggestions, impulses, and mental operations can never be accounted for. There are many passages in the Old Testament which we cannot understand until we have read the New Testament, and brought the new lamp to shed a light on the old mystery. And so there are many things about this human sight, and the Divine sight looking at it, spirit of man looking for Spirit of God, and Spirit of God trying what image it can create whereby to represent itself, and lighting upon the gentle-breasted dove. A wondrous thing that God should have had to look about, so to say, amongst His own creatures to pick up one here and one there which will most nearly represent some Divine idea. And so, who is this fair, young, beautiful creature, His face a mystery? who is He? Represent Him to me by some other life. The voice says, Behold the Lamb. Lamb and dove; they seem to bring their own meaning with them; there is not in them one drop of bad black blood, all so gentle as to be all but spiritual, and so symbolical that it must be behind each of them a sacrament.
I. God is continually rebuking both our hearing and our seeing; He says to us in effect, You have sight, but must not stretch it beyond its proper limits; and you can hear noise, you cannot yet hear music, but hearing the noise is a preparation for hearing the music; you think you can hear the music now, but you hear no music; the true music is to come; it is a thought rather than a thing, a film rather than a substance; but in so far as you use your faculties within due limits and in a reverential spirit you are advancing Oh, hear it and be glad! advancing to the time of song, and music, and rapture, and ecstasy.
II. In Peter’s expression we find the element of valuation the valuation, it may be, of property. There are two valuations, the valuation which man assigns, and the valuation which God fixes. Peter says that a meek and a quiet spirit is in the sight of God of great price. In the sight of man it is ridiculed. Who cares for meekness? who appreciates quietness? who is there that does not regard repose as a sign of feebleness? whereas repose may be the last expression of power, quietness may be reserved thunder. Moses was meek, the meekest man in all the earth, but who could be so angry when his spirit was turned? The lamb is peaceful, docile, yet one great poet speaks of ‘the wrath of the Lamb’. ‘In the sight of God of great price.’ Then a man may be rich without knowing it; he may have qualities and attributes of character which are jewellery without price, far surpassing rubies, and diamonds, and all the things thou canst desire out of the silver mine and the gold mine. A man may be rich, and have no jewel casket; and man may be very rich, and never have been in a jeweller’s shop? a woman may be most rich, the wealthiest, sweetest mother, without having any things that are called lovely, and beautiful, and precious. And so a man may be a poor man and not know it.
III. There is another sense in which this word ‘in the sight of God’ is used ‘Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye’. That is the law which settles everything. There are so many people who think themselves law-abiding who are law-breaking, but they do not know it, and they do not mean it; gentle, modest people, but not deficient in pharisaic zeal, I want to obey the great law which includes and transfigures all the little laws in the degree in which they are true and wise.
Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. VII. p. 218.
References. III. 6. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii. No. 1633. Expositor (6th Series), vol. vi. p. 235. III. 7. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xx. No. 1192. W. H. Brookfield, Sermons, p. 87.
The Christian in Society
1Pe 3:8
This passage sums up the duties of a Christian towards the circle immediately around him in his daily life.
I. First, ‘be ye all of the same mind’. From the love of Christ follows first and most plainly Christian unanimity; unanimity in its strictest sense of agreement, or rather identity of convictions on fundamental points; about that there can be no doubt. We must be of the same mind, or rather we must see that we are of the same mind, that it is impossible that any, even the meanest, who calls upon Christ’s name in any, even the most inarticulate, accents should not be one in heart and soul with us, should not be to us in very truth a brother.
II. If we are Christ’s at all, we must recognise our fellow-countrymen in Christ; recognise them as countrymen wherever we find them, and in however miserable a plight, recognise them freely and heartily and honestly, and by so doing we shall come at once to the next step of the Apostle’s admonition, ‘have compassion one of another,’ feel with one another. To feel with our brethren how great a thing it is; great both for them and us; great for them, for how the crushed and wounded soul revives before the look that tells it its woes are not unheeded; how the despairing spirit clings with an agonised grasp to the words that tell him he is not absolutely alone in the world, till hope comes back, and life becomes strong to it once more. Such is the office of Christian love in each society and circle. But it can only work these results, if thorough, if built upon a loss of self in Christ.
III. Pitifulness and courtesy are to be the accompaniments of his daily life, and by means of them his Christian love is to shine forth to all who come in contact with him. (1) Pitifulness is more subtle than sympathy; for sympathy is the capacity for entering into another’s joys or sorrows, and feeling with them so as to halve the sorrow and double the joy; pitifulness is that deep-seated tenderness of heart and soul which draws to itself the weary and heavy-laden, which commands the confidence of the broken-hearted. (2) Courtesy is the development of Christian love in the smallest detail of daily life and conduct; it is the perpetual recognition of our duties towards every one we meet; it is the perpetual sense of the dignity of humanity, of the honour due to all God’s creatures, of the infinite grandeur of every human soul.
Bishop Creighton, University and other Sermons, p. 16.
1Pe 3:8
‘Compassion,’ says Butler finely, ‘is a call, a demand of nature, to relieve the unhappy; as hunger is a natural call for food.’
1Pe 3:8
We should take pains to be polite to those whom we love. Politeness preserves love, is a kind of sheath to it.
Mark Rutherford.
References. III. 8. F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlv. p. 369. H. C. Beeching, Seven Sermons to Schoolboys, p. 50. T. Binney, King’s Weigh-House Chapel Sermons (2nd Series), p. 226. R. G. Soans, Sermons for the Young, p. 1. F. J. A. Hort, Village Sermons in Outline, p. 145. Archbishop Maclagan, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lviii. p. 219. III. 8-12. Expositor (5th Series), vol. iii. p. 349.
The Love of Life
1Pe 3:10
I. What is really meant by Life? There are two words in the New Testament which, from the necessities of our language, are alike rendered ‘life’. One of these words ( ) signifies the principle of animal life, the things by which it is preserved or gladdened, and its span. The other word ( ) belongs to a higher sphere. It is the new life given in germ at Baptism, which may be stunted or strengthened, as grace is used or abused; and which, after the Resurrection, is to be suitably clothed upon. Thus, the first refers to man’s natural existence as one of the animal creation; the second to man’s supernatural existence as a son of God. Christ was incarnate to impart this. ‘The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening (life-creating) spirit’ (1Co 15:45 ). ‘I am come,’ said Christ, ‘that they might have life.’ The question, then, for Christians really is not whether life, the higher, future existence, is worth living; but whether existence under mere animal or external conditions is worth living? The latter, no doubt, is an intricate question, and something may be said in favour of a negative reply. We may be reminded of the transitoriness of human existence; the vanity of our expectations; the objects of our hopes crushed in the iron hand of necessity; the loss of those we love; the protracted humiliation of the breaking up of the machine, accompanied perhaps by some bodily torture; together with this, a weariness of life; nay, often this last comes long before old age. One young spirit, who passed by the terrible gate of suicide into the other world, wrote: ‘The good things come off so seldom’. Of all forms of madness, ‘Seeing things exactly as they are’ seemed to Voltaire the most appalling and hopeless. Very much may, of course, be said in mitigation of this pessimism. ‘Life rightly used has happiness for each of its stages.’ The sweetness of domestic love; the pleasures of society and friendship; the preponderance of health over sickness and pain; the activities, the pleasing surprises -that often come to the weariest lot; the beauties of Nature which exhilarate the body, and interest the mind of man. ‘We bless Thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life.’
II. On the question, Is existence, elevated into the higher and supernatural life, worth living? we Christians can have no doubt.
(1) Present acceptance makes life worth living. Finished final salvation is not offered in the twinkling of an eye. But present acceptance is promised to all who come to God through Christ. This makes any existence tolerable. ‘A tranquil God tranquillises all things, and to see His peacefulness is to be at peace.’
(2) There are times of exquisite pleasure in communion with God. These compensate for the languor of old age and for the slow ‘martyrdom of life’. They support the believer under the cross: he began by carrying it; it ends by carrying him.
(3) There is the truest pleasure in work for God. The study of His Word is a perpetual delight. The Church’s sacramental life is full of joy. The teaching of the young, the ministry to the sick, the rescue of the fallen, the quickening and elevation of Service and Worship these have pleasures of their own which give animation and variety to life. But how about that sorrow which is inseparable from religion the sorrow of Repentance? A great theologian has said that ‘that kind of sorrow is its own consolation’; ‘He hath given a new kind of tears upon earth, which make those happy who shed them’. ‘Oh, that we could understand that the mystery of grace gives blessedness with tears!’
(4) That life is worth living is proved by the view which Jesus took of it. ‘My delights were with the sons of men’ (Pro 8:31 ). Christ was no pessimist about human life. He saw of what man was capable what holiness and victory, as well as what sin and defeat. He yearned, from the cradle to the grave, for the Holy Week and Easter, that He might bear the sweetness of the burden.
No doubt human life is tragic and pathetic; yet there is a magic smile on the face of the drama, after all. In the midst of life’s most poignant sorrows riven hearts are alone with God, and white lips say, ‘Thy will be done’. For they know that after a while the point of view will change. The life of them that sleep in Jesus will stand out as a beautiful whole. Precious words will remain. Wherever they lie, all is well. ‘Them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.’
Archbishop Alexander.
References. III. 10, 11. A. S. Brooke, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvi. p. 135. III. 12. J. Keble, Sermons for Sundays After Trinity, pt. i. p. 166. III. 13-22. C. Brown, Trial and Triumph, p. 125. III. 14, 15. J. Keble, Sermons for Sundays After Trinity, pt. i. p. 176. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Peter, p. 116. III. 15. E. J. Hardy, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lv. p. 104. T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. iii. p. 148. J. Bunting, ibid. vol. i. p. 309. C. J. Ridgeway, The King and His Kingdom, pp. 174 and 185. III. 15, 16. J. Stalker, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlix. p. 364. III. 16. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vii. p. 368. III. 17. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. i. p. 142. III. 18. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 143. J. D. Thompson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlviii. p. 42. R. Flint, Sermons and Addresses, p. 184. S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year (2nd Series), vol. i. p. 192. W. J. Brock, Sermons, p. 285. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xliv. No. 2573. R. J. Campbell, British Congregationalist, 11th July, 1907, p. 29. Expositor (4th Series), vol. v. p. 187; ibid. (6th Series), vol. iv. p. 156. III. 18-20. Ibid. vol. iii. p. 259. III. 19. Ibid. vol. ii. p. 287; ibid. (5th Series), vol. vii. p. 222. Basil Wilberforce, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 369. R. F. Horton, The Hidden God, p. 81. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Sermonettes for a Year, p. 84. III. 20, 21. J. Keble, Village Sermons on the Baptismal Service, p. 56.
A Good Conscience
1Pe 3:21
I. We have to take note of a marvellous faculty, instinctive in human nature, which we have learned to call conscience, and having called it conscience have often dismissed out of our minds; a faculty which is recognised by everyone, however they may explain it; a faculty which enables us to know the difference between right and wrong, as the eye knows the difference between black and white. Every one of us knows that conscience exists.
II. And the second point which we must note is that conscience, although it is a gift of God to men, must, like all gifts, be educated and enlightened. There are some who seem to think that when they have done a thing conscientiously the question is over. It is not over at all. The question is, Ought they to have done that thing, however conscientiously? Has the conscience entrusted to them by God been sufficiently enlightened with all the light which is possible for them in order to make it act as God would have it act? If we are to gain the first essential element of Christian joy, the answer of a good conscience, we have to use every possible means in our power to keep our consciences enlightened.
III. Have we got it? (1) Have you the answer of a good conscience with regard to your city and business life? (2) Or, again, there are some who complain that they have no joy or happiness in their homes. Whose fault is it? Have you the answer of a good conscience, or is it your temper which is at the bottom of the unhappiness of your home?
Bishop Winnington-Ingram, Under the Dome, p. 61.
References. III. 21. Expositor (6th Series), vol. iv. p. 13. III. 22. J. Keble, Sermons for Ascension Day to Trinity Sunday, p. 1. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii. No. 1928. III. 24. Expositor (6th Series), vol. v. p. 318. IV. 1. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. i. p. 333. F. J. A. Hort, Village Sermons in Outline, p. 226. J. M. Neale, Sermons preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. i. p. 237. Expositor (4th Series), vol. v. p. 187; ibid. vol. viii. p. 358; ibid. (6th Series), vol. iv. p. 13. IV. 1, 2. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 143. IV. 1-3. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xliii. No. 2549. IV. 1-8. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Peter, p. 123. IV. 1-11. C. Brown, Trial and Triumph, p. 141. IV. 3. S. A. Tipple, The Admiring Guest, p. 108. IV. 6. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 287; ibid. vol. iii. p. 370. IV. 7. C. Vince, The Unchanging Saviour, p. 315. T. F. Crosse, Sermons (2nd Series), p. 225. J. Barker, Plain Sermons, p. 62. Bishop Barry, A Sermon Preached at St. Paul’s Cathedral, 17th April, 1894. Bishop Westcott, Village Sermons, p. 203. Expositor (6th Series), vol. vi. p. 53. IV. 7, 8. J. J. Blunt, Plain Sermons, p. 228. IV. 8. W. H. Hutchings, Sermon-Sketches, p. 1. J. Keble, Sermons for Ascension Day to Trinity Sunday, p. 93.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
XX
WHAT TO PUT AWAY
1Pe 2:1-4:6
This section commences at 1Pe 2:1 : What to put away, and on what to be nourished. The Christian should put away wickedness, guile, hypocrisies, and evil speaking. The nourishment is “the sincere milk of the word, which is without guile, that ye may grow thereby.” No man can grow in the Christian life without feeding upon Christian food, and therefore men who preach the word are said to break the Bread of life to the people.
This brings us to a new and emphatic item of the analysis: “The spiritual temple,” (1Pe 2:4-10 ), as follows: “Unto whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious, ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Because it is contained in Scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: And he that believeth in him shall not be put to shame. For you therefore that believe is the preciousness: but for such as disbelieve, The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the corner; and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence; For they stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed. But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his own marvelous light: who in time past were no people, but now are the people of God: who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.”
Consider first the foundation of the spiritual house. The characteristics of this foundation are first, that it is a livingstone, not a dead one. The foundation of Solomon’s Temple was inert matter. The foundation stone of the spiritual house of which Peter speaks was the Lord Jesus Christ himself; not dead, but living. This foundation is not only alive, but the stone which constitutes it was elected. That means it was chosen. God selected that foundation. As it is God’s house, it is for him to say what substructure shall uphold the superstructure. For this purpose he elects his only begotten Son. Not only elect, but it is precious. The word precious there has the sense of costly. We say a precious stone in contradistinction from a stone of no particular value. Precious Christ. From that word we get our word “appreciate.” To appreciate anything is to put it at its value. To depreciate it is to put it below its price. So it is not only an elect stone, but a costly one.
The next thing in this spiritual building is that all of the material that goes into this spiritual house must be living material. We also are living stones. No man can be put into the temple of God who is not made alive by the Spirit of God. The apostle Paul in 1Co 3:11 , referring to the foundation, says, “There can be but one foundation.” The building is God’s building, and that he, a preacher, is a co-laborer with God in putting up that building. Now he says that if in putting up that temple this human laborer shall put in material that will not stand the first test, all that material is lost, and the man who puts it in suffers loss in the day that tries his work by fire. He refers then to the building material used. Some people use hay, wood, and stubble for thatching a house; they put that on the roof, and some build the walls of wood. Combustible material will perish in the fire. There is a passage in Jeremiah which refers to the same thing, that in putting up the spiritual temple we should not daub with untempered mortar. Mortar must be such that when it is dry it will hold together. Now the thought is the same here, that this spiritual house of which Christ is the foundation (and he is the only foundation) must be made of spiritual, living material. That distinguished Christ’s house from Solomon’s house. This passage interprets Mat 16:18 . It shows that Peter never supposed himself to be the rock on which the church is built.
The next thing in connection with the spiritual house is that its members (here he changes the figure, no longer speaking of them as the component parts of the wall, but speaking of them as servants in the house) constitute a priesthood. Every member of God’s true flock is a priest without regard to age or sex. They are all priests a spiritual priesthood. In the Old Testament the priesthood was a special class. In the New Testament God’s people constitute a kingdom of priests. Every one of them is a priest.
The next thing is the kind of sacrifices that this priesthood offers. In the Old Testament the sacrifices were symbolical. Here they are spiritual. Praise is spiritual; prayer also is, contribution is, when given from the right motive. The entire family of God are priests, offering sacrifices unto God. The next thought (here the figure is changed again) is: There was an old nation deriving its descent from Abraham. Now Christians belong to a new nation. That is clearly expressed here in the passage. It says, “Ye are an elect race,” that is, “you derive your descent from the spiritual seed, Christ being the head of the race.” The old-time Israel was a national people made up of those who by fleshly descent constituted its members. Now we are a spiritual nation. The people of God are conceived of as a nation as well as a race.
Now we come to the purpose, and that is expressed in these words: “That ye may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” That is the purpose. That is really the purpose of every Christian organization, of every Christian life, that the Christian should show forth the excellency of God, his Saviour.
We have in 1Pe 2:11-17 some general exhortations that do not particularly need any exposition, and in 1Pe 2:18-22 . we have some exhortations based on the fact that a large number of the Christian people in that day were slaves, servants, and he starts out with that idea. He speaks to slaves: “Be in subjection to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward, for this is acceptable, if for conscience toward God a man endureth griefs, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye sin, and are buffeted for it, ye take it patiently? But if, when ye do well and suffer for it, ye shall take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.” All this bears on the hard condition of the slave at that time; that the slave would be put to grief wrongfully; that he would be buffeted wrongfully; that he would be reviled wrongfully. Now what are these slaves to do if they are Christians? He does not preach as a member of an abolition society. He doesn’t propose to introduce any revolutionary measures. But he tries to fix the minds of those slaves upon better things: First, that they can as slaves illustrate the truth and the power of the Christian religion, and can show forth the excellencies of God. That if they are buffeted, so was Christ. If they are reviled, so was Christ. If they are maltreated, so was he. “The thing to do, whatever your lot) is in it to illustrate the power of the Christian religion, and you will do more good that way than by trying to organize a slave insurrection.”
I have a Texas friend who wishes me to quit preaching the gospel and preach socialism. He says that I am wasting my time and gifts. I tell him that I am following in the footsteps of our Lord. I go through the world seeing many things that are wrong wrong politically, wrong economically, wrong in a thousand other ways. If I enter into this political arena, try to revolutionize the world as a politician, I will certainly fail as a preacher. Other men before me have tried it and failed. I do a better thing; I can preach a gospel whose principles will reform society, whose principles will ultimately bring about the greatest good to the greatest number in all things.
In 1Pe 3:1-7 he discusses the relation of husband and wife, and very much as Paul discusses it in his letters. In every letter Paul writes, he takes up the case of the slave, the husband, the wife, the citizen, the child, the parent. Peter does the same thing, and shows that real Christianity in the heart of a good woman will prompt her to honor and respect her husband, to be obedient, and will prompt the husband to love and cherish the wife, and that a married state blessed by the power of religion will do more toward reforming society than all the divorce courts in the world. That is his way of dealing with social, domestic, economic, and political questions.
He calls attention to the fact that Christian women, like all other women, like adornment. That is characteristic of the sex, and he is not depreciating a woman wearing nice apparel that is not the thing with him but in the method of the New Testament teaching, he is showing a higher kind of adornment when he says this: “Whose adorning let it not be the outward adorning of braiding the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is, in the sight of God, of great price.” There are many teachings of the New Testament that, taken on their face, seem to condemn external adornment altogether.
Dr. Sampey in a judicious article calls attention to the power of contrast in certain Hebraisms, and shows how that principle goes all through the New Testament. When God says, “I will have none of their offerings,” he does not mean that he would not accept the offerings which he had commanded them to make, but he means when compared to what they signify they are but the chaff of the wheat. If a woman lives merely for dress, and her adornment is merely jewels and silks and ribbons and things of that kind, then it is a very poor kind of external beauty. But over against that he puts the true adornment of the soul, and virtues and graces of the Christian religion, and that gives her in the true idea of dress, the most shining apparel in the world. That is his thought.
In 1Pe 3:10 , we reach a new idea in the analysis: The way of a happy life. Let us see what it is: “He that would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. Let him turn away from the evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it.”
Here are three directions for a happy life, summed up as follows: “Watch out what you do; watch out about what you pursue.” Now if a man goes around talking evil and doing evil and pursuing fusses, it is impossible for him to have a happy life. The reason is expressed in 1Pe 3:12 : “For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open to their supplications; but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.” That is the reason. God is above man, his eye is on us all the time, his ears listen. We are under his jurisdiction, his face is against them that do evil. His favor is toward them that do well. Now the question comes up about a happy life. I am to do these three things: Keep my tongue from evil, turn away from doing evil, and live in peace and not fusses. And the reason that those directions will bring happiness is that God is against the bad and for the good. That constitutes the way of a happy life.
At the beginning of a great meeting in Caldwell, a good many years ago, the old pastor preached the opening sermon from that text: “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their supplications, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil”; and his theme was the government of God. It was a fine introduction to a revival.
Continuing the thought, he says, “Who is he that will harm you if ye be zealous of that which is good?” That is, take the general run of things. If one moves to a community, and while living in it he does not speak evil of his neighbors, he does good and not evil, and he avoids fusses and cultivates peace, now who is going to harm him? Now as a general rule (there are exceptions to it) he will be liked in the community.
That is the rule; now the exceptions: “But even if ye should suffer for righteousness’ sake, blessed are ye; fear not their fear, neither be troubled.” Suppose as an exception that one moves into a community and lives right and talks right, but on account of his religion he is subjected to ill-treatment and that may happen, has happened, there is always a possibility of that exception coming in now what if he does suffer, he is blessed in it; nobody can take anything away from him that God cannot restore to him a thousand-fold, or give him something better in the place of it.
The spirits in prison: This is a hard passage. Let us look at it carefully: “Christ being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; in which he also went and preached unto the spirits in prison that aforetime were disobedient, when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved through water; which also after a true likeness doth now save you, even baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the interrogation of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ; who is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.”
I call attention first to the textual difficulty. The version that I have before me reads this way: “being put to death in the flesh, and made alive in the spirit.” This translation contrasts Christ’s soul with Christ’s flesh, and says that he was put to death in his body, but made alive in his soul. The same translators take the passage in Timothy 3:16 : “was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit,” and there they again make the spirit refer to Christ’s soul as opposed to Christ’s body.
I take the position unhesitatingly that they are in error in both places that there is no reference in either place to the soul of Christ. Christ was put to death in the flesh, and that flesh was made alive by the Holy Spirit. That is what it means. He was declared to be the Son of God with power by his resurrection) and in other places he was manifested in the flesh, and so manifested he was justified by the Holy Spirit. “The Spirit” refers not to Christ’s soul in either passage, but refers to the Holy Spirit. That with me is a capital point. It is the later modern radical critics that insist on making “spirit” in both of these passages refer not to the Holy Spirit, but to Christ’s soul, and hence their teaching of this passage is that Christ died as to his body, but was made alive as to his soul, and hence in his soul he went and preached to the other spirits.
My first objection to their view is this: That Christ was not made alive in his soul at the time he was put to death in his flesh nothing was the matter with his soul. The question is whether it means the Holy Spirit or Christ’s soul. I say it means the Holy Spirit.
The second thought is: “being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Holy Spirit.” His body that was put to death was revived by the Holy Spirit, made alive, in which Holy Spirit he went (in past tense) and preached to those that are now disembodied spirits and in prison. But when he preached to them, they were not disembodied. Christ preached through the Holy Spirit to the antediluvians while the ark was preparing, as Gen 6:3 says, “My Spirit will not always strive with man.” Through the Holy Spirit, Christ was preaching to those people while the ark was preparing. The very same Holy Spirit, when Christ’s body died, made it alive in the resurrection. So in answering the question: “To whom did he preach?” I say that he preached to the antediluvians. When did he preach to them? When they were disobedient, in the days of Noah. How did he preach to them? By the Holy Spirit. Where are those people now? They are in prison, shut up unto the judgment of the great day; they are the dead now, and in the next chapter he will say the gospel was preached to them that are dead for this cause. They are dead now, but when they were living they had the gospel preached to them, but they rejected it.
The theory of the translation before us is open to these insuperable objections:
(1) It fails to explain how he was “made alive in his own spirit when his body died.”
(2) It teaches a probation after death which is opposed to all the trend of the Scriptures.
(3) It provides a work for Christ’s disembodied soul contrary to the work elsewhere assigned to him in that state, namely, his going to the Father (Luk 23:46 ) to make immediate atonement by offering his blood shed on the cross (see Lev 16 ; Heb 9:24 ff.). He was elsewhere and on quite a different work.
(4) It fails to explain why, if his disembodied soul went on such a mission, it was limited to antediluvians only.
(5) It robs him of his Old Testament work through the Holy Spirit.
(6) It leaves out the making alive of Christ’s dead body by the Holy Spirit (Rom 1:4 ), so powerfully described by Peter elsewhere (Act 2:22-36 ).
I believe that Jesus entered into hell, but when? Not as a disembodied soul between the death and resurrection of his body, nor after he arose from the dead. We have clearly before seen what he did while disembodied, and what he did after his body was raised. He entered into hell, soul and body, on the cross, in the three hours of darkness, when he was forsaken of the Father, and met the dragon and his hosts, and triumphed over them, making a show of them openly.
To show that the Spirit here is the Holy Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit made alive Christ’s body that was put to death in the flesh, he is now going to bring in the subject of the resurrection. The Holy Spirit made Christ’s body alive in the resurrection, and the illustration used is the waters in the flood that the waters of the flood, in a certain sense, saved a few. The very waters that destroyed man saved a few; that is, those that obeyed God and got into the ark, eight of them, they were saved by the water. Now he says in like figure, or the antitype of the flood, is baptism, and that baptism now saves us; that is what it says. The only question is how does it save us? He answers both positively and negatively. .Negatively he says it does not put away the filth of the flesh. That is what it does not do. It doesn’t mean that. There, flesh means the carnal nature, and not the dirt that is on the outside of the body. If we take the word, “flesh,” and run it through the New Testament, we will see what he refers to there, that baptism does not cleanse the carnal nature. So the salvation referred to is not an internal, spiritual cleansing of the nature. When we talk about baptism saving us, we must be sure that it does not accomplish that salvation. Well, what salvation does it accomplish? It accomplishes a salvation by answering a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Well, what is that?
Let us get at the precise thought. We want to see how baptism saves. It saves us in a figure, not in reality. It does not put away carnal nature. It saves us in a figure the figure of the resurrection. Now that is exactly what it does. It gives us a picture of salvation, a pictorial, symbolical resurrection. In baptism we are buried, and in baptism we are raised. Now through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which that baptism memorializes that is salvation. Not a real one, but a figurative one that pictorial representation of salvation. That as we have been buried in the likeness of Christ’s death, so shall we be in the likeness of his resurrection. It is likeness, not the thing itself a picture. It is true that baptism washes away sin, because Ananias says to Paul, “Arise, and wash away thy sins.” But it does not actually wash away sins, because it is the blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sin. It does wash away sin symbolically and in no other way. Baptism saves, not actually, by change of the carnal nature, but in a figure. It is the figure of the resurrection. That is the way it saves.
The literature upon that passage in Peter is immense, and there are a great many people in the Church of England today who hold that in the interval between the death and the resurrection of Christ he spent the time visiting lost souls and preaching to them. We have already shown what he was doing between his death and the resurrection: that his spirit went to the Father; that it went with the penitent thief into the paradise of God; that he went there to sprinkle his blood of expiation on the mercy seat in order to make atonement, and then he came back. And when he came, there took place what this text says, “He who was put to death in the flesh and made alive by the Holy Spirit,” as to his body. The Holy Spirit raised his body. The text has not a word to say about what Christ’s spirit did between his death and his resurrection not a thing. But this text does say that in the Holy Spirit, before he ever became manifest in the flesh, he used to preach, but not in person. In other words, he is Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that through the Holy Spirit the gospel was preached in Old Testament times. That Abraham was able to see Christ’s day and rejoiced; that Abel was enabled by faith to take hold of Christ. All these people back yonder in the old world had the gospel preached to them. They had light, and it was spiritual light.
QUESTIONS
1. On the thought in 1Pe 2:2 , that the soul needs a healthful and nutritious diet as well as the body, what things must be put away as poisonous, and what must be used as nourishing?
2. In the figure of a spiritual house (1Pe 2:4-10 ), show what is the Christian temple, what the foundation and chief cornerstone, what the priesthood, what the sacrifices, what the object, contrasting each point with the Jewish type.
3. In Mat 16:18 Christ says to Peter, “On this rock I will build my church,” and evidently here (1Pe 2:4-7 ) there is a reference to our Lord’s words, hence the question: Who is the foundation rock on which the church is built as Peter himself understood Christ’s words, and who the rock as Isaiah understood it (Isa 28:16 ), which Peter quoted, and as Paul understood it (1Co 3:9-16 )?
4. In 1Pe 2:9 state the points of contrast between Israel after the flesh and the spiritual Isaiah.
5. In 1Pe 2:11-3:7 are exhortations to Christiana as pilgrims, as subjects of human government, as slaves, as husbands, and wives, parents and children. (1) Show, how by the exhortations Christianity is not revolutionary in its teachings on citizenship, slavery and society, and how they correspond with other New Testament teachings on the same points. (2) Show the meaning of such Hebraisms as 1Pe 3:3-22 .
6. What the force of “bare our sins in his body upon the tree,” or in other words, what the scriptural meaning of “to bear sins”?
7. What Peter’s rule of a happy life?
8. On 1Pe 3:18-21 , with 1Pe 4:6 , answer: (1) Does “spirit,” the last word of 1Pe 3:18 , mean Christ’s own human spirit, or the Holy Spirit? (2) How did Christ preach to the antediluvians, i.e., in his own person or by another, and if another, what other? (3) When did he so preach, while the antediluvians were living and disobedient while the ark was preparing and by the Holy Spirit (Gen 6:3 ), or to them in prison after death, either between his death and resurrection, or between his resurrection and ascension, and if to them after their death and imprisonment, what did he preach? (4) Did Christ, as the sinner’s substitute, enter the pangs of hell, when, in the body or out of it, and what the proof? (5) On 1Pe 4:6 , was the gospel preached to the dead before they died, or afterward? (6) Show the difficulties and heresies of interpreting “spirit” in 1Pe 4:18 as Christ’s own spirit and his preaching to men after their death, either between his own death and resurrection, or between his resurrection and ascension. (7) On 1Pe 3:21 , what the meaning of “filth of the flesh,” is it dirt of the body, or the defilement of the carnal nature? And then how does baptism now save us?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
1 Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;
Ver. 1. Be in subjection to your husbands ] Yet with a limitation: subject the wife must be to her husband’s lawful commands and restraints. It is too much that Plutarch lays as a law of wedlock on the wife, to acknowledge and worship the same gods, and none else but those whom her husband doth. Serena the empress suffered martyrdom under her cruel husband Diocletian; and Elizabeth, wife of Joachimus, the Prince Elector of Brandenburg, was forced to flee to the court of Saxony, A. D 1527, from the perpetual imprisonment provided for her by her Popish husband (for receiving the sacrament of the Lord’s supper in both kinds), and died in banishment. (Luther in Epistol.)
Be won by the conversation ] , i.e. Be prepared for conversion, as Austin’s father and himself were, by the piety of his mother Monica. The Greek word for won signifieth gained, ; and seems to allude to those good servants,Mat 25:20-23Mat 25:20-23 , who traded their talents, and doubled them with their good husbandry.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1 7 .] Exhortations in regard to the married state : and (1 6) to wives : (7) to husbands .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1 .] In like manner (i. e. after the same general principle, enounced in ch. 1Pe 2:13 , as the in their relation) wives ( ., as , ch. 1Pe 2:18 , , 1Pe 3:7 , is vocative. This is decisively shewn by below, as in 1Pe 3:7 . By the context is shewn to be wives ) [ by being ] in subjection to (the participle, as in ch. 1Pe 2:18 ; carrying on the general ) your own husbands ( gives point to the obligation, but is without any distinctive emphasis: see the parallel place, Eph 5:22 , and note), that even if ( puts into climax the hypothesis: , only that which follows the , i. e. the fact assumed: see for the full elucidation of this, 1Co 7:21 note, and Winer, 53. 7, Hermann on Viger, p. 832, Klotz, Devar. ii. 519 f., Hartung i. p. 139; the views of Hermann and Klotz differing slightly from the above and Hartung, but coming to the same in the end. In this place, as De Wette remarks, assumes as possible, the apparently exceptional case which may seem to justify the wives’ disobedience: would concede that the fact was so and direct notice to the fact itself) any (husbands) are disobedient to the word (in a state of unbelieving disobedience; most probably, though this is not directly nor necessarily assumed, heathens), they shall be won (see reff.: converted to faith and obedience: made a gain for Christian love, and for Christ Himself. Cf. Leighton: “A soul converted is gained to itself, gained to the pastor, or friend, or wife, or husband who sought it, and gained to Jesus Christ: added to His treasury, who thought not His own precious blood too dear to lay out for this gain.” On with an indic. fut., see Winer, 41. b. 1. b: and cf. reff.) without word (without the wives preaching to them, or exhorting them, but simply by your Christian behaviour. The grammarians call this way of speaking, in which a word ( ) is intentionally used in two different senses in the same sentence, antanaclasis . The other rendering, ‘ without the word ,’ is not indeed, as Wiesinger, precluded by the absence of the article, for , indefinite , might just as well, with the exclusive preposition , refer to the Gospel, but on account of the general improbability of such a saying, seeing that faith is grounded on hearing, and hearing on the word of God. Besides which, the wives’ conversation, being a shewing forth of obedience to the word, could not be said to produce its effect ( ) . c. proposes a curious alternative rendering: , (then follows the interpretation as given above, but very well put) . ) by means of the behaviour of their wives ,
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
11 4:6 .] Exhortations to walk christianly and worthily towards and among those without who speak and act in a hostile manner . Hitherto we have seen them exhorted to walk worthily of their calling as distinguished from their own former walk: now the Apostle exhorts them to glorify God before an ungodly and persecuting world.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Pe 3:1-6 . Duty of wives (Eph 5:21-24 ; Col 3:18 ; Tit 2:4 ) Submissiveness and true adornment. , your own husbands , the motive for submissiveness, Eph 5:22 ; Tit 2:4 . St. Peter assumes knowledge of the reason alleged by St. Paul (Eph. l.c. ; 1Co 9:3 ) after Gen 3:16 , . , even if in some cases your husbands are disobedient to the word (1Pe 2:8 ), i.e. , remain heathens in spite of the preaching of the Gospel. St. Paul found it necessary to impress upon the Corinthian Church that this incompatibility of religion did not justify dissolution of marriage (1Co 12:10 ff.). , without word from their wives . Peter deliberately introduces . in its ordinary sense immediately after the technical . an example of what the grammarians call antanaclasis and men a pun. In his provision for the present and future welfare of the heathen husbands whose wives come under his jurisdiction he echoes the natural aspiration of Jews and Greeks; so Ben Sira said, a silent woman is a gift of the Lord a loud crying woman and a scold shall be sought out to drive away enemies ( Sir 26:14 ; Sir 26:27 ) and Sophocles, Silence is the proper ornament ( ) for women (Ajax 293). St. Paul forbids women to preach or even ask questions at church meeting (1Co 14:34 : at Corinth they had been used to prophesy and pray). , be won, cf. in 1Co 9:20 ff. = , 1Co 9:22 , ( cf. 1Co 7:16 .).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
1 Peter Chapter 3
The apostle does not exhort the masters, as we find in the Epistles to the Ephesian and the Colossian saints; but he addresses wives and husbands in the next place, without speaking in particular to children and parents. The relation of wives, as of domestics, was one of subjection.
“Likewise, ye wives, [be] subject to your own husbands, that even if any are disobedient to the word, they may be gained without word through the behaviour of the wives, having beheld your chaste behaviour in fear; whose adornment let it not be the outward one of plaiting the hair, and of wearing gold, or of putting on apparel, but the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible of the meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God very precious. For thus also heretofore the holy women that hoped in God adorned themselves, being subject to their own husbands; as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose children ye became, doing good and not being afraid of any dismay” (vers. 1-6).
It is easy to understand, that, as with servants, so with wives, Christians who stand in the subject place might and must find frequent difficulty with heathen or Jewish superiors to whom they were so near. For the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; and it is provoked by what is of the Spirit in those whom they command. A Christian wife cannot give up a conscience toward God in matters of right and wrong; again she has objects of faith dearer to her soul than life which claim her allegiance and observance, in public as well as private ways utterly repugnant to unbelievers of every sort.
All the more is it incumbent on such believing wives as are bound to unbelieving husbands, that they should be truly and sedulously subject to their own husbands, wherever it is compatible with doing the will of God. Even in the O.T., where such unions existed, the wife was under obligation before God to be subject; whatever the rigour that the law required, whatever the horror inspired by idolatry. The eyes of Jehovah, they knew, were toward the righteous and His ears open to their cry. The face of Jehovah was against those that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
But the N.T, greatly strengthens the believer’s heart by the then revelation of the grace of Christ far beyond what could act of old. Not only does it fortify to suffer both for righteousness and His Name; it encourages faith by the sovereign grace which saved ourselves to look to our God and Father on behalf of others who need it no less than we once did. And if He sought and saved me, a lost sinner, may I not the more (from standing in so close a relationship) pray for my husband dark and dead as he is?
Here too the apostle gives a wise caution. The less spiritual Christian is too apt to forget the ways of divine grace in bringing ourselves to God, and to regard conversion as the simple effect of the truth, overlooking the various workings of the Spirit to give the word a root in the heart. The unbeliever as such slights the word and has no conception of its power when by the Spirit Christ is thereby revealed to the soul. The practical bearing has immense weight with one ignorant of God and of himself. But his conscience can value greatly, gentleness, lowliness, patience, obedience in another and especially that other his wife. He is well aware how unreasonable and unkind he has often been to her; yet she has borne it, and never complained, never reproached, but been as loving and dutiful as ever. He is forced to feel that there must be something that makes the difference in her faith which he often mocked. Hence is pressed “that even if any are disobedient to the word, they may be gained without word through the behaviour of the wives, having beheld their chaste [or, pure] behaviour in fear.”
It is not meant that one can be begotten of God without the word: 1Pe 1:23 forbids such a thought as decidedly as Jas 1:18 and many other scriptures. But the moral weight and the gracious way of the wife tell on the hard husband; and he is won to hear, so much the more because she does not preach at him, as he calls it. How many have been thus gained to hear the gospel the day will declare. The modest purity he knows and values much, and this in fear, not boldness or self-confidence, but tempered by the dread of offending God or her husband. For here it seems put with all generality.
Next he turns to the external habits of a Christian wife, and urges the avoidance of frivolous and sumptuous ornaments Some may deride this: but it is their carnality or worldliness which governs. Has not the Christian to please Christ and do all things in His name? Our bodies are to be presented a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God; and we are not to be conformed to this age with its changing fashions of luxury and splendour, whatever station may be ours naturally. Christ is dearer, nearer, and more than all. And the Christian wives are not exempt. Their adornment is not the outward one of dressing hair, or wearing gold things, or putting on dress, which are alien from Christ and a shame to saints. The real ornament is the hidden man of the heart which He sees, in the incorruption (for outside all is corruptible) of a meek and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is of much price. None of these showy objects is so, nor could all Ophir buy it.
Therefore Peter was led to speak of ancients witnessing for God in this respect. “For thus also heretofore the holy women that were hoping in God adorned themselves accordingly, being subject to their own husbands; as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose children ye became, doing good and not being afraid with any dismay.” On God their hope rested, not on themselves. Sarah stood at the head of these pious matrons of Israel; but though not alone (for there were not a few saints of like spirit), she was far from forgetting the true ornaments that became saints.
Favoured as Christians were by Christ and redemption come, the wives now ought not to fall short either in moral adorning or in subjection. Sarah obeyed her husband and reverently addressed him (Gen 18:12 ); she was not carried away by the common ground for vanity, though she had beauty more than most. Her children such wives now became as were doers of good and not frightened by any scare from propriety. Why should they be who know that Christ’s Father is their Father, and Christ’s God is theirs? Why be perturbed since He sent His servants to comfort them with the same peace He gave them? The enemy works by fear; God by His love in Christ against every source of alarm.
Hence as another wrote, even before love was fully manifested, when it was simply hoped for with confidence, souls “from weakness were strengthened, became mighty in war, made armies of aliens give way. Women received their dead by a resurrection; and others were tortured, not having accepted deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection” (Heb 11:34 , Heb 11:35 ).
Thus the apostle cites examples; and this from the earliest days of dealing with the called out pilgrims, which would have great weight with the Christian remnant of Jews.
Exhortation had been already given against all vanity and worldly show, but with due care that the outward apparel should express “the hidden man of the heart.” No doubt the open man of his house, the predominant partner, might enjoin and be entitled to her wearing jewels or other costly array in his sphere. But here women do not usually need a husband’s command. Here the word is for their own conscience. For it is not only that God, in contrast with man, looks on the heart: His wondrous light into which He called us gives the Christian woman the highest standard, and thereby enables her by grace to judge all inconsistencies in the incorruptibility of a meek and quiet spirit. This, however foreign to human nature, would not be lost even on a hard and exacting husband, Jew or Greek; for such might be the lot of those addressed, and of course the former most frequently, either of them on the watch too often to spy the faults of a Christian. But under any circumstances such a lowly spirit, seen in all its perfection in Christ, is of much price in the sight of God; and this is of all things most consolatory to the tried if faithful.
Changes many and great have passed over the world. But this fidelity led in olden days when Israel’s great progenitors dwelt in tents. Yet Sarah knew to her husband’s shame that her beauty commended her to a court and a King’s palace for a while, and royal gifts were lavished on him whose selfish fear exposed her to dishonour but for their Almighty protector. But thus aforetime also the holy women adorned themselves as became those whose hope was in God, instead of following the fashion of the world that fleets away. Sarah is singled out as obedient to Abraham, and paying him marked honour, notwithstanding the familiarity of wedded life, which too often has a contrary effect. This example is here set impressively before Christian wives.
But the terms employed are notable: “Whose children ye became, doing good and not being afraid of any dismay.” They were far from this in their unrenewed state. The Lord Jesus does not find, but makes, us what pleases God. Self-will reigns in those afar from Him, with ready resentment of all wrongs that may be inflicted, and submission induced through fear, self-interest, or amiability at best. What a change is wrought by the faith of God’s grace in Christ! Sanctification of the Spirit, setting apart to God in a new life now given, effects obedience, not legal but after the pattern of Jesus, and faith in the sprinkling of His blood. Thus did those Jewish matrons become Sarah’s children in obeying and honouring, each her own husband. It was a divine duty imprinted on the heart by their Saviour. Becoming Christians, they became Sarah’s children in deed and in truth. They were not merely lineal descendants, like the unbelieving Jews whom the Lord in Joh 8 reproached as being Abraham’s seed, not his children; else they would do the works of Abraham. They became Sarah’s children, “doing good and not afraid of any dismay.” On this side is woman apt to be weak.
Is there a gentle hint here of the occasion when Sarah laughed incredulously, as she covertly heard Jehovah promise she should have a son (Gen 18:10-15 )? How graciously the Spirit speaks openly of her comely bearing at that same time toward her husband! Yet did He not spare her then, when she even denied her derision. Here He only records her good conduct, and calls her children to remember it: “doing good and being not afraid of any dismay,” as frequent a cause as any other of untruth. For sudden perturbation of any kind is unfaithfulness in women professing godliness. Failing in dependence on God and communion, they fear to own the truth under such pressure. Is not the caution here given therefore seasonable and salutary?
The address to husbands is much shorter, as we can readily see and understand. Yet is there not a little for our instruction.
“Ye husbands, likewise, dwelling with [them] according to knowledge, awarding honour as to a weaker vessel – the female, as also fellow-heirs of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered” (ver. 7)
As the wife is called to subjection to her own husband, so is the husband to dwell with her “according to knowledge.” Thus the apostle reminds the Corinthian saints “we all have knowledge” (1Co 8:1 ). It is characteristic of Christ to give spiritual intelligence which is far more. We do not await the day of the Lord to have divine light. We walk in the light as following Him who is the Light of life; we are already, all Christians, sons of light and sons of day; we are not, as we were, of night and of darkness. The Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true. Loved of Him we are to walk in the same love; light in the Lord, to walk as children of light, for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. On the one hand we are to prove what is well-pleasing to the Lord; on the other, to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather also reprove them, exposed as they all are by the light, for that which makes every thing manifest is light.
Favoured as the Jew of old was, compared with the heathen (no matter how civilized or refined as in Greece and Rome), Christianity gave an immense advance. But as one apostle, who had inwardly all knowledge beyond such as boasted, insisted that if he had not love, he was nothing, so here our apostle implies its necessity for the husband’s “dwelling together” with his wife. Hence to love their wives has the first and great place in the Epistles to the Ephesians and the Colossians. To fail in such love is a breach of the relationship, and unworthy of a Christian. Alienation is a practical denial of the husband’s place. Faults there may be, haste, forgetfulness, shortcomings; but love as elsewhere, so here in a position so near and tender and peculiar, should have long patience and be kind; be not emulous any more than insolent and rash, nor be puffed up, nor behave in an unseemly way, neither quickly provoked nor imputing evil, and rejoice not at iniquity but rather with the truth. Love does not change nor weary; but we need not here say more. Only we must bear in mind, in thus “dwelling together,” the need that it be “according to knowledge.” The vanity of our knowing, which puffs up, is contrasted with love which builds up. And what a source of instruction is scripture for the difficulties of the home as well as of the way! Christ Himself, as the other apostle pointed out, is the standard.
But a few words follow which deserve every attention. The husband, as having the place of authority, is exposed to the danger of presumption and lack of consideration. Hence the force here of “awarding honour as to a weaker vessel – the female.” The very fact that such is her nature as compared with his own is the ground of the Spirit’s appeal to him who is given to be her protector. Has he never learnt his own weakness before God, and proved that in the sense of it by faith is his power through the grace of Christ? His therefore it is, never to despise, but to guide and cherish her and this in no suspicious spirit but the watchfulness of love, and the grace that pays her honour. But to apply this definitely to “allotting an honourable subsistence” to the wife, as Dr. Doddridge contended, has no more claim to be God’s mind than his similar use of 1Ti 5:17 for the elders.
Another consideration consists of a still higher plea: – “as also fellow-heirs of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered.” Though the married estate is essentially of the earth, yet those here in view were the redeemed of God, His children. “And if children, heirs also; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” Husband and wife, being Christians, are appealed to as in a relationship by grace which shall never pass away. When Christ our life shall be manifested, then shall they exchange the present exposure to sorrow and suffering, in which we give God thanks, for that exceeding weight of glory, into which Christ has entered as our fore-runner, whilst we are waiting for Him. O dear brethren, recognise your blessedness, and count the heaviest trial but light affliction and momentary. Look not at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are for a time, but those that are not seen eternal.
More general exhortation succeeds.
“Finally [be] all like-minded, sympathetic, brother-loving, tender-hearted, humble-minded; not rendering evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, because hereunto ye were called, that ye should inherit blessing. For he that will love life and see good days, let him stop his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile; and let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it; because [the] Lord’s eyes [are] on the righteous and his ears unto their supplication; but [the] Lord’s face is against evil-doers” (vers. 8-12).
It is Christ alone who makes these desires possible in those who are His. But less than this could not satisfy the apostle even in the presence of weakness and contrariety. They were called out of sin and ruin and misery to blessing, and were therefore to be the witnesses and channels of grace in a world and a race which had fallen under curse. They were already begotten again according to the much mercy of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ through His resurrection from the dead unto a living hope, unto an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven for them; and they were blessed with other privileges of love, and holiness, and dignity in the highest degree, as we have seen, according to the fulness of Christ. For He that spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely grant us all things?
Thus it is plain that our duties flow from our relationships conferred by sovereign grace in Christ according to the glory of His person and the efficacy of His redeeming work. They are there fore not only beyond all price but unchanging; and they are the ground of our new responsibilities. Christ by His death met and closed our old responsibilities, in which we were lost; and by His resurrection He has ushered us who believe into an entirely new standing of soul-salvation and blessing, whilst here below, and waiting for the completion of His grace as to our bodies also and in heavenly glory. We can therefore without affectation and in the Spirit bless God, and are a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For He ever liveth to make intercession for His own. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? He that bore our sins in His body on the tree, lost and dead as we were in evil, lives also to make the fruit of our lives, our praises, acceptable to God. What that issues by the Spirit from our hearts and lips can have a place so high and momentous as our worship of God and the Lamb? No doubt love works here and downwards by the same Spirit; but we, if rightly feeling cannot but own that God has the first and nearest claim.
And if this be so, will not His working be all the mightier and purer when we consider our relations to one another, to say nothing of the claim of compassionate love toward a perishing world? The apostle calls all who believe to be “like-minded.” Rivalry, self-seeking, liking to differ or even thwart, is not Christ, but of the first and fallen Adam. When the eye of faith rests on all, Himself and those He loves, there is no difficulty. Naturally we see others’ faults and overlook our own; but this is the old man; it is the reverse of Christ, Who is our new life and Whom we are called to live. Members one of another, members of Christ, how unworthy not to be “like-minded?” If nature is opinionative, what does the one indwelling Spirit aim at and effect? If we live in Spirit, in Spirit also let us walk, not vain-glorious, provocative, or envious.
Being in such a scene of wretchedness as the world and with bodies not yet redeemed in which we groan, we are exhorted to be also “sympathetic.” Surely we may and ought to rejoice with those that rejoice; but far more frequent is the demand on our sharing the grief that abounds, and especially for righteousness or Christ’s sake. It is our common portion as Christians to suffer with Him, even if we may not have the experience of suffering for Him. In any case sympathy in these holy sorrows is sweet and strengthening.
“Brother-loving” is a plain call, as belonging to the same family of God. Are we not to love them personally beyond our affection to our natural kin, as the bond is deeper and of divine nature and everlasting? Assuredly the enemy strives continually to bring in contention and misunderstanding, and every other means of hindrance; but the duty is as incontestable as the relation. How it is to be exercised depends on each case, for which we need the word and Spirit of God. For as John clearly shows, it is no mere human impulse and must not clash with the truth of God or with obedience.
“Tender-hearted” suitably follows. There is no worth in God’s eyes if we love but in word or tongue, and not in deed and truth. We are to learn of Him who never relieved by power only, but His spirit entered into and bore up before God the infirmities and the diseases which He removed.
Nor is “humble-minded” the least though last in these qualities which the apostle sought to be in exercise. And where can we find its perfection but in the same Lord and Saviour? Nor could the days of His flesh be recalled without the vivid and humiliating remembrance of the sad contrast even in the honoured Twelve, so often and to the last disputing which of them should be accounted greatest. “I am meek and lowly in heart,” said He, and it was ever true. Man’s ambition was wholly alien. “Ye shall not be so; but let the greater among you be as the younger, and the chief as he that serveth.”
Again the apostle charges the saints not to return evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary to bless, “because for this thing were ye called that ye might inherit blessing.” So marked is the contrast of the Christian with Israel when they undertook to earn blessing by keeping the law; as the apostle Paul set before the saints in Galatia, who had made the same sad mistake. “For as many as are of works of law are under curse” (Gal 3:10 ): not as many as broke law, but as many as are pledged to that principle.
It is by grace alone, that we, Christians, are saved, or any can be; and it is through faith, not of works. Called also to an inheritance of glory, are we not witnesses of blessing? We know that one of our own poets expresses what nearly all felt as unbelievingly as himself: “Man never is, but always, to be blest.” Christianity is the standing proof that they knew not the truth. It was the less wonderful in A. Pope, as he never rose out of superstition and dead form even to apprehend the gospel of God’s grace.
But grace gives the Christian to understand and make good the moral government God carries on with His children. The apostle in vers. 10-12 cites Psa 34 for this even now; though Israel must await another day when their heart turns to Him whom they rejected in their unbelief. Evil and guile wholly misbecome the life of believers. If any dishonour their Lord like the Corinthians, they fall under His chastening; and this may take the shape of sickness and death. Nor is it only words that are warned against. He urges from that scripture that they should turn away from evil and do good, seek peace in practice, and this earnestly, because Jehovah’s eyes are on the righteous, and His ears to their supplication, whereas His face is against evil-doers. Now the mind of the saint is as truly to please God, as the carnal mind is not nor can be. The believer is in living relationship with Christ, the duty follows, and the Holy Spirit works in power to His glory.
Zeal for what is good is apt to disarm the honestly hostile; but in case it should not be so, how blessed to suffer for righteousness! Christ was perfect thus; in what was He not?
“And who shall injure you if ye become zealous of the good? But if even ye should suffer for righteousness, blessed [are ye]; and be not afraid of their fear, nor be troubled, but sanctify the Christ as Lord in your hearts, ready always for answer (or, defence) to every one that asketh you a reason for the hope that is in you, but with meekness and fear, having a good conscience, that in what they speak against you as evil-doers, they may be ashamed that revile your good behaviour in Christ” (vers. 13-16).
Man that is born of woman is of few days, as Job says, and full of trouble; he is fallen and sinful with death before him soon, and, after this, judgment for ever. Impossible to face his real state conscientiously without continual unhappiness and awful forebodings for all eternity. Nothing within or around one can afford him solid satisfaction, still less be acceptable to God who is good and does good. His goodness therefore leads to repentance, and effectually in Christ only; for herein was the love of God manifested in our case, that God hath sent His only-begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. It is clear that, if we are spiritually dead as being all of us lost sinners, this is our first great want, to receive a new life that we might live to God; and this life, as it is seen in its perfection and fulness in Christ, so it is given by Him to every one that hears His word and believes [km that sent Him. The Son quickeneth whom He will; and thus the believer has life eternal, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life.
But God’s love as known in the gospel goes very much farther even now; for the believer might have life, life eternal, and be burdened by the sense of his past sins and of his present weakness and unworthiness. In the gospel God removes this distress by purging his conscience, and fills with peace through faith in Christ’s sacrifice. Therefore is it added in 1Jn 4:10 , Herein is love, not that we loved God (which we surely do as now living in Christ), but that He loved us, and sent His Son as propitiation for our sins. This alone is perfectly efficacious, and the Spirit seals us in virtue of it, so that we are brought into liberty and spiritual power by grace.
Henceforward, therefore, delivered from evil we become zealous of the good; and who shall injure us if it be so? The worst of mankind are struck when they see the proud rendered lowly, the violent meek, the quarrelsome peacemakers, the frivolous and pleasure-hunting grave, the corrupt pure, the covetous liberal, the careless or even blasphemous godly. But no doubt an evil eye under Satan’s power may refuse all moral evidence and impute ever so real change for good to hypocrisy, and only hate the more those who leave their own wretched and wicked ranks to follow Christ. They do therefore seek to draw His confessors into evil ways old or new; and if they fail in ensnaring, they will not fail to detract and persecute; for all that desire to live piously in Christ Jesus are surely persecuted, or (as our text says) “suffer for righteousness’ sake.” But “blessed are ye” says the word. It is God’s mercy and their honour, as delivered by Christ out of the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father.
Accordingly the saints are exhorted not to “fear their fear, nor to be troubled.” Why should they, who now are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, and called out of darkness into God’s wonderful light? Calling Him Father (for such He truly is) Who without respect of persons judges according to each one’s work, they would pass the time of their sojourning here in fear, because they are so favoured and blessed, yet in a wilderness of trials and pitfalls and dangers. From “their fear” who hate and malign, once their own fear, they are set free by the Saviour; and they owe it to His honour not to be troubled, seeing that at His cost they are blessed supremely by His God and Father who is ours also. Instead of such unbelieving fear and trouble naturally, they can and do exult though now for a little while, if needed, put to grief by various trials, all of which His grace turns to account (Rom 8:28 ) to those that love Him, to those that are called according to purpose.
What then is the resource and remedy? “But sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord.” Sanctimoniousness in manner or outward acts, far from availing, is a snare and a shame unworthy of a Christian, as far as possible from pleasing God, though it may deceive himself if unwary and others too. But to give Christ the holy place due to Him, and supremely as Lord, in our hearts, truly pleases Him Who would have us honour the Son even as we honour the Father. Without Him thus constantly set up and apart in our hearts, we are exposed to any and every idol whereby the enemy deceives the world; but with Christ thus the object of our inmost affections, how kept and blessed! So we see the fruit and accompaniment in the words that follow, “ready always for an answer to every one that asketh you a reason (or, account) for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” What account can creature give so satisfying, even to God, as the Lord Jesus and His redemption? In Him we have the righteousness found nowhere else, yea, we are become God’s righteousness in Him; so that, as the same apostle says (Gal 5:5 ), “we through the Spirit by faith await,” not righteousness as if we were not justified, but “the hope of righteousness,” that is, heavenly glory with Christ. But this very blessedness, so undeserved by any, calls us to meekness and fear in confessing it, lest a rough or presumptuous spirit might dishonour the God of all grace or ourselves the recipients of His rich mercy.
In a fallen world and a sinful nature, with God on one side and Satan on the other, there must needs be suffering, and especially for the saint till Christ take His great power and reign. Satan is still the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience. So far is the enemy from having lost his bad eminence, though defeated by our Lord perfectly dependent and obedient, it was by the world’s rejection of Him that he became the ruler of the world, yea, the god of this age, as we read in 2Co 4:4 . No doubt exceeding his commission by inciting the world to crucify the Lord of glory, he has, as it were, sealed his own everlasting ruin in that precious blood. For to this end, as to others of greater moment still, Christ died, that through death He might annul him that has the might of death. But the full execution of the sentence awaits (not the coming age merely, when the Lord will reign and he is shut up in the abyss, but) the end, when ha is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the Beast and the False Prophet had been consigned a thousand years before; and they shall be tormented day and night for the ages of the ages.
Here in the present evil age (Gal 1:4 ) the Christian pre-eminently is called to suffer, not merely under divine discipline when he fails, but because he has a new nature as possessing life in Christ, and is faithful to God. Why should the fact seem hard? This the apostle here meets and explains.
“For [it is] better, if the will of God should will [it], to suffer [for] well-doing than [for] evil-doing. Because even Christ once suffered for sins, just for unjust, that He might bring us to God, put to death indeed in flesh, but made alive in [the] Spirit” (vers. 17, 18).
How simple yet weighty and conclusive is scripture! Who that considers it, when declared, can doubt that it is better to suffer when we are doing well than when we deserve chastening for ill-doing? Yet it is not at first obvious to him who, feeling the iniquity done him, is apt to complain of the hardship. Christ suffered throughout for righteousness, for truth, for love; and we have it as our privilege to share these sufferings of His, as the apostle Paul pressed on his beloved Philippians; “To you was granted in behalf of Christ not only the believing on him but the suffering for him also, having the same conflict as ye saw in me and now hear of in me” (Phi 1:29 , Phi 1:30 ). Peter too had already in 1Pe 2:21 presented Christ as a model in this, but there as here, distinguished from that following in His steps, the foundation of all which He only could lay, in that He bore our sins in His body on the tree, that dead to sins, we might live to righteousness (ver. 24). So here the apostle turns to what is and must be solely His: “because even (or, also) Christ once suffered for sins, Just for unjust.”
For sins it was His alone to suffer. He suffered but once in this atoning way where none could follow; for it was not from man because He was faithful to God, but from God because of His grace to man, whatever it might cost in bearing God’s righteous judgment of man’s sins. For on His holy head Jehovah made to light, as Isaiah says, the iniquity of us all. “It pleased Jehovah to bruise him,” not only to put Him to grief, but “to make his soul an offering for sin.” Thus only could we be pardoned righteously and saved. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes are we healed. What pathos as well as force in the apostle’s cheer for suffering as doers of good and not evil, that He suffered for our sins once and once only I Let this suffice: so perfectly was it done, as He alone could bear that burden, intolerable to Him above all, yet borne by Him that they might be, as they are, borne away for all that are His. Let us therefore now suffer only for what is good on our part.
But there is more. Christ also suffered once for sins, Just for unjust. He was alone in that one act of suffering supremely at God’s hand. It was for unjust or unrighteous men. Alas! here all were unrighteous, all sinned; and those who by grace benefited through faith would be the first to own it of themselves. Henceforward they are righteous, and so live by faith, as through it they became so; nor do they forget that they believed on Him that justifies the ungodly, and thus their faith is reckoned for righteousness. Such was His grace.
Think too of the efficacy of His suffering thus, “that he might bring us to God,” not yet actually to heaven but meet for it, and therefore “to God” Who is far more than heaven. Christ on the cross cleared us from both our evil works and the evil root and sap, sin in the flesh that produces them. We are therefore no longer far from God but brought nigh, as he had said in 1Pe 2 , a holy and a royal priesthood with a better reality of nearness to God by the blood of Christ than the Aaronic priest had typically. To assert a sacerdotal class on earth now between the Christian and Christ is to deny the gospel. None can wonder who believe in the glory of His person who was put to death in flesh, and made alive, or quickened, in the Spirit. His death rolled away the evil before God, and His resurrection proclaimed the victory to faith.
If any one desire a fuller discussion of these remarkable expressions and of what follows, he may find help in a small treatise entitled, “The Preaching to the Spirits in Prison” (Weston, 53, Paternoster Row).
Here we have need of vigilance that we yield not to fancy, but be subject to the words of the Holy Spirit in their exact bearing and in accordance with the context. For they are often taken up loosely and with bias in favour of a preconceived idea or with a view to a desired end. To ensure light we need the single eye; and this can only be where Christ is the governing object. The relative refers to the Spirit in virtue of “which” Christ was made alive after His death. Now of course a very different fact is added, but equally dependent on the Spirit.
“In [virtue of] which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison, disobedient aforetime when the long-suffering of God was waiting in Noah’s days, while an ark was being prepared, in which few, that is eight souls, were brought safe through water” (vers. 19, 20).
We are here given to understand that Christ in the Spirit preached to those whose spirits are imprisoned because when they heard His warning they were disobedient; which time is fixed as before the flood which punished them here, as they are now kept like others for judgment hereafter.
The Greek preposition is here required in order to accurately express “in” or “by” what power Christ went and preached to the spirits in prison. It was not in person but by virtue of the Spirit. This is remarkably confirmed by the language of Gen 6:3 : “And Jehovah said, My Spirit shall not always strive (or, plead) with man, for he indeed is flesh, but his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.” Here we learn to what the apostle alluded, not only Christ in Spirit (and we know He was Jehovah beyond doubt), but the term of the long-suffering of God in Noah’s days. For to this the divine statement refers, not to man’s life, which even after the deluge was far longer as yet, but to His patient pleading while the ark was in preparation. 2Pe 2:5 , with 1Pe 1:11 , lends much help to the clearness of the sense intended; for as Noah is beyond any man of old designated “preacher of righteousness,” so we might expect for the power at work in him the same Spirit of Christ which in the prophets testified beforehand the sufferings Christward and the glories after these.
The truth meant in the passage is thus made quite plain and consistent, not only with the exact demands of the context but with the rest of scripture. There is if possible less difficulty here than with Eph 2:17 , where it is said of Christ, that “He came and preached peace to you that were far off, and peace to those that were nigh.” No sensible person sees more in this than Christ, not personally but in Spirit, preaching to Gentiles as well as Jews, after His ascension. This was plain enough; but in our text, lest it might be misunderstood by the imaginative or the superstitious, grace furnished the qualification “in which” [Spirit] He proceeded, not into the prison, as some have conceived, but preached to the spirits that are in prison. They were living men on earth when the Spirit pleaded with them in Noah’s days while preparing the ark.
With this precisely agrees “disobedient as they once, or aforetime, were,” during that long space of forbearing, compassion, and testimony. Again the structure of the phrase is the one proper to express the moral cause or reason why they are now in prison. Instead of penitence and faith, when Jehovah’s Spirit strove, they were disobedient: a fact which our Lord (Mat 24:38 , Mat 24:39 ) turned to a warning like His servant here. A similar fate will befall the heedless at the coming of the Son of man in the consummation of the age. There is no room in doctrine any more than in fact or in the phraseology of Peter, for the strange notion of ancients or moderns that Christ in person went to Hades after His death for the purpose of preaching to the spirits there. The strangeness is heightened by the fact that the only ones said to be the objects of His preaching were that generation of mankind which had been favoured with the pleading of His Spirit in Noah. Such a favour when they were alive would much more naturally have weighed against the alleged visitation after death, even if other scriptures did not prove its needlessness for saints and its unavailingness for sinners.
The truth is that the fabulous notion of such a preaching by Christ after death in Hades contravenes all scriptural truth elsewhere, and is only extracted from the passage before us by violence done to its separate clauses and its scope as a whole, in no way carrying on the divine argument but interpolating a wholly incongruous interruption. For the only character given to those who heard the preaching is that they were then disobedient, as the ground of their imprisonment: a strange reason for singling these out for the favour of the Lord’s going to the prison on their account.
If it be an outrage on orthodox doctrine to suppose such a preaching to such an audience in such a place, condition and time, it is even more plainly opposed to the terms of the apostle, if one foist in the idea that the Lord preached to the O.T. departed saints. Not a word implies a believer among the spirits in prison. All attempts in this direction from Augustine down to Calvin, and near our day to Horsley, as to others since, are utterly vain. The clear bearing of the teaching is to contrast the disobedient mass of spirits (in the prison of the separate state for such) with the few who in the ark were brought safe through water.
The unbelieving Jews who objected to the fewness of the Christians were thus powerfully met, as well as their contempt for preaching as having no serious effect, whether believed or rejected. Was Christ acting now by the Spirit, instead of that manifestation of power and glory which they longed for in unbelief of what God is doing by the gospel? Let them remember how He wrought before the deluge, and how it fared with those who disobeyed His warning. There is thus no real difficulty in the passage when the general analogy of Noah’s days is apprehended; any more than in the details of the most correct text, with the strictest attention both to grammatical rendering and sound doctrine. No event in the O.T. could be found more apposite to warn scoffing Jews in the apostle’s day than that which befell the disobedient in Noah’s time of preparing the ark. How different the effect of Jonah’s preaching to the men of Nineveh! Yet their repentance was but transient, and the end of the great city followed. But the deluge was not all for those who rejected the Spirit of Jehovah that warned by Noah. Their spirits are in prison waiting for the judgment, wherein no one is just before God. They are lost for ever. It is only by faith that a sinner is justified. The disobedience of unbelief is final; it braves God’s mercy as well as His wrath; it is worst in such as have the scriptures.
The assumption of Christ’s preaching to the departed in Hades is a dream, which clashes not only with the truth in general but with this context in particular, rendering it in all the minute points of the words both halting and irreconcilable, when adequately looked into. The result too is an allegation extraordinary, suggesting a doctrinal inference at issue with God’s word everywhere else. For it attributes a work to Christ which is superfluous for saints no less than sinners; and for these last is apt to become the basis of a spurious hope, as inconsistent with all that our Lord when here declared for those that die in unbelief, as with that which the Holy Spirit has taught since redemption. Another evil effect of this misinterpretation is, that it sets ingenious minds to essay a shadowy confirmation from such texts in the O.T. as Psa 68:18 , Isa 45:2 , Isa 49:9 , and to deny that Paradise is heavenly in the N.T. One error leads to another and perhaps many. It is well to maintain the hope of the blessed and holy “first resurrection” at Christ’s coming; but there is very great harm in denying the intermediate bliss of the saints departed to be with Christ. Scripture! is perfectly plain and sure as to both.
The water of the deluge leads to the spiritual meaning of baptism in ver. 21: the figure of death judicially, whether for the world that perished thus; or for the believer’s salvation by grace through Him Who went down for our sins and rose that He might be the true ark for us. The water was the instrument of God’s judgment in destruction. Those in the ark were saved through it, but this only because they submitted to God’s word and were secured by the ark. But the ark prefigured Christ, not the church as some vainly imagine; for no such thing existed then, nor, if it had, could it have saved, but rather consists of those that needed the salvation which is in virtue of Christ’s death and resurrection.
“Which *figure (or, antitype) also now saveth you, baptism, not a putting away of filth of flesh, but a request of a good conscience toward God through Jesus Christ’s resurrection; who is at God’s right hand, having proceeded into heaven, angels, and authorities, and powers being subjected to him” (vers. 21, 22).
*The Elzevir Edd., like Beza’s, and before all, the Complut., followed indifferent MSS. in giving , which the Auth. V. adopted; but Erasmus, Colinaeus, Stephens, with whom agreed Wells, Lachmann, Griesbach, Scholz, and all modern critics, give on fuller and better authority. The Revisers of course correct accordingly; but they are not very consistent in their rendering of . For the only other N.T. use of the word is in Heb 9:24 , there “like in pattern,” here “after a true likeness.” There seems no sufficient ground to translate differently in the two cases. “Figure” is the sense in both, as the A.V. conveys. Also I; A B P, many cursives, and the ancient versions have , “you,” instead of , “us.” There are curious omissions in the witnesses; as the Sinaitic, the cursive 78, and Aeth. omit . Again , “now,” is drops by several cursives, the Pesch.-Syr. and Arm., as well as Cyprian. Of lesser aberrations we need not speak. The true text emerges with certainty.
It is of all moment to understand the mind of the Spirit; for superstition has caught at words here also to support its delusion. But we must read scripture in the light of other scriptures, as well as of the context, if we are to walk in the truth. All scripture, we may say, points to the Saviour and faith in Him for salvation of the soul. Nor is any part of it plainer as to this than the foregoing doctrine of the Epistle before us. Christ is pointed to as the quickener of men dead in trespasses and sine, Christ the Son in communion with the Father, made known in the Holy Spirit’s power through the word (Joh 3:5 , Joh 5:21-25 ). So in the first chapter of our Epistle the apostle says, “Having purified your souls in obedience to the truth unto unfeigned brotherly affection, love one another out of a pure heart fervently.” How could this be, considering what man is naturally? “Having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, through God’s living and abiding word. Because all flesh [is] as grass, and all its glory as flower of grass; the grass withered, and its flower quite fell; but the Lord’s word remaineth for ever. And this is the word preached unto you.” Hence in Jas 1:12 it is written, “Of His own will He (the Father) begot us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.”
These are but a few of many scriptures which one might cite from the Gospels and the Epistles; but they amply show that, as life is in the Son, so He is the giver of life to the believer, and this now not only for fellowship with the Father and with the Son, but for walking in the light, cleansed by the blood of Jesus. Baptism has its place of deep interest and importance; but scripture never attributes quickening to it. This is a very old and inveterate error of Christendom. All the so-called Fathers who speak of life-giving assign it to baptism. It was the error of darkened times long before the Popish day; and its necessity was founded on the wholly misunderstood words of our Lord in Joh 3:3 , Joh 3:5 . This was so universal after the apostles that Hooker lays down, in opposition to Cartwright (Eccles. Poll v. 59), “that of all the Ancient, there is not one to be named that ever did otherwise either expound or allege the place than as implying external Baptism.”
Now it is a striking fact that, beyond the allusion to the disciples baptising as John did long before our Lord’s death and resurrection, and His subsequent commission to baptise all the nations, the Gospel of John avoids even the mention of Christian baptism and the Lord’s supper. Its design was to bring out, not the hallowed institutions of Christianity, but the life eternal and the gift of the Holy Spirit with their precious issues. No institution is ever said to give life, nor can any restore the communion which indulgence in sin may have interrupted. In Joh 3 the Lord urges the absolute necessity of being born anew, that is, of water and Spirit, in order to see or enter the kingdom of God. Being by nature a child of wrath, a new nature is requisite. Water, as in Joh 15:3 , Eph 5:26 , refers to the word of God brought home by the Spirit in faith and repentance. This Nicodemus as a Jewish teacher should have known, especially from Eze 36:25 , etc.; whereas neither he nor any one else could have known of Christian baptism, instituted years after.
It is similar with Joh 6:53 , etc., which means communion by faith with Christ dead for redemption, as verses 32, etc., speak of Him incarnate. The language in Joh 3 goes far beyond baptism, as that of Joh 6 far exceeds the Lord’s supper. This last ought to be evident to any one who bows to scripture. He who so applies this passage ought to affirm, that none can have life eternal without the Supper, and that none who partakes of it can fail to have life eternal: both statements as dangerous as they are false.
Still baptism is the expression and confession of part in Christ’s death; or as the apostle Paul puts it, “know ye not that we as many as were baptised unto Christ Jesus were baptised unto His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism unto death.” This is its meaning: Christ’s death, not life, both which are by faith in Him. So too in the Lord’s supper we announce His death till He come; for this is as it ought to be a constantly recurring feast, as Christian baptism is expressly once only. Christ must come, not by birth alone, but by water and blood with the Spirit given as witness. Till then Christianity could not be, because God had not been glorified nor sin judged in His death. He was straitened, however great His grace, glory, and moral perfections, till that baptism was accomplished. The Christian institution followed.
Baptism was as Peter taught “for remission of sins,” as we read in Act 2:38 . Hence Ananias was sent to “brother Saul,” already having life in Christ risen, and bade him arise and get baptised, and have his sins washed away, calling on the Lord’s name. So here “Which figure,” for this it is, “also now saveth you, baptism.” But the apostle carefully adds, “not a putting away of flesh’s filth, but a request (or, demand) of a good conscience.” For the life of Christ given to the soul seeks and can be satisfied with nothing less. And as He Who is and gives us life eternal suffered for sins, we also receive the rich blessing of His death in all its value. It figures therefore not life, as says tradition ever dark and misleading, but salvation, the present salvation of our souls, and pledge of the glorious change for our bodies at Christ’s coming. Baptism sets forth our passing out of the fallen estate into the new standing of salvation “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” All was holy and acceptable in Him incarnate; but such was our guilt, such our ruin, that nothing short of His resurrection could bring us into salvation. “Verily, verily, I say to you, Except the grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.” Remission of sins and salvation are thus part of our blessing. Baptism as the initiatory institution proclaims it; and so does the Lord’s supper throughout, as we wait for Christ; but it all depends on the efficacy of His death and resurrection to our faith.
We can thus see the consistency of the truth in Christ. For in Him God came down to poor lost sinners, that believing in Him they might live who were dead. But in Him dead and risen we come to God, cleared by His atoning blood and in the power and acceptance of His resurrection. And here it is that Christianity finds its basis and character. We are thus not merely safe, as all were who had life; but now we “are saved,” and become God’s righteousness in Him. Hence Christian baptism follows Christ’s death and resurrection. A good conscience toward God is the thing demanded, when we are alive in Him to God: our clearance by His work of redemption. “Request” or “demand” (not “answer”) is the true force of . And what a grand demonstration of it is in Christ on God’s right hand, the same Christ Who suffered once (it was enough) for our sins and bore them away, and proceeded in due time into heaven and its highest seat of honour, angels and authorities and powers subjected to Him, instead of disputing His righteous title. That they indeed pay Him divine homage, Heb 1 declares according to O.T. prophecy; and the Revelation discloses in its visions of heavenly glory, seen by John and made known to us, to act now on our souls. For all things are ours, things present and things to come. Hay we profit by a privilege so wondrous!
We may remark too, that (though God was pleased to give au advance of privilege and truth by Paul in Rom 6 and Col 2 , as compared with Peter’s testimony in this text), the words in Heb 11:7 coincide with “now saveth you.” “By faith Noah, warned oracularly concerning things to come, prepared an ark for the saving of his house.” This was the figure. But the true salvation to which baptism points figuratively is of a divine and everlasting character on the foundation of Christ’s death and resurrection.
But it is needful to say that whatever be the place and value of baptism, the same Paul thanks God in 1Co 1 that he baptised only a few at Corinth, lest any should say that they were baptised to his own name. How could he possibly say this, if thereby any get life eternal? And further, that Christ sent him not to baptise but to preach the gospel, by which, in 1Co 4:16 , he says that in Christ Jesus he begot them. Whereas in 1Co 10:1-12 he warns them by the examples of Israel’s history, that neither baptism nor the Lord’s supper avails to hinder falling in the wilderness through unbelief and the sins to which it exposes. See also Heb 3:4 .
The truly astonishing thing is, how any saint can have become so bewitched by human pretensions, and so dull to the infinite work of grace (engaging as it does all the Trinity to save a guilty sinful man), as to receive so evident a delusion of the enemy. As God in Christ alone could save, so nothing short of His power can keep souls through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. For salvation here (1Pe 1:5 ), as often elsewhere, means the salvation of the body, and not only of the soul as in 1Pe 1:9 .
For those unbelievers who alighted the gospel through their zeal for Messiah’s glory to be manifested on earth, it was not without importance to point out how much more is the glory on high in which the Christian delights to regard Christ now. He “is at God’s right hand, having proceeded into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being subjected to him.” He will surely and in due time sit as David’s Son on David’s throne in Zion; and all Israel will repent, believe and be saved in that day. But the Jews, and the Gentiles too, who now see Him by faith have a better portion, as He has gone up into a higher glory. Nor can the unbelieving Jew gainsay the fact that David in Spirit attests it, saying, Jehovah said to my Lord, Sit on my right until I set thine enemies as footstool of thy feet. If He sits, as Psa 110 assures, angels and authorities and powers are not disobedient like the Jews on earth to the heavenly vision, but, subjected to Him, break forth in glad and loud acclaim. And Christians even here and now worship in the Spirit Him who is thus exalted above. They believe and know Him there.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 1Pe 3:1-6
1In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, 2as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. 3Your adornment must not be merely external braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; 4but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. 5For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands; 6just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear.
1Pe 3:1 “In the same way” This points back to his admonition to the Christian citizens (cf. 1Pe 2:13) and Christian slaves (cf. 1Pe 2:18).
“you wives, be submissive” This is a present middle participle like 1Pe 2:18. This is a military term which means “to arrange oneself under authority” (cf. Eph 5:21-33; Col 3:18-19; Tit 2:4-5). This entire chapter is related to Peter’s discussion of “submission” of believers to government (1Pe 2:13-17) and believing slaves to their masters (1Pe 2:18-20). Submission is not a negative term; it describes Jesus Himself. He was submissive to His earthly parents. He was submissive to His heavenly Father.
“in order that” This is a purpose (hina) clause, which states the theological purpose for a wife’s submission. It is always for evangelism! Believers are to model daily the Kingdom of God (cf. the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7).
“if” This is a first class conditional which is assumed to be true from the author’s perspective or for his literary purposes. This context is discussing unbelieving husbands. In the first century many mixed families were prevalent because one of the partners became a believer. This is not a biblical proof-text for marrying a non-believer!
“any of them are disobedient” This is a present active indicative, which implies continual action. As biblical faith is an ongoing experience, so too, is unbelief!
“to the word” In 1 Peter “the word” (i.e., logos) is a metaphor for Apostolic preaching of the gospel. Believers are born again by the word (cf. 1Pe 1:23). They are to desire the spiritual or sincere milk of the word (i.e., logikos, cf. 1Pe 2:2).
“won” This is a future passive indicative. This term means “to profit.” It is used of salvation in 1Co 9:19-22. The natural goal of a believing wife is the salvation of her family. This should be the goal of all believers.
“without a word” Her life of faith will speak louder and clearer than words! However, at some point words are needed to communicate the gospel message!
“by the behavior” Our lifestyle often shouts louder than our words.
1Pe 3:2 “observe” This term was used of eyewitnesses. Peter used it three times in his letters (cf. 1Pe 2:12; 1Pe 3:2; 2Pe 1:16). Believers’ lives are on display. Although it is a cliche it is true that believers’ lives are the only Bible some people will ever read. Believers’ lives are the only Jesus some people will ever know. What an awesome responsibility.
NASB”your chaste and respectful behavior”
NKJV”your chaste conduct accompanied by fear”
NRSV”the purity and reverence of your lives”
TEV”pure and reverent your conduct is”
NJB”the reverence and purity of your way of life”
Peter has used the term “fear,” understood as respect earlier, in 1Pe 1:17; 1Pe 2:18 (cf. Act 9:3; Act 10:2; Rom 3:18; Rom 13:7; Eph 5:33; Rev 11:18). Believers live selfless, godly, culturally acceptable lives for the purpose of Kingdom witness and evangelism.
The term “chaste” (agnos) is translated in several ways (pure, chaste, modest, innocent, blameless). It is used of women in 2Co 11:2; Tit 2:5; and here.
1Pe 3:3 “Your adornment must not be merely external” This is an emphasis on the inner qualities of a believer, not a prohibition against all cultural adornment. External cultural adornment can become a problem if it becomes ultimate and prideful and characterizes an evil heart (cf. Isa 3:18-24). How one dresses is a window into the heart (cf. 1Pe 3:4).
The term “adornment” is a unique usage of the term, kosmos (the verb form in 1Pe 3:5). This usage is where we get the English word “cosmetic.”
“braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses” All of these refer to the expensive and elaborate hair and clothing fashions of the women in Greco-Roman first century. Believers must not desire or emulate this lust for social acceptance and social ranking based on outward ornaments. This does not imply we should wear rags, but that believers should dress in ways which are socially acceptable to their particular culture and time, but do not draw undue attention to themselves.
1Pe 3:4 “the hidden person of the heart” This refers to the new person after salvation. The New covenant has given a new heart and spirit (cf. Eze 36:22-38). For “heart” see Special Topic at Mar 2:6.
“the imperishable quality” Peter has used this term of (1) God’s imperishable inheritance, which He guards for believers in heaven (i.e., 1Pe 1:4) and (2) of believers being born again of imperishable seed (i.e., 1Pe 1:23).
Paul uses this same term of our new resurrection bodies in 1 Corinthians 15. and of believers’ incorruptible crown in 1Co 9:25.
“gentle and quiet spirit” The first term praus (meek, gentle) describes Jesus in Mat 11:29; Mat 21:5 and is to characterize believers in the beatitudes (cf. Mat 5:5). It is also used in 1Pe 3:15 to characterize a believer’s witness.
The second term, hsuchios or hsuchia, is used several times in Paul’s writings to describe believers as quiet, tranquil, peaceful, or restful (cf. 1Th 4:11; 2Th 3:12; 1Ti 2:2; 1Ti 2:11-12).
There is an implied contrast between the changing styles of the world (cf. 1Pe 3:3) and the settled character of a redeemed life (cf. 1Pe 3:4).
1Pe 3:5 “being submissive” This is the general theme of this entire context (believers submit to civil authority, 1Pe 2:13-17; believing slaves submit to masters, 1Pe 2:18-20; Christ submits to the Father’s plan, 1Pe 2:21-25; believing wives submit to husbands, 1Pe 3:1-6). It is an observable reorientation from the Fall of Genesis 3. Believers no longer live for themselves, but for God.
1Pe 3:6 “Sarah. . .calling him Lord” This is an OT example (i.e., Gen 18:12) of a godly woman’s submission.
“you become her children” Old Testament saints are often used to encourage believers (cf. Hebrews 11). They are also used to show that believers are fully accepted by God by faith in Christ (cf. Rom 2:28-29; Rom 4:11; Gal 3:7; Gal 3:9). We are of the faith family of Abraham and Sarah. We are the new people of God. The new Israel of faith (cf. Gal 6:16; 1Pe 2:5; 1Pe 2:9).
“if you do what is right” See note at 1Pe 2:14. The conditional element ( “if”) expressed in the English translation (NASB, NKJV, TEV) is not in the Greek text, but is implied. The life of faith has observable characteristics.
“without being frightened by any fear” This is another characteristic of the life of faith (cf. 1Pe 3:6; 1Pe 3:14). This may be an allusion to Pro 3:25 and the truth of Psa 23:4; Psa 27:1; and Psa 91:5.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
be in subjection = submit, as 1Pe 2:13.
husbands. App-123.
that = in order that. Greek. hina.
if. App-118.
any. Plural of tis. App-123.
obey not = are disobedient to. Greek. apeitheo. See 1Pe 2:7.
word. App-121.
also. Read as “even”, before “if”, “even if”.
won = gained. Greek. kerdaino. See Act 27:21. Compare Mat 18:15.
by = through. App-104. 1Pe 3:1.
conversation. See 1Pe 1:15.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
1-7.] Exhortations in regard to the married state: and (1-6) to wives: (7) to husbands.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Shall we turn now to First Peter chapter three as Peter addresses himself to the wives? This particular section goes back to verse thirteen of chapter two,
Submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether to king as supreme; governors, unto them sent toward the punishment of evildoers, so is the will of God, that in well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men ( 1Pe 2:13-15 ):
So the idea of submitting to one another in love. And so he talked about, first of all, the servants submitting themselves unto their own masters, Christ leaving us an example. And now, to wives.
Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they may also without the word be won by the conversation or behavior of the wives ( 1Pe 3:1 );
Or the lifestyle of the wife. This particular Greek word is a difficult word to translate. The old English word was conversation, which doesn’t mean verbal but it means your lifestyle. And so it’s a word that has lost its meaning through the years when this translation was made. So you can translate that “behavior” or “lifestyle” or “manner of living.” So as Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, I don’t need that anyone should write letters of commendation for me because you are my living epistles known and read of all men.
Our lifestyle testifies to what we believe. And more people are brought to Christ by the observing of the Christian life as you live it, than are converted through just someone laying the four spiritual laws on them.
We were talking with a missionary who is in the Philippines and has a ministry basically to the Moslems. And he talked of the difficulty of the converting of a Moslem because for a Moslem, it is a capital offense to convert to Christianity. He is and can be put to death by his family members if he leaves the Islam faith and becomes a Christian. It is a capital offense to convert a Moslem. But, he said, in order to convert a Moslem, they must see Christianity in action in your life. You can’t do it with words; they have to see the Gospel demonstrated in your life. They watch. They observe, and then, he said, they have to see a miracle and answer to prayer. And these are the things that convince the Moslem of the truth of Christianity.
So Paul is declaring that our lifestyle is all-important. You wives who have unbelieving husbands, you’re more apt to convert them by your lifestyle than you are by putting tracts in their peanut butter sandwiches. So that when they bite into the sandwich, they get the word and they pull it out of their mouth and they read, God loves you, you know. So it is the lifestyle, the way we live becomes the witness of what we declare.
One of the weaknesses of the church is the lack of the positive lifestyle of the believer, professing one thing and living another. That, of course, we call hypocrisy and that has been the bane and the curse of the church. So how we live is extremely important, just as important as what we say.
While they behold your chaste lifestyle with reverence. Whose adorning [or beauty] let it not be the outward the fancy hairstyles, the wearing of gold, or the putting on of fancy clothes ( 1Pe 3:2-3 );
I could get in big trouble at this point. Not my wife, I’m not thinking about her. I’m thinking about a television station locally here. “Whose adorning let it not be the outward adorning with the fancy hairstyles, the wearing of gold, putting on of fancy apparel.”
But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, a meek and a quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is very valuable ( 1Pe 3:4 ).
The true beauty is an inner beauty, not an outward beauty. Now, there are some women who are outstanding artists, and they can paint a beautiful face. It takes them awhile; it takes longer as the years go by. There’s an Old Swedish proverb, Good looks don’t last, good cookers do. And the idea is to encourage the young men not to look for a pretty face but to look for a good cook.
But the true beauty, beauty that doesn’t fade, the beauty that grows with years is that inner beauty. Some of the most beautiful people in the world, that beautiful inner beauty; you love to be around them because there’s just such a beauty that comes forth from their lives. And Peter is saying recognize that that is the true beauty. The true beauty isn’t that which you put on outwardly but the true beauty is that which is inward, which shines out.
I do not believe that Peter is intending here to issue a prohibition against the ladies looking nice. I don’t think that this is a prohibition as some have interpreted it to be of wearing gold apparel or things of this nature. Not intended as that at all. The intention is just that you recognize that true beauty is inward. That which God values, the meek, the quiet spirit which in the sight of God is very valuable.
For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands: Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord ( 1Pe 3:5-6 ):
Now I don’t expect that you women are going to go this far as to call your husbands “lord”, unless it’s tongue-in-cheek. And interestingly enough, Sarah had and asserted her place, too. I mean, it wasn’t a –it was a two-way street. When she was upset over Ishmael mocking her little boy, she said to Abraham, “You get rid of that woman and her child.” And Abraham, though it hurt him, got rid of Hagar and Ishmael. So you, husbands don’t try to pounce on this scripture and use it as a club to beat your wives in submission. Marriage is a give-and-take proposition and it is an understanding.
Now of course with Peter, interestingly enough, has quite a bit to say to the wife. And if you read it in Amplified, I think these guys were male chauvinists because they really jump onto this and amplify it almost to an extreme. Peter has quite a bit to say to the wives but he has very little to say to the husbands. Interestingly enough, Paul shares pretty much equally; has quite a bit to say to the wives but then he has also quite a bit to say to the husbands, as far as the marriage relationships, interpersonal relationships within marriage. But,
you are the daughters of Sarah, as long as you do well, and are not afraid with any amazement ( 1Pe 3:6 ).
Now that’s a peculiar phrase, “Not afraid with any terror,” and I don’t understand what Peter is saying by that. Maybe some of you have some ideas you can share with me.
Having devoted six verses to the wives, he now devotes one to the husband.
Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto a weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered ( 1Pe 3:7 ).
Getting along; you know our prayer life can be hindered by friction within the home. And so it’s important that there be a harmony within the house. There’s an important, that the husband recognize the weaknesses of the wife and honor her as a weaker vessel; watching over her, taking care of her, shielding her.
As I have said, basically in marriage God has two rules: one for the wife, one for the husband. In giving two rules, He keeps it simple so that it’s almost impossible to say, Well, I forgot the rule. He’s giving you just one so you can’t forget. And in giving the rule, God was thinking of the other.
So when He said, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church” ( Eph 5:25 ), He knew that a woman’s greatest need was that of knowing that she is loved supremely by her husband. And the woman is always fishing for the affirmation of this. Honey, do you love me? Honey, do I look nice? Do I look sharp tonight? Is this, you know, do you like this outfit? And she’s always fishing for “Honey, you’re beautiful. I love you. You’re everything to me.” She’s needing this assurance and she fishes for this assurance because she needs the security of knowing that she’s loved.
Now Peter is saying, Honor her knowing that she’s weaker. Give her that security; give her that strength. You are the strong one, give her that strength. Let her feel the protection; let her feel secure; your big, strong arm around her. And she feels that security and she needs to feel that security.
And then the Lord said to the wives, “Submit yourself unto your own husbands” ( Eph 5:22 ). And God knew that guys have this stupid male macho image of themselves and that they’ve got to feel that they’re strong and powerful and in control; that they’re running the show. And a challenge of their authority is a real threat to their manhood. And so in the challenging of the authority, they then feel they have to assert their manhood. And big boys don’t cry; that is, big boys aren’t emotional.
And so to assert my manhood, I become very strong, cold and aloof. “I’m running the show and I don’t need you and I don’t need anybody else. I can do it myself,” you know. Oh boy, what that does then is just compound the insecurity of the wife that cause her to challenge you in the first place. And you can get a horrible cycle going here as it works against the marriage to destroy it. Because the more cold and aloof you are, the less secure she feels. The less secure she feels, the more she challenges your decision. The more she challenges your decisions, the colder you become and, you know, and so you can just tear a marriage apart.
And so these are important rules. They’re basic to a good marriage, because the more the wife submits to her husband, the easier he finds it to show his love. The more he shows his love, the easier she finds it to submit to him.
Now he may be stupid, he may lose everything, but he’s here and he loves me and, you know we’re together, we’ll make it. But if you’re cold and aloof; this jerk making a stupid mistake and he’s probably going to take off when he has lost everything. He’ll be gone and then I won’t have anything. What am I going to do? And she feels secure so she has to challenge everything that you do, everything that you say.
So these are basic simple rules. And always as far as the wife, it is subjection to the husband. To the husband, it is the honoring and the loving of his wife. And when it is working, it becomes a beautiful combination, and your lives can be enriched and your prayers effective. “Heirs together. We are heirs together of the grace of life.”
There is no kind of a hierarchy in the spiritual realm. The men do not have an advantage over the women or vice versa; as far as in Christ, we are all one. So anybody who’s looking for the superior sex or anything else, you will never find it in Christianity. For in Christianity, it removes any kind of barriers that exists between people. And we all come the same way to the same Lord to receive the same grace. And we are all one, heirs together of the grace of God. We share together equally in the things of the Lord. “For there is neither male nor female, bond or free: Christ is all and in all” ( Col 3:11 ).
Finally [addressing now both], be of one mind, having compassion for one another, love as brethren, be pitiful ( 1Pe 3:8 ),
Now that word has changed in the usage, too. It would better be translated “full of pity.” You see that’s what it’s actually saying, pity-full. But we’ve come to, you know, think of pitiful, as you know a poor cat that’s lost an eye or something. So “be full of pity”, or another translation of the Greek word is tenderhearted. Be a softie; be tenderhearted. I pray that God will always grant to me a tender heart, a heart of compassion. To be like Jesus I must have it.
How many times you read in the Gospel, “And Jesus looked upon them and had compassion on them.” He was tenderhearted. He was a soft touch. Anybody could get to Him. He was always moved by the needs of people. And may God help us to be tenderhearted, not to become callused or indifferent to the needs of people around us but that we might have tender hearts, full of pity.
and be courteous ( 1Pe 3:8 ):
Beautiful Christian trait: courtesy. It doesn’t hurt, but it pays big dividends. How important to be courteous.
Not rendering evil for evil ( 1Pe 3:9 ),
Now that’s what the natural man would like to do, isn’t it? I’ll get even with you. “Evil for evil.”
or railing for railing ( 1Pe 3:9 ):
Some woman really railed on me this morning, now it isn’t the first time. Every time they let her out, she comes around here and rails on me. Couple of Sundays ago, she was throwing clay pots out on the patio railing. This morning, she came as I was greeting people at the end of the second service. And I was greeting couple of young men first time they were here, and they were telling me how much they enjoyed the service. She comes up and grabs me and starts calling me a filthy viper and all kinds of stuff, you know. Just really railing on me. And it would have been easy to have railed back but the poor woman is mentally disturbed.
But this poor young kid didn’t know what happened, you know. I mean, his eyes got big and he just –he was just telling me, you know, how much he’d enjoyed the message and how it spoke to him, and all, and she comes up with all of this and his eyes get big and all. And John got hold of her and dragged her off as she was railing, going around the corner, you know. John dragging her. And this kid said, I didn’t know what was going on, I was –I was ready to do something. He said, Boy, you really handled that well, you know. Well, the thing is I know the woman; I know her problems. But it is so easy to rail back. But there’s an interesting proverb that says, “A soft answer turns away wrath” ( Pro 15:1 ).
Now I had an interesting experience several years ago. It was during the height of the hippie thing around here where these hippies had these old vans and held together with bailing wire, you know; material things didn’t mean anything to them, paint all over them. And I was going down Fairview and one of these hippies pulled out in front of me. And one of these old vans –and it died, just as he got in front of me. And he, it was dangerous moving, I mean, he shouldn’t have pulled out in front of me, but he did and the thing died. And there were traffic coming on my left where I couldn’t get around him, so I just laid on my horn. And I was really upset. And this hippie kid, you know the beard and the whole thing, got out of his van and he looked back at me and just came with a peace sign, you know.
You know suddenly I felt real terrible about laying on my horn and the attitude that I had. I mean, here’s a –here’s a kid, you know, high in LSD telling me, Peace, brother. And here I’m supposed to be a minister telling people how to have peace, and I’m all upset because of this stupid move of his. And it really ministered to me how that a soft answer turns away wrath. I mean, I was ready to tear him apart. And just how it all vanished. Just you know, if he had gotten out railing, I’m sure I would have jumped out of the car and ran up and grabbed him and told him what a stupid move that was, you know. But his attitude was such that, you know, I –I just sort of chuckled to myself and said, Well, why not have peace, you know.
So don’t render “railing for railing”. That only creates, you know, that only builds and let’s you read, you know –there’s so many nuts on the highway today. You know you get out and rail at someone, this guy’s going to pull a gun at you. Have you heard some of these things that are happening on the road? I mean, it’s getting dangerous living.
contrariwise blessing ( 1Pe 3:9 );
And really, that’s what the kid did; Bless you, peace, brother, shalom.
knowing that you are thereunto called, that you should inherit a blessing ( 1Pe 3:9 ).
We ought to be seeking to bring blessings to people. So “bless those that curse you,” Jesus said. “Do good to those who despitefully use you” ( Mat 5:44 ). This is what we’ve been called to do.
For he that will love life, and see good days ( 1Pe 3:10 ),
Now here Peter goes back and just quotes a portion out of the psalms. And again, it is interesting to me because it shows us Peter’s good working knowledge of the Scriptures. And as he is writing in his own little exhortations here, he goes back and he quotes a portion of Psa 34:1-22 , about three or four verses out of Psa 34:1-22 . “He that would love life, and see good days,”
let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: Let him turn away from evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil ( 1Pe 3:10-12 ).
You want to have a good life, you want to see good days, these are –these are the rules: Just “keep your tongue, refrain it from evil, speaking evil, and your lips from speaking deceitfully. Turn away from evil, do good. Seek peace, pursue it.” You’ll have a good life.
And who is he that will harm you, if you are followers of that which is good? But and if you suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled ( 1Pe 3:13-14 );
He’s moving into a new section in which he is going to be talking about suffering, and for the most part suffering wrongfully, suffering for righteousness’ sake. You remember when Peter was arrested for the preaching of the Gospel and they beat him and told him not to preach anymore in the name of Jesus Christ? And Peter and his friends went away rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer that kind of persecution for Jesus.
Now Peter’s telling us the very same thing. In other words, Peter is not preaching something he didn’t practice, but he did this very same thing himself. When he was suffered for righteousness’ sake, he rejoiced, “Happy are you.” Jesus said, “Blessed are ye,” and the word “blessed” is happy; “when men persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven” ( Mat 5:11-12 ). There’s where you have to get the right perspective. You have to look onto the heavenly future.
So
“if you suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts ( 1Pe 3:14-15 ):
Give a special place for God in your life.
and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you for the reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and reverence ( 1Pe 3:15 ):
So live the kind of a life that is an example that will provoke people to question you. What makes you different? Why is it that you are not upset over this? “Be ready to give to every man an answer for that hope that you have.”
Having a good conscience; that, whereas they may speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good behavior in Christ ( 1Pe 3:16 ).
Or lifestyle in Christ.
For it is better, if the will of God be so, that you suffer for well doing, than for evil doing ( 1Pe 3:17 ).
That’s always a better thing. If you suffer for evil doing, you’ve got it coming. But if you suffer for well doing, then that is a better thing.
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins ( 1Pe 3:18 ),
He’s referring, of course, to the cross. Jesus went to the cross and died there for your sins.
the just [died] for the unjust ( 1Pe 3:18 ),
“God made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin” ( 2Co 5:21 ). “The just for the unjust,”
that he might bring us to God ( 1Pe 3:18 ),
The purpose of the cross is to put away our sin, which had separated us from God. The effect of sin is always alienation from God. You see, God created you in the beginning for fellowship. He wanted you to be one with Him, but a holy, pure, righteous God cannot be a part of sin, inconsistent with the nature of God. So man fell into sin; as the result, lost fellowship with God. The purposes of God was thwarted by sinful man.
So in order that man might have fellowship with God, these purposes of God restored, Jesus suffered once for our sins, “the just for the unjust”, that He might be able to bring you to God. That He might be able to wash and cleanse you from your sin in order that you might have the purposes of God accomplished in your life as you fellowship with God.
being put to death in the flesh, but he was made alive by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits that were in prison; Which sometimes were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by the water ( 1Pe 3:18-20 ).
Jesus preached to the souls in prison. Now in the prophecy concerning Jesus, in Isa 61:1-11 , says, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach the good tidings to the meek; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those that are bound” ( Isa 61:1 ).
What is he talking about? The prison was death by which men were bound. They were held captive. Jesus came to open the prison to those that are bound, or to open up Hades to those people who were bound there, who died before Jesus died for our sins. So when He died, He descended into hell. And He preached to those souls that were in prison. And when He ascended out of hell, He brought with Him those who had been captive.
In Ephesians chapter four, Paul tells us that “He who has ascended is the same one who first of all descended into the lower parts of the earth. And when he ascended, he led the captives from their captivity” ( Eph 4:8-9 ).
Luke’s gospel, the sixteenth chapter, Jesus describes what hell was like prior to His death: Two compartments, no capacity of crossing from one to the other. One was a place of torment, the other was a place of comfort. Those who died in faith went to the place of comfort and were comforted by father Abraham. They are the ones to which Jesus preached when He descended into hell. But “God did not leave his soul in hell, neither did he allow the Holy One to see corruption,” but this same Jesus has God raised from the dead ( Act 2:27 ).
And Matthew’s gospel chapter twenty-seven tells us that the graves of many of the saints were open and they were seen walking in the streets of Jerusalem after His resurrection from the dead. He led the captives from their captivity. So opening the prison.
The like figure ( 1Pe 3:21 )
That is, “the eighth –eight souls saved by water,” “The like figure”
whereunto even baptism doth also now save us ( 1Pe 3:21 )
So they were saved by the water or by the ark in the water. Even so, “Baptism,” Peter says, “saves us.” But then lest people make a mistake, he points out; it isn’t the physical ritual.
(it isn’t the washing away of the filth of the flesh, but it is the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ ( 1Pe 3:21 ):
So the true baptism is a matter of my heart.
Now I do believe that every one who believes in Jesus Christ should be baptized in water. I definitely believe in water baptism and I personally believe in water baptism by full immersion. But I do believe that water baptism by full immersion is only a symbol of the work of the Spirit that has transpired within my heart. The old man being dead now buried in water and the new life that I now have, the life of the Spirit through Jesus Christ. Baptism becomes a beautiful symbol of that. As I go down in the water, it’s being buried. The old life just being buried; and as I come up out of the water, it’s that new life in the Spirit, in Christ. And it becomes a beautiful symbol.
But if it has not happened in my heart, it cannot happen by the ritual. The ritual itself cannot save me. Now you may be baptized by sprinkling, by dunking, by full immersion, and still not be saved. You know, they could hold you down until you drown and it still won’t save you. The rite of baptism doesn’t save. It symbolizes that which has already transpired in my heart. If it hasn’t transpired in my heart, then baptism is meaningless. In fact, it’s worse than that; it is –it’s almost condemning to me.
Such as communion is condemning to the person who doesn’t believe. The partaking of the bread and the cup, if you –if you don’t believe in Jesus Christ, you’re actually partaking your own damnation. You’re witnessing against yourself. And “he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to his own soul, not discerning the Lord’s body” ( 1Co 11:29 ).
So the same if you go through the rite or the ritual of water baptism and it hasn’t happened in your heart; it’s only a witness against you. It doesn’t save you. So I do not believe in what is called baptismal regeneration. I do not believe that if a person is not baptized, then they are not saved. I can’t believe that; you’re saved by believing in Jesus Christ. Now because I believe in Jesus Christ, I want to obey Him and thus I am baptized as a sign of what has transpired already within my heart. But should I never get around to being baptized by some unfortunate accident or circumstances of some kind, I will still be saved. I have every confidence of that. “It isn’t the putting away of the filth of the flesh,” but it’s that work of the Spirit within my heart, “the good conscience toward God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:”
Who is gone into heaven, and is at the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him ( 1Pe 3:22 ).
Jesus, before He ascended into heaven said to the disciples, “All power is given to me in heaven and earth” ( Mat 28:18 ). Have you ever imagined how much power that must be? Look at the universe. Think of the power that brought it into existence. “All power,” He said, “is given to me in heaven and in earth.” And so He ascended to the right hand of God; the angels, the authorities, the powers, the ranking of angels are all subject unto him. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
1Pe 3:1-2. Likewise, ye wives be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.
Could any men be won to Christ without the Word? Yes, it was even so in the apostles day. When they refused to attend the little Christian meetings that were being held, and so could not hear what was there said, yet, at home, they saw the change that the gospel of Christ had wrought in their wives, and they said, She is quite different from what she used to be. Certainly, she is a far better wife than any heathen woman is; there must be something in the religion which can make such a change as that. In this way, without the Word, many of them were won to Christ by the godly conversation of their wives.
1Pe 3:3-4. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
There is no ornament like that. No taste can ever conceive anything so lovely as a holy character. No expensive materials, and no ingenious fashioning of them, can ever produce such true beauty as a meek and quiet spirit. You must have known some godly matrons, venerable Christian women, whose gentle piety has blessed the whole household of which they formed a part. They attained supreme authority over all simply by yielding; they gained a queenly position in the house by gentleness and quietness. Nobody dared to offend them; not because they would have been in a passion, but because they were themselves so inoffensive, so kind, so gentle.
1Pe 3:5-7. For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: even as Sara, obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.
It has been one of the most beautiful results of the spread of the Christian religion that it has uplifted womanhood; so that now, instead of women being, as they were, and still are where the gospel is not received, the slaves of their husbands, Christianity has taught that honour should be given to the wife. If there are any husbands who do not so, they err from the gospel way.
1Pe 3:8. Finally, be ye all of one mind,
Be unanimous; do not hold church-meetings to talk about nothing, and so quarrel for the want of something to do. Be united with the resolve that you will glorify God, and that there shall be no dissension, no division among you: Be ye all of one mind,
1Pe 3:8. Having compassion one of another,
Have true fellow-feeling towards each other.
1Pe 3:8. Love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:
The Christian should be the highest type of gentleman, in every respect the most gentle man, kind, self-forgetful, seeking the comfort and well-being of others to the utmost of his power.
1Pe 3:9. Not rendering evil for evil,
That, is beastlike; it is certainly not the rule for a Christian. Good for evil is Godlike; and ye, who are the children of God, should seek to act as he does: not rendering evil for evil, .
1Pe 3:9. Or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.
Every man should give away according to what he has. He who gives curses probably gives them because he has so much cursing in him. You can always tell what a man is like by noticing what comes from him. If he curses, it is because curses abound in him. But you are to give blessing to others because you have inherited so much blessing from Christ; your whole tone, temper, spirit, language, action should be the means of blessing to others.
1Pe 3:10. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:
Not only no lies, but no guile, no deceit, no shuffling. Say to a mans face all that you say behind his back. You will soon be in trouble if you have two tales to tell, one in his presence, and the other in his absence; but if you are free from policy from knowing how to play your cards, as the world says, then shall it be seen that you have one of the attributes of a true Christian. If you refrain your lips, that they speak no guile, people will know where to find you, and they will want to find you, for such men are always in demand.
1Pe 3:11-12, Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
He sets his face against them, as we say that we set our face against certain company which we do not approve. But the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, that is, those who seek to do good to others, for Christs sake, are under the special protection of God; and they have the high privilege of being permitted to pray with the certainty that his ears are open unto their prayers.
1Pe 3:13-15. And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
Have your doctrinal views, and all your knowledge of Christ, packed away in a handy form, so that, when people want to know what you believe, you can tell them. If they wish to know why you believe that you are saved, have your answer all ready in a few plain, simple sentences; and in the gentlest and most modest spirit make your confession of faith to the praise and glory of God. Who knows but what such good seed will bring forth an abundant harvest?
1Pe 3:16-17. Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer, for well doing, than for evil doing.
Who can doubt the truth of that clear declaration?
This exposition consisted of readings from 1Pe 2:18-25; and 1Pe 3:1-17.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
1Pe 3:1. , subject) In the progress of the discourse, by a change of construction which is full of character, the participle is put for the imperative: 1Pe 3:7-8.- , even if any) Peter speaks with mildness.- , the word: word) Used in a double sense by the figure[23] Antanaclasis: in the former place, the Gospel is signified; in the latter, discourse. The conversation itself breathes the force of the doctrine.-) The future Subjunctive, of rare occurrence. So , 1Co 13:3; , Dan 3:11; Dan 6:7. It is a more remote future, as in Latin, lucraturus eris, you will be about to gain.
[23] ANTANACLASIS. See Append.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Pe 3:1-6
4. DUTIES OF WIVES TO HUSBANDS
1Pe 3:1-6
1 In like manner, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; –From the consideration of duties derived from the relationship of servants and masters, discussed at length in the preceding chapter, the apostle passes to another element in the social life of the people involving, according to the concepts which then prevailed, an almost equal degree of subordination–that of wives to their husbands. Here, as elsewhere throughout the epistle, Peter’s design appears to be to inculcate such principles as would enable the suffering saints to whom he wrote to bear patiently and worthily their burdens, however heavy and galling such should be.
The lot of women in non-Greek countries, particularly before the influence of the gospel began to be felt, was a deplorable one. Aristotle writes that among the barbarians (non-Greeks) women and slaves held the same rank; and though among the Greeks her position was not quite so degraded, they considered her as holding only an intermediate position between free persons and slaves, mother of her children, but not worthy to educate them, qualified to receive orders, but never to give them.
As the influence of Christianity began to exercise itself such barbarous ideas were destined to fail; slavery was to perish, and women to be elevated to their proper place in society; it was essential to the well-being of the cause which was to produce such effects, however, that these changes should be gradual and not violent; produced by instruction and not by revolution. Hence, the instructions given.
“In like manner” (omoios, in the same manner), i.e., in harmony with the principles taught as to the duty of Christian slaves to be subject to their masters, so wives are to be constantly submitting (present participle, middle voice) themselves to their own husbands. The word “own,” in the text, is emphatic and significant. Christian women, with heathen husbands, might be tempted to despise their husbands and exhibit contempt for them, feeling obligated only to those Christian men with whom they were associated in the church. The effect of such an attitude would be disastrous, not only to the church, but to the family and to society in general. Though Christians, and in an enviable position, they were not to forget the obligations that are fundamental and vital to the permanence of society.
That, even if any obey not the word, they may without the word be gained by the behavior of their wives; –In some in-stances both the husband and the wife would obey the gospel; in others, only the wife; and it is of the latter with which the apostle deals here. “The word” in the phrase, “if any obey not the word,” is the gospel. (Rom 1:16.) “Obey not” is translated from a term which denotes a degree of antagonism in addition to disobedience, plus an element of stubbornness. It means, literally, not to allow one’s self to be pursuaded. The text, as it runs in our translation, makes the apostle assert that such men may “without the word” be gained, i.e., they may be led to the word of truth without the word of truth! Such an idea is contradictory and does not correctly represent what the apostle actually said. The Greek article does not appear before the noun “word” in the phrase, “may without the word be gained . . .” Here, “word” does not refer, as it does in the former phrase, to the word of truth–the gospel. Instead, it refers to the exhortations, the persuasions of the wives. These husbands had heard the gospel and were familiar with its demands. They had thus far been stubborn, rebellious, disobedient. Peter admonished the wives of such men to desist from further importunity, lest such should descend to nagging; and instead, by godly conduct and discreet behavior to encourage them to do that which they already understood to be their duty. Properly translated, the passage reads: “If any obey not the word, they may without a word (from the wife) be gained by her godly behavior.” This is an instance when silent eloquence is more effective than vigorous and vehement debate. “Be gained” is a significant and important statement. Every soul saved is a gain to the Lord, to the church, and to itself. “Behavior” sums up the conduct of the wives addressed.
2 Beholding your chaste behavior coupled with fear.–The word “beholding” occurs also in 1Pe 2:12, where see notes. It suggests the scrutiny of an eyewitness, and implies information from close and minute observation. From such examination, these unbelieving husbands would be able to form an evaluation of the chaste behavior of their wives and attribute such to the influence of Christianity. “Fear” in the text is reverence, awe, and is with reference to the husband, and not God. It is the same sort of fear as that designated by Paul in Eph 5:33. From Clement of Alexandria, born about the middle of the second century, comes this excellent comment: “The wise woman, then, will first choose to persuade her husband to be her associate in what is conducive to happiness. And should that be found impractical, let her by herself earnestly aim at virtue, gaining her husband’s consent in everything, so as never to do anything against his will, with exception of what is reckoned as contributing to virtue and salvation.” (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol 2, page 432.)
3 Whose adorning let it not be the outward adorning of braiding the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on apparel; –The teaching of this verse is closely associated with that which immediately precedes it. Christian wives, far from following the tactics by which their worldly sisters attract and hold the attention of their husbands, are to give emphasis instead to “the hidden man of the heart,” the “incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price.” (Verse 4.) Their adornment was thus not to be the (a) braiding of the hair; (b) wearing of jewels of gold; or (c) putting on of apparel. It is obvious from the mention of putting on apparel that the apostle’s words are to be regarded as hortatory rather than unconditionally prohibitive. Taken literally, and without qualification, they would forbid not only the braiding of the hair and the wearing of jewels of gold, but also the putting on of clothing. It is, therefore, clear that Peter did not intend for his words to be interpreted as an unqualified and unconditional prohibition of the things mentioned, but as an exhortation to regard such as secondary and trivial in comparison with the inner adornment of character exhibited in the meek and quiet spirit composing the incorruptible apparel which he enjoins. The form of exhortation here followed–sometimes styled a Hebraism–is a common one in the sacred writings. Jesus said, “Work not for the food which perisheth, but for the food which abideth unto eternal life.” (Joh 6:27.) Literally, these words forbid one to work for his daily bread; regarded as a Hebraism, which they are, they simply mean that one is not to place his chief emphasis on material things, but to give paramount attention to that which abideth unto eternal life. So here, the apostle does not forbid women to wear jewels, or to adorn themselves with modest apparel; he does admonish them to regard such as utterly worthless in comparison with the graces which adorn the Christian character, and which alone determine one’s worth in God’s sight.
Paul also gave attention to the vanity characteristic of worldly women in adorning themselves with “braided hair, gold or pearls or costly raiment” (1Ti 2:9), and from the historians of the period in which Peter wrote, we learn that women were disposed to go to extreme lengths in braiding and plaiting their hair, often arranging massive whorls of it several inches above the head into which had been woven twisted strands of gold and chains of pearls which glistened and scintillated in the light, thus making an impression of great brilliance. Clement of Alexandria says that many women of his time dared not touch their heads for fear of disarranging their hair, and that they regarded sleep with terror lest during it they should destroy their waves. It is such vanity as this that the apostle condemns. Forbidden is any lavish display of artificial adornments and all gaudiness contributing to the vanity of those participating. Christians, whether men or women, should array themselves in modest and unassuming garments, befitting their station in life, and the cause which they have espoused.
4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.–The “hidden man of the heart” is equivalent in meaning to that of the “inward Man” of 2Co 4:16 and Rom 7:22, and the “new man” Col 3:10. “Of the heart” (genitive of apposition) indicates that the life of this “hidden man” manifests itself in the realm of the heart, and not in ornamental display. It is said to be an “incorruptible apparel” because it is not perishable and worthless like the ornaments of gold and silver which the worldly minded use; and it consists of a meek and quiet spirit. A “meek spirit” is one not characterized by self-will, envy, pride, presumption or obstancy; and a “quiet spirit” is one that is calm, tranquil, and at peace. The adjective “great” modifying “price” in the text (poluteles) is used in Mar 14:3 to describe the value of the ointment (“pure nard very costly”) which Mary used to anoint the Lord “beforehand” for his burying, thus indicating the preciousness with which God regards those women who adorn themselves in the manner which Peter admonishes.
5 For after this manner aforetime the holy women also, who hoped in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands:–To the precepts of the preceding verses, the apostle adds the example of faithful and godly women of old. These saintly sisters of the Old Testament period are styled “holy women” because they were set apart to a life of faithfulness to God and to their husbands; and they are said to have “hoped in God” because their expectations were grounded in him. The basis of their acceptance with God and their value to their husbands was not in the gaudy and spectacular ornaments of the thoughtless and vain, but in the worthy lives and submissive attitudes exhibited. For such they are imperishably inscribed in Inspiration’s Hall of Fame. (Heb 11:11; Heb 11:35.)
6 As Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose children ye now are, if ye do well, and are not put in fear by any terror.–Gen 18:12 is an instance of that to which Peter alludes in his reference to Sarah the faithful wife of the patriarch Abraham. In referring to him as “lord” (a term which, as here used, is a title of honor addressed to one regarded as superior), Sarah revealed an attitude of habitual and continuous subordination. Because she recognized the supremacy of her husband and gladly assumed her proper sphere in the home, she serves as an example for Christian wives today. “Whose children ye now are” is, literally, “whose daughters you became” (hes egnethete tekna), i.e., by following the pattern of Sarah. By adorning themselves as Sarah did they became daughters of her to the extent that a child is like its parent. It is significant that this figure–a common one in the sacred writings–is used of those who follow in the steps of Abraham as believers: “Know therefore that they that are of faith, the same are the sons of Abraham.” (Gal 3:7.) “And he (Abraham) received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumrision: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might be reckoned unto them.” (Rom 4:11.)
The words “if ye do well” contain the condition on which such a relationship to Sarah is obtained, and by which it is kept. Sarah earned her right to be regarded as the mother of those wives who do well by her own godly conduct and her daughters are those who imitate her example. The “terror” against which the apostle warns in the final clause of the verse is not the “fear” (phobos) which he enjoins in verse 2, but the shrinking, shuddering fear (ptoesis) of one in the grip of extreme trepidation. In his admonition to Christian wives to avoid such an attitude, the writer appears to be guarding them from running out of one extreme into another. Those who had unbelieving husbands would often have heavy burdens to bear, and much abuse to hear, and if they exhibited terror in the presence of such husbands as if constantly expecting curses or blows, such an attitude might provoke the very thing they were seeking to avoid. Hence, Peter instructed them to “do well” and then to proceed with their daily tasks with calm, unruffled spirit, whatever might be the attitude of their husbands.
Commentary on 1Pe 3:1-6 by N.T. Caton
ANALYSIS.
All should know, who claim to be Christians, just how to conduct themselves in the walks of life, and in this chapter knowledge is therein imparted. Peter commenced by telling wives how they ought to conduct themselves in that relation. He even goes so far with his instruction as to include even the manner of dress. These things are of less esteem with the apostle as an adornment than a meek and quiet spirit. A proper conduct along this line will have a tendency even to win over to the cause of Christ an infidel husband. To straighten the view the apostle entertains, he cites the example of Sarah as a model wife. Husbands are also told how they should conduct themselves, and then to all Christian admonitions are given. They must be of one mind-no discords, no divisions; must love one another as brethren should; must be tender-hearted and affable in the place of being unsympathetic and cross and morose; must not retaliate for what they conceive to be wrong conduct in others, but should bless them even if they are enemies; must be forgiving in temper and disposition, for God called his children that they might inherit the blessing of pardon. It is the duty of every Christian to turn away from all evil, and only do good; and it is furthermore the duty of God’s children to seek peace. God’s eyes are upon us all the time, and his ears open to the cry of his people. Besides, those that do right are less likely to suffer than the evil; but if the right-doers suffer for doing right, they are happy, because they do not lose reward, and ought not therefore to fear the threats of the wicked. Hence you ought to honor God, and be always ready to give answer for the hope of eternal life you have. Hold fast a good conscience by never denying your faith. It is better to suffer for the right, if God wills, than to suffer for wrong-doing. Christ himself suffered even unto death. He was raised by the Spirit. By his Spirit Christ preached to the antediluvians by Noah. The spirits of these are now in prison. They were disobedient at the time of Noah’s preaching, and because of their disobedience were all destroyed by the water of the flood. The same water that destroyed them saved Noah and his family. Baptism as an antitype of the water of the flood now saves us. This baptism is not washing away of filth from flesh, but is the answer of a good conscience. In this, Christ commanded baptism, we obey, and have the assurance of our conscience to our obedience.
1Pe 3:1-Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection.
Having disposed of the duties a follower of Christ owes to earthly governments and to those entitled to service, he now turns to the domestic relation, and those who sustain the relation of wife he admonishes the recognition of submission. In this case the apostle has in his mind a woman whose spouse is an unbeliever. While subjection to a believing husband would not be such a burden to a wife, the submission to one who ignored the claims of the gospel might become irksome. A wife so situated is urged to the faithful and conscientious performance of every duty growing out of the relation, having in view the hope of the conversion of the infidel husband. And the influences that may accomplish this result are pointed out.
1Pe 3:2-While they behold your chaste conversation.
That is, your conduct, the pure life you are living as a Christian woman. Possibly your course before your conversion appears before the husband’s mind in contrast to the course now adopted. This is a mighty power, an argument irrefutable and irresistible.
1Pe 3:2-Coupled with fear.
The disposition now shown of avoiding and shrinking from acts which before your conversion were performed with readiness and without hesitation.
1Pe 3:3-Whose adorning.
Even the dress of a Christian wife claims apostolic notice. Nothing seems to have escaped the attention of this servant of Christ.
1Pe 3:3-Outward adorning of plaiting the hair.
Here an injunction to Christian wives is given. The plainting of the hair, wearing of gold and putting on of apparel. Can it be that the apostle forbids comely attire? Modesty observed in this adornment can not offend the moral sense surely, and we must not forget that Peter had in view the winning over the husband to the cause of Christ. Now, I incline to think, keeping the context in view, the apostle desired these wives to understand that these adornings, being outward only,. must not monopolize their thoughts and attention. Such things are perishing, and have a tendency to lead astray from God. The adorning of the Spirit is to be the lifework of the Christian wife, and not outward show, exhibited to attract the fancy of the giddy, the vain and the foolish. Arraying the body in these things for show, or indulging in extravagance on the part of believing women, I have no doubt, is here forbidden, but that Christian women may but modestly attire themselves according to their station in life, I can not think for a moment was in the apostle’s mind. He simply desires the believing wife to understand that there was something more for her to do than exhausting her time in dress; that there was a better adorning for her of which she ought to avail herself.
1Pe 3:4-But let it be the hidden man of the heart.
Here we have it. Time and patience and labor here should be bestowed. The hidden man of the heart, the real man, the spirit, the affections of the heart-this is the important part. This inner man, adorn that. In the sight of God this is of great worth, bodily adornments valueless. This is the view Peter desires the Christian wives to take.
1Pe 3:4-Meek and quiet spirit.
Two words are here used as descriptive of the kind of a spirit recommended to Christian wives, and to which is applied in the Revised Version the words “incorruptible apparel.” The meaning of these words, and the ideas intended to be conveyed, were, by the Spirit guiding Peter’s pen, considered of importance. What is meekness, and what is quietness, as applied to the spirit? Is there any difference in the signification? There must be, or both terms would not have been employed. Meekness consists in bearing ill-treatment with patience, as in the case of the Savior in the hands of his murderers. Quietness indicates a state where no cause of ill-treatment can possibly arise by either act or speech. In this latter sense Jesus was not quiet. He rebuked the scribes and Pharisees, and thus provoked them. While it should have been observed to their profit, evil as they were, it aroused their anger. Well may the apostle call the meek and quiet spirit an incorruptible ornament. To close our remarks upon this verse, I borrow from Macknight a quotation made by him from Blackwell’s “Sacred Class”:
“How must all the short-lived beauties, the shapes, features and most elegant and rich ornaments of the mortal body, which attract the eyes and admiration of vain mortals, fade away, and lose their charms and luster, when compared with the heavenly graces of a pious and regular temper, the incorruptible ornaments and beauties of the soul which are amiable and of high value in the eye of God, the sovereign Judge of what is good and beautiful.”
1Pe 3:5-For after this manner in the old time.
The manner just described; that is, not with outward adorning, but in the cultivation of the graces of the Spirit. The holy women, the women who trusted in God, thus conducted themselves. The meekness and quietness of spirit so acceptable in the sight of God were the adornings of the women mentioned in Bible history.
1Pe 3:6-Even Sarah obeyed Abraham.
Sarah went so far in her submission to her husband as to apply to him the designation of “Lord.” The Christian wives among the addressed, who were of Jewish birth, were supposed to be familiar with the history of their progenitors, and Peter says to them in this exhortation that they are the daughters of Sarah and of Abraham, as are the Gentile Christian wives, by faith so long as they do in kind as Sarah did; that is, do right, do well. This they can do if they keep in mind their duty to God, and are not driven therefrom by the fear or amazement of those without; fear from ridicule, amazement at their conduct in this regard exhibited on the part of the irreligious or heathen with whom they come in contact.
Commentary on 1Pe 3:1-6 by Burton Coffman
The apostle in this chapter continued giving instructions to classes or groups of people: (1) to wives (1Pe 3:1-6); (2) to husbands; (3) to the community of Christians as a whole; and then, perhaps with the looming terror of the Neronian persecution in mind, he spoke of the blessedness of suffering for righteousness sake (1Pe 3:13-22).
1Pe 3:1-2 –In like manner, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, even if they obey not the word, they may without the word be gained by the behavior of their wives; beholding your chaste behavior coupled with fear. (1Pe 3:1-2)
Be in subjection to your own husbands … This is in agreement with other extensive teaching on this in the New Testament, as in Eph 5:22 ff, Col 3:18 ff, and Tit 2:5. Note also that this is extended to include the submission of a Christian wife to a pagan husband. Although it may be supposed that both the husband and the wife, many times, would be converted together, there would inevitably be occasions when only the wife would become a Christian with her husband continuing in paganism. As Hart said, “Paul found it necessary to impress upon the Corinthian church that this incompatibility of religion did not justify dissolution of marriage (1Co 12:10 ff).”[1] As a matter of fact, there is no evidence that conversion to Christianity was ever considered to be a cancellation of any legal contract, not even the status of slavery.
If they obey not the word … “The word here is the gospel, and the clause means, `If any are not Christians.'”[2] In this verse Peter means, “The husband should be the head of the house, and the wife should recognize the fact.”
Beholding your chaste behavior … The literal meaning of 1Pe 3:2 is, “Having kept, or when they have kept an eye on your chaste conversation.”[4] The husband in such a marriage would be jealously on the watch to see what effect would show in her life after embracing those foolish notions, as they might have appeared to him.
[1] J. H. A. Hart, Expositor’s Greek Testament, Vol. V (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967), p. 63.
[2] Archibald M. Hunter, The Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. XII (New York and Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1957), p. 121.
[4] A. J. Mason, Ellicott’s Bible Commentary, Vol. VIII (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1959), p. 412.
1Pe 3:3 –Whose adorning let it not be the outward adorning of braiding the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on apparel;
Does this mean that it is a sin for a Christian woman to wear a gold jewel, or to braid her hair, or to put on clothes? To ask this question is to answer it. “The unavoidable conclusion is that she must not depend on the display of the articles mentioned.”[5] It is the inordinate stress of outward adorning of the person which Peter here condemned. Despite the fact that in these times there is not the same emphasis upon such ostentation as in the days when Peter wrote, one cannot resist the thought that the apostles of Christ would take exception to what is being done with cosmetics, even today. In ancient times, extravagance of dress went beyond all reason. “Nero even had a room with walls covered with pearls; and Pliny saw Lollia Paulina, wife of Caligula, wearing a dress so covered with pearls and emeralds that it cost more than a million dollars.”[6]
[5] E. M. Zerr, Bible Commentary, 1Peter (Marion, Indiana: Cogdill Foundation, 1954), p. 259.
[6] William Barclay, The Letters of James and Peter (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1976), p. 221.
1Pe 3:4 –but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
Hidden man of the heart … Subsequent versions usually have “hidden person” of the heart; and as the passage deals with the duties of wives, this is better. The “hidden person” is the same as Paul’s “inner man” (Eph 3:16), meaning the actual person, the private being which every person knows himself to be. Paul described a real Jew as being a Jew who is one “inwardly,” which stresses the same thought (Rom 2:28 f).
Incorruptible apparel … “Paul assures us in this passage that moral characteristics gained in this life remain our characteristics in the next.”[7] All of this warning against outward display of expensive dress and ornaments indicates that many of the Christians of that period were wealthy, as does likewise Paul’s passage in 1Ti 6:17 f.
ENDNOTE:
[7] A. J. Mason, op. cit., p. 413.
1Pe 3:5 –For after this manner aforetime the holy women also, who hoped in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands:
In this, Peter reinforced his teaching with an appeal to the example of the godly women of the past.
Who hoped in God … There is a subtle indication in this that the position of Christian women to whom Peter wrote is superior to that enjoyed by the wives of the mighty patriarchs who merely “hoped” in God, whereas the Christians, having received the precious promises which their predecessors had only hoped for, were the actual possessors of the glorious gospel and all of its spiritual endowments.
1Pe 3:6 –as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose children ye are now, if ye do well, and are not put to fear by any terror.
As Sarah obeyed Abraham … It should not be thought that Sarah’s obedience to Abraham was in any sense Servility. On one occasion she ordered Abraham to “Cast out the bondwoman and her son,” a “request” that sorely grieved and distressed Abraham; but he obeyed her, God himself commanding Abraham to do it (Gen 20:10-12). Nevertheless, there was the utmost respect and honor accorded her husband by the noble Sarah.
Calling him lord … The significance of Sarah’s doing this lies in the fact that this is what she called him in her own heart, not merely when others might hear her. The real test of what one is, or what one thinks, lies in the content of what they say to themselves, not in what they might say to others (Gen 18:12).
Whose children ye are … Paul extensively developed the thought of Christians being the children of Abraham, a principle given by Christ himself (Joh 8:39 ff); and this is a further extension of the same truth. Being sons of Abraham, as all Christians are (Gal 3:29), they are also children of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
If ye do well … This qualifier stands over against all Christian privilege. The thing that disqualified the Jews of Jesus’ day as true sons of Abraham was disobedience; and the Christian must accept the application of the same principle to the members of the new Israel. If they do not do well, they shall become, like the disobedient Jews of Jesus’ day, “sons of the devil” (Joh 8:44).
And are not put in fear by any terror … The sentiment here is that of Pro 3:25, which seems to have been a chapter that Peter was very familiar with; for he quoted it again in 1Pe 5:5. “Peter is apparently thinking of some attempt (by a pagan husband perhaps?) to scare a woman out of her Christian faith.”[8]Justin Martyr relates the narrative of a certain woman who accepted Christianity and turned from a wicked and dissolute life, but whose husband continued stubbornly in the old ways; and after prolonged abuse, and even abandonment, she legally divorced him. However, her husband, being restrained by a court order from harming his wife, persecuted to death her Christian teacher.[9]
[8] Archibald M. Hunter, op. cit., p. 123.
[9] Justin Martyr, The Second Apology in the Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. I (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, n.d.), p. 188.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The marriage relation was then dealt with, and special emphasis was laid on the fact that the true adornment of woman is found in her character rather than in her dress. Husbands are charged to dwell with their wives according to knowledge. The final reason for the fulfilment of this ideal is that prayers be not hindered.
Passing to the subject of suffering which invariably follows loyalty to Christ, the apostle quoted from the Psalms. That shows that the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears open to their supplication. With regard to evil, His face is on them. In the light of these facts the power of any to harm the followers of God is challenged. One supreme responsibility rests on them, and it is beautifully expressed in the words, “Sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord.” The issue of such loyalty will be that the very persons who revile will be put to shame.
In strengthening his brethren for suffering the apostle had cited the example of Christ. In this connection occurs a statement which has given rise to differing interpretations, and even to controversy. The simple meaning of it is that when He was put to death in the flesh, Christ passed into a new life of the spirit. In that life He went and preached to the spirits in prison. What His message was we are not told. Why only those disobedient in the days of Noah are mentioned is not stated. What the purpose or result of Christ’s preaching was, is not revealed. On all these points we may form our own conclusions, but we have no authority for anything approaching dogmatic teaching.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Christian Family-Life
1Pe 3:1-12
In the previous chapter the Apostle had been urging the poor slaves of wealthy householders to submit quietly to wrongs, leaving God to vindicate. Here he turns to the wives of unbelieving husbands, showing that their chaste behavior, their meek and quiet spirit, their pleasant subordination of self, are the greatest arguments for our religion. What we are is more important than what we say. Our life is our best sermon. If we would expend as much care on the hidden man of the heart as many do on the outer, what lovely characters would result! When Massillon had preached on this subject of the inner and outer man before Louis XIV, the king exclaimed as he left the church, I know those two men!
The same temper becomes us all. Let us be compassionate to the faults of others, even when they repay our good with evil and revile our blessing. God sends rain and sun irrespective of the character of the recipients. In this way we shall inherit the blessedness to which we have been called, and see good days.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Chapter Three – The Christian Family
Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the Word, they also may without the Word be won by the conversation of the wives; while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord; whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered (1Pe 3:1-7).
The new life does not run counter to natural relationships. It is no sign of grace but rather quite the opposite to be without natural affection. So the Holy Spirit now proceeds to admonish wives and husbands as to their attitude each to the other.
There are few experiences more difficult than to be united in marriage to an unbeliever. The Christian young man or young woman should never go voluntarily into such a union. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers and what communion hath light with darkness? or what part hath he that believeth with an unbeliever? (2Co 6:14-15). But where one member of a family already formed is brought to know the Lord while the other remains in the darkness of nature, the most serious misunderstandings and perplexing circumstances are apt to arise. If it be the wife who has been converted, while the husband remains out of Christ, peculiar wisdom and grace will be needed on her part. If she takes a superior attitude toward her unsaved husband she will only stir up his opposition to the truth and render conditions increasingly difficult. She is admonished here to be in subjection to her own husband, manifesting such grace and humility of spirit that even though he resents the Word he may be won without the Word-that is, without the wife saying much to him-by her discreet behavior as he observes the beauty of her Christian character. We say that, Actions speak louder than words, and this is in accord with the teaching of Scripture. An imperious, dominating woman will drive her husband further from God instead of drawing him to Christ. But a gentle, gracious lady, whose life is characterized by purity and whose adorning is not simply that which is outward but that which is inward, will have great influence over even a godless husband.
Here let me point out that the Scriptures do not forbid a measure of adornment of the person, but rather that the wife should not depend on this to make her pleasing and attractive. A slatternly woman only repels. But one may be tastefully attired and immaculately groomed, and yet spoil everything by a haughty spirit or a bad temper. The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is in Gods sight priceless, and will commend her to her husband, family and friends.
It was in this way that the holy women of old were adorned who lived in dependence on God and were in subjection to their husbands instead of domineering over them. Sara is cited as a beautiful example of this. When the angel announced that she was to become the mother of Isaac, though at a very advanced age, she wonderingly inquired how it could be when she was old and, she added, My lord being old also, referring to her husband Abraham. Those who obey this instruction become manifestly her children morally, and need not be terrified by trying and difficult experiences.
To the husbands there is also a word of serious admonition. Let them give all due honor to the wife, not trying to lord it over her conscience, but recognizing her physical limitations as the weaker vessel; let them be the more considerate, dwelling with her according to knowledge and as being heirs together of the grace of life; and the Spirit adds what is most important: That your prayers be not hindered. Quarrels and bickerings in the home stifle all fellowship in prayer. It means much for the husband and wife to be able to kneel together in hallowed communion and mingle their voices in prayer and intercession.
Suffering For Righteousness Sake
Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evil-doers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him (1Pe 3:8-22).
Verse 8 (1Pe 3:8) begins with the word Finally, which suggests that what follows is not to be divorced from what has gone before but rather is the natural result of it. Believers generally, not only husbands and wives, now are exhorted to manifest oneness of spirit, sympathetic consideration for each other, with brotherly love, the product of a gracious heart and a lowly mind. Anything like retaliation for injuries is to be sedulously avoided. In place of returning evil for evil and reviling for reviling we are to bless even our worst opponents, for in so doing we ourselves will be doubly blessed.
Peter quotes a part of the thirty-fourth Psalm, using verses 12 to 16 (1Pe 3:12-16), but he stops in the middle of the last sentence, and that for a very special reason.
The Psalmist speaks to all who love life and would enjoy it at its best, bidding them keep the tongue from evil and the lips from speaking guile-that is, anything of a dishonest character. He exhorts them to turn from evil and pursue righteousness, to seek peace and pursue it-that is, ever follow after that which is for the good of mankind. And all this is in view of the fact that the all-seeing eyes of Jehovah are upon the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. There Peter stops. When we turn back to the Psalm we find the sentence continues by adding, To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. But that will not be in this age. It will have its solemn fulfilment in the coming-day of the Lord. So exact and meticulous is Scripture! We might think that it made little difference, but Jesus put a whole dispensation into a comma when He read in the synagogue at Nazareth, He hath sent Me to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And He closed the book (Luk 4:19-20). The next words are, And the day of ven- geance of our God (Isa 61:2); but that will not begin until the day of grace is ended.
No matter how evil men, motivated by Satanic hatred for the gospel, may seek to injure believers, Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? There can no evil happen to the righteous, for, All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28). This includes persecution, sickness, financial distress-anything that men think of as evil, but all of which God sanctifies to the good of the subject Christian.
If called upon to suffer for righteousness sake let it be counted a joyful privilege. There is no need to fear nor to live in dread of threatened terror, for God is over all, and none can go beyond that which He permits for our blessing. He who stopped the lions mouths and protected Daniel, and walked in the furnace with the three Hebrew youths, will ever keep a watchful eye upon His saints, yea, and upon their enemies too, lest they go beyond His permissive will.
Only give God His rightful place in the heart. Let it be separated to Him, and when called to witness before men be ever ready to give an answer to all who inquire concerning the basis of your faith, with becoming lowliness and reverence; being careful to maintain a good conscience so that there will be no truth in their charges if accused of evil be- havior by wicked men who give false testimony regarding your upright manner of life in Christ.
Verse 17 (1Pe 3:17) declares that it is better, that is, preferable, if it pleases God to allow it, that one suffer for doing the right rather than for doing what is wrong. In this our blessed Lord is our supreme example. He suffered at the hands of evil men who misrepresented Him and bore false witness concerning Him. Then on the cross He suffered once for all for sins-not His own but ours-He the Just, we the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God. And this He has done. We have not yet been brought to heaven, but we who believe in Christ Jesus have been brought to God.
On the cross He was put to death in the flesh, but in Gods due time He was made alive by the Holy Spirit in His physical resurrection from the dead. Observe, it is not His human spirit that is here in view. It could not properly be said that He was quickened or made alive in that, for His spirit never died. But after the body and spirit had been separated in death He was raised again by the Holy Spirit (see Rom 8:11). In that same Spirit He, in ages long gone by, preached through Noah to spirits with whom He declared He would strive for more than an hundred and twenty years (Gen 6:3). Noah was a preacher of righteousness and suffered for righteousness sake, as we are called to do, and as Jesus did (2Pe 2:5). So it was when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, that Christ by the Spirit preached in or by the patriarch. What was the result of this preaching? Wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. And just as those who entered the ark passed through the flood of judgment to a new earth so in baptism the obedient believer is saved in symbol. It is not the going into the water that saves but that of which baptism speaks and which a good conscience demands: the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He who went down into death, who could say, All Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over Me (Psa 42:7), has now emerged in triumph, bringing over to new creation all who trust in Him. He has gone into heaven and sits as the exalted Man on the right hand of God, in token of the Fathers full satisfaction in the work of His Son. To Him all angels, authorities and powers are subject.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
1Pe 3:7
Our Social Relationships.
I. Marriage is a relationship of mutual sympathy. That comprehensive word “sympathy” is to be understood here in its largest sense. Those who enter into this binding fellowship ought to be one in the completest measure possible of their entire nature; for the supreme end of marriage is not simply the continuance of the human race, but the culture and development of all the noblest faculties of the intellect and the spirit.
II. It is a relationship of mutual sacredness. The Roman Catholic Church includes matrimony among the sacraments, though in this, as in so many other matters, it goes beyond the direct warrant of God’s word. Yet there is no question that it is regarded as one of the most solemn acts of human life. “Until death us do part” is the solemn vow, and it must remain unbroken to the end. All revelation and the distinct words of Christ imply the sacredness of this bond, and it will be a sign of coming downfall in any country when the inviolability of this relationship is disregarded.
III. The relationship is one of mutual honour. Christ ruled the Church, yet served it; then it is possible to rule and to serve at the same time. If it be for womanhood to submit, it is for manhood to serve; and perhaps that is a task difficult to both, but that might become much more pleasant and full of joy if the endeavour were mutual.
IV. The relationship is one of mutual responsibility.
W. Braden, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 353.
1Pe 3:7
I. One specialty to be observed in this phrase is this: it treats prayer not as a duty to be enforced, but as a habit to be taken for granted. The Apostle seems to consider prayer as inseparable from spiritual life, just as the air we breathe is inseparable from material life; and therefore, instead of advocating prayer, he presupposes it. He does not enforce prayer as a duty, but he urges the avoidance of everything that can obstruct it.
II. Since prayer is an exercise of the spirit, of the heart, as well as of the lips, it follows that whatever clogs that heart with a consciousness of alienation from God, and whatever charges and loads that ethereal spirit with elements earthly, material, and gross, must press down that spirit, must encumber that heart with the great hindrance of its heavenward aspirations. If we have been allowing ourselves in anything irreconcilable with the principles of Christ, it is impossible, impossible with the stain of that misconduct still upon it, that the spirit of a man should naturally and cheerfully and spontaneously seek to consort and hold communion with that Spirit which is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.
III. This, then, is the main notion to fix upon our minds, namely, that in any temptation, however trivial, to depart from the dictates of conscience, we should remember that yielding to that inclination hinders prayer, discourages all heavenward aspirations, shuts out what would raise us above the gross atmosphere of the world, obstructs the breath of spiritual life, and so puts spiritual life in jeopardy.
W. H. Brookfield, Sermons, p. 87.
References: 1Pe 3:7.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xx., No. 1192; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 271.
1Pe 3:8
I. This is one of those texts which are too apt to confuse persons who do not read their Bibles carefully enough. They cannot see what the latter part of these verses has to do with the former. St. Peter writes that we Christians are to inherit a blessing, and hence people would say, speaking commonly, that he means the blessing of future salvation. But then St. Peter goes on to quote Ps. 34, “He that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile,” and then, in order to make this harmonise with their view of the former verse, they say that this must be taken spiritually! Now, what people mean when they talk like this, I do not know. That which brings a blessing here is the same thing that will make us blessed there; that which belonged to the old Jews belongs also to us Christians, and if we avoid evil and seek after peace in this life, then shall we inherit a blessing in this and in any possible life or lives to come.
II. And why? Because then only are we living the one and everlasting life, the life that alone brings with it a blessing or good days, and the only life that is worth living or loving. Very necessary is it to bear this in mind just now. People are too apt to say that the Old Testament saints got their reward in this life. But where do they find that? If they read the Old Testament carefully, they will find that the Old Testament saints were men whom God trained by long suffering, like Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Job, and all the Old Testament prophets. They were not even made perfect; for in the Epistle to the Hebrews it says that they died in faith, not having received their reward. If, then, God rewarded in this life, their reward must have been spiritual.
III. God’s world is good; the evil is not in nature, it is not in the world around us, but it is in our own foolish hearts. We shall find the world an unpleasant place, as the Jews did, if we break God’s laws, for they must punish us; but if we obey His laws, we shall find the world a pleasant place, and His laws a comfort to us. This is God’s promise, for He made all things for good, and His word cannot alter.
C. Kingsley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 229.
Reference: 1Pe 3:10.-H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty, vol. ii., p. 44.
1Pe 3:11
The character of the man to whom these words are addressed is a very singular one. “He that will love life,” or, more accurately, “He that wishes to love life, let him seek peace, and ensue it.” Does not every one “love life”? What “life” is it of which St. Peter is speaking, the present life or the life to come? Certainly the present life. It may not exclude the life to come, for it is life generally, but specially the present life. But all life is one. This life is only one chapter in your immortality.
I. Is it a duty to “love life”? Unquestionably. “Life” is a talent committed to us. It is a great gift of God; it is an opportunity of service; it is a thing to be consecrated; it is the germ of heaven. I have no sympathy with those who depreciate this present life, and run down this world as if it were all nothing or all bad. Heaven may be, as much as you like, an attractive, but this world should never be a repulsive, thing. It is a beautiful world! And it may be a very happy world. God is everywhere; the elements of good are always near us, and always within our reach, if only we could see them and use them. We are responsible for having a happy life. And even if we are afflicted and unhappy, remember it is the only stage of a Christian’s being in which he can glorify God by patience and submission.
II. “Peace,” then, is the climax of the conditions of a “life” that can be “loved.” We must examine “peace.” “Peace” is an empire with three provinces, and the provinces cannot really be divided, for there is one King of all; all belong to Him, and He is “peace”; He is “the God of peace.” First, there is the “peace” which a man has with God as soon as he is reconciled to God by an act of faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, and his sins are all forgiven. Then there is the “peace” which every forgiven man carries in his own bosom: “peace” with his conscience. And then there is the “peace” with man, with all our fellow-creatures. And these grow the one out of the other; and they must come, and can only come, in that order. If you are not comfortable and on good terms with other people, it is mainly because you are not quite comfortable with yourself; and if you are not quite comfortable with yourself, it is because you are not right, and you know that you are not right, with God. “Peace” with God makes “peace” with the soul; and “peace” with the soul makes “peace” with the whole world: so the three provinces are one.
III. How, then, is this difficult quest of “peace”-more difficult as education and refinement make the feelings more sensitive, and the subjects of thought grow larger and deeper, and the divergence of mind becomes wider and wider, as it will do more and more every day-how, how is it to be carried out? (1) First, recognise it as an act of Omnipotence, an attribute of God only. “He maketh men to be of one mind in a house.” You will fail if you do not at once bring in the great power of God to a work which is far too high for you. (2) Then travel to it by the right and only road; adjust your own relations to God. Be at peace yourselves. This done, you will be able to understand and remember at what pains, how patiently, how persistently, how stoopingly, and at what a cost, God made your “peace.” And then you can go and copy “God’s peace”-that great Peacemaker with us all. Lay yourself out to see, and show, and learn, and copy the excellency in every one. Go about with a veil to throw over follies and mistakes, and a microscopic glance to see what is good in everybody and everything. Let it be your characteristic: a man of charity, a healer of breaches, one who has something kind and good to say of everybody, a lover of all men, and a suitor of “peace.”
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 12th series, p. 37.
References: 1Pe 3:12.-J. Keble, Sermons for Sundays after Trinity, Part I., p. 166. 1Pe 3:14, 1Pe 3:15.-Ibid., p. 176.
1Pe 3:15
I. It is the simplest of truisms that God can receive no increase of holiness, least of all from those who must beg Him to forgive their sins; but to sanctify Him, or to hallow His name, is to acknowledge Him, not merely in word, but habitually and practically-in thought, in feeling, in aim, in conduct-as being what He is: the one supreme object of obedience, reverence, and devotion. They sanctify Him who give Him His due, who treat His claims as real and absolute, who look away from all other powers, from all imagined resources or grounds of confidence, to Him as the origin and centre of their existence, the One most high, most holy, and most lovable, and, at the same time, most awful in His purity, with a reverential awe which leaves no room for lower fear, because it involves an adoring and loving trust.
II. See how the precept can be obeyed, and the consequent blessing secured, under three different forms of trial, taken as examples of the rest. (1) St. Peter was thinking immediately of apprehended suffering. Why not simply take the Lord at His own word, and put aside faithless anxiety about the morrow? If we fret ourselves, we shall be moved to do evil; if we place ourselves confidingly in the hands of our mighty and loving Saviour, we sanctify Him in our hearts as Lord. (2) Remember, further, that the drama of spiritual life and death can be performed on a humble stage, under conditions devoid of any impressive brilliancy. “The eyes of the Lord,” open alike for scrutiny and for sympathy, are in every place, are scanning impartially every career. (3) When we are depressed and anxious as to the prospects of the Church and of the faith, we should be able to fulfil the duty of relying absolutely on Christ. It is treason to be fearful for the kingdom of the risen One; our business is simply to hold our post, be faithful in our day, and leave results to Him.
W. Bright, Morality in Doctrine, p. 302.
References: 1Pe 3:15.-Expositor, 1st series, vol. vii., p. 208; R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 3rd series, p. 277: W. J. Knox-Little, Church of England Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 32; J. W. Burgon, Ibid., vol. v., p. 236.
1Pe 3:16
The Conscience of a Christian.
The more consistent a Christian is with his Lord’s example, or, which is really the same thing practically, the loftier his ideal of duty, the more he must expect to be treated as Christ was treated. Nominal Christians and the world keep an easy truce of mutual toleration, which the interests of society keep them from grossly infringing. On the one hand, the nominal Christian finds his profession sit easily upon him. Principles which are not pressed to their consequences offend no one. On the other hand, the purely worldly man makes the easy pursuit or easy enjoyment of things immediately agreeable to his ruling principle. He accepts the condition of not shocking the prejudices of others, though he may not share them, and so finds easy room for the nominal Christian in his system.
I. But when St. Peter wrote, things were very different. There was then no possibility of blending principles which were inconsistent in a neutral solution of indifference. The world and the Church were sharply defined and contrasted. They were mutually repulsive, mutually exclusive of one another.
II. True Christians must excite prejudice. They break that comfortable truce with the worldling which the nominal Christian is content to accept, and keeps without acknowledging by a tacit understanding. They must have reverses; they go too far for their friends in God’s service, and their friends break from them. They intrude their principles where they are unwelcome, and others around them are offended in them, even as the Pharisees and Sadducees were offended in Christ. Against this power of prejudice, deepening often into ill-nature and malice, the power of a Christian’s conscience, informed by faith and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, is his great safeguard. Let us see how it operates. (1) By making him feel directly the presence of God, the conscience of the Christian becomes an organ of the Holy Spirit. (2) A good conscience sets a man free from all unworthy motives. (3) As a consequence of this, a directness of aim and simplicity of character distinguishes the man.
H. Hayman, Rugby Sermons, p. 165.
1Pe 3:18
Christ Suffering for Sins.
I. Observe that St. Peter says, “Christ suffered for sins”-not merely suffered, but suffered for us-that is, clearly for our sins, for the sins of mankind. These were, in some way, the cause of His sufferings. If the sins had not been, His sufferings had not been. However strange the connection may seem, a connection undoubtedly there is between the sins which have been committed from the time of Adam until now and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross under Pontius Pilate. Perhaps the connection between the sins of mankind and the sufferings of Christ is made more striking by the word “once.” Christ hath once suffered for sins. Sins may be committed often, nay, are being committed continually, but Christ died once and for all; that one event stands by itself; it is unique in the world’s history; it can never be repeated; it need never be repeated.
II. A wonderful efficacy is attributed to Christ’s sufferings. We are accounted righteous for the merits of Christ, and not for any merits of our own. Teacher and Example was Christ; but He was something more than this. Our sense of need and infirmity teaches us that, in order to be the Physician of souls, in order to supply a cure for the great universal disease of humanity, Christ must be something different from, and entirely beyond, a Teacher and Example. We want to hear of something concerning pardon of sins, something concerning reconciliation, something concerning being brought back to God. And this the Apostles preached in the name of their Lord; peace through the blood of His cross was their message, a propitiation for sin, a ransom from slavery, salvation for the lost, life for the dead-this was what they had to announce as the Gospel for mankind.
Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, vol. v., p. 305.
References: 1Pe 3:18.-Homilist, 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 416; F. Wagstaff, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 179; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., p. 369; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. v., p. 29. 1Pe 3:18-20.-Ibid., vol. vii., p. 114.
1Pe 3:19
The Spirits in Prison.
I. There is one article of the Creed which, strange as it may seem, for some centuries has practically fallen into the background, and lost its hold on the thoughts and affections of mankind. We repeat the words which tell us that Christ descended into hell, but they do not move us. Our thoughts about them are indistinct and dim. They bring no strength or comfort to us. To the taught they probably suggest the dark and monstrous belief that, in order to complete the work of a penalty vicariously borne, the agony of the garden and the passion of the cross were followed by the endurance for a few brief hours of the torments of the lost. We may be quite sure that if the descent into hell had brought no other thoughts to men’s minds than those which we commonly attach to it, it would never have gained a place in the creed of Christendom, or seized, as it did for centuries, on men’s thought and feeling. To those who so received it it spoke of a victory over death which was the completion of the sacrifice of the cross. It told them that He who came to seek and to save the souls He loved on earth had continued that Divine work while the body was lying in the rock-hewn grave. He had passed into the unseen world as a mighty King, the herald of His own conquests; and death and hell had trembled at His coming, and the bands of the prisoners were broken, and the gates of the prison-house were thrown open. There the banner of the King was unfurled, and the cross set up, that there also, even there, the souls of those who were capable of life might turn to it and live. There had He gathered round Him the souls of those righteous ones, from Abel onwards, who had had the faith which from the beginning of the world has justified, and had confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. There He had delivered from the passionate yearning of unsatisfied desire, and had taken them to rest till the Resurrection in the paradise of God, where He had promised to be with one whose lawless life had melted at the last hour into some touch of tenderness, and awe, and pity.
II. Whatever doubt might linger round these words is removed by the reiterated assertion of the same truth a few verses further on. That which was preached to them that were dead is nothing less than a gospel-the good news of the redeeming love of Christ. And it was published to them, not to exempt them from all penalty, but that they, having been judged in all that belonged to the relations of their human life with a true and righteous judgment, should yet, in all that affected their relation to God, “live in the Spirit.” Death came upon them, and they accepted their punishment as awarded by the loving and righteous Judge, and so ceased from the sin to which they had before been slaves; and thus it became to them the gate of life.
E. H. Plumptre, The Spirits in Prison, p. 1.
Reference: 1Pe 3:19.-H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Sermonettes for a Year, p. 84.
1Pe 3:20
The Two Baptisms.
I. The salvation of Noah by water. You are familiar with the narrative in Genesis. Peter does not recapitulate the facts, but alludes to them as well known. Eight souls were saved in the Ark and by water. God will have a seed to serve Him while sun and moon endure. For this purpose He chose Noah and his family as vessels to retain and transmit the knowledge of His name. If Divine power had not then interfered, the last remnant of righteousness would soon have been submerged under the ever-rising tide of sin. It concerned the plans and the honour of God that this should be prevented, and therefore Noah was saved-saved by water! The Lord saved Noah as He is wont to save His own in all times: by destroying the enemies who were prepared to devour him. Noah was saved by baptism-a baptism that washed away the filth of the world, and left him standing free.
II. The salvation of Christians by baptism is like the saving of Noah by the waters of the Flood. We draw near now to behold a greater sight. We contemplate now the redemption wrought by Christ and enjoyed by His people. We are saved by baptism; and this salvation is like the deliverance wrought of old for Noah by means of the Flood. (1) It is altogether a narrow and inadequate view that thinks of hell as the danger, and heaven as the deliverance. The danger is sin, and the deliverance is pardon. Your soul, surrounded by its own sins, is like Noah in the midst of the old world. If they are not destroyed by a flood, they will destroy you. (2) The deliverance. It, too, is like Noah’s. We are saved by a flood. We are saved by baptism. What is meant by baptism? “The answer of a good conscience toward God.” It is the cleansing of the conscience from its guilt, so that when God makes inquisition for blood He finds no spot or wrinkle there, so that the conscience, when put to the question, answers, “Peace!” to the challenge of the Judge. It is by being in Christ that we may get our sins purged away, and yet be ourselves saved.
W. Arnot, Roots and Fruits, p. 197.
1Pe 3:21
A Good Conscience.
These words are very wide words, too wide to please most people. They preach a very free grace, too free to please most people. Man preaches his own notions of God’s forgiveness, his notions of what he thinks God ought to do; but when God proclaims His own forgiveness, and tells men what He has actually done, and bids His Apostle declare boldly that baptism doth now save us, then man is frightened at the vastness of God’s generosity, and thinks God’s grace too free, His forgiveness too complete.
I. What hinders a little child, from the very moment that it can think or speak, from entering into God’s salvation? I know one hindrance at least, and that is when the parents’ harshness or neglect tempts the child to fancy that God the Father is such a father to him as his parents are, and that to be a child of God is to look up to his heavenly Father with dread and suspicion as to a hard taskmaster whose anger has to be turned away, and not with that perfect love, and trust, and respect, and self-sacrifice with which the Lord Jesus fulfilled His Father’s will and proclaimed His Father’s glory.
II. The catechism of our Church does not begin by telling children they are sinners; they will find that out soon enough for themselves from their own wayward and self-willed hearts. It begins by teaching the child the name of God. It is so careful of God’s honour, so careful that the child should learn from the first to look up to God with love and trust, that it dare not tell the child that God can destroy and punish before it has told him that God is a Father and a Maker, the Father of spirits, who has made him and all the world. It dare not tell him that mankind is fallen before it has told him that all the world is redeemed. It tells him of the name of God, and tells him that God is with him, and he with God, and bids him believe that and be saved from his birth-hour to endless ages. It does not tell him to pray that he may become God’s child, but to pray because he is God’s child already. It tells him that he is safe and saved, even as David, and Isaiah, and all holy men who ever lived have been, as long as he trusts in God, and clings to God, and obeys God; and that only when he forsakes God and follows his own selfishness and pride can any thing or being in earth or hell harm him.
C. Kingsley, Sermons for the Times, p. 29.
References: 1Pe 3:22.-J. Keble, Sermons from Ascension to Trinity, p. 1; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii., No. 1928. 1Pe 4:1-3.-H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 51; A. Rowland, Ibid., vol. xxxvi., p. 225; F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. i., p. 333. 1Pe 4:3.-Homilist, 3rd series, vol. ix., p. 24. 1Pe 4:4.-Homiletic Magazine, vol. vii., p. 82. 1Pe 4:4, 1Pe 4:5.-E. Cooper, Practical Sermons, vol. iii., p. 160. 1Pe 4:6.-F. W. Farrar. Christian World Pulpit, vol. xii., p. 353.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
ye: Gen 3:16, Est 1:16-20, Rom 7:2,*Gr: 1Co 11:3, 1Co 14:34, Eph 5:22-24, Eph 5:33, Col 3:18, 1Ti 2:11, 1Ti 2:12, Tit 2:3-6
obey: 1Pe 1:22, 1Pe 4:17, Rom 6:17, Rom 10:16, 2Th 1:8, Heb 5:9, Heb 11:8
they: 1Co 7:16, Col 4:5
won: Pro 11:30, Pro 18:19, Mat 18:15, 1Co 9:19-22, Jam 5:19, Jam 5:20
Reciprocal: Gen 2:24 – and they shall be one flesh Num 30:13 – and every 2Ki 4:9 – she said Est 1:12 – refused Est 1:20 – all the wives Pro 31:11 – General Pro 31:26 – in her Mat 5:16 – that Rom 2:8 – and do not Eph 4:29 – minister 1Th 4:12 – them Tit 2:5 – obedient Phm 1:6 – the acknowledging Jam 3:13 – a good 1Pe 2:12 – that 1Pe 3:16 – good
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE OPENING VERSES of chapter 3 continue the exhortation to submission. The apostle commenced this exhortation at 1Pe 2:13. In verse 1Pe 3:18 he applied it to those who socially are in the subject place. Now he applies it to those who hold the subject place in that great natural relationship which is the foundation of all human relationships.
The Christian wife is to be in subjection to her husband. If he is a Christian he obeys the word and she obeys him. A most excellent and delightful arrangement made according to the wisdom of God! Subjection, be it remembered, does not mean inferiority. In business partnerships two men may be equal partners and yet one is recognized as the senior with whom the final decision rests. So in the marriage bond the man has been creatorially fitted for the senior, directing place in the partnership, the woman for the subject place, though she is an heir together with her husband of the grace of life, and a sharer together with him in his exercises and prayers. If the husband loves and honours his wife as a fellow-heir and partner, and she honours and obeys him, an ideal marriage is the result.
But, as the first verse indicates, some believing women may have husbands who, not being converted, do not obey the word. In this case, the converted wife is still to act towards him as the word directs. She, at any rate, is to be a Christian woman and let her Christianity shine in her pure manner of life (v. 1Pe 3:2), her avoidance of worldly artifices for self-adornment and self-display (v. 1Pe 3:3), her meek and peaceful spirit, which is so great a thing in Gods estimation (v. 1Pe 3:4), and her subjection to him, coupled with the doing of good and a spirit of calm confidence in God (vv. 1Pe 3:5, 1Pe 3:6). By such conversation or manner of life many a husband has been won without the word.
The church, dominated by the principles of the twentieth-century world, may cut the word obey out of its marriage service, but see what you Christian wives are going to miss if you cut it out of your hearts and minds! Should your husband be unconverted you may miss the joy of winning him. Should he be a Christian, how much of the grace of life and of prayer may be forfeited.
Verse 1Pe 3:8 brings us to the final word of the apostle in connection with the matter of subjection. The gracious, gentle, humble spirit is to characterize the whole Christian company. We are never to indulge in evil or recrimination on the principle of tit for tat, but always to be in the spirit of blessing since blessing we receive from God, and this because we are left to pursue our pilgrim way under His holy government.
The principles of Gods government of His people do not change. When David wrote Psa 34:1-22, it was the age of law and Gods people were in the place of servants. Today is the age of grace and we are before God as His sons, as Gal 3:23-27, shows. Yet the apostle Peter can quote Davids words from Psa 34:1-22 as applying equally to us. We reap what we sow in the government of God; and the way to see good is to do good, as verses 1Pe 3:10-13 of our chapter show. Many a disagreeable event in our lives is clearly the result of our own disagreeableness. If we sowed more good we should reap more good.
At this point let us notice the remarkable way in which the apostle has set before us in its main outlines the truth set forth typically and in historical fashion in the books of Moses.
Genesis is the book of ELECTION. It shows us how God chose Abel and Seth and not Cain, Shem and not Ham. Abram and not Nahor, Isaac and not Ishmael, Jacob and not Esau, Joseph and not Reuben, Ephraim and not Manasseh. Peter brings before us first of all Gods electing mercy (1Pe 1:2).
Exodus is the book of REDEMPTION. Israel was redeemed out of Egypt, and brought to God. Peter proceeds to tell us how we have been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ and brought to God with our faith and hope in Him (1Pe 1:18-21).
Leviticus is the book of the PRIESTHOOD. It contains directions as to sacrifices for priestly guidance, and as to customs and cleanness for priestly fitness. Thirdly, Peter sets before us the Christian priesthood, its constitution and its privileges (1Pe 1:22-25; 1Pe 2:1-10).
Numbers is the book of the WILDERNESS. It specially reveals the wilderness journey of Israel with all its vicissitudes and lessons. Fourthly, Peter instructs us as to our pilgrimage and the conduct that befits us in it (1Pe 2:11-25; 1Pe 3:1-7).
Deuteronomy is the book of the GOVERNMENT OF GOD. In it Israel were warned of the consequence of their disobedience, the reward of obedience. And we have just got to the part of the epistle in chapter 3 where Peter warns us that though we are as Christians set in the grace of God we still come under His government and have to make our reckoning with it.
Verse 1Pe 3:14 introduces another consideration. We may of course suffer for our own folly in the government of God. We may, on the other hand, be receiving blessing in the government of God, and yet be called upon to suffer for righteousness sake. If so, God guarantees our happiness in it and under it. We are not to be afraid of men but, sanctifying the Lord God (or Lord Christ as it probably is) in our hearts, to testify meekly to the truth while maintaining a good conscience by holy living.
Notice in passing how verse 1Pe 3:15 makes manifest the true force of the word sanctify. It is not primarily to make holy, for the Lord cannot be more holy than He is. He can, however, in our hearts be set apart in His own proper place of glory and supremacy and authority. To sanctify is to set apart.
Now no one ever suffered as Christ. He is our supreme Example. Yet His sufferings as verse 1Pe 3:18 presents them, were in a class by themselves and altogether beyond us, for He suffered for sins as a Substitute-the Just for the unjust ones. The actual word substitution does not occur in our English version, but that which the word represents is very clearly in this verse. Note the object of His substitutionary sufferings- that He might bring us to God, making us thoroughly at home in His presence, having a fitness to be there. Are we all in our own hearts and consciences happily at home with God?
The Lord Jesus suffered for sins even to death and He rose again by or in the Spirit, the day of His flesh being over. In the Spirit also He had preached before the flood to those who now are spirits in prison. These people who now are spirits in prison once walked the earth as men and women in Noahs day and through Noahs lips Christ in Spirit (or, the Spirit of Christ) spoke. They were disobedient, hence their present imprisonment in hades, the unseen world. The Spirit of Christ spoke in the Old Testament prophets, as we noticed when reading 1Pe 1:11. He also spoke in Noah. If any of our readers have doubts as to whether this is the correct explanation of the passage, let them turn to Eph 2:13-18. Having done so they will find that the He of verse 1Pe 3:16 (which He refers also to verse 1Pe 3:17) is undoubtedly the Lord Jesus. In verse 1Pe 3:17, you which were far off were Gentile: them that were nigh were Jews. The passage states then, that having endured the cross the Lord Jesus came and preached peace to the Gentiles. When? How? Never, in a personal way. Only by the lips of the apostles and others who were filled with His Spirit did He do so. Exactly the same figure of speech is used in this passage as in the one we are considering in Peter.
As a result of this ante-diluvian testimony of the Spirit of Christ only eight souls were saved through the waters of the flood; a tiny handful that, the merest remnant of the former age. Now baptism, which is but a figure, has just that force. The flood cut off that little remnant of the antediluvian age that through the waters of death they might be disassociated from the old world and enter the new. The converted Jews to whom Peter wrote were exactly in that position. They, too, were but a small remnant, and in their baptism they were dissociated from the mass of their nation that was under wrath and judgment, that they might come under the authority of their risen and glorified Messiah. Baptism is in figure dissociation by means of death and in that sense it saves. The Jews as a nation were like a foundering ship, and to be baptized was to formally cut ones last link with them which meant salvation from their national doom. Hence Peters words in Act 2:40. Save yourself from this untoward generation. What followed? Then they that gladly received his word were baptized.
Baptism accomplishes nothing vital and eternal, for it is a figure. It is, however, not a mere ceremonial washing as were Jewish baptisms. It is rather the answer or demand of a good conscience toward God, as we see with the eunuch and with Lydia (see Act 8:36; Act 16:15). A good conscience gladly accepts it, and even demands it, accounting it as faithfulness to the Lord to be in figure cut off from the old life, even as He was actually cut off in death; and thus identified with Him.
All, however, is only effectual by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. For if there were not really and actually a new world of life and blessing opened for us by His resurrection who would cut their links with the old? It was by the resurrection that these Christians had been begotten again to a living hope, as 1Pe 1:3 told us. They would cheerfully go down into the waters of baptism, and so bid a formal goodbye to the old Jewish footing with its impending judgment (See 1Th 2:14-16), in view of the vast range of grace and glory with its living hopes, that stood revealed to them and secured for them in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
Not only is Christ risen, however, but He is gone into heaven and is already at the right hand of God, which signifies that He is the appointed Administrator of all Gods will. A man of large business interests who has someone of great ability acting for him and carrying out his wishes, will often speak of him as my right-hand man. The Lord Jesus is indeed the Man of Thy right hand of whom the Psalmist spoke (Psa 80:17), and we have been baptized to Him and come under His authority. To Him all angels and authorities and powers are subject.
How great an encouragement for us! All these verses (15-22) have sprung, remember, out of the thought that we may have to suffer for righteousness sake. It was just when the converted Jew formally severed his links with Judaism by being baptized that he did suffer. But then being baptized to the Lord Jesus he came under the authority of the One who sat in the place of supreme authority and administration and since all powers were subject to Him, no power could touch them without His permission.
Similarly, when we, who are converted Gentiles, cut our links with the world, we have to taste suffering, but we, too, are under the mighty authority of Christ and need have no fear.
Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary
1Pe 3:1. One definition of likewise is “moreover,” denoting that the writer has something more to say, but not necessarily on the same subject he has been considering. The wives addressed are disciples who have husbands not members of the church. Wives are expected to be in subjection to their husbands regardless of their religious profession. But if the Christian wives show that they can live in obedience to their companions in marriage notwithstanding their religion, it will speak well for their profession. Be won without the word. A man might not be interested directly by the written word, but when he sees the principles of that word as practiced by his Christian wife, he may thereby be led into obedience to the truth.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Pe 3:1. In like manner, ye wives, submit yourselves. Literally, it is submitting yourselves, this conjugal duty being represented as on the same plane with the former, and simply another application of the general law stated in 1Pe 2:18.
to your own husbands. Here, as also in at least two other passages where the same charge is given, viz. Eph 5:22, Tit 2:5 (in Eph 5:24, and Col 3:18, the reading of the Received Text is insufficiently supported), the strong pronominal adjective which usually means own or proper is inserted before husbands. There is, however, no such contrast intended, as some interpreters (Steiger, etc.) imagine, between those to whom these women were united in marriage and others. The fact that in the decadence of the language the adjective lost much of its original force, makes it doubtful how much emphasis can be allowed it here. It may point, however, to the nature of the marriage relation, the legal claims, the peculiar and exclusive union which it involved, as furnishing a reason for submission (see Ellicott on Eph 5:22).
in order that even if any are disobedient to the word. By the word is meant, as at 1Pe 2:8, the sum of Revelation, or the Gospel. The verb rendered are disobedient denotes, as at 1Pe 2:7-8, the disposition that stands out positively against the truth. The case supposed is expressed as an exceptional and trying one.
they shall without word be gained by the behaviour of the wives. It would be natural to take the word to mean here exactly what it meant in the prior clause, namely, the Gospel. In that case, however, we should have to put upon the term gained the restricted sense (adopted by Schott) of won over to conjugal affection, to adherence to the wedded relation; whereas what Peter seems to have in view is the possibility of Christian wives winning over their heathen husbands to the Christian faith, and that under unfavourable circumstances. As it would be strange indeed (in view of Rom 10:14-17) to find an apostle contemplating the possibility of a conversion to Christ without the instrumentality of the Gospel, it is necessary to suppose that there is a kind of play upon the words here, the same term being used (by a figure of speech known to grammarians as antanaclasis) with different meanings. So Bengel briefly explains the term word as meaning in the first instance the Gospel, in the second, talk. The Syriac Version here renders it without trouble. Wycliffe rightly gives without word. Tyndale, Cranmer, the Genevan, and the Rhemish all have without the word. Notice, also, how the old English sense of conversation (as = conduct) appears in the A. V. here, and how the verb which our old English versions agree in translating won here is the one which is used by our Lord in Mat 18:15 (thou hast gained thy brother ), and by Paul in 1Co 9:19-21 (that I might gain the more, etc.). Leighton speaks of a soul thus gained to Jesus Christ as added to His treasury, who thought not His own precious blood too dear to lay out for this gain. The idea, therefore, is that, even in those most unpromising cases where the heathen husband steeled himself against the power of Gods own Word, the Christian wife might haply win him over to Christianity by the silent persuasion of a blameless life, without word of hers. Where the preached Word failed, the voiceless eloquence of pure and consistent wifely behaviour might prevail, without labour of spoken argument or appeal. And the possibility of such victories of patience should encourage the wife to a wifely submission which might be hard to natural inclination. Compare Shakespeares
The silence often of pure innocence
Persuades, when speaking fails.
Winters Tale, 1Pe 2:2.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Our apostle having, in the foregoing chapter, entered upon an exhortation to the practice of relative duties, particularly of subjects towards their rulers, and of servants towards their masters, he continues here his exhortation to husbands and wives in the former part of this chapter, beginning first with the wives’ duty, (as did St. Paul in all his epistles,) because the duty of subjection is the most hard and difficult duty; Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands.
Observe here, 1. The duty enjoined, subjection; that is, a loving and delightful obedience to the husband, owning of and submitting to his authority, in compliance with the command of God.
Observe, 2. The persons from whom and to whom this subjection is due: from every wife to her own husband, believer or unbeliever. Christian or infidel; it is not lawful, upon any pretence whatever, for the wife to cast off this duty, which by the law of her creation, and the express command of God, is bound upon her.
Observe, 3. One special reason assigned why such wives as have unbelieving, wicked, and unconverted husbands, should take particular care to express that fear and reverence towards God, subjection and obedience, that chastity and conjugal affection towards their husbands, which the word of God calls for; namely, that such husbands as obey not the word, may without the word (preached) be won to the faith, by observing the efficacy and power of the word in the conversation of the wives.
Learn hence, That the wives’ holy and humble, pious and prudent, meek and patient, chaste and unsuspected conversation before God and the world, does recommend not only their persons to the love and esteem of their husbands, but also their faith and holy religion, (which produces such good fruits,) to their approbation and choice: If any obey not the word be won by the conversation of the wives.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Submission Applied to Wives
Husbands are directed to love their wives, so this submission should be a happy one. This is especially true since they are to love their wives as they do their own body and as Christ loved the church and died for it. The submission enjoined by Peter is particularly directed to the Christian woman whose husband has not obeyed the gospel. Woods tells us, “Do not obey” “is translated from a term which denotes a degree of antagonism in addition to disobedience, plus an element of stubbornness. It means, literally, not to allow one’s self to be persuaded.” Such men will refuse to hear their wife’s pleadings, but may be persuaded to obey by the good example they see in her daily Christian living.
Thayer says the word “observe” means, “to look upon, view attentively; to watch.” Evidently this unbelieving husband is watching his wife to see what impact Christianity will have on her. So, her reverent (meaning of fear) subjection to him will make a good impression ( 1Pe 3:2 ). Woods notes that verses 3-4 should be regarded as a Hebraism, which is a figure of speech used to encourage others to do a good work. Just as Joh 6:27 does not forbid Christ’s followers from working for their daily bread but encourages them to count spiritual meat as far more important, so does this verse encourage a Christian woman to be most concerned with her inward, spiritual beauty. She should not give over much attention to outward appearance, but should devote herself to adorning the inward man ( Rom 7:22 ; 2Co 4:16 ). This apparel will not perish with this earth, but will last through eternity. Her jewelry should be a mildness of disposition and gentle spirit. Such a person would not be selfish, proud, or stubborn. A yielding and patient attitude will truly adorn her life. God counts such women a prized possession.
In support of his previous point, Peter recalled the lives of faithful women of the past who placed their trust in God and hoped for His promises ( Heb 11:11 ; Heb 11:23 ; Heb 11:35 ).
They cloaked their lives in quiet subjection to their husbands and service to God. Coffman does well to point out that Sarah thought of Abraham as Lord even to herself when no one else was around ( Gen 18:12 ). Her calling him Lord simply shows she was in subjection. Woods says, “whose daughters you are” is literally, “whose daughters you became.” The idea is that when they put on a meek and quiet spirit and lived in subjection they became Sarah’s daughters by being like her in action. Christian women continue to be Sarah’s daughters as long as they do the Lord’s will and do not let someone terrorize them into failing to continue in calm obedience ( 1Pe 3:5-6 ).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
1Pe 3:1-2. Likewise As I have exhorted servants to be in subjection to their masters, I in like manner say, Ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands In all things just and lawful; that if any (he speaks tenderly) obey not the word Disbelieve and reject the gospel; they also may, without the word Though they neglect or reject that means of grace; be won by the conversation The good behaviour of the wives That is, be gained over to Christ. Here St. Peter wisely intimates to the women, that the silent, but powerful persuasion of a becoming behaviour, would be more effectual in winning their unbelieving husbands to embrace the gospel, than many arguments, proposed perhaps with heat, for the purpose of convincing them. For when the husbands found what a happy influence the gospel had in making their wives sweet-tempered and dutiful in every respect, they could not but entertain a good opinion of a religion which produced such excellent effects. While, with admiration and increasing love, they daily behold your chaste and spotless conversation coupled with fear With a dutiful, respectful, obliging conduct, and a care not to displease.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1 Peter Chapter 3
After this general exhortation, brief but important to believers, the apostle takes up the relative walk of Christians in a world where on the one hand God watches over all, yet where He permits His own to suffer, whether for righteousness sake or for the name of Christ, but where they ought never to suffer for having done wrong. The path then of the Christian is marked out. He is subject for the Lords sake to human ordinances or institutions. He gives honour to all men, and to each in his place, so that no one shall have any reproach to bring against him. He is submissive to his masters, even if they are bad men, and yields to their ill-treatment. Were he subject only to the good and gentle, a worldly slave would do as much; but if, having done well, he suffers and bears it patiently, this is acceptable to God, this is grace. It was thus that Christ acted, and to this we are called. Christ suffered in this way, and never replied by reproaches or threats to those who molested Him, but committed Himself to Him that judges righteously. To Him we belong. He had suffered for our sins, in order that, having been delivered from them, we should live to God. These Christians from among the Jews had been as sheep going astray; [5] they were now brought back to the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls. But how entirely these exhortations, shew that the Christian is one who is not of this world, but has his own path through it: yet this path was the way of peace in it!
Likewise wives were to be subject to their husbands in all modesty and purity, in order that this testimony to the effect of the word by its fruits might take the place of the word itself, if their husbands would not listen to it. They were to rest, in patience and meekness, on the faithfulness of God, and not be alarmed at seeing the power of the adversaries. (Compare Php 1:28)
Husbands were in like manner to dwell with the wife, their affections and relationships being governed by Christian knowledge, and not by any human passion; honouring the wife, and walking, with her as being heirs together of the grace of life.
Finally, all were to walk in the spirit of peace and gentleness, carrying with them, in their intercourse with others, the blessing of which they were themselves the heirs, the spirit of which they ought consequently to bear ever with them. By following that which is good, by having the tongue governed by the fear of the Lord, by avoiding evil and seeking peace, they would in quietness enjoy the present life under the eye of God. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who, moreover, would harm them, if they followed only that which is good ?
This, then, is the government of God, the principle on which He superintends the course of this world. Nevertheless it is not now a direct and immediate government preventing all wrong. The power of evil still acts upon the earth; those who are animated by it shew themselves hostile to the righteous, and act by means of that fear which Satan is able to produce. But by giving the Lord His place in the soul, this fear which the enemy excites has no longer a place there. If the heart is conscious of the presence of God, can that heart tremble at the presence of the enemy ? This is the secret of boldness and peace in confessing Christ. Then the instruments of the enemy seek to turn us aside, and to overwhelm us by their pretensions; but the consciousness of Gods presence dissipates those pretensions, and destroys all their power. Resting on the strength of His presence, we are ready to answer those who ask the reason of our hope, with meekness and holy reverence remote from all levity. For all this it is necessary to have a good conscience. We may carry a bad conscience to God, that He may pardon and have mercy on us; but if we have a bad conscience, we cannot resist the enemy- we are afraid of him. On the one hand, we fear his malice; on the other, we have lost the consciousness of the presence and the strength of God. When walking before God, we fear nothing; the heart is free: we have not to think of self, we think of God; and the adversaries are ashamed of having falsely accused those whose conduct is unblamable, and against whom nothing can be brought except the calumny of their enemies, which calumnies turn to their own shame.
It may be that God may see it good that we should suffer. If so, it is better that we should suffer for well doing than for evil doing. The apostle gives a touching motive for this: Christ has suffered for sins once for all; let that suffice; let us suffer only for righteousness. To suffer for sin was His task; He accomplished it, and that for ever; put to death, as to His life in the flesh, but quickened according to the power of the divine Spirit.
The passage that follows has occasioned difficulties to the readers of scripture; but it appears to me simple, if we perceive the object of the Spirit of God. The Jews expected a Messiah corporeally present, who should deliver the nation, and exalt the Jews to the summit of earthly glory. But He was not present, we know, in that manner, and the believing Jews had to endure the scorn and the hatred of the unbelieving, on account of their trust in a Messiah who was not present, and who had wrought no deliverance for the people. Believers possessed the salvation of their soul, and they knew Jesus in heaven; but unbelieving men did not care for that. The apostle therefore cites the case of Noahs testimony. The believing Jews were few in number, and Christ was theirs only according to the Spirit. By the power of that Spirit He had been raised up from the dead. It was by the power of the same Spirit that He had gone-without being corporeally present-to preach in Noah. The world was disobedient (like the Jews in the apostles days), and eight souls only were saved; even as the believers were now but a little flock. But the spirits of the disobedient were now in prison, because they did not obey Christ present among them by His Spirit in Noah. The long-suffering of God waited then, as now, with the Jewish nation; the result would be the same. It has been so.
This interpretation is confirmed (in preference to that which supposes that the Spirit of Christ preached in hades to souls which had been confined there ever since the flood) by the consideration that in Genesis it is said, My Spirit shall not always strive. with men but their days shall be a hundred and twenty years. That is to say, His Spirit should strive, in the testimony of Noah, during a hundred and twenty years and no longer. Now it would be an extraordinary thing that with those persons only (for he speaks only of them) the Lord should strive in testimony after their death. Moreover, we may observe that, in considering this expression to mean the Spirit of Christ in Noah, we only use a well-known phrase of Peters; for he it is, as we have seen, who said, The Spirit of Christ which was in the prophets.
These spirits then are in prison, because they did not hearken to the Spirit of Christ in Noah. (Compare 2Pe 2:5-9.) To this the apostle adds, the comparison of baptism to the ark of Noah in the deluge. Noah was saved through the water; we also; for the water of baptism typifies death, as the deluge, so to speak, was the death of the world. Now Christ has passed through death and is risen. We enter into death in baptism; but it is like the ark, because Christ suffered in death for us, and has come out of it in resurrection, as Noah came out of the deluge, to begin, as it were, a new life in a resurrection world. Now Christ, having passed through death, has atoned for sins; and we, by passing through it in spirit, leave all our sins in it, as Christ did in reality for us; for He was raised up without the sins which He expiated on the cross. And they were our sins; and thus, through the resurrection, we have a good conscience. We pass through death in spirit and in figure by baptism. The peace-giving force of the thing is the resurrection of Christ, after He had accomplished expiation; by which resurrection therefore we have a good conscience.
Now this is what the Jews had to learn. The Christ was gone up to heaven, all powers and principalities being made subject to Him. He is at the right hand of God. We have therefore not a Messiah on earth, but a good conscience and a heavenly Christ.
Footnotes for 1 Peter Chapter 2
4: In this passage, so to speak (as in this alone), Peter meets the doctrine of the assembly, and that under the character of a building, not of a body or a bride; that which Christ built, not what was united to Him. So Paul also presents it to us in Eph 2:20-21. In this view, though going on on earth, it is Christs work and a continuing process; no human instrumentality is referred to: I will build, says Christ; it grows, says Paul; living stones come, says Peter. This must not be confounded with the building into which men may build wood and hay and stubble, as the same thing; though the outward thing which God set up good, left to mans responsibility, as, ever, was soon corrupted. Individuals are built up by grace, and it grows into a holy temple. All this refers to Mat 16:1-28. The responsibility of human service in this respect is found in 1Co 3:1-23, and the assembly is there given in another point of view. The body is another thing altogether, the doctrine is taught in Eph 1:1-23; Eph 2:1-22; Eph 3:1-21; Eph 4:1-32.; 1Co 12:1-31., and other passages.
5: An allusion, I suppose, to the last verse of Psa 119:176.The apostle constantly puts the Christian Jews on the ground of the blessed remnant, only making it a soul salvation..
Fuente: John Darby’s Synopsis of the New Testament
ARGUMENT 13
THE TRULY SANCTIFIED WIFE AND HER UNSANCTIFIED HUSBAND
1, 2. Likewise ye wives, being submissive to your own husbands, in order that if any obey not the Word they shall be gained through the deportment of their wives without the Word, seeing your holy deportment which is with fear. The infidel is the hardest soul to save this side the pit, from the simple fact that he utterly rejects the Word of God, the normal medium of salvation. The extremes include all intervening cases. Hence, if this wife can save her infidel husband without the Word, she can certainly save her husband unconditionally. Though in his infidelity he may utterly reject the Bible, yet he reads in the holy character of his wife an incarnation of the living Word, is convicted and brought to repentance, when his infidelity takes wings and flies away, leaving him in the arms of Jesus, gloriously saved, along with his wife, rejoicing in God, delighted with His Word.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
1Pe 3:1-6. Ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands. The same words occur in Eph 5:22. Col 3:18. The excellence of piety is pleaded here, as the first ornament of a wife. Wisdom connected with the culture of the mind and all the adornings of the christian temper; a chaste behaviour, a fear, and a cautious prudence. These will gain a husband to the Lord more than the monthly fashions of dress. The example of Sarah is adduced, whom all the Hebrew women revered as a model of virtue. A woman devoid of wisdom, and of female graces, only renders her folly more conspicuous by splendour of dress. Pro 11:22. It is a standing complaint against religious women of the present age, that their dresses are too expensive, and often bordering upon immodesty.
1Pe 3:8-9. Be ye all of one mind. Unity is the glory of the church. While fear and self-interest bind the world in chains, love reigns among the saints. Antichrist has many children, restless spirits, and disturbers of all repose. All is wrong, according to them, in government, in commerce, and in the church, because the sceptre of the world is not in their hands.
1Pe 3:10-13. He that will love life, and see good days, let him avoid evil, do good, and pursue peace. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous; they are his children, and the heirs of glory. He delights in them, and calls them by his own name. The Lords portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. His face is against all that do evil. Who then is he that shall harm [hurt] you, if you are followers of that which is good?
1Pe 3:15. Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh, a reason of the hope that is in you, or the ground on which your faith is built. The candidates for baptism were well-instructed in the christian faith by catechists. In this age, our unbelievers are well-read in books hostile to revelation, and nothing can be more imprudent than to let our young men go out into the world unarmed. What can we expect but an abdication of the faith they were never taught to defend? The best books I know on this subject are, Jenkins reasonableness of christianity, Addisons evidences, bishop Bulls analogy, and bishop Watsons defence. Paleys abridgment of Lardner is written on socinian principles. Calmets Dictionary, once so excellent, is now empoisoned with English unitarianism, and German neology.
1Pe 3:18-19. Quickened by the Spirit: by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison. The apostle here asserts that those who obstinately perished in the flood of Noah, were in the prison of hell; and for this assertion he knew he had the consent of the jewish nation. The sanhedrim taught that the generation of the flood have no portion in the world to come, neither shall they stand up in judgment; for it is said my Spirit shall not always strive with man. Hence Peter intimates that the Spirit which strove with the old world was the Spirit of Messiah. See note on chap. 1Pe 4:6. Dr. Lightfoot. The plain interpretation of this passage, observes bishop Pearson, is the true one; namely, that Christ preached to those men who lived before the flood, even while they lived, and consequently that He was before it. For though this was not done by an immediate act of the Son of God, as if he had personally appeared on earth, and actually preached to that old world; but by the ministry of a prophet, by the sending of Noah, a preacher of righteousness; yet to do anything by another, not able to perform it without him, as much demonstrates the existence of the principal cause, as if he did it of himself without any intervening instrument.
1Pe 3:21-22. The like figure, even baptism, doth now save us. Some important ideas must here be associated, to illustrate the allusion. We are not saved by the putting away of corporeal defilement, but by being buried with Christ by baptism unto death, and by rising with him to newness of life. Thus in 1Co 10:2, the Israelites are said to be baptized to Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They came out of the sea and out of the cloud, as it were, a new people, sprinkled with the blood of the covenant. The atonement of Christ, offered up in the end of the world, had a retrospective influence, and removed all their sins. The washing of the new birth, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, lead to righteousness of life, which is the correspondence of a good conscience, by keeping our garments unspotted from the flesh. This new life is associated with seeking the things that are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of the Father. Such are the arguments used by the apostle in several places. Col 3:1; Col 3:4. Rom 6:3; Rom 6:12. Tit 3:5.
REFLECTIONS.
The moral obligations of the christian life are here enforced with weighty reasons, and paternal dignity. Certainly, as the world have no means of judging of the work of grace on the heart but by our actions, we ought to walk worthy of the Lord unto all well-pleasing. Christianity should produce domestic happiness; the heads of families being well instructed in domestic duties, felicities follow in every form, and the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife.
The religiously educated female seeking to please the Lord, and to value mental accomplishments, will place dress in a humble scale of her enjoyments. If she can but walk the streets unnoticed, or appear in the congregation with decency, she obtains the boon of all her wishes. Why decorate the flesh, which very soon shall be the feast of worms? If we delight in the Lord, he also will delight in us. The church is his family, his garden, his temple, where he delights to dwell. His eyes are over the righteous for good, and his cares are unremitting. He neither slumbers nor sleeps.
And why should we seek to please the world? They slander us as evildoers, we have daily to endure their reproaches, and the best answer we can give is that of a blameless life. The model of all passive, and of all suffering virtues, is in the Saviour. The jewish priesthood pursued him through life for evil, and he pursued them for good. He most luminously answered all their arguments against his miracles, wrought on the sabbath day. He impartially reproved their sins in order to conversion; and when they requited all his labours of love with the pains of the cross, he meekly bowed his head, and gave his life for our redemption. Yea, he descended into the lower parts of the earth, and was quickened by the same Spirit which he has sent down to quicken our souls from the death of sin to a life of righteousness.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Pe 3:1-7. This counsel to wives and husbands is full of a fine courtesy, and true chivalry, and shows how the new leaven is at work in the thought of the Church. It is not only a contrast to paganism, but has the essence of a real advance upon Judaism, even though the example of Sarah is cited; and the claim of obedient Christian wives to be her spiritual children is almost as highly thought of, as the place of all Christians as children of Abraham is by Paul. Faithful, wise, and loving wives are regarded as the best missionaries, who may win, without a word, those who despise the Word. Deeds are more eloquent than speech.
The peculiar vanities of pagan society are deprecated, and a full idea of Christian womanhood set up. Men are granted their rights in a fuller way than modern thought would recognise them, but they are reminded that these rights mean responsibilities, and the claim upon them for consideration and protection of the physically weaker. In Christ there is neither male nor female, and so this fellowship must be true in spirit, if it is to make for godliness.
1Pe 3:6. put in fear: this probably denotes anxieties and worries of all kindsthe writer urges a calm and trustful attitude as the ideal.
1Pe 3:7. your prayers: either those of the husband alone, which would be hindered (Jas 5:4) by the injured wifes complaints to God, or the prayers of both in fellowship, which cannot be offered truly, if there is lack of harmony in spirit.hindered: some MSS. read a stronger word, which differs only by one letter and means cut off.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
There is similar instruction for wives, for theirs is the subject place, certainly not as slaves to a master, but as joined to their “own husbands,” a most-intimate and precious relationship. Because he is her “own,” this is an incentive for her genuine, heartfelt subjection. Of course, if he demands that she do wrong, she must not submit to this; but otherwise a spirit of cheerful subjection is that which honors her Lord. Her husband may be an unbeliever, not obeying the Word of God. But she is to obey nevertheless, for it may be that by this very means the husband will be won to the Lord. Her godly subjection pervading her entire manner of life is itself an evidence of the power of the Word of God over her; and she may win him without preaching the Word to him. This is much more becoming on the part of a wife. It is called “chaste conversation coupled with fear,” in other words, a manner of life free from adulteration, having the wholesome fear of God in view.
And let her guard against mere outward adornment. No doubt it was common then, as It is now, that women would draw attention to themselves by branding ornaments into their hair, wearing of expensive clothing and jewelry. Certainly it is no virtue to wear slovenly or careless dress; but neither Is showy attire becoming. Generally speaking, one should be desirous of wearing what will not draw undue attention. For it is pride that desires attention, whatever direction it may take.But much more precious than outward show, there is an adornment the opposite of this, connected with the inner motives of the heart, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. In this is real and eternal value, no corruptibility, and of great price in the sight of God. How infinitely more precious is this then the pretty baubles that may for the moment dazzle people’s eyes!
And we are reminded of the example of holy women of old, who trusted in God. Certainly, even then, there were women whose character was totally contrary, but they are sunk In oblivion, compared to those whose record is in the word of God as having a refreshing spirit of faith in God and subjection to their own husbands. Let us not fall into the devil’s prevalent snare today, of considering such godly women as being “out of date:” their example remains in its moral beauty just as applicable to present day needs as to their own day.
Sara is specially singled out, the wife of Abraham, the man of faith. She is herself symbolical of the fruitful principle of grace operative in subjection to God. She obeyed Abraham, calling him “Lord.” The occasion of this is seen In Gen 18:12, when Sara spoke within herself, not audibly: which shows that this was a willing, habitual practice, not adopted because of others listening. Wives are then in practical reality daughters of Sara when living in true subjection. But subjection is not “consternation.” or terror; it has in it rather the calm dignity of faith and of courage, not a slavish servility.
And husbands are certainly not to take advantage of their wives because of their subject place. They are rather to “dwell them (not above them) according to knowledge, in sober recognition of what is right and proper. And because the wife is physically the weaker vessels the husband is to give her honor for the stronger is certainly responsible to support the weaker. Let him show every true consideration for her welfare. In the world today, because! of man’s abuse of his authority, women have suffered, and now have turned in resentment of this, demanding equal rights, etc. But neither of these abuses is right and Christians, whether men or women, should properly realize their place, and keep it, also faithfully discharging the responsibilities of that place.
Husband and wife then are to consider themselves “heirs together of the grace of life.” This is not heirs in reference to blessing (of which Rom 8:17 speaks), but, in reference to receiving from God present grace to live in devoted obedience to Him. Let us make full use of this precious heritage of “the Grace of life.” In this spirit of proper consideration for one another there is a preserving character, so that the prayers of the husband and wife together are not hindered.
Verses 8 and 9 are general exhortation, covering all relationships. To be all of one mind will require setting aside of personal preferences and desires, in genuine consideration for others. This in fact is “”the mind of Christ.” Compare Php 2:5. “”Sympathizing one with another” involves solicitous concern as to the trials of each other. And to this added the warmth of love, “as brethren.’ ‘Be pitiful” is better rendered “tender-hearted,” in contrast to callousness. “Courteous” or “humble-minded” is a quality not common in the world, but Precious. And the warning is given, which requires no little repetition, not to return evil for evil. If I do so, I reduce myself to the same level as the offender. Indeed, I ought to return positive “blessing,” that which is good, for in this God is rightly represented. And we ourselves have been called out of a state of evil and shame, that we might inherit a blessing from Him.Beginning with this verses, we see that there will be governmental results from God in reference to the conduct of believers, whether it is good or bad. If one will love life (that is, life in its true pure character) and see good days, let him first guard his own tongue and lips. The tongue is to refrain from evil that which is harmful in whatever way; and the lips are to be kept from guile, that which gives wrong impressions it may not be a direct lie, but is deceitful nevertheless.
In reference to loving life, it may be questioned as to the Lord’s words in Joh 12:2-5. “He that loveth his live shall lose it.” But this is His life, involving the motives of selfish clinging to his earthly life, which he must at any rate give up. Loving life, on the other hand, as in our verse, is delighting in what is really life, a character of purity and goodness that does not corrupt.
But as well as in words, one is told in conduct to avoid evil, that which will cause harm in God’s creation. The word is used commonly, whether referring to moral. spiritual, physical, or material harm. Avoiding accidents is certainly included in this. But on the other hand, we are told positively to do good. There is certainly enough good to be done that we should not even have time to do evil. Added to this is seeking peace, the grace of concordant well-being, in whatever relationships we are; and “pursuing it” with diligent purpose
“For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous.” This means, not only perfect discernment of every motives but watchful care in preservation. It is true that in principle every believer is seen as righteous in Christ, but Peter is insisting that he should be this in practice, if he is to experience God’s approving eye upon him; and the same as regards God’s ears being open to his prayers, which involves, not only hearings but hearing with approval, and answering. For a contrary character will reap contrary results. God’s face will show no approval of evil, and our siding with it in any degree will incur His serious displeasure. These verses are quoted from Psa 34:12-16; and God’s government is no less serious today than when David first wrote this.
It is questioned also as to who will harm them if they are followers of what is good. Generally speaking such conduct will incur no opposition: such at least is the normal state of affairs.
On the other hand, if an abnormal state should exist, one might suffer for doing right. In this case, our attitude is of utmost importance if we are to rightly represent God. “Happy are ye.” For God’s eye of precious approval is upon such as suffer in genuine patience under these circumstances. Not merely are we to bear it in resigned patience, but to rejoice, for God takes full account of this. No matter how vindictive and cruel the enemy, the believer is told not to be afraid, nor even troubled. Certainly only faith can act upon this but what is more reasonable than faith, and what more normal for the child of God?
“But sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts.” For Christ is in reality absolutely sanctified, set apart from all that is in the world, sublime in holiness and truth. Let each believer think of Him as such, giving Him His place of solitary dignity and glory. Along with this, he should be ready to give a clear, true answer to any inquirer who is interested in the reason for which one gives evidence that he has a hope not connected with this world. But the answer is to be given with meekness and fear, a sober realization of the holy reality of God’s sovereign work being involved in this marvelous matter.If our confession is to be convincing to others, we must also have a good conscience as regards our own practical conduct; for if this is so, however false and wicked the accusations of men may be, usually this will only eventually expose their own shame. Notice in this section (v.10 to 16) that the word “good” is used five times, the last, “good conversation” involving all behavior.
For if it is God’s will that we suffer (and only He rightly discerns such necessity), how much better that the suffering should be on account of well-doing, rather than the opposite. Faith sees the long-range value of this.
Moreover, it is inconsistent that a believer should suffer for wrong-doing, because his Lord has already suffered for sins at Calvary, indeed as the Just One taking the place of the unjust, in order to bring us to God. Our sins have Incurred the unutterable agony of the Lord of glory, that He might take them away completely, and present us in righteousness before His God and Father. Why then should a believer return in the least degree to that which gave Christ His agony? Now that we are saved, how much rather should we suffer gladly for doing good?
In the flesh our Lord has suffered death (not only sorrow, trouble and distress); but in the Spirit He has been quickened, made alive, as we know Him today, indeed “in the power of an endless life.”
Notice that, not only His death, but His resurrection is seen as an established fact before verses 19 and 20 present the historical facts of what transpired at the time of the flood. For some have sought to insert verse 19 between the time of the death and resurrection of Christ. This view is false; for we are told Christ was quickened before we are told the fact, of vs. 19. Plainly therefore, verses 19 and 20 go back to past history.
The same Spirit in which Christ was quickened was that in which He had, at the time of Noah, preached to those who are now spirits in prison. Just as the Spirit of Christ was in Old Testament prophets (1Pe 1:10-11), so He was in Noah, who preached while the ark was preparing. (Compare 2Pe 2:5)
Verse 20 is decisive as to the time of this preaching, that is, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing.” It is totally unscriptural to say that at His death Christ went into the regions of the lost to preach to them. For when He died, His body went into the grave, while His spirit he committed to the Father; and this was “in paradise, the third heaven.” Compare Luk 23:43 and 2Co 12:2-4.
Therefore it was at the time of the disobedience of these spirits (who are now in prison) that Christ preached to them. The effective results of that preaching had been very small, only eight souls saved by water; but however small, it was a testimony to the, faithfulness and grace of God. Believers are not in the majority, but are infinitely blessed by God.
This being “saved by water” is a figure of eternal salvation; and baptism today is a similar figure. Noah and his family were saved out of an ungodly world, a type of eternal salvation. Baptism saves in a similar way, not for eternity but from a world that rejects the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, Peter told exercised Jews, ‘Save yourselves from this low untoward generation.” (Act 2:40) By being baptized they in this way publicly dissociated themselves from their own nations which had rejected the Messiah. Of course, baptism symbolizes burial (Rom 6:4) in association with Christ’s death; so while baptism saves outwardly, it is only a figure of that which saves eternally that is, the precious sacrifice of Christ, the value of which is only made good to the soul by faith in Him.We have seen that baptism saves only in an outward way; and it is interesting that the true translation here is “baptism doth also now save you;” (New Trans.); not us as in the King James. There was no reason for either Peter or the other 11 apostles being baptized with Christian baptism; for they had been publicly identified with Christ from the beginning of His ministry.
But baptism is “not the putting away of the filth of the flesh.” Being merely a material form, it cannot accomplish any moral result, nor is it intended to. But it is “the demand as before God, of a good conscience.” (See New Translation and note.) It expressed the desire or demand of a good conscience it does not itself give a good conscience, but since baptism is “unto Christ,” it points to Him who does give a good conscience. This is intimated in the last phrase, “by the resurrection of Christ.” Baptism would be meaningless if Christ had not rise., (1Co 15:29) But baptism is only the form that symbolizes something, infinitely better.
It is intended then to direct the heart away from the mere form itself, away from self, to the Person of Christ raised from the dead, ascended to heaven, seated at the right hand of God, with the highest created beings (angels) and authorities and powers all made subject to Him.
This is in answer to having once taken the lowest place in suffering for sins (v.18). This being so, then how gladly should the believer willingly suffer for well-doing; the end in view is marvelous beyond description.
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
2. Wives.
(Vv. 1, 2). The apostle proceeds to exhort believers in the marriage relationship. The outstanding mark of the Christian wife should be subjection to her husband. In carrying out this exhortation we may learn how greatly a consistent Christian life can influence the unconverted. The unbelieving husband, who refuses to listen to the word of God, may be won by beholding the life of his wife lived in all purity and the fear of God.
(Vv. 3, 4). If, however, the wife is to live rightly with the husband, she must live in spirit before God. Her adorning is not to be after the passing fashions of this world, which only seek to make the woman outwardly attractive in the sight of men, while of necessity having nothing to say to the moral character, which is of great value in the sight of God. The Christian wife is to think rather of that which God sees – the hidden man of the heart – and adorn herself with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. This is the opposite of the vanity and self-assertiveness of the flesh which ever seeks prominence for self. Moreover, this meek and quiet spirit is to be cherished in the heart, in the sight of God. If cultivated there, it will surely form a meek and quiet character before God and men. There may be at times the affectation of a meek and quiet manner, but this is of little value unless it is the outcome of a meek and quiet spirit. Only that which comes from the hidden man of the heart will rightly affect the life.
(Vv. 5, 6). Holy women of old are cited as examples for Christian women today. They trusted in God, adorned themselves with meekness and quietness of spirit, and were in subjection to their husbands. Sarah proved her obedience and subjection to her husband by calling him lord, according to the custom of that day. Wives that trust in God, obey their husbands, and do well without fear of consequences, are characteristically children of Sarah.
3. Husbands.
(V. 7). The Christian husband is to dwell with his wife according to the knowledge of the relationship as instituted by God, and not simply according to human thoughts or customs. He is to honour her as the more fragile being, and therefore requiring greater care and protection. Whatever differences there may be as to constitution, they are heirs together of the grace of life. The husband is therefore to pay all honour to the wife, so that no cloud may arise between them to hinder their prayers.
4.
The Christian Circle
(1Pe 3:8; 1Pe 3:9)
(V. 8). Having given special exhortations for Christians in their individual relationships, the apostle finally exhorts us as to the qualities that should mark the Christian circle in which all believers have their part.
The world around is full of discord, but in the Christian circles there should be unity: Be ye all of one mind. From other Scriptures we learn that one mind in the Christian company can only be attained by each individual having the lowly mind – the mind that was in Christ Jesus (Php 2:2-5). Nearly all the discord among believers can be traced back to the unjudged vanity and self-importance of the flesh that ever seeks to be prominent and accounted great (Luk 22:24). Apart from having the mind of Christ we shall either be in conflict or form a false unity after our own ideas.
Having one mind, and that the mind of the Lord, will naturally lead us to have compassion one of another. The Lord’s compassions fail not; they are new every morning (Lam 3:22; Lam 3:23). Very small differences between brethren may be allowed to wither up our compassions. If, then, our compassions are not to fail, the motive behind them must be love. Therefore the exhortation follows, Love as brethren. This is not love after a human fashion as in natural relationships, however right in their place, but love as linked together in the divine relationships of the family of God.
Divine love will lead the Christian to be tender-hearted and humble-minded. In human love there is often a strong element of selfishness. Divine love will lead us to feel the sorrows of others while forgetting self. So Christ, not thinking of His own comfort or safety, can go into Judaea where men sought to kill Him, to weep with the two sorrowing sisters (Joh 11:8; Joh 11:35).
(V. 9). If, alas, one may seek to harm us, or rail against us, we are not to render evil for evil, or railing for railing, but, contrari-wise, blessing. Our practical life in the Christian circle is to be governed by the fact that we are called to inherit blessing. In the sense of the grace that has so richly blessed us we should be ready to bless others even if they have railed upon us.
If these simple injunctions were carried out, there would be the setting forth of the excellencies of Christ in the circle of His people. What are these injunctions but the setting forth of the loveliness of Christ! He walked through this world with the lowly mind; His hand was ever stretched out in compassion, moved by a heart filled with divine love. No one was ever so tender-hearted and humble-minded as Christ. Never did He render evil for evil; on the contrary, He dispensed blessing to those of whom He had to say, They have rewarded Me evil for good, and hatred for My love (Psa 109:5).
5.
The Moral Government of God
(1Pe 3:10-13)
(Vv. 10-13). Having enjoined upon us the beautiful Christ-like character that should mark the Christian company, the apostle encourages us to embrace whole-heartedly the Christian life, and refuse evil, by reminding us of the unchanging principles of the moral government of God. The essence of government, whether human or divine, is to protect and bless those who work good and punish those who do evil. With man corruption and violence may too often mar his government, so that the good may suffer and the wicked escape. With God all is perfect; His government is exercised without respect of persons, rendering to every man, believer or unbeliever, according to his deeds.
The grace of God does not set aside the government of God; we do not escape the government of God by becoming Christians. Though the subjects of grace, it is still true that we reap what we sow. We cannot use Christianity to cover evil.
Christianity sets before us a life of blessedness lived in communion with God. This life was lived in perfection by the Lord Jesus, as set forth in the path of life, traced in Psalm 16, a life which has its deep spiritual joy, for the Lord can say of this life, The lines have fallen unto Me in pleasant places. If, then, the believer would live this life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. In so doing, he will find, in the government of God, that he is blessed, whereas the one that does evil will suffer, for, according to the immutable principles of God’s government, the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. Moreover, who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? Even the world can appreciate the man that quietly pursues his way doing good.
It may, however, be asked, if doing good leads to prosperity and doing evil to punishment, how is it that in this world so often the godly suffer, and those who do evil appear to prosper? How is it that in this very Epistle that tells us that God’s favour is upon the righteous we have the sufferings of God’s people brought before us in greater detail than in any other Scripture? How is it that, immediately following the passage that promises good days as the outcome of doing good, we read of the possibility of suffering for doing good?
Such questions are answered if we remember that during this day of grace the government of God is moral, and not generally direct and immediate. It is truly a moral government in the sense that good is rewarded by spiritual blessing rather than by material prosperity, so that, while the apostle puts before us the possibility of suffering for righteousness’ sake, he can still add, happy are ye.
God’s government is not now generally direct, for the sorrow and punishment that are the consequences of evil are not always immediate and visible. To see the final outcome of God’s government – whether in the blessing of those who work good or in the punishment of the evildoer – we must look beyond the present time and wait for the world to come.
While the government of God goes on in all its absolute perfection, it is at the moment largely hidden, and one has said, It needs faith to accept the fact that God’s moral government prevails above all the confusion. Let the believer remember that, in spite of all appearances to the contrary, it ever remains true that doing good will lead to blessing and sorrow. Both the blessing and the sorrow may be experienced in measure now, but the blessing will be fully known in the world to come.
6.
Suffering for Righteousness’ Sake
(1Pe 3:14 – 1Pe 4:7)
In the first chapter we are reminded that the believer may suffer under the chastening of God for the trial of his faith. In the second chapter we further learn that he may be called to suffer for conscience’ sake (1Pe 2:19). This portion of the Epistle has the great theme of suffering for righteousness’ sake.
The Christian is viewed as following in the steps of Christ (1Pe 2:21), and, so doing, he walks as a stranger and a pilgrim through this world; he abstains from the fleshly lusts that war against the soul; he refrains from speaking guile; he avoids evil and does good; he seeks peace. Thus walking, according to the government of God, he will be in favour of the Lord, and escape in large measure the troubles that men bring upon themselves through their evil ways. Nevertheless, in an evil world the Christian may have to suffer for righteousness’ sake, clearly indicating that the government of God will not always be fully manifest until righteousness will reign in the millennial days. The devil is not yet banished from the world, and evil still prevails, so that, while the pursuit of righteousness will ever meet with the favour of God, it may entail opposition from man if, by doing right, the Christian interferes with the interests of the men of the world.
(V. 14). If, then, we are called upon to suffer for righteousness’ sake, we are not to bemoan our lot, but rather rejoice, even as Paul and Silas, when persecuted at Philippi, could at midnight sing praises to God, though unjustly cast into prison because they had crossed the interests of some evilly-disposed men. There is, however, the danger of yielding to an unrighteous course through fear of consequences. We are therefore warned against the fear of man, and being troubled by the dread of what may happen if we do right.
(V. 15). Our safeguard against yielding to unrighteousness will be found in sanctifying the Lord in our hearts. By giving the Lord His rightful place in our hearts, we shall be conscious of the presence of the Lord to support us in the presence of men. We shall thus not only escape the temptation to yield to what we know to be wrong in order to escape trouble, but we shall be enabled to render a positive testimony to the truth, giving a reason for our hope with meekness and fear. Acting in a spirit of meekness we shall not offend by seeking to assert ourselves and our opinions; acting in fear before God we shall be bold to maintain the truth. While we are not to be afraid of man’s fear (verse 14), it becomes us to walk in the holy fear of God.
(V. 16). Moreover, to suffer for righteousness’ sake, and witness a good conscience before men, demands a good conscience before God and men. If with a bad conscience we attempt to stand before the enemy, it will only be to court shame and defeat. With a conscience void of offence we shall, by our consistent Christian conduct, put to shame those who falsely accuse us.
(Vv. 17, 18). It is clear, then, that believers may have to suffer for well-doing, but, even so, let us remember it is the will of God. The evilly-disposed will of man may cause the suffering, but the will of God allows the suffering. Our concern should be to learn God’s mind in the suffering, remembering that it is better to suffer for well doing than for evil doing. If we fail and do wrong, it is surely right that we suffer for it, rather than that it should be passed over. There can, however, be no excuse for the Christian doing wrong, and having to suffer, seeing that Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. Being brought to God, justified from all our sins, it is our privilege to live a new life in the Spirit, and thus do good, even though at times we may have to suffer for well-doing.
(Vv. 19, 20). In order to sustain these Jewish believers in their special sufferings, the apostle draws a parallel between their day and the days before the flood. Christ was not personally present then, yet He preached to men by the Spirit of God through Noah (Gen 6:3; 2Pe 2:5). Today Christ is no longer present on earth, but the Holy Spirit has come, and the Gospel is being preached by the servants of the Lord (Act 1:8). In Noah’s day the great mass was disobedient to the preaching, and their spirits are now in prison awaiting the yet greater judgment of the dead. So too the great mass of the Jewish nation entirely rejected the preaching of Christ by the Spirit (Act 7:51-53). In the days before the flood, it was the time of the long-suffering of God, in which God waited to bless men before the judgment fell; so the present time is the day of God’s grace that precedes the coming judgment.
In the days of the flood a few were saved from the judgment that came upon the world; so today a remnant is saved from the governmental judgment that has overwhelmed the nation of Israel, and the yet greater judgment that is coming upon the living and the dead (1Pe 4:5).
The few who escaped the judgment in Noah’s day were saved through water. The whole world of Noah’s day was under the judgment of death by the deluge. Noah, and those with him, escaped the judgment by passing through the waters of judgment. Christ has passed through death and is risen, and the believer is clear of judgment as having passed through the judgment in the Person of his substitute. Noah came into a new world, free of judgment; so Christ is risen and beyond judgment, and the believer’s conscience is relieved of all dread of the judgment he deserves by seeing that he is as clear of all his sins before God, and of their judgment, as Christ Himself.
(V. 21). This separation from a guilty world, and escape from judgment in passing through the waters of judgment, is clearly set forth in picture in the story of the flood. Further, the apostle tells us that these great truths are also set forth in figure in baptism. We have, then, in this passage the picture in the flood, the figure in baptism, and the fact in the death and resurrection of Christ. In baptism we pass through the water, and thus in figure are separated from the world under judgment, to come into a new sphere beyond judgment. Alluding to the ceremonial washing under the law, the apostle warns us that, in his reference to baptism, he is not using it as a figure of the outward ceremonial cleansing of the body by Levitical washings, but as a figure of the death of Christ by which we obtain a good conscience before God.
(V. 22). In the closing verse of the chapter we see how complete is the salvation that is ours by the death and resurrection of Christ. It is set forth in Christ as a Man in heaven set in the place of supreme power – the right hand of God – with every other power made subject to Him. Christ has been into death and judgment, and has so perfectly triumphed that no power in the universe can prevent His taking a place in glory.
Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible
3:1 Likewise, {1} ye wives, [be] in subjection to your own husbands; {2} that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;
(1) In the third place he sets forth the wives’ duties to their husbands, commanding them to be obedient.
(2) He speaks namely of those who had husbands who were not Christians, who ought so much the more be subject to their husbands, that by their honest and chaste conversation, they may win them to the Lord.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
3. Wives’ respect for their husbands 3:1-6
Having explained before how Christians should conduct themselves in the world, Peter next gave directions about how Christian wives and husbands should behave. He did this to help his readers identify appropriate conduct in family life during times of suffering as well as at other times.
". . . he [Peter] discusses husbands and wives, and unlike the Pauline Haustafeln, he omits references to children. The reason for this omission is simple: He probably did not consider children who had one believing parent outside the true people of God (i.e., the nations), whereas the husbands of some Christian women certainly were. Peter’s concern at this point is not life within the Christian community, but life at those points where the Christian community interfaces with the world around it. . . .
"But what was probably surprising to the original readers is that here in a seemingly traditional ethical section wives are addressed at all. In that society women were expected to follow the religion of their husbands; they might have their own cult on the side, but the family religion was that of the husband. Peter clearly focuses his address on women whose husbands are not Christians (not that he would give different advice to women whose husbands were Christians), and he addresses them as independent moral agents whose decision to turn to Christ he supports and whose goal to win their husbands he encourages. This is quite a revolutionary attitude for that culture." [Note: Davids, pp. 115-16.]
This section, like the preceding one addressed to slaves, has three parts: an exhortation to defer (1Pe 3:1-2; cf. 1Pe 2:18), an admonition about pleasing God (1Pe 3:3-4; cf. 1Pe 2:18-20), and a precedent for the advocated attitude or action (1Pe 3:5-6; cf. 1Pe 2:21-25). The section on respect for everyone (1Pe 2:13-17) contains the first two of these parts (1Pe 2:13-17) but not the third. [Note: Michaels, p. 155.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
"In the same way" refers to the spirit of deference that Peter had already advocated regarding our dealings with government authorities (1Pe 2:13-17) and people in direct authority over us (1Pe 2:18-25). Primarily he meant as Christ submitted to the Father (1Pe 2:21-24).
"The opening words ["in the same way"] are not intended to equate the submissiveness due from wives with that expected from slaves. Rather, as in [verse] 7, the Greek adverb (homoios) harks back to 1Pe 2:13, implying that the patriarchal principle of the subordination of the wife to her husband is not a matter of human convention but the order which the Creator has established . . ." [Note: Kelly, p. 127. Cf. 1 Timothy 2:13.]
Clearly Peter was speaking of the relationship of wives to their husbands, not the relationship of women to men generically. Neither was he addressing only wives with unsaved husbands, as is clear from the clause "even if any are disobedient." He said "your own men" (i.e., your husbands). A wife has a special relationship to her husband in that she "belongs" to him, which is not true of the relationship of all women to all men generally. Even more specifically, Peter was referring to wives whose husbands were "disobedient to the word" (i.e., unbelievers, cf. 1Pe 2:8).
Today many Christians believe wives are equal in authority with their husbands under God (the egalitarian position). Note that other admonitions to be submissive surround this section in which Peter called on wives to submit to their husbands (1Pe 2:13; 1Pe 2:18; 1Pe 2:23; 1Pe 3:8). Wives are not the only people Peter commanded to be submissive. Submission should characterize every Christian. The Greek word hypotasso ("to submit") has in view the maintenance of God’s willed order, not personal inferiority of any kind. [Note: Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, s.v. "hypotasso," by Gerhard Delling, 8 (1972):44.] This word may denote either voluntary or forced behavior, but not any sense of inferiority. [Note: Gordon Dutile, "A Concept of Submission in the Husband-Wife Relationship in Selected New Testament Passages" (Ph.D. dissertation, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1980), pp. 81-82.]
Peter did not state the reason wives should submit to their own husbands in this passage, nor did he give the reason we should submit to rulers or masters, other than that this is God’s will (cf. Eph 5:22; Col 3:18; 1Ti 2:9-15; Tit 2:4-5). God gave another reason elsewhere in Scripture, however (Gen 2:18-23; Gen 3:16; cf. 1Ti 2:13-14). This reason is that God has so ordered the human race that we must all observe His structure of authority so that peace and order may prevail.
As all employees should submit to their masters, even the unreasonable, so all wives should submit to their husbands, even the unbelieving. In view of his terminology "be won" (1Pe 3:1), it seems clear that Peter had in mind the spiritual conversion of an unsaved husband. Peter did not promise that unbelieving husbands would inevitably become Christians as a result of the behavior he prescribed. That decision lies with the husband. Nevertheless the wife can have confidence that she has been faithful to God if she relates to her husband submissively. For a classic example of a Christian woman leading her husband to faith in Christ through her virtuous example, see The Confessions of St. Augustine. [Note: Aurelius Augustinus, The Confessions of St. Augustine, book 9.] The woman was Monica, Augustine’s mother, and her husband was Patricius.
Should a Christian wife submit to her husband even if he directs her to sin? Some evangelicals answer yes and appeal to Eph 5:24 for support. [Note: E.g., Mrs. Glenn R. Siefker, "God’s Plans for Wives," Good News Broadcaster, February 1975, p. 24.] Others say no but argue that submission should extend to everything except sin. [Note: E.g., Marilyn Vaughn, "When Should a Wife Not Submit?" Moody Monthly, October 1977, p. 107; James R. Slaughter, "Submission of Wives (1 Peter 3:1a) in the Context of 1 Peter," Bibliotheca Sacra 153:609 (January-March 1996):73-74; idem, "Winning Unbelieving Husbands to Christ (1 Peter 3:1b-4)," Bibliotheca Sacra 153:610 (April-June 1996):203; Wayne Grudem, 1 Peter, p. 139; and Paul E. Steele and Charles C. Ryrie, Meant to Last, pp. 32-33.] The examples of suffering that Peter cited as good models for Christians in 1Pe 2:13-25 did not involve sinning. He said wives should submit "in the same way" (1Pe 3:1). Furthermore the wife’s behavior is to be "chaste" (1Pe 3:2) or morally pure (Gr. agnos). Peter held up Sarah as an example (1Pe 3:6) not because she submitted to Abraham by even sinning in Genesis 12, 20, but because she submitted to him. She called him her lord in Gen 18:12. Eph 5:24, which calls on wives to submit to their husbands in "everything" (Gr. pas), does not mean in every thing including sin (cf. Col 3:25). Frequently pas does not mean every individual thing (cf. Mat 8:33; Rom 8:32; Rom 14:2; 1Co 1:5; 1Co 3:21-22; 1Co 6:12; 1Co 9:12; 1Co 10:23; 1Co 14:40; 2Co 5:18; Php 4:13, et al.). Nevertheless short of sinning Peter urged Christian wives to obey their husbands. A primary responsibility of every Christian is to obey God.
It is specifically the wife’s behavior in contrast to her speech that Peter said may be effective in winning an unsaved husband. "A word" includes preaching as well as the Word of God. Peter was not forbidding speaking to unsaved husbands about the Lord or sharing Scripture verses if the husband would be receptive to those. His point was simply that a godly wife’s conduct is going to be more influential than anything she may say. "Chaste" is a general term describing her purity while "respectful" reflects her attitude toward her husband that rises out of her attitude toward God’s will.
Submission involves at least four things. First, it begins with an attitude of entrusting oneself to God (cf. 1Pe 2:23-25). The focus of our life must be on Jesus Christ. Second, submission requires respectful behavior (1Pe 3:1-2). Nagging is not respectful behavior. Third, submission involves the development of a godly character (1Pe 3:3-5). Fourth, submission includes doing what is right (1Pe 3:6). It does not include violating other Scriptural principles. Submission is imperative for oneness in marriage. [Note: Family Life Conference, pp. 105-6.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 9
CHRISTIAN WIVES AND HUSBANDS
1Pe 3:1-7
THE Apostle gave at first {1Pe 2:13} the rule of Christian submission generally; then proceeded to apply it to the cases of citizens and of servants. In the same way he now gives injunctions concerning the behavior of wives and husbands. The precept with which he began holds good for them also. “In like manner, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands.” The life and teaching of Jesus had wrought a great change in the position of women, a change, which can be observed from the earliest days of Christianity. We can gather in what estimation women were generally held among the Jews at that time from the expression used in the account of our Lords interview with the woman of Samaria. There it is {Joh 4:27} that the disciples marveled that Jesus was talking with a woman. Such a feeling must afterwards have been entirely dispelled, for all through the earthly life of Christ we find Him attended by women who ministered unto Him; we read of His close friendship with Mary and Martha, and are told, at the time of His death, {Mat 27:55} that many women beheld the Crucifixion afar off, having followed Him from Galilee. Women were the earliest visitors to the tomb on the great Easter morning, and to them, among the first, {Luk 24:22} was the Lords resurrection made known.
We are not surprised therefore, in the history of the infant Church, to read {Act 1:14} that women were present among the disciples who waited at Jerusalem for the promise of the Father, nor to learn how the daughters of Philip the evangelist {Act 21:9} took a share in the labors of their father for the cause of Christ, or that Priscilla, {Act 18:26} equally with her husband, was active in Christian good offices. Other examples occur in the Acts of the Apostles: Dorcas, Lydia, and the mother of Timothy; and the constant mention of women which we find in the salutations with which St. Paul concludes his letters make it clear how large a part they played in the early propagation of the faith. “Fellowworkers,” “servants of the Church,” “laborers in the Lord,” are among the terms which the Apostle applies to them; and we know from the Pastoral Epistles what help the primitive Church derived from the labors of its deaconesses and widows.
To be occupied in such duties was sure to give to women an influence which they had never possessed before; and the women converts, in countries such as these Asiatic provinces, were exposed to the same sort of danger which beset the slave population at their acceptance of the Christian faith. They might begin to think meanly of others, even of their own husbands, if they were still content to abide in heathenism. Such women might incline at times to take counsel for their lifes guidance with Christian men among the various congregations to which they belonged and to set a value on their advice above any which they could obtain from their own husbands. They might come to entertain doubts also whether they ought to maintain the relations of married life with their heathen partners. With the knowledge that such cases might occur, St. Peter gives this lesson, and as in the case of slaves, so here, he gives no countenance to the idea that to become a Christian breaks off previous relations. Wives, though they have accepted the faith, have wifely duties still. Like Christian citizens living in a heathen commonwealth, they are not by religion released from their previously contracted obligations; they are to abide in their estate, and use it, if it may be done, for the furtherance of the cause of Christ. Be in subjection to your own husbands; they have still their claim on your duty.
There is much gentleness in the Apostles next words. He knows that there may arise cases where believing wives have husbands who are heathen. But he speaks hopefully, as thinking they would not be of frequent occurrence: “even if any obey not the word.” Wives, especially if they be of such a character as the Apostle would have them be, could not have been won to the faith of Christ without much converse with their husbands on so deep a subject; and the word which was working effectually in the one would often have its influence with the other. It might not always be so. But husbands, though not obeying the word as yet, are not to be despaired of.
And here we may turn aside to dwell on the tone of hope in which St. Peter speaks of these husbands who obey not. For the word () by which they are described, is the same that is used in 1Pe 2:18 of those who stumble at the word, being disobedient. The lessons here given to Christian wives, not to despair of winning their husbands for Christ, gives warrant for what was said on the former passage: that the disobedience which causes men to stumble need not last for ever, nor imply final obduracy and rejection from Gods grace. But this by the way. The Apostle adds the strongest motive to confirm wives in holding to their married state: “That the husbands may without the word be gained by the behavior of their wives: beholding your chaste behavior coupled with fear.” “Without the word” here means that there is to be no discussion. They are so to live as to make their lives a sermon without words, to work conviction without debate; then, when the victory is won, there will remain no trace of combat: all will tell of gain, and nothing of loss.
And once again St. Peter uses his special word () as he describes how the husbands shall be affected by the behavior of their wives. They shall gaze on it as a mystery, the key to which they do not possess. The wives in heathen homes must have been obliged to hear and see many things, which were grievous and distasteful. The husbands could hardly fail to know that it was so. If, then, they still found wifely regard and respect, wifely submission, with no assertion of a law of their own, no comparison of the lives of Christian men with those of their own husbands, if a silent, consistent walk were all the protest which the Christian wives offered against their heathen environments, such a life could hardly fail of its effect. There must be a powerful motive, a mighty, strengthening power that enabled women to abide uncomplainingly in their estate. For this the husbands would surely search, and in their search would learn secrets to which they were strangers, would learn how their tongue was restrained where remonstrance might seem more natural, how pure life was maintained in spite of temptations to laxity, and the marriage bond exalted with religious observance even when reverence for the husband was meeting with no equal return. Such lives would be more powerful than oratory, have a charm beyond resistance, would win the husbands first to wonder, then to praise, and in the end to imitation. And from describing the grace of such a life the Apostle turns to contrast it with other adornments of which the world thinks highly. “Whose adorning,” he says, “let it not be the outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, and of putting on apparel.”
We can see from the catalogue in Isaiah {Isa 3:18-23} that the daughters of Zion in old days had gone to great lengths in this outside bravery, and provoked the Lord to smite them. These had forgotten the simplicity of Sarah. But that in the house of Abraham there were found no such ornaments is hardly to be believed. The patriarch, who sent {Gen 24:53} to Rebekah jewels of silver and jewels of gold, did not leave his own wife unadorned. Nor does the language of St. Peter condemn Rebekahs bracelets, if they be worn with Rebekahs modesty. The New Testament does not teach us to neglect or despise the body. A misrendering in the Authorized Version, “Who Shall change our vile body,” {Php 3:21} has long seemed to lend countenance to such a notion. It. is one of the gains of the Revised Version that we now read in that place, “Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation.” Sin has robbed the body of its primal dignity, but it is to be restored and made like unto the body of Christs glory. And He did not despise the body when He deigned to wear it that He might draw nearer unto us. If these things be present to our thoughts we shall seek to bestow on the body whatever may make it comely. The mischief arises when the adornment of the outer brings neglect of the inner man, when fine apparel has for its companions the haughtiness, the stretched-forth necks, and wanton eyes which Isaiah rebukes. Then it is that it rightly comes under condemnation. When the jewel is (as Rebekahs was) the gift of some dear one-a parent, a husband, a near kinsman-it rouses grateful reminiscences, and may fitly be prized, and holily worn, and ranked near to the rings of betrothal and of marriage.
Let these be the feelings which regulate womanly adornment, and it may be made a part of the culture of the heart, the inner man, which St. Peter urges the Christian wives to be careful to adorn: “Let your adorning be the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.” All Scripture regards man as of twofold nature, the outward and the inward, of which the latter is the more precious. He is a Jew who is one inwardly; {Rom 2:29} the inward man delighteth in the law of God; {Rom 7:22} while the outward man perishes the inward man may be renewed day by day, {2Co 4:16} being strengthened with power through Gods Spirit. This hidden man is the center from which all the strength of Christian life comes. Let this be rightly adorned, and the outward life will need no strict rules; there will be no fear of excess, least of all when the inner life is cared for because it is precious before God. Its pure array passeth gold and gems, be they ever so beautiful. This is a grace which never fades, but will flourish through eternity.
The Apostle proceeds to commend it by a noble example. The Old Testament Scriptures do not dwell largely on the lives of women, but a study of what is said will oftentimes reveal deeper meaning in the record and put force into a solitary word. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews couples Sarah with Abraham in the list of heroes and heroines of faith, and St. Peter from a single word finds a text to extol the submission which she showed to her husband. He probably refers to Gen 18:12, where she gives the title of “lord” to Abraham, as Rachel in another place {Gen 31:35} does to her father Laban: “For after this manner aforetime the holy women also, who hoped in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands: as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord.” A Scripture example which has more in common with the experience of the Asian women is the life of Hannah. Her lot, for a time at least, was as full of grief and disappointment as theirs could be, but her trust in God was unshaken. Her patience under provocation was exemplary, while the picture of her home life is one full of touching affection on the part of both husband and wife; and the mothers gratitude, when her prayer was granted, is set forth in her noble hymn of thanksgiving and in the devotion of her child to the service of the God who had bestowed him. Ruth is another of those holy women who must have been in St. Peters thoughts, who, though not of the house of Israel, manifested virtues in her life which made her fit to be the ancestress of King David. The Apostle, however, seems to have had a purpose in his special mention of Sarah. As the sons of Israel looked back to Abraham and to the covenant sealed with him, yea, not seldom prided themselves on being his children, so the daughters of Israel counted themselves as Sarahs daughters after the flesh. St. Peter now gives them another ground for that claim. Gods promises to Abraham have been fulfilled in Christ, and so Christian Jewesses are more truly than ever daughters of Sarah. “Whose children ye now are.” But to the heathen converts the same door was opened. They by their faith were now made partakers of the ancient covenant. They too were become Sarahs daughters. Let them, one and all, continue in the well-doing which has been commended; let it be seen in the daily round () of their lives, led in quietness and humility. The excessive love of adornment against which they are warned marks a condition of boldness and unrest. But unrest may enter into the other actions of their life. Their behavior is to be coupled with fear and reverence, but it should eschew everything which partakes of flighty irregularity. It should be steady and consistent, running into no extremes, either of humiliation or the contrary. “Do well, and be not put in fear by any terror.”
The Apostle now addresses Christian husbands. In his counsel to subjects and slaves he has not dwelt on the duties of rulers and masters. Perhaps he judged it unlikely that his letter would come to the hands of many such, or it may be he thought the lessons which he had to give were more needed by the subject people, if Christs cause were to be furthered. But with husbands and wives life has of necessity a great deal in common, and the one partner can hardly receive counsel which is not of interest to the other. To the wives the Apostle spake as though examples of unbelieving husbands might be rare. Christian husbands with unbelieving wives he hardly seems to contemplate. We know from St. Paul {1Co 7:16} that there were such. But doubtless heathen wives hearkened to Christian husbands more readily than heathen husbands to their Christian wives. The husbands are to use their position as heads of their wives with judgment and discretion: “Dwell with your wives according to knowledge.” The knowledge of which St. Peter speaks is not religious, godly, Christian knowledge, but that foresight and thoughtfulness which the responsibility of the husband calls for. He will understand what things for his wifes sake he should do or leave undone. This knowledge, which results in considerate conduct towards her, will manifest itself in Christian chivalry. The woman is physically the feebler of the two. No burden beyond her powers will be laid upon her; and by reason of her weaker nature regard and honor will be felt to be her due. For the woman is the glory of the man. {1Co 11:7} Such observance will not degenerate into undue adulation nor foolish fondness, apt to foster pride and conceit, but will be inspired by the sense that in Gods creation neither is the man without the woman, nor the woman without the man.
But beyond and above these daily graces of domestic and social intercourse, the Apostle would have husband and wife knit together by a higher bond. They are “joint heirs” of the grace of life. Both are meant to be partakers of the heavenly inheritance, and such participation makes their chief duty here to be preparation for the life to come. Those who are bound together not by wedlock only, but by the hope of a common salvation, will find a motive in that thought to help each other in lifes pilgrimage, each to shun all that might cause the other to stumble: “That your prayers be not hindered.” They are fellow-travelers with the same needs. Together they can bring their requests before God, and where the two join in heart and soul Christ has promised to be present as the Third. And in praying they will know one anothers necessities. This is the grandest knowledge the husband can attain to for the honoring of his wife; and using it, he will speed their united supplications to the throne of grace, and the union of hearts will not fail of its blessing.