Sun Inspiration

Morning Inspiration with Pastor Merritt

“Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives.” (I Peter 3:1)

There are two things we have to address immediately. First of all is the situation. Paul is referring to a wife who is a believer, but her husband is not. A little known fact about Christianity and the church is that for the most part it has been a movement more of women than of men. Of the Evangelical Christians in America, 53% are women. Some things never change. Back in the day, it was very common for a woman to come to faith in Christ before her husband did or in many cases a woman would become a believer while she was single and then marry an unbeliever. You have the situation where the wife is by default the spiritual leader in the relationship.

The same thing is true today. Think about this. If one parent brings the children to church today and one parent stays home, which parent is more likely to come with the children? The mother. Though it happens occasionally, it is very rare that the man brings the children to church and the wife refuses to come. It is usually the other way around. Paul is dealing with this extreme situation where the wife loves Jesus, trusts God, wants to be a part of the church and the husband is spiritually clueless, if not down right hostile. When you’ve got one partner in love with Jesus and another partner that couldn’t care less you are going to have serious major-league conflict.
You may be thinking, “We are both believers. How does this relate to us?” If a believing wife can live with an unbelieving husband and do so in a way that brings honor to God and hold her marriage together then surely a wife in a relationship with a believing husband can take the same advice and do the same thing. What is his advice?

“Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands.” (I Peter 3:1)

Some of you ladies, before you start gathering your belongings and storming out of the building, listen for the next two minutes. The key word there is “likewise.” It literally means “in the same manner.” Peter is obviously referring back to something he had just said.

If you go back to the last few verses of Chapter 2, Peter is talking about how we can be forgiven of all of our sins and receive eternal life, because Jesus subjected Himself to the will of His Father and came to this planet to die on the cross. For those of you out there who think that being in submission to someone is demeaning or out of date or destructive, just remember that if God the Son had not submitted to God the Father, we would all be up the creek without a paddle.

Peter is simply saying to the wife, “If you want to influence your husband for good and if you want to do your part in keeping the knot tied you do it by submitting to his leadership out of respect, following the example of Christ, so that he might see Jesus in your heart.