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Saturday, July 24, 2021

Submission as Sufferers - 1 Peter 3:13-17 - July 25, 2021

These are the Sermon Notes for July 25, 2021. We are meeting in person and streaming online (facebook and youtube) every Sunday at 9:37 am. You can also watch livestream recordings at any time.

1 Peter 3:13-17 Submission as Sufferers

Good morning! We’re back in 1 Peter this morning, chapter 3 verses 13-17, on a whole new page in the pew Bibles, page 1015!

In the last few weeks we have talked about everybody’s favorite Christian virtue, submission. Submission as citizen, submission as servants, submission as spouses, submission as saints, and now we are on to: submission as sufferers. Submission and suffering all in one sermon! Woohoo!

So to begin, let’s go back to verse ten of chapter three.

“Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; 11 let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. 12For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.

Let’s pray.

Now I’ve heard sermons on this text that are all to do with evangelism and how we should tell everybody about the hope that is in us, and we should. I’ve heard sermons on this text all about apologetics and how we need to be able to defend the faith, and we should.

But I don’t think that’s Peter’s point at all. I think the simple truth is found in the question: Do you really trust in God?

I’ve entitled this sermon: Submission as Sufferers because suffering is the context, suffering is the stage upon which our faith truly performs, really, suffering is the stage upon which that which we trust is truly revealed.

Suffering pulls back the curtain to see who is really behind all the fire and smoke, it reveals who really is at the controls of our lives.

13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?

That last phrase bears some investigation, “who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?”

The word “to do harm,” has the same Greek root as the word “evil” that we talked about last week: “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling…”

To be zealous, is to be deeply committed to something and therefore zealous, or eager, or enthusiastic.

And what is good, what is the good that we should be zealous for and deeply committed to? It’s Jesus, right?

So, let’s use our favorite Bible study tool for understanding meaning: a plain reading of the text!

Who is there to harm you if you are zealous for doing good? Does this really mean that no one can harm a Christian if they are deeply committed to Christ? Let’s look at a short list…

Peter – crucified upside down, James – killed with a sword, John – died in exile, Andrew – crucified, Philip – crucified, Thaddeus – crucified, Simon the Zealot – crucified, Bartholomew – beaten with rods, scourged, then beheaded, Matthew – stabbed to death, Thomas – pierced with spears, James son of Alpheus – stoned then clubbed to death.

Who is there to harm you if you are zealous for doing good? Were these men zealous for doing good, were they committed to Jesus who is good?

Yes, and thought they were all slain they were all welcomed into the arms of Christ. On the surface it looks like great harm was done to them, great evil, but that is because our definition of what is good is so tied to this life.

Their trust was in the Lord Jesus, no earthly evil could harm their eternal good.

13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed.

There is no promise that we will not suffer, there is no promise that there won’t be people who want to harm the church, or to do evil to us individually. But there is a promise that if we should suffer for righteousness’ sake we will be blessed. Jesus said in Matthew 5:10, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy,

This is a quotation from Isaiah 8:12, 13, 12 “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. 13 But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

Do not fear what they fear, or, do not fear the fear that they cause, don’t be stirred up emotionally or be distressed, don’t be troubled by the trouble that they cause. Sounds easy, right?

John Calvin wrote, “If we are convinced from the depth of our soul that the promised help of God is all-sufficient, we shall be most effectually armed against all fear.”

JP Lange also, wrote, “The world is enraged, Satan shows his teeth, it rains enemies; should this make you alarmed, you who love God? Have you not a Father who is almighty, and a King who is the conqueror of all His enemies? Shall men, vile dust and ashes as they are, or hell itself then be able to hurt one hair of your head unless He permits it? Therefore be courageous! The Lord is with you; come sword of the Lord!”

We have no need to fear harm or even death because, in Jesus, we have victory in, and over, both.

But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy… but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy…

Christ the Lord IS the Lord of hosts, revere Him as God! Through faith in Him we have victory over our circumstances and victory over death, even if our circumstances lead to death.

Faith means trust, they are the same word in Greek and they mean the same thing, our problem, or at least one of our problems, is that we limit faith to only salvation. We trust in Christ to pay the penalty for our sin on the cross but that is just the beginning of the wonderful, horrible, blessed, difficult, Christian life. Now that we trust Him with our sin, we need to trust Him with our lives.

Peter’s thoughts here are all about suffering. Suffering is part of humanity, but there is unique suffering that is part of Christianity, suffering for righteousness sake, suffering for holding to Biblical principles, suffering for not valuing earthly things.

This suffering is very real, and it happens all over the world. But it doesn’t just happen in places where Christianity is illegal, it happens in the halls of our schools, in the locker rooms, in our workplaces, and in our neighborhoods, and even in our families.

But here is the wonderful blessing that suffering is: suffering exposes our hope, suffering is the stage for our faith to perform, for our hope to be exercised and for the gospel shared with gentleness and respect. So we ought to submit, as sufferers, to God’s will.

Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you…

“Make a defense,” here, in Greek is where we get the theological term, “apologetics,” which simply means, a defense of the faith.

And there’s a lot to be said about these few verses but we can’t separate them from their context. Peter is talking about the church’s response to suffering for being a Christ follower. And what is that response? Hope.

Always be prepared in the face of suffering to defend the reason for the hope that is in you.

I’ve been talking all this time just so I could get to this: Hope means to look forward with confidence to that which is good and beneficial.

So what is your hope, what is the reason for the hope that you have within you?

Is your hope in your circumstances, you just hope that things will get better in this life? That you’ll get into the school you want, or get the job you want, or the spouse that you want, that the Red Sox will win the World Series, that it won’t rain tomorrow?

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:19, If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Our hope is not that things in this life will get better, our hope, our confident expectation of that which is good and beneficial is that Jesus conquered death and has purchased a place for us in His eternal kingdom.

You can say amen to that if you’d like here and now, but as Peter wrote, the confession of the reason for our hope must be accompanied with a good conscience, knowing that our faith, our hope, and our behavior all line up.

John Calvin wrote, “What we say without a corresponding life has but little weight. For we see that many are sufficiently ready with their tongue, and prattle on, very freely, and yet with no fruit, because their life does not correspond. Besides, the integrity of conscience alone is that which gives us confidence in speaking as we ought; for they that prattle much about the gospel, and whose dissolute life is a proof of their impiety, not only make themselves objects of ridicule, but also expose the truth itself to the slanders of the ungodly.”

Amen.

Saturday, July 17, 2021

Submission as Saints - 1 Peter 3:8-12 - July 18, 2021

These are the Sermon Notes for July 18, 2021. We are meeting in person and streaming online (facebook and youtube) every Sunday at 9:37 am. You can also watch livestream recordings at any time.

1 Peter 3:8-12 Submission as Saints

Good morning! We are back in 1 Peter this morning, so you can turn to chapter 3, verses 8-12, page 1015 in the pew Bibles.

When you think of the Apostle Peter, what are some words that come to your mind? Disciple, fisherman, impetuous, impulsive… How about: expositor? Bible teacher?

Here in these verses this morning that is exactly what Peter is doing, he is expositing the text of Psalm 34:12-16. In his exposition of the text he shows us five key words that are to characterize the Lord’s church family, five essentials for Christian living.

Let’s read it together.

8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. 10 For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; 11 let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

Let’s pray

Psalm 34 is a Psalm of David, a wonderful hymn that acted as a sort of discipleship manual in the early church. Don’t forget that Psalms are songs and the words and tune would have been familiar to Peter’s original audience of Jewish believers scattered throughout Asia Minor.

“Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; 11 let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

So Peter, as an expositor, as a good Bible teacher, avoids the trap of a three point sermon and goes for five points instead. So let’s look at Peter’s five points.

First in verse 8: 8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind,

He has been speaking to specific people in specific roles and their responsibilities of submission, but now he widens his focus on the whole church and their responsibilities of submission to one another.

Unity of mind is not possible without submission to one another out of reverence for Christ. Unity of mind can also be translated, “harmonious, or, in harmony.” This harmonious, unity of mind, is the description of everyone pursuing one end, the same goal.

As a musician, I can appreciate the idea of being harmonious. Harmonies in music are powerful and beautiful. Singing in unison can be powerful, but there’s nothing like good harmony.

Life in the church family is just like that, we may not all sing the same part, or play the same instrument, but we should all be playing the same song with the Holy Spirit as the conductor and God’s Word as our sheet music.

Jesus prayed for exactly this for the church in John 17:10-11,

10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

How unified should our minds be? That unified. One.

“Making and maturing disciples of Jesus Christ together as a family,” that’s our unifying thought that we can all pursue together in harmony.

The next word Peter uses is, “sympathy.”

As one body with many members, being united in mind, when one part suffers we all suffer. When we stub our toe, our brains feel it, our eyes may tear up, our mouths may fire something off. That’s how a body works.

Romans 12:15 says, rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

This is not just simply feeling bad when someone else is struggling, this following Jesus’ command to love your neighbor as you love yourself. In the church family, everyone cares not only for themselves but looks out for the benefit of the others. In the church family we are to bear one another’s burdens.

Sometimes the loudest sermon is just a hug, whether it’s for comfort, encouragement, or celebration.

This is a strong reminder that we are not in this alone, we are designed to do life together.

Peter’s next word is, “brotherly love.”

JP Lange wrote that brotherly love is: “A radical sweetness in the temper of the mind that spreads itself into a man’s words and actions, and this is not merely natural but spiritual.”

If you consider Peter’s source text from Psalm 34, where it says, “Let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit…”

What does that have to do with brotherly love? Brotherly love does not use its tongue to harm or deceive its brothers and sisters. It does not slander or gossip or insult or curse at or scold, it does not lie or swindle or gloss over the truth.

Brotherly love turns away from evil and does good, it seeks peace and pursues it. It chases after peace when it won’t be granted to it, it follows after it when peace seems to flee, it strives towards peace with intense effort.

Brotherly love is not content with discord, it does not simply shrug its shoulders at conflict but does the hard work of seeking to resolve it.

Matthew 18 gives us great instruction on conflict resolution and pursuing peace.

15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

Peter’s next word is, “a tender heart.”

A tender heart is a heart that is merciful, affectionate, and compassionate. A tender heart doesn’t just say, “I love you,” but proves it with action. A tender heart helps its family in their miseries and bears with their infirmities. This is the beautiful combination of feelings and action, it is a “hearty compassion.”

Paul used this same word in Ephesians 4:32, Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

That’s exactly what tenderheartedness requires, kindness, compassion, and if necessary, forgiveness.

Peter’s fourth word is, “a humble mind.”

None of these thoughts are possible without this one. In truth, all of these thoughts are dependent upon each other and build upon each other, but a humble mind makes them all possible.

A humble mind is a stronger word than just humility. The idea is that of a conscious effort to pursue an attitude of humility. Being humbled can come from the outside, playing the game of baseball is a great way to do this. The game will humble you in an instant.

But pursuing an attitude of humility is different, it removes the necessity of humbling because you’re already there.

Again, Paul echoes this pursuit of humility in Philippians 4:3-4,

3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

John Calvin wrote, “Nothing produces more discord than when we think too highly of ourselves.”

CS Lewis said, “True humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less.”

Putting the needs of others before ourselves, treating others the way we would like to be treated, any of this sounding familiar?

Peter’s final word is, “blessing.”

9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.

I think the words, “evil,” and “reviling,” bear close examination.

In this context, “evil,” means to do harm, not just random wickedness, but consciously harming another.

Reviling is not that much different, where “evil,” could be considered physical harm, reviling is insult and slander, harming someone’s feelings or reputation.

In either case, Peter reminds us that we are not to seek revenge, Paul does too in Romans 12:19, Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

Peter had addressed Jesus’ example in this way back in chapter 2 of 1 Peter,

21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

But instead of just leaving us with a negative: don’t do this, Peter gives us a positive, what we are to do instead: bless.

9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.

Evils are to be overcome with acts of kindness, specifically, in this instance, with prayers for blessing.

Jesus said in Luke 6:27-36,

27 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. 31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

32 “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. 35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

When we are attacked we are to bless, to literally pray for God’s favor on those who did us harm. This is how to truly pursue peace.

John Chysostom, a fourth Century church father said, “Fire is not extinguished with fire, but with water; likewise wrong and hatred, not with retaliation, but with gentleness, humility and kindness.”

Peter’s word here is, if we submissively bear injuries, and answer with blessing, the Lord will bestow on us blessing, we will reap what we sow.

Now that leaves me with a question, what’s to be our motivation here, should we sow blessing in hopes of reaping blessing? Should we seek out being harmed or slandered so that we can pray for God’s favor on those who would injure us so that we can get blessed by God? Am I overthinking this?

Even if I am, we should not sow blessing in order to reap God’s blessing but because, as God’s children, we are sowers by nature! So sow!

Unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, a humble mind, praying for blessing in the face of evil and reviling… Sounds a lot like Jesus.

“Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

Amen.

Saturday, July 10, 2021

Submission as Spouses - 1 Peter 3:1-7 - July 11, 2021

These are the Sermon Notes for July 11, 2021. We are meeting in person and streaming online (facebook and youtube) every Sunday at 9:37 am. You can also watch livestream recordings at any time.

1 Peter 3:1-7 Submission as Spouses

Isaiah 51:1-2, Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. 2 Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him.

Good morning! We are returning to 1 Peter this morning and wrapping up our mini-series, the three spheres of submission. We began with submission as citizens, followed by submission as servants, and now we will look at submission as spouses.

You can turn with me to 1 Peter 3:1-7, page 1015 in the pew Bibles.

Far too often we bristle at the thought of submitting our wills and welfare to the rule of others. This is by far one of my least favorite things, submitting to people or policies that I feel are inferior or foolish just grinds my gears. But the truth of the matter is that Christ is our example. Jesus had more reason to refuse to submit to the will of others more than any man that has ever lived, yet He willingly submitted to the mocking, beating, and crucifying of unworthy men. And He did so for the joy set before Him of seeing us reunited by faith with our Heavenly Father.

So if Jesus submitted, we should submit. We are to submit as citizens to the authorities put in place over us by God, we are to submit as servants to our earthly masters, to our employers or others that we serve, and we are to submit as spouses to the husbands or wives that the Lord has blessed us with.

Again, Peter didn’t include chapter and verse numbers when he first wrote this letter so there was no big number three in his original text, he just picked up where he left off with servants submitting to their masters.

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, 2 when they see your respectful and pure conduct. 3 Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— 4 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. 5 For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, 6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.

7 Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

Let’s pray.

I often get nervous about preaching passages such as this. I don’t revel in the thought of suggesting that we may need to reshuffle our priorities in order to please the Lord. Even in the last few weeks I have been asked my opinion about some controversial topics, but with a plain reading of the text, my fears are relieved. Understanding what the Bible really says, instead of trying to make it say what I want it to say, or picking out fragments to serve my biases, isn’t frustrating, it’s freeing. It’s freeing because I can trust God, I can trust His Word, and I can trust that He will do as He says, and will reward those who obey Him.

So does God really say that wives should submit to their husbands? Yes, yes He does.

Likewise, wives, [just as citizens to the emperor and servants to their masters] 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, 2 when they see your respectful and pure conduct.

Now there are some interesting thoughts in here.

First, wives are to be subject, to submit to, their own husbands.

This is a curious statement. It may go without saying that wives are to submit to their own husband and not somebody else’s husband, but maybe we need to be reminded that Peter is not suggesting that all women should submit to all men.

Maybe we also need to be reminded that wives should reject the temptation to replace the leadership of their potentially less-than-spiritually-stellar husbands with the leadership of seemingly more enlightened or spiritually stronger men.

This is not to say that wives should not listen to sound teaching and instruction from God’s Word from men who are not their husbands, but there is always a danger of putting such teachers in a place in one’s heart that should be reserved only for one’s own spouse. This greatly threatens marriages and the ministry of teachers and pastors who are put in those places unwittingly.

The second interesting thought here is the powerful preaching of respectful and pure conduct.

Many a man has been won to Christ, not by constant nagging or guilt trips, but by the steady, faithful, reverent conduct of their wives. While certainly not my wife, my mom’s faithful morning devotions, with a cup of tea and her Daily Bread, was a testimony to me and was monumental in my walk with Christ.

Wives with believing husbands obviously have an advantage in this way because, if those husbands are faithful to God’s Word, those husbands lead under the authority of Christ and so, there is nothing to fear, no loss of dignity or respect because biblical submission has nothing to do with superiority or inferiority, just God assigned roles.

Peter’s next phrase may be one you’ve been looking forward to, I know I have…

3 Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— 4 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.

This comes down to a question, “What did you just hear vs. what did I just read?”

Did you just hear, “The Bible says I shouldn’t wear jewelry, or braid my hair, or dress fashionably?” because that’s not what I read, because that’s not what the Bible says.

Peter’s point is to not let your adorning be external. Adorning is simply putting things on to make yourself beautiful. Peter’s warning is to not fall into the trap of believing that the external, perishable, worthless trifles are what really do that. True beauty is not external at all, but internal. True beauty is holiness. Peter doesn’t condemn every form of ornament, or hairstyle, or dress, what he condemns is vanity.

Matthew Henry wrote, “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.”

He also said, “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. 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.”

When I read, “but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious,” did you hear that you wives have to just zip it, keep your thoughts to yourselves, the Bible says to be quiet?

Because that’s not what I read.

Let what makes you beautiful be on the inside not the outside. Let your beauty be that which the Spirit of God forms and develops in the secret workshop of your heart, a new way of thinking, feeling, and willing.

A gentle spirit is meek not weak, meek is simply strength under control which takes great strength. It is the opposite of self-will, pride, presumption, obstinacy, hardness, anger and envy.

A quiet spirit is also not a silent spirit. It’s not silence, it’s peaceful, tranquil, “He leads me beside quiet waters…” It’s not the absence of sound, it’s the presence of peace.

It’s this gentle, tranquil spirit that is very precious to God.

Peter gave us a wonderful example of this kind of gentle, quiet spirit from the Old Testament in the person of Sarah the wife of Abraham.

5 For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, 6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.

The mark of the women of blessed memory is their hope in God, and they proved their hope through their submission to their husbands.

Think about the pattern of Sarah.

She showed her obedience by leaving her homeland with Abraham, relying on God’s promises to him.

She called Abraham “lord” and regarded him as such, you can read about that in Genesis 18.

Her obedience to her husband was rewarded by God when God commanded Abraham to listen to her and do as she said.

Being called “Sarah’s children,” would be easily understood as high praise by the believing Jewish women in Peter’s original audience. Doing good in this way was certainly evidence of their relation to Sarah. Having no fear to submit to their husbands in the face of things that are frightening was too.

Submission to their husbands in the face of fear was following in Sarah’s footsteps. Sarah’s trust in God was so great that she was not moved by the evil that she faced in the courts of Pharaoh and Abimelech. Peter’s admonition was to strive for the courage and strength of your ancestress!

But Peter’s instruction was not just to wives but to husbands as well.

Peter’s primary objective here was to make sure that husbands did not abuse the obedience of their wives. To live with their wives in an understanding way is to live according to knowledge, knowing yourself and your spouse and knowing your roles and the reality of why you have those roles and also the reality of knowing who we both are before God.

Husbands are to show honor to their wives, to respect them, the respect that they are due.

Now, when I said, “weaker vessel,” did you hear, “inferior vessel?”

Because that’s not what I read.

The word “asthenes,” means physically weaker, not mentally weaker, nor spiritually weaker, nor inferior in any way. This is not a matter of superiority or inferiority, but of diversity.

We are both vessels but we are both weak. JP Lange wrote, “As women’s weakness is relative, man also being a weak, frail vessel, he, mindful of his own weakness, ought the more readily sympathize with the weaker vessel.”

Man and woman are different, and that is a diversity worth celebrating, but in the eyes of God, as far as salvation and redemption are concerned, we are the same, we are co-heirs of the grace of life, co-heirs of God’s eternal kingdom through faith in Christ.

Lange also wrote, Woman becomes man’s equal in virtue of the gift of the grace of life accorded to and hoped for by both.”

We are both destined, by faith in Jesus Christ, to inherit the kingdom of God and eternal life.

As Paul wrote in Galatians 3:27-29, 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

So, does submission find its root in superiority, does the New Testament teach inequality or inequity?

Quite the contrary! This passage proves the equality of husband and wife in virtue of the gift of God’s grace and emphasizes the respect and honor of diversity within the marriage covenant. True love is rooted in mutual esteem, flowing from the thought that both are children of God, purchased with the same precious blood of Christ and are coheirs of the kingdom of God.

And as far as hindered prayers are concerned, here are two quotes from Roos and Grotius:

“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.” And, harsh treatment leads to insult and strife, which hinder the power and efficacy of prayer.”

One more quote as we close…

In his book, Marriage Ring, Bishop Jeremy Taylor writes: “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.”

…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, 2 when they see your respectful and pure conduct. 3 Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— 4 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. 5 For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, 6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.

Amen