To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps."He committed no sin,and no deceit was found in his mouth." When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.
Ladies....have you ever read verse 3:1 of Peter connected with 2:21-26? I have not until the other day and it sent peace and joy flowing through my heart. We are called to be submissive to our husbands like Jesus was submissive to His Fathers will. I don't know about you but that gives me a little more power in the stand-alone verse that I had always read, not to say that it didn't have any before but when Jesus is directly related to it well...........what can I say?
I just got off the phone with my closest friend. It was a refreshing 1 hour and 27 minutes, which by the way is a record for me lately!!
Well, I will be teaching a class on Proverbs 31:11, did I already post that? Oh well. I am nervous.......what can I say? I had never heard before that the woman was to be the manager of the money. I had always assumed that the head of the house was to do that.......what do you think? As the manager of the home, should the wife be also the manager of the finances? In doing that does this give her a stepping stool to her head?
5 comments:
Stretch the context even further back to vs. 18. We were discussing these verses in a Bible study last semester. These verses did not send "peace and joy" through the heart of one of the girl who was there. She ran out of the room crying. Like a slave submits to the beatings of his master, Christ submitted to the beatings of the government; likewise, wives should submit to the beatings of their husbands. Tough teachings. Very contrary to popular wisdom, which would advise a woman to leave her husband if he is beating her.
Man, I ain't staying with no man who is disrespecting me, i knock him in his knees and take all his money. Shoot! Ain't No Man gonna do that.....! Please!
I think that it should send some comfort and encouragement her way.....I can't imagine how extremely difficult that situation would be. I know that the initial response to those situations are to leave the abuser and it is hard especially in any situation that is diffucult to see in plain text that His will for us is to stick it out and rely on Him to get us through it instead of running away which is what we want to do and think is the correct thing to do. Thanks for pointing this out to me!I do think that in a situation like a woman who is being abused physically that she should seek help and protection for herself. I don't think that the Lord is requiring her to lay down and let her husband abuse her until possibly death...do you?
Since Christ is the example in the text (he was abused until death), it would seem that, yes, the Lord would want her to model Christ's submission.
Jason,
Just a little shocked here bro about your comments. Let's take a sec and peek at the entire context of 1 Peter again. It's about Christians being persecuted by the government, as well as unbelievers, for being Christians.
The first rule of Bible interpretation is context. And the context is about Christians and governmental/unbelieving persecution.
From the context we derive our application. Therefore, the application would be to persevere under persecution when the government or unbelievers treat us wrongly for our faith.
Now, plug your passage under review into the context. First, there is no spousal abuse in view in the text. Second, the emphasis in the book is on being persecuted for our faith. Note verse 14, "If ye suffer for righteousness sake..." Third, what is in view is a national sort of persecution - Christians being persecuted by the Roman empire.
Putting these together, the text, in light of the context, would point to a wife who is living with an unbelieving husband who may perhaps be persecuting her, and even that in light of a larger sort of persecution effort against believers.
That's totally not at all what you have in domestic abuse situation. Rarely does an unbelieving husband persecute his believing wife by beating her. And when it does happen, we can't go to this text because domestic abuse is not in view in the text.
Jason, bro...this is a good example of either (1) going to the text with a preconceived notion and coming away from the text with something that fits your preconception, or (2) using the wrong text to prove the wrong thing.
Honestly, bro, this is messed up thinking here. Let's get ourselves straightened out on this one for the sake of women who are looking for grace and mercy at the cross. God does not force any woman to endure domestic abuse like you're talking about. Perhaps in cases of Muslim or similar cultures where the believing wife is shunned, beaten, or even executed. But not here where God has provided providential resources for our use.
Further, if you knew about the spousal abuse and didn't report it to the police, they'd take you to jail with him when they caught up to him. But I suppose you may think that going to jail with the unbelieving abusive husband would be tantamount to being persecuted for telling the woman to submit to persecution? See how messed up that is?
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