The young folks. Thank you for letting me share with you this morning. I do appreciate the privilege. We're actually going to go a little bit farther in the book of 1 Peter. We'll begin looking at 1 Peter chapter 3, verses 1 to 7. I'm going to start by reading it, and then I'll kind of give an introduction or put it in context. Context is so important to understand the word of God. But 1 Peter 3, verse 1 to verse 7 says, likewise you wives be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they 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 of the hair and of wearing of gold or putting on of apparel. let it be the hidden man of the heart, and that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is 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 Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters you are as long as you do well and are not afraid with any amazement. Likewise ye husbands, likewise ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, being heirs together of the grace of the life, that your prayers be not hindered. So 1 Peter is written to some Christians, Christians who've been scattered, and they're undergoing certain persecution. Can you hear me okay this morning? I just, I don't know what the problem is this morning. It's me. So he's writing these persecuted Christians with the goal in mind of encouraging them on how to live in the middle of this hostile society and how to conduct yourselves in a world that's really set against you. And so generally tells them to sort of elevate themselves and turn toward their living hope in Christ. In other words, get out of the world mentality, emotionally and spiritually, and focus on what's eternal. and what's heavenly and keep your mind on the eternal Christ. Keep your mind on his glorious future for us and his glorious resources. Don't get caught up in the fuss down here. Get our focus upwards. So he directs your attention three ways. The first part of the book says, now I want you to focus on your living hope in Christ first of all by remembering your great salvation. And that was chapter one, verse one, through chapter two, verse 11. So to focus on remembering our great salvation, which is the basis of our future hope. And secondly, he moves from the past to the present. And from chapter two, verse 12, basically, remember your example before men. In the past, you remember your great salvation was provided for your living hope. In the present, you remember your responsibility to be an example before men. And that subject goes from chapter two, verse 12, all the way to chapter four, verse six. So we'll run that section now. And so he's saying in the midst of hostility and persecution and rejection in a society that doesn't believe the way you do and makes it difficult for you, remember the necessity for your example, have the example before men. And then the final section, which we'll get to, and first Pedro eventually. Chapter four, verse seven, to the end, it looks to the future. Remember, Jesus is coming. Remember that. So we have three perspectives, if you will. It could be like an overlying outline of the text for context. So remember your past, salvation. Remember the present. which is your witness, your daily witness. Remember that in the future, Jesus is coming and that's how we're gonna live. So we find ourselves in the middle of this section and we're just talking about the matter of living in the world in such a way as to reach, being able to reach the will for Christ. And it's important we maintain our testimony. So the bottom line is that if we're going to have an exemplary testimony in the world, in this hostile world, if we're gonna be used to win people to Christ, then our lives have to be characterized by a certain basic characteristic. And what is that? Well, in verse 13, chapter two, we had that word submit. Submit yourselves. And verse 18, again, submit yourselves as servants. Chapter three, verse one, wives be submissive. And so what Peter's saying is this, if you're going to be caught, you're going to be caught up in a hostile world, and the hostile world's gonna manifest itself in social relationships, and there are three primary social relationships. The government, and the second's the workplace, and the third's the family. And those are the three, and social environments in which we live, and going from the greater to the lesser, if you will, depending on how you look at it. The biggest social environment in which we live here is the United States of America. And we are therefore answerable to the government, and the government of the state of Kentucky as well, in which we exist, and also our workplace. And we have responsibility within our employment to submit ourselves to those in authority over us. And the smallest location of our social involvement is in the family. And in each case, he says, submit. So in verse 13, chapter two, he says, submit to the government. Verse 18, chapter two, submit to your employer. And in verse three, verse one, chapter three, in regard to marriage, he says, submit to your partner. And the bottom line in our testimony in this society in which we live is submission, that's really the key word, submission. And verse seven also says husbands likewise, and submission there. Your husbands likewise, and that picks up the same thought of submission, it's a very basic and essential concept, and we're to live, we're to have an impact, if we were to have an impact on our culture, we have to submit to the social order. the social structure, the social patterns of God's design. We cannot be rebels. We cannot demand our rights. We cannot feel superior to the social order. When a person becomes a Christian, immediately they're a child of God because they now have a higher authority. namely the Lord Jesus Christ, and because they now have a higher standard of living, the Bible, because they're now citizens of heaven, and because there's a sense in which they've been translated out of this world, they could easily feel, first of all, superior to society. And they could say, look, I belong to God. I'm a Christian, I'm a citizen of heaven. I don't belong here, I'm a stranger and an alien. That's what it says back in verse 11 of chapter two. I'm really not interested in paying any attention to these governmental laws. And I'm not interested in coming under the authority of any employer. I'm certainly not interested in listening to some unsafe spouse and deferring to them. I live on another plane. And you could feel sovereign over the law. I'm guilty of saying out from under the law and under grace. Put my hand on my car and like, let's see what we can do. Sovereign over your employer. I'm sorry, you didn't need to hear that. You could feel sovereign over your mate. That's the very opposite of what you ought to feel. And you could feel sovereign over the law, sovereign over your employer, you could feel sovereign over, again, we've only been left here for one reason, and that's an evangelistic reason, purposes, and we're here to make Christ known to society. And we're here to make Christ known in the workplace, we're here to make Christ known in our families. Those are the three environments of our existence and the principles of conduct are given here that can lead to the most, really the most effective Christian testimony. If you want to be effective in the society in which we live, if you want to be effective in the state of Kentucky in which we live, or Ohio, if you live in Ohio. I love Ohio because they gave me my wife. I love Ohio. Then we have to submit to verse three, it says, to every human institution. In other words, we need to show we're not, verse 13, chapter two, I'm sorry. We have to show that we're not rebels. We're not problematic. We're not superior. We're not indifferent to society's order. We're submissive. We're model citizens. And in verse 18, chapter two, we're to be model employees. submissive to our masters, and with all respect, whether they're good in general, whether they're unreasonable. And now we come to this third and smallest area of social responsibility, which is our family. And the question is, what does a wife do when she's married to an unsafe husband? What does a husband do when he's married to an unsafe wife? So, does he feel superior? Does he lord it over her? Does he treat her with indifference because she's not a citizen of the kingdom? And what does she do? Does she respect his authority, who's a non-Christian husband, because she has another authority who's Christ? Does she demand her rights, both physical and spiritual, because now she's been elevated, you see, child of the king? What's the proper responsibility for each partner when married to an unbeliever? Again, I'm just giving context. Now, these three verses, And these verses here, there's six, seven verses in chapter three, are not a discourse on male and female status. They're not a discourse on Christian marriage. It's not even a discussion of Christian marriage. This is a discussion of a mixed marriage where you have a Christian partner and a non-Christian partner. This is a discussion, again, where the whole context here, how does a Christian live in a non-Christian society? That's the context. How does a Christian live in a non-Christian place of employment? How does a Christian live with a non-Christian partner? And the whole context of this passage is a very, very important matter, because it's taken out of context all the time, I've ever heard it. And remember, we're to live in a certain way in our society, why? So that people will observe our lives and glorify God, says in verse 12 of chapter two, and glorify God in the day of visitation. In other words, they'll be saved. They can praise God on that day when judgment comes. We're also to be submissive to our masters and our employers, and for this, we'll find favor with God. How? By making the gospel truth. as real, as people can see it in our lives. It's something real. And that's the same, it's true in the family. So we're beginning here with wives. And Peter is not biased. Okay, I want you to understand, he's not biased. He gives six verses of the wives and one verse of the husbands. Some of you might say, well, this is a little out of balance, isn't it? There's an important reason why, and that's because when a wife became a Christian, the potential for difficulty in the marriage was much greater when the husband became a Christian, because the husband was already in charge anyway in that society. In that society, a husband became a Christian, the wife would dutifully accept that, since she had no mind of her own. At least she was not allowed to have one anyway. She wasn't allowed to have one. So the potential for the conflict was greatly lessened if the husband was a safe person. When a woman who was viewed as a slave or an animal, not even much more than that, became a Christian, independently of her husband, the potential for conflict and embarrassment and difficulty was much greater. That's why Peter gives more attention to this particular problem. Becoming a Christian can pose some serious problems today. I mean, it posed serious problems then. A woman becomes a Christian, all of a sudden she feels superior to her husband. She feels like, now that she knows what the Bible teaches and she belongs to the God of the Bible, she knows so much more than he does. I mean, how can he be the leader in the family any longer? Not only that, she keeps meeting these wonderful men at church. I mean, they're fine, they're outstanding Christians. become maybe envious of them, she becomes indifferent to her own husband. And she's much more attractive to the other men at church who love Christ. Because she sees in that a potential for a wonderful life if I just had that guy. And this can lead to great, serious problems, actually. In the Greek culture which Peter lived, the people, of course, to whom he wrote were scattered throughout the Greek world. And for a woman to change her religion without her husband doing it was unthinkable. And why? Because in Peter's day, women were treated like sheep and goats. Their opinion was considered irrelevant, immaterial, and unwanted. And there was a basic principle called patria potestas. And what that means is that while single and living with her father, and her father says the woman was under her father's power. He could literally kill her if he wanted, and when she became married, she was under her husband's power, and he could literally kill her also if he wanted to. And there was no legal recourse for that. So the woman was thought of merely as one who served the needs of the male population. But all of a sudden, a woman, let's say, becomes a Christian, she understands the principle of Galatians 3.28, which says, in Christ there's neither male nor female, we're all one in Christ. And she sees that in Christ, and she's reached the level of living that her unsafe husband knows nothing about, and she's free in Christ, she has a new Lord, a new master. And it would be easy for her to treat her husband with disdain, with indifference, even with rejection. If he's not careful, he can become very disfaithful, even repulsive. But it's no different than the situation of a worker who has an ungodly employer. He feels this search to put him in his place, and he feels superior to it because of his conversion. The society in which Peter lives would say it like this. This was an odd quote from that time. We have one similar in Appalachia. but it's similar. Women must remain indoors and obey their husbands. That was the saying. I mean, that's what they thought of women. Women were very often abused, they were often killed. So it's important to realize that what life must have been like for a woman who became a Christian independently of her husband, and the abuse could escalate, it could be immensely embarrassing for the husband. Because no woman ever did that independently of her husband. So he would be very embarrassed among his peers, and he would be very nonplussed about this mystical relationship she had with this Jesus Christ. He would be very unpleased. And for her to be bold enough and brave enough to do that would put her in a position where she could suffer abuse. And in the early church, there were a lot of secretive meetings, and some were prone to think there were secrets not only to hide from the government, but to hide from the husbands, okay? Because there were many women who gave their lives to Christ and for Christ. So the reason Peter directs these six verses that women is precise because of this potential difficult social problem and if a man came to Christ while the woman tacitly, at least outwardly, if not inwardly, would affirm Christ, she really didn't have an opinion in that culture anyway. So it wasn't great consequence if he could still be in charge. It'd still be the authority, and there wouldn't quite be the difficulty. But for a woman to come to Christ is extremely problematic. So that's the issue. How does a Christian wife relate to her unsaved husband in such a way as to fulfill her mission? And what's her mission? What's our mission? Well, it's to win people to Christ. And how is she to conduct herself to win that unsaved husband of Jesus Christ? And the answer's here in our text. But before we see that, I want us to share some things Peter doesn't tell her to do, okay? You might find this interesting. Peter doesn't tell her to do these things. Number one, he doesn't tell the Christian wife to leave the husband. He does not tell the wife to do that. Doesn't say, well, now that you're a Christian, get out of there and find yourself a Christian man. Find somebody who thinks like you do, who loves Christ like you do, and have a happy union with that person. Shake that husband out. No, he doesn't say that. And it's a good thing he doesn't say it, because it would be wrong, right? First of all, well, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 7, verse 13, if a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, Let her not leave him. And what does that word mean in the Greek? Don't divorce him. And if you have an unsafe husband, you don't divorce him. Paul says that's forbidden by God, and the fact, 1 Corinthians 7.14 says the unbelieving husband is actually sanctified through his wife. In other words, the blessings of God that he gives to you are gonna spill over on him. on the man, just because God is blessing you, he'll get the benefits. And a non-Christian married to a Christian woman doesn't know how fortunate they are. Because she's a child of God and God's pouring out blessings on her because she's so blessed and she is so enriched, he benefits. And it doesn't mean he gets salvation. I mean, through it, it means simply outwardly in his life, he's gonna be blessed because of his wife. And this is not inward sanctification, but outward grace that spills over on him because of her. So the unsaved husband may say, stay, and if he wants to stay, it says that the believing wife should let him stay, and that's God's plan. You say, well, what if he wants to leave? Well, the same text, 1 Corinthians 7 says, the unbelieving one leaves, verse 15, let him leave the brother or sister, is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace. If he wants out, you let him go. But, you know, you're not in bondage and this bond is broken, in other words, for how do you know a wife or the, verse 16, for how do you know a wife whether you will save your husband or your or husband, now how do you know whether you'll save your wife? In other words, the point is, if he wants to stay, let him. If he wants out, he can't tolerate your Christian testimony anymore, let him go. And then you say, well, now wait a minute, I want him to stay so he'll get saved. So Paul says, look, you'll get nothing but war in the house. And that's counterproductive and you don't really know whether he'll get saved anyway. And so don't try to hold that thing over. Together, it creates confusion and chaos. That's the point. So Peter says basically the same thing by saying nothing. He doesn't tell the woman to leave. He doesn't, don't rebel, don't leave. Stay all, and do all you can to win the husband. But if the husband wants out and leaves you, you're not under bondage anymore, the marriage is broken. Don't fight tooth and nail to hold it together. It's gonna lead him to Christ by having an unchaotic and confused war-like environment all the time. That's not conducive to leading someone to Christ. It's not productive, but the second thing he doesn't say, he doesn't tell her to preach at him. He doesn't tell her to argue with him. He doesn't tell her to kind of debate the gospel with him. He doesn't tell her to put Bible verses on the bottom of his beer cans. He doesn't tell her to stick evangelistic tracts under his pillow in his bed at night. He doesn't tell her to badger him about the guy, doesn't tell her to call her pastor and have the pastor come to the house some night when she knows husband's home alone, the pastor will come with his guns loaded, you know. Peter doesn't tell her that. He says, doesn't say glue Bible verses on the refrigerator. He doesn't say things like that. The third thing he doesn't say is he doesn't tell her that now she's equal to the man, she should demand her rights. He doesn't say that. She is equal, of course, to any other believer spiritually, but she still has a marital role to fulfill. In Christ, there's neither male or female, they're one. But in marriage, there is headship, there is submission. You say, well, what does he tell her? Well, in verse one, Likewise, you wives be in subjection to your own husbands, that if then you obey not the word, they may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives. That's the basic point. He says if you want to win that husband to Christ, if you want to do all you can, and only God knows whether that's gonna happen or not, but if you want to be the maximum impact on the life of an unsaved man, then be a submissive wife. And that's it. If you want to make a maximum impact on the society in which we live, that's the model. Be a submissive citizen. If you want to have the maximum impact on your job, be a submissive employee. If you want the maximum impact on your unsafe housing, be a model submissive wife. Same principles, same principles. So three specific duties are outlined here for us. Number one, submission and its intention. Well, that's verse one. Likewise, he says, or it could be translated in the same manner as we've been reading already in the previous chapter. Same manner as who? Well, chapter two, verse 13, same manner as citizens submitting. Chapter two, verse 18, the same manner as employees submitting. Here it says, the same manner, or likewise, you wise be submissive. Hupotasso means to be in subjection. to line up underneath. It's used in a military context. Realize that you have to take your place as subordinate to the leadership and the headship of your husband. That's God's design for marriage. Women are not inferior in character. They're not inferior in intelligence. They're not inferior in virtue. They're not inferior spiritually. They're not inferior in giftedness. They're not inferior in any way, period. They have simply been given a role that puts them in a place of submission to a headship which is residing in their husband. And being in submission, it's to your own husbands, and he's really making a point of that. Every time in the Bible you have this injunction, it always says your own husband. at the possessive pronoun here, the intensive possessive pronoun. So be in submission to your own husband, which speaks of intimacy and bonding of the marriage. This is God's design. Of course, 1 Corinthians 15, 11 says Christ, of course, is the head of man. God's the head of Christ. And the man is the head of the woman. And that's what Paul wrote to Timothy. I permit not a woman to teach or be in authority. Take authority over men that are learned in subjection, 1 Timothy 2, 11 to 14. And the reason that this is simple, verse one, If any of them be disobedient to the word, they don't obey the word. It could be transgressed since they are disobedient to the word. It assumes that it's a case, literally that means the gospel, the word of reconciliation, the word of salvation, and they're basically unregenerate, they're disobedient to the gospel. And the issue is to submit to them anyway. you just submit to, as you submit to the government, just as you submit on your job, you know, for the sake of their salvation, look at the end of verse one, that they also may without the word be won by the conversation of their wives. He's not saying they will be saved without the word. He's not saying they'll be saved without the word. If you look back at 1 Peter 1, verse 23 in our context, you've been born again, not of seed, which is perishable, but of imperishable, that's through the living and abiding word of God. Salvation comes through the word. What he's saying is that they may be one without a word, he's not saying not without the word. And they can only be one with the word. But from the wife's viewpoint, it's more important what you are than what you say, right? That's the whole point. And they're lost, and they do not obey the word that they might be saved without a word. So what do you mean by that? Without conversation, without harassment from the wife. Simply the behavior of the wives. And it's a wonderful insight, the lovely, gracious, still submission of a Christian woman to her unsafe husband is the strongest evangelistic tool that she has. And it's not that she's, what she says is what she is. The woman is to submit to her husband's leadership. That's a God-designed principle. Wife, submit to your husband's, Ephesians 5, 22. Wife, submit to your husband's. In each case, it's your own husband. Colossians 3, 18, same thing comes. In Paul and Titus 2, verse 4 and 5, young women are to be subjected to their own husbands. And again, that's possessive pronoun. Every time such a statement's made, the woman is to submit to the husband's leadership. And this is her greatest tool, evangelizing at the virtue of her wifely character. You might be interested to know that this also contributes to a happy marriage. Obviously, the Bible wouldn't advocate if it did. I mean, you can look at different studies in psychology and see that families that have women, that moms that are emotionally dependent on their husbands and that always produce a better adjusted child. The first duty of the wife is then a submission, and to put it another way, voluntary selflessness and dependence, you could say. Voluntary selflessness and dependence. The second responsibility in verse two would be our second point, and we won't have time to go much further than that, but we'll just hit it a little bit. It's called faithfulness. Number one is submission, number two is faithfulness. Verse two, while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. And that's a very basic spiritual truth for a marriage. He's talking about a pure life. But what does chaste and respectful behavior mean? Or chaste conversation coupled with fear? It basically means it's irreproachable conduct. Faithful to her God, faithful to her husband. Don't break trust. You want to win your unsafe husband? Well, one, be submissive. Two, be faithful. And that's what chaste, respectful behavior means. Chaste means pure. It means you're not fooling around with anybody else. And it means pure, pure. And then coupled with fear, which would be to be faithful, respectful, it means you have respect for your husband. You demonstrate that respect, you never get involved with anyone else and you show him proper respect. I do have three minutes, well, third point, we'll just kick it for a little bit too. Third principle comes in verses three to six and it's modesty, it deals with modesty. Your submission with his intention to bring him to Christ, your faithfulness in verse two, then you have modesty in verse three, four, five, and six. And verse three, it says, who's adorning, let it not be that of the outward adorning of plaiting the hair and of wearing of gold or of putting on of apparel. So it's a really touchy matter. It's, I'm an old guy, I'm not very smart, so I might mess up. Hopefully I won't offend anybody, too bad. But the Christian wife trying to win her unsafe husband, he says, look, I want you, I want to say this. I mean, I know there's a risk involved, so. And certainly in our society, the occupation of women is the outward appearance, pretty much. I would say we could agree on that. Some more than others. I mean, some men do the same thing. Let not your adornment be merely external, is what he's saying. I mean, is he saying he's against combing the hair? I don't think so. You say, was he against wearing gold jewelry? I don't think so. I mean, a beautiful woman, the bride of the Song of Solomon, she was decked out. She had jewels on and gold. Is he against putting on dresses for women, pretty dresses? I don't think so. What he's saying is let that be your incessant preoccupation with disregard of the character that you have inside. I mean, they really got carried away. I don't have really time to get inside, but in the Greek and Roman world, there was an immense preoccupation with the outside. cosmetics were big. Have you ever seen Funk Rockers today, how they dress? Purple hair, green hair. I mean, that's nothing, dude. They had that in Greece, the women. They'd dye their hair red, green, yellow, all kind of colors, and they'd wave it, braid it, and they piled it higher and higher, and those beehive things, and they were especially fond of wigs, blonde hair. That was, You can go back to Isaiah chapter three and see it's God condemned Israel for that, the women. We don't have time for that. Anybody that's married to someone knows that after you're married, you're not really, it's the inside of the person that draws you more than the outside. It's the inside. Getting to know that person, the real person. And that's what he's saying here. With that, I'll have to unhook our wagon. Thank you for letting me share with you. And hopefully I didn't, If I dug my grave, hopefully it's deep enough so you can cover me up. Thank you very much.