WWUTT 322 Wives Submit To Your Husbands?

When it comes to marriage, and the role that a husband has and a wife has in the marriage, what's important is not what the culture thinks that the roles of a husband and wife are supposed to be, but what God says those roles are when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry dedicated to teaching the Word of God in context, promoting sound doctrine while exposing the faulty.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. Hey, I wanted to say thank you to Chris Roseborough of Fighting for the Faith, who posted, well, I wanted to say the latest what video, but I actually added a new what video last night, so it's not the latest one anymore.

But the one that I did over the weekend regarding Todd White, a certain video that was played by Todd White or was uploaded to Facebook and has had over a million views. Phil Johnson posted something on it, and so then I did a what video responded to it that included Ephesians chapter 2 and Fighting for the Faith with Chris Roseborough grabbed it as well and also expounded a little bit more in revealing how Todd White is a heretic.

Very false teacher. In fact, I just did another video that's the one that I uploaded last night that includes Bethel Church in that revealing of false teaching Bill Johnson and Todd White have kind of done together.

So anyway, you can find that video. Check us out on YouTube dot com slash W .W .U .T .T. Please subscribe. It's the videos that got the podcast started. So I'm guessing if you've been listening to the program, then you came here because of the what videos.

But subscribe to the what video channel as well, and you'll get notifications as soon as they get uploaded to YouTube, YouTube dot com slash W .W .U .T .T. And of course, our website, the hub where you can find all this stuff, whether it's the books or the videos or the podcast.

It's all at W .W .U .T .T. Dot com. Today we are in First Peter chapter three, kind of starting a new section. But still, there is a context there still in context with even things we were talking about yesterday and middle part of last week.

The Call to Be a Holy Nation and Live as Exiles

So First Peter chapter three, starting in verse one, Peter says, likewise, wives be subject to your own husbands so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be one without a word by the conduct of their wives when they see your respectful and pure conduct.

Do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry or the clothing that you wear. 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.

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

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.

I think we'll be talking more of the husband and wife aspect of these things tomorrow. We'll talk more about the the context aspect today. So this is the section that we'll be looking at today and tomorrow.

So going back to the end of chapter two or about the middle part of chapter two, you have Peter saying that you're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So you might call yourself an American, a Mexican, a Canadian, a Puerto Rican.

You might call yourself French or German or British. You might call yourself Australian or a New Zealander, whatever your nationality might be or even your ethnicity. You might call yourself white or black or otherwise, but that does not make you united with a people.

Might be how you identify yourself. It has something to do with your identity, but that is not your people, because as we have stated here in first Peter, chapter two, once you were not a people, you were not part of some other kind of ethnic group or something superficial before you came to Christ.

You had no people as as Paul puts it in his letter to Titus and Titus chapter three. He says that we were hated by others and we were hating one another. We were separate. Nobody was united. There was no people.

We were apart from one another. We may have lived in different cultures, different societies, spoke a certain language, but we were isolated. We were hated by others and hating one another. We were not a people.

But in God, we have been united by the blood of Christ. We are holding fast to the head who is Christ Jesus and growing all the more our growth in our ligaments and the different parts of the body of Christ, as is talked about in Ephesians chapter four.

And so we are a people now. We are the people of God. We have been adopted into the family of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. We are his people. And through him, we have received mercy. Previously, we had no mercy.

Now we have received mercy. So as we walk as exiles in this world, we are reminded and we understand that this earth is not our home. I'm just a passing through as the old spiritual goes. So we must abstain from the passions of the flesh, which are worldly, which wage war against your soul.

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. But yet, even though we know that we are God's people and we belong to his holy nation, we are still, according to verse 13, to be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution.

And so then from that point on, from verse 13 on, we have these different institutions that exist in the earth. We have the emperor as supreme or governors is sent by him to punish those who do evil and praise those who do good, honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor.

And then we have a different kind of social structure added in verse 18. Servants be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing.

When mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.

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. And this example that is being given to us in Christ not only has to do with this relationship between servants and masters, it has to do with the way that we subject even to the governing authorities, because Jesus himself submitted to the governing authorities.

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 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.

In the book of John, when Pilate questioned Jesus and Jesus refused to respond to Pilate, Pilate says, what's the matter with you? Don't you know that I have the power to put you to death or to set you free?

And then Jesus responded to him and said, you would have no authority if it was not given to you from above. So Jesus was submitting himself even to earthly authority, because in doing so, he was entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

This was all part of God's sovereign and divine plan. As we go to Acts chapter four here, Peter prayed for truly in this city where this is the apostles praying truly in this city. There were gathered together against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant, Jesus.

When Jesus was being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter drew his sword and lopped off the ear of the servant of the high priest. And Jesus said, put your sword away. Don't you know that I could call 10 ,000 angels to this place to deliver me out of this situation?

But Jesus was submitting himself to him who judges justly. And part of God's plan was that Jesus would be subjected to all earthly authority to execute God's plan in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on the cross, absorbing the wrath of God for all those who had been predestined to receive salvation in Christ.

And it is through Christ that we have become God's people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession who have renounced all ungodliness and all worldly ways and are living now as citizens of the kingdom of God, having received this inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for us.

This is what we have in Christ Jesus. So as Christ has set this example for us, so we must follow it in trusting ourselves to him, to God who judges justly, who has all rule and authority in his hands.

He himself bore our sin in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed for you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

Wives, Husbands, and the Gospel Witness in Marriage

So now we come to another human institution. So we have this this governing institution. We have the the relationship between servants and masters. And now we have the relationship between husbands and wives still in a particular context.

In fact, Paul does this regularly. He does it with the Colossians. He does it with the Ephesians, where he talks about different human institutions and gets to husbands and wives also. And we will we'll look at those.

We'll look at those examples a little bit more tomorrow. So first here in verse one, Peter says, likewise, wives. So that word likewise is keeping with the context, these earthly relationships that we've been talking about.

And here we get to the earthly relationship of husbands and wives. It is the most precious earthly relationship that has been given to us by God. For the relationship between a husband and a wife is the very picture of the way that Christ loves his church.

So even if you are listening to me and you are not married, maybe you're not even close to being married. But this is still really important because in the marriages that you observe around you, you are seeing with your own eyes a reflection and a picture of the relationship that Christ has with his church.

And we'll expand, expound more on the holiness aspect of this tomorrow. But here in this earthly relationship, we have this instruction. Likewise, wives are the first to be addressed, be subject to your own husbands so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won over without a word by the conduct of their wives.

So we've got six verses here that are instructions to wives and one verse to husbands. Verse seven. What's the deal? Why do women get six verses and the husband only has one? Well, first of all, he doesn't just have one.

He actually has seven because notice that verse seven begins likewise husbands. So there's a context that he needs to apply from those first six verses. Even though Peter was addressing specifically women, there's still an aspect of that that he needs to recognize and obey.

So really, the husband's got seven verses and the wife has six. But here's another explanation. Some of this is conjecture on my part, but still truth to it. Here's another explanation for why there are more verses being committed here to addressing wives.

Now, notice here at the beginning of this instruction, Peter says so that even if your husband does not obey the word, he may be won over without a word by the conduct of his wife. Remember that the gospel is spreading at a time in which women are considered to be subservient.

They were less than men in the Jewish society. In particular, women did not even have a testimony in court. Her testimony was not valid in a court of law. And so she was less than her husband. And this was the case in the Roman Empire as well.

Women were not seen of the same social standing as men were. So here you have the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is inclusive of everybody. Notice that Peter has to point out to husbands, you show honor to the woman as the weaker vessel since they are heirs with you of the grace of life.

It is being reminded to the husbands that when it comes to the kingdom of God, women are equal in the receiving of this imperishable, undefiled and unfading inheritance. Women will receive the same inheritance as men.

And you consider the culture in the society in which husbands and wives were living at this particular time when a wife was without a husband. If her husband died and she was left a widow, she doesn't automatically inherit all of the things that belong to him.

In fact, all of those things could be taken from her and they would be redistributed, either owned by the government or handed over to another one of the husband's kin. In the Jewish law, the temple took it.

So the temple would seize all of the goods and the property that the husband owned when he died and the widow would receive nothing. This is why James says in James chapter one, verse 27, that religion that God, our father finds pure and undefiled is this to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep one's self unstained from the world.

A widow in particular experienced significant distress when the temple would seize all the goods from her late husband and she was left with nothing. So the death of her husband practically meant destitution for the widow unless she had family that was able to take care of her.

So that's one of the reasons why James puts such an emphasis on that in James 1, 27. So this being the case here that that husbands have all of the property, they have all of the prestige, they have all of the recognition, but they need to be reminded and they needed to know that their wives were fellow heirs of the kingdom of God.

And the portion that a husband would receive in this kingdom is the same portion that his wife was going to receive. So there is a responsibility that the husband has in how he cares for his wife on this earth.

But he serves her in knowing that she is a fellow heir of this kingdom. He's not any more important in the kingdom than she is. So when that's the gospel message that's being spread, when men and women both can come to the Lord in rejoicing and in favor, in equal share of mercy and love and grace and an equal share of this kingdom that is being given to them, imperishable and undefiled.

That's a pretty attractive message to a woman. That's a pretty attractive message to a woman who lives in a society in which she is considered to be less than men. So there were a large number of women that were coming to the faith before their husbands, since this was such an attractive message to them.

So you had a lot of women who would be Christians, but their husbands were not yet. And so Peter is giving this instruction to wives in the common scenario that a wife would be a believer before her husband would be.

How is it that I win over my husband when my husband still has the mindset of the culture that he's better than me? How can I possibly speak to him to say to him that he needs to repent of his sin and come to Christ if in doing so could result in me being beaten?

And by law, he can do that to me. So here is Peter's instruction to wives. And remember, we have this context that follows an instruction to servants being subject to their masters, even unjust masters.

Perhaps a wife is living with a husband who thinks of himself as being better than his wife because he still has a worldly mind. And if she were to speak to him in an improper way or that he would consider to be an improper way, he could beat her by law.

So here's the instruction that Peter gives to her. Be subject to your own husbands. So that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won over without a word by the conduct of their wives when they see your respectful and pure conduct.

Now, even though there is a a certain cultural context going on here that helps us to understand better what Peter is saying and why he's saying things this way, that doesn't mean that these things are no longer important.

Now, these instructions are directly applicable even now between husbands and wives. This relationship has not changed since God first created it between the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, the first husband and wife.

The way that God created them then is the same way that we are to consider the relationship between a husband and wife even now. So these instructions are still just as important and just as applicable now as they were when Peter wrote them 2000 years ago.

One of the ways that this serves me well as a pastor, when it comes to how I counsel married couples, I pastor in a in a primarily military church. About 60 percent of our church is military. And so we get a lot of young couples that are newlyweds.

In fact, we just had a couple of new couples we've just added to our membership. In the last couple of months that have only been married for less than a year. So we get a lot of of new couples in our church, and sometimes we will get women who attend church alone, married women who are attending by themselves without their husbands.

And when I sit down and meet with them, I find that their husbands are not saved. So they probably even got married with her being a believer and he was not. And so when it comes to counseling her as to how she can win over her husband to the faith, how do I how can I be a Christian in this marriage when my husband is not a believer and he's not leading me and guiding me as the head of the household, as I know that he should, as as the scriptures say that he should.

So how do I need to conduct myself with my husband? And whenever I am counseling a wife regarding that question, I always come to first Peter, chapter three. It's these six verses right here that I will give to her.

And Peter's instruction for wives 2000 years ago is just as applicable to wives even today, that the way that we love our spouse, this is for husbands and wives together. OK, the way that we love our spouse should not be according to what is acceptable to the culture.

The way we love our spouse is what God has commanded us to do. What does the Bible say? What does God command of us? How a husband is supposed to be the head of the household and lead his wife, how the wife is supposed to be submissive to her husband in these ways we are obeying God.

We are to be subject for the Lord's sake to the institution of marriage, obeying him, not the cultural expectation for a husband and a wife, but living as children of God. And so let us consider these things in obedience to Christ as we continue to talk about this more tomorrow.

Our great God, I thank you so much for your word. I thank you for calling us out of darkness into your marvelous light. Once we were not a people, but now we are the people of God. So teach us more and more what it means to be subject to every human institution for the Lord's sake, to conduct ourselves in this world in such a way that by our actions, unbelievers may be won over by our conduct.

So we must preach the gospel. Absolutely. The words that come from our mouths and give us the boldness to declare this gospel. But let our actions affirm the gospel that we believe in, the Christ whom we follow, the kingdom that we are a part of.

We exhibit this even in the very way that we live our lives and the words that come from our mouths. Be with us, Lord. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry.

Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word when we understand the text.