Ep 349 – 1 Peter 3:7

So, what about husbands? Peter has had quite a bit to say to wives, and now he takes on the married men in his audience, but he packs it into one short paragraph, found in 1 Peter 3:7. And while he won't have anything to say about how husbands dress or what they do with their hair, he will demand that they treat their wives with honor. They are not to lord it over their wives, which was a common problem in that day and age. Women were not held in high esteem and, in most cases, a wife was expected to accept whatever religious faith her husband held. She didn't get a choice. And as with his input to wives, Peter is going to address the God-ordained treatment Christian men were to show to their wives, whether they were believers or not. Just like what he had to say to slaves and wives, Peter is most interested in godly behavior, that kind of conduct that reflects a right relationship with God, made possible through faith in Christ. A Christian husband was to honor his wife. He was to view her as a gift from God, a fellow heir of the grace of life. Unlike the pagans within the culture, Christian men were to treat their wives with dignity and to make them a high priority in their lives. They were not to be seen as property or second-class citizens. If a man truly had a new nature, by virtue of his faith in Christ, Peter expected to honor like it.