The Book of First Peter, Chapter 3
Godly Living
“God has an eternal economy (Ephesians 1:10; 3:9; 1 Timothy 1:4). In this vernacular, ‘economy’ means a plan. God has an eternal plan. He planned in eternity past to do something, and this plan was made by Himself according to His heart’s desire, according to His good pleasure, to carry out His intention. God has a heart’s desire, and He has to do something to work out what He desires. God has an eternal plan, an eternal economy, with an intention to do something”. (Except from “The Overcomers” by Watchman Nee).
The economy of God” refers to God’s plan and administration for distributing Himself to humanity, allowing believers to experience and enjoy His presence and life. It emphasizes the idea that God manages His household in a way that fulfills His purpose and desire for a relationship with people.
Peter, in this chapter, succinctly and powerfully explains God’s plan, and His purpose for us in that plan. We are part of His economy and there is only one way.
Godly Living
1 Peter 3:1, In the same way, you wives, be subject to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won over without a word by the behavior of their wives, verse 2, as they observe your pure and respectful behavior. Verse 3. Your adornment must not be merely the external—braiding the hair, wearing gold jewelry, or putting on apparel; verse 4, but it should be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. Verse 5. For in this way the holy women of former times, who hoped in God, also used to adorn themselves, being subject to their own husbands, verse 6, just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord; and you have proved to be her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear.
(Commentary Break): This chapter begins with the words “In the same way”, linking it to the previous chapter 2 and Verse 21, “For you have been called for this purpose, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you would follow in His steps; So, “In the same way”, (homoiós, meaning ‘do likewise, the same way as Christ has subjected Himself to authorities on your behalf which has led to your freedom in the salvation He secured for you’), be subject to (hupotassó, meaning subject yourself in order to secure your safety.
Going Deeper: HUPO – arrange under; TASSO – mutually agree upon
The intention of “submission or subjection” is found in the CONTEXT of the words in this chapter of Ephesians, which encourages us to be wise and moral, kind and pure, gentle and forgiving.
The context is also found in the meaning of the words in these verses.
Specifically, “Hupotasso” comes from a Greek military term meaning “to arrange [troop divisions] in a military fashion under the command of a leader”.
These troop formations were called a Phalanx. The Phalanx was the formation, usually in triangular form, in which the hoplite phalanx of the Archaic and Classical periods in Greece (c. 800–350 BC) was the formation in which the hoplites would line up in ranks in close order.
Hoplites were citizen-soldiers of Ancient Greek city-states who were primarily armed with spears and shields. Hoplite soldiers utilized the phalanx formation in order to be effective in war with fewer soldiers. The formation discouraged the soldiers from acting alone, for this would compromise the formation and minimize its strengths.
The hoplites would lock their shields together, and the first few ranks of soldiers would project their spears out over the first rank of shields.
Those at the front were, what we would call today, THE TIP OF THE SPEAR or the POINT MAN. They presented the first defense against the enemy and were the first to engage the enemy and the first to take casualties.
The phalanx therefore presented a shield wall and a mass of spear points to the enemy. Making frontal assaults against it very difficult.
It also allowed a higher proportion of the soldiers to be actively engaged in combat at a given time, rather than just those in the front rank.
This word, “Hupotasso”, in non-military use, is “a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility, and carrying a burden”.
The Bible gives this as an example for husbands and wives to cooperate and to successfully navigate life and in waging wars against ‘their common enemy’, Satan.
The wife is fully engaged in the marriage relationship, but God says the husband is to be the Tip of the Spear in order to protect and preserve and, if necessary, the first to fall.
Interestingly, Ephesians 5:22, “be subject to your own” uses the word “idios” which means, uniquely one’s own, peculiar to the individual. It is “stronger than the simple possessive pronoun (‘own’). This emphatic adjective means ‘private, personal’ “.
God gives each husband a wife, designed by God, Himself, to fulfill a role specifically for that husband. God gives the wife gifts, talents, abilities and a calling uniquely designed to serve God and to compliment and to complete the husband. (End Commentary Break).
Verse 7. You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.
(Commentary Break): This is why the Bible says “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.
“So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself”.
It is also why God says “Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord”.
Neither, the husband nor the wife, can be made complete as persons when finding refuge, protection and provision. But as a God given ability, you can mature and sustain one another, until you understand this Spiritual principal and follow it.
Marriage has mutual strength through commitment and cooperation with one another under God’s Steady Hand.
Please take this to heart, dear ones. This message is so important. The world and the Devil are deceiving the family in to thinking ‘what works for you is OK”. It is NOT OK. God’s design, His plan and His Word is what gives life, and life more abundant. Stop following the world and REASON through God’s Word. Understand it and live!
Please understand this: Marriage – one man and one woman, and the family – are the bedrock, the mainstay of any civil, sane and successful society. Any and all efforts to pervert God’s design in this is a deliberate attempt to destroy that people and their nation. What we are seeing in America, the political rise of homosexuality and marriage, the rise of aggressive feminism, the destruction of marriage and the family, is the work of Satan and the spirit of anti-christ through social and political means; once again, telling Eve, ‘Surely you shall not die’, but die they did and all who followed. (Please, dear friend, deny false teaching, deny the way of ‘self’ and turn to God and His Word, alone. (End Commentary Break).
Verse 8. To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, loving, compassionate, and humble; verse 9, not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you would inherit a blessing. Verse 10. For,
“THE ONE WHO DESIRES LIFE, TO LOVE AND SEE GOOD DAYS,
MUST KEEP HIS TONGUE FROM EVIL AND HIS LIPS FROM SPEAKING DECEIT.
Verse 11. “HE MUST TURN AWAY FROM EVIL AND DO GOOD;
HE MUST SEEK PEACE AND PURSUE IT.
Verse 12. “FOR THE EYES OF THE LORD ARE TOWARD THE RIGHTEOUS,
AND HIS EARS ATTEND TO THEIR PRAYER,
BUT THE FACE OF THE LORD IS AGAINST EVILDOERS.”
(Commentary Break): Peter ‘sums it all up’ and I encourage all of us to make this into a list that we carry with us and commit to memory so we may be “be careful to do [everything] in accordance with the entire Word which God has commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper and be successful wherever you go. This Word shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall read [and meditate on] it day and night, so that you may be careful to do [everything] in accordance with all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will be successful. Has He not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not be terrified or dismayed (or intimidated), for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” (also see Joshua 1:7-9):
-
-
- be harmonious,
- sympathetic,
- loving,
- compassionate, and
- humble;
- not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but
- giving a blessing instead;
-
for you were called for the very purpose that you would inherit a blessing. (End Commentary Break).
Verse 13. And who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? Verse 14. But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. AND DO NOT FEAR THEIR INTIMIDATION, AND DO NOT BE IN DREAD, verse 15, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, but with gentleness and respect; verse 16, and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who disparage your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. Verse 17. For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong.
(Commentary Break): These verses speak for themselves. However, I would like to add, by way of observation that far too many pastors, preachers and church ‘leaders’, will boldly and fiercely proclaim the Gospel while standing among the brethren in the Church; they will beat their breast and command others to go and tell the world of Jesus. But they never step outside the Church with their bravado. They are cowardly and timid in public. Do not be like those who ‘broaden their phylacteries’ and lord it over you in the sanctuary, but grow strangely silent among the lost and the heathens. Be as one that Peter describes, “always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, but with gentleness and respect”. (End Commentary Break).
Verse 18. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; verse 19, in which He also went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison, verse 20, who once were disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. Verse 21. Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, verse 22, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.
(Commentary Break): Taken from BibleHub.com, “And this water symbolizes the baptism that now saves you also; The reference to “this water” connects to the preceding verses discussing Noah’s flood. Just as the floodwaters were a means of salvation for Noah and his family, baptism is a symbol of salvation for believers. The floodwaters cleansed the earth of sin, paralleling how baptism represents the cleansing of sin. Baptism is not merely a ritual but signifies a deeper spiritual reality. It is an outward expression of an inward faith, aligning with the practice of the early church as seen in Acts 2:38, where Peter calls for repentance and baptism in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
“not the removal of dirt from the body”; This phrase clarifies that baptism is not about physical cleanliness. In the cultural context of the time, ritual washings were common in various religious practices, including Judaism, where ceremonial washings were part of purification rites. However, Peter emphasizes that Christian baptism transcends these rituals. It is not about external purification but an internal transformation. This aligns with Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 15:11, where He states that what comes out of the mouth defiles a person, not what goes into it, highlighting the importance of inner purity over external rituals.
“but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God”;
Baptism is described as a “pledge” or “appeal” to God for a clear conscience. This indicates a personal commitment and response to God’s grace. It involves a conscious decision to turn away from sin and live a life pleasing to God. The concept of a clear conscience is significant in the New Testament, as seen in Hebrews 9:14, which speaks of the blood of Christ cleansing our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. This pledge is a declaration of faith and a commitment to a new way of life in Christ.
“through the resurrection of Jesus Christ”;
The resurrection of Jesus is the cornerstone of Christian faith and the basis for the efficacy of baptism. It is through His resurrection that believers are given new life and hope. Romans 6:4 explains that just as Christ was raised from the dead, we too may live a new life. The resurrection signifies victory over sin and death, providing the power for believers to live transformed lives. It fulfills Old Testament prophecies, such as Psalm 16:10, which foretold that God’s Holy One would not see decay, affirming Jesus as the Messiah and the source of salvation. (End Commentary Break).
(End Chapter 3).
This chapter rightly ends with the words, “Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.” Peter begins this chapter teaching wives are to be subject to their husbands and ends with “angles and authorities and powers subjected to Him. The subjugation of and to God is not a tyrannical theocracy. It is the economy of God which provides sanctuary, safety, and Godly success even in the midst of trials and sufferings. It is built upon the Chief Cornerstone, that of Christ Jesus. And having subjected oneself to this model, you will find the peace, safety, and eternal promise that God has laid away for you since before the foundations of this world.
Your Brother and Friend,
Mike Young
NEXT: (Coming Soon) The Book of First Peter, Chapter 4, Keep Fervent in Your Love, Share the Sufferings of Christ
PREVIOUS: The Book of First Peter, Chapter 2, As Newborn Babes, As Living Stones, Christ is Our Example.
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