Husbands and Wives

Meditations in the Season of Lent 

March 29, 2022

Husbands and Wives

In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered.

1 Peter 3:7

Read: 1 Peter 3:1-7

First, as we read today’s passage, we will want to hold tightly to what we saw in yesterday’s meditation. Jesus is the center of our life, and we are all, husbands, and wives, equal before him, and each other.

There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

Secondly, stand back at look at the full context of Peter’s instruction. We are all creatures of habit; we typically sit in about the same place every week in church. We also tend to follow social norms for behavior and dress. Peter is cutting against the grain of the social customs and norms of his day. Peter is encouraging the wives in his church to know and hold tightly to the beauty of Christ Jesus within them. That beauty outshines anything the culture has to offer. For the husbands, Peter goes completely countercultureal and calls the husbands to treat their wives with respect as they are an “equal partner in God’s gift of new life. (v.7)

My Takeaway: In today’s reading, some may latch on to words such as authority, obedience, and weaker and take these words literally. To do so is to miss Peter’s point. He was not making a case for complementarianism; he is making God’s case that we are one in Christ.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2022 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.