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1 Peter 3:7
We invite you to join us for worship each Sunday morning at 9:30. You can download our service on iTunes or tune in for “The Good Word” each day on AM 1230 WSAL or on Hoosier Country 103.7 FM just after 8am. I like what one writer said about Peter using only one statement addressed to husbands. He said, “do not draw the conclusion, however, that because wives receive six verses of counsel, to only one for husbands, that the husband’s responsibility is any less exacting than that of a wife.” He lists that God expects every Christian husband to follow. Christian husbands are to live with their wives:
- IN COMPREHENSION! Peter is telling Christian men they are to approach their marriage intelligently. Solomon teaches in the first eight chapters of Proverbs that wisdom, understanding, and insight must be sought with great diligence. Any man who has a true Christian marriage and at the same time dedicates his life to continual, consistent study of the Word of God will certainly learn to treat his wife with the considerate understanding God demands. When God tells a Christian husband to live with his Christian wife in an understanding way He means for the husband to know his wife from the heart out, not just superficially. Christian husbands are also to live with their wives
- IN CONSIDERATION! A Christian husband demonstrates consideration toward his Christian wife by showing her honor. Peter actually used the term “assigning” honor – which can also be correctly translated “treat them with respect.” One writer defines the word “treat” as meaning that which is due from one person to another. So Peter is telling us that which is due from the husband to the wife is honor. It is important to notice the verb showing refers to husbands. Honor is what a husband shows and his wife is the one to whom he shows it. There is nothing said, nor is there any indication anywhere that the husband’s initiating this action of showing honor do his wife is done in response to any action on the part of his wife. The only reason a Christian husband starts and sustains the honor given to his wife is because he recognizes she is a divine creation on loan to him from God. Christian husbands are to live with their wives
- AS CO-HEIRS! God reveals two truths in the last two phrases of this verse. The first is that Christian women are coheirs of salvation with all the rights, privileges, and benefits that would be given to any man. Another way to say that is that women are not created inferior to men. They are in fact created as emotional, mental, and spiritual equals with men. The second truth Peter shares with us is that men are to treat their wives with honor so the husband’s prayers are not hindered. A Christian man can put all the energy and effort a person can muster into learning to be a man of The Word, and a man of prayer, but if he doesn’t at the same time, treat his wife with all the dignity and honor that God expects his prayers are stopped! A man can pray as long as he wants, for anything he wants, but until he moves into and lives his life as a Christian husband in this verse he is wasting his breath – even if what he is praying is word for word from the Scriptures!
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