1 Peter 3:1-6
Living your life as if God tells the truth! And many of us who study the Bible and
even attend worship and Bible Studies may be quick to say God does tell the
truth, in fact God is Truth, and the Scriptures are without error. But we have a dirty little secret, what
we say we believe and our actions are often far apart. In the book of James 1:22, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only,
deceiving yourselves.” This
thought comes to mind, that many of us who claim the name Christian may be the
most deceived people on planet earth.
To state you believe something to be true, and yet totally live as if it
was not true, is delusional, and the question must be asked; are those who do
such things mentally ill? It is somewhat mental in that
Christians are instructed to renew their minds in the word of God, but it is
also a problem of being deceived by the world system, your flesh, and the enemy
of your soul.
Never in the American Church has our culture brought more
pressure on the family, and especially on our wives. Many wives are in the workplace, some by choice and others
because of financial needs of the family.
It puts the wife under the authority of, in many cases, other men, and
in that relationship they must submit to the authority of their bosses. And when they go home it is a sad
example if a husband believes he is to hold the office of boss in his
home. He is the head, but as the
head his job is to love his wife and to bring up his children to honor her and
to seek the council of God in all matters. If he is deceived into believing his role is boss, he goes
from lover of his wife to being one big jerk. I am speaking from being that kind of jerk, and coming to
the understanding of what is meant by being her head, and becoming a man who
loves and shows love for his bride.
Many Christian wives have unbelieving husbands, and Peter is
addressing that in these verses, he is giving the wife a plan of action. This is what he is saying; submit to
your husband, and he acknowledges that many will not go to church with you,
will not read or listen to the gospel, and yet without you preaching a sermon,
but by living in submission to your husband, showing respect by your pure
conduct, they will turn to the light they see in you. Not by trying to use sex as a reward for his compliance to
your request, but by him seeing the hidden person of the heart. It becomes clear that God calls that
act precious in His sight.
I must tell you that acting as if Jesus tells the truth, is
acting out your faith, it will bring blessing, and you will not be deceiving
yourselves. This is not a quick
fix, but it is a life of believing that God is a keeper of His promises.
Form the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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