Holiness at Home

Text: 1 Peter 3:1-12

Can't we just skip this passage, especially the first six verses? In today's cultural climate in just seems so much easier to move past such texts than to comment on them.

Yet here it is, in the epistle we are considering as the description of holy living, as unto God in community rather than for self. Perhaps that even includes portions of God's word which embarrass us at times. Without making this text into a sort of litmus test, however, let us make a couple of observations. For one, holiness is demonstrated in the closest of human relationships--even when one partner in the relationship is not a believer. And it is demonstrated by a peaceful spirit, not an air of superiority. To reiterate, we are holy in difference from the world and its ways of thinking.

Secondly, there is a mutuality here that is often missed. V.7 tells husbands to honor their wives "in the same way," i.e. with gentleness and respect, not iron fisted rule. Thirdly, the goal is to have the unbelieving husband recognize Christ through the behavior of the wife who is part of God's holy people, not to establish her rights and independence. Lastly, and most astonishingly, there is a connection made between how we conduct ourselves in marriage with how much of an ear God lends to our prayers. I'd never think to say such a thing; but God Himself indicates it is so.

These relationships are then extended to the wider church family; we learn humility, gentleness, and sympathy in way we speak to one another in that community, where holy ways of living are fleshed out in such mundane activities as speaking to one another truthfully, considering them as more important than ourselves, and speaking well of them when they are not in the room with us, refusing to engage in anything smacking of deception, gossip, or rumor.

Our world is very conscious of the horrendous evil of spousal abuse; we are often afraid to speak of texts such as this because some read them as endorsements of living with violence without a whimper. But rather than offering my take on why this is not so, I am asking any women who follow this blog to offer their perspective on vv. 1-7. Please?