Read 1 PETER 3:1–7

Contestants from Venezuela have won more international beauty pageants than those from any other country. And beauty pageants have become a big business: some pay more than half their monthly salaries to send their daughters to one of the numerous beauty academies. As one young woman said, “Every girl here dreams of being a ‘Miss.’ . . . When you live in a country where a beautiful woman has greater career prospects than someone with a strong work ethic and first-class education, you are forced into the mindset that there is nothing more important than beauty.”

Peter’s words in today’s reading offer freedom and consolation to all who feel trapped by cultural notions of value and worth. But wait, we might say. How can there be freedom in this exhortation to submit?

Unlike any of the Greek or Roman household codes, Scripture addresses wives directly, affirming their dignity. But Peter does not instruct Christian wives to ignore or undermine their unbelieving husbands. Instead, Peter calls for a humility that follows the example of Christ to inform domestic relationships. Wives were free to choose submission, rather than forced to follow a cultural mandate, as a way to make their Christian faith attractive to their husbands. Peter also notes that the worth and value of wives—and truly, all of us—is found in God, not in the cultural burdens of outward perfection.

Finally, Peter addresses husbands, who held the power and authority in Roman culture. They too are called to humility: they should not abuse their power, but rather treat their wives with respect and kindness (v. 7). Though according to the household codes they had all the privilege, in God’s sight their wives were also heirs of the eternal inheritance (see 1:4).

APPLY THE WORD

Beauty, fame, wealth, power, fashion—these oppress us if we use them to measure our worth. How much better to have the beauty of godly character that will never fade (v. 4), an inheritance in heaven that will never spoil (1:4), and the power of God that guarantees our salvation (1:5). Find freedom from the world’s burdens in Jesus (2:21).

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