1 Peter 3:7
Weaker Vessels and Fellow Heirs

Finally, Peter deals with someone who is in power. He has spoken to those oppressed by Roman rule, but not to the oppressors. Clearly the oppressors are not in the church or they would shield the church from persecution. He has spoken to slaves of unbelieving masters, but not to any masters. The church is poor and the slave-owners have not converted. And he has spoken to wives — to wives of unbelieving husbands, yes — but to all wives in general. And this time, there is a counterpart in the church — husbands. And so he turns to them, to husbands in the church that they also may know how God has called them to live as they wait for the inheritance to be revealed.

1. Husbands, live with wives according to (the same) knowledge
   1. The knowledge that affected the wives' conduct in 3:1-6
      1. What was it that kept them from spending all their time dolling themselves up? (v. 3)
      2. A realization that these things were worthless before God, but God values a humble spirit and a contrite heart of faith in Christ (v. 4)
      3. And this made them like the women of old who "trusted [hoped] in God" (v. 5).
      4. To sum up, they knew that this world and its glory is passing away. That lasting treasure is to be had in Christ alone. And therefore it is faith in him and conformity to his character that God loves.
   2. This knowledge must have its perfect work in the husbands as well.
      1. How strange if the women alone were privileged to not only believe this information but to be told how it may affect their conduct.
      2. And how troubling for them if they are told to submit and even the believing men are left to rule their wives however seems best to them.
      3. No, this spiritual knowledge of Christ and his immanent return must burn in their bosoms as well, causing them to disdain earthly and corruptible things and cling to the surpassing value of their Savior who will appear once more through the clouds in glory.
2. Pay them honor as the weaker vessel
   1. Remember that they are weaker vessels
      1. So what is Peter talking about? Weaker in body? Spiritually and emotionally weaker? Neither of these is uppermost in Peter's mind.
      2. He gives you the answer in vv. 1-6: she is weaker in social position and authority
         1. She is weaker in the sense that she must submit to her husband as do as he says
         2. This interpretation is proved not only by what precedes but what follows.
         3. Peter goes on to talk about woman's position in the kingdom and there she is a co-heir (in contrast to her position here). More on this in point III.
      3. Make no mistake, this no mere cultural argument Peter advances. The woman's social position and authority were determined by God at the creation:
         1. The woman was made a helper suitable to man
         2. She was, even at that time, a "weaker" vessel (although surely we could find a better word to describe the sweetness with which she submitted to Adam and served him.)
         3. But after the Fall, that position was cursed: she would desire (to rule over) her husband and he would rule (harshly) over her
         4. And with that curse, her weakness became a hardship, both because she resented man's authority and because man abused the authority given to him.
         5. What man could not gain from her willingly, he took by emotional and physical force (so these things are marginally in Peter's view)
      4. But this position is wired into Creation itself; she has no godly alternative but to submit.
      5. Hence Peter admonishes the husbands to remember this.
   2. But do not take advantage of that situation
      1. The temptation, of course, is to fulfil the curse and "rule over" their wives.
      2. They've been given the tools physically, emotionally, and socio-politically to do so.
      3. And here Peter has just handed them a religious club as well, with which to beat their wives into submission.
         1. God says you have to so you have to submit. Few things are more offensive than a man who goads his wife into submission by using God Himself as a threat against her.
         2. How differently Peter speaks when he takes their eyes off earthly things, fixes them on the heavenly and gives them examples of those who endured in such faith and have already attained their reward.
         3. So we, too, if we wish our wives to submit, must learn to preach the gospel to them rather than taking advantage of the law which is in our favor.
      4. The very last thing last week's sermon ought to have produced is men who go home and abuse the privilege of hearing the word by using it to force submission.
         1. Rather, should we men not have heard the burden God has laid on our wives and taken pity on them lest the burden become intolerable?
         2. Here they are, required to submit, without reference to whether we rule them wisely or like fools, selfishly or with love and care.
         3. How we should long never to place a stumbling block before these children of God by commanding them wrongly or harshly.
   3. Rather, honor them as such
      1. A strange request in a society where power and honor go hand in hand.
      2. But has not Paul as well said that it is the members of our body we think less honorable that we clothe with greater honor. It is the weaker vessels that are indispensable (1 Cor 12.22,23)? So, he says, it should be with the body of Christ.
      3. If anyone would be great among you, let him be the servant of all. Well, here are our wives, called to be servants, helpers to their husbands. Are they not deserving of honor? It should be heaped upon them.
      4. They are prohibited from being elders in the church because of the ancient act of Eve who was deceived (and thus passed down to her sex a greater liability to deception)
         1. We all received the guilt of Adam's sin and his consequent depravity — men and women both.
         2. And we all, in Christ, have had that guilt and depravity repealed.
         3. But only the woman inherits the consequences of Eve's sin, and it remains with her to this day with the result that she must sit in a church ruled by men—sinful men. They cannot even do what a man might do, aspire to the office of elder and attempt to reform the church from a position of some power and recognition.
         4. Give them the respect they deserve, especially as they bear patiently this double dose of the Fall.
      5. And she receives a double dose of the Curse as well
         1. Man's work is cursed by God; he labors and is frustrated in his labors
            • But does not woman labor too?
            • Does she not feel the same frustration?
         2. But only woman also know the irritations of pregnancy and the agonies of childbirth and the emotionally hollow feeling of a miscarriage.
         3. Shall she have in addition to that a husband who "rules over her" as well? God forbid! Let us rather honor our wives, loving them with the very love of Christ, in whom that curse is repealed.
      6. Consider their work in the church as weaker vessels and honor them
         1. With great difficulty and labor she brings into the world infants, nursing babes from whose mouth God has ordained praise for himself.
            • Sometimes church's joke about having a "church growth" plan that consist of 5 pregnant women in the same congregation.
            • But it's not a joke. Shall we not honor those who at such personal and bodily expense labor to add to the Kingdom of Christ? When have we ever shed our own blood or groaned with such agony to see sinners converted and the church enlarged?
         2. As mentioned, she cannot teach a man or have authority over him in the church. Yet the mothers teach and rule our young children daily and sets an example of piety before them. And all the women endure with patience the rule of the male elders.
      7. Men, I beg you, honor your wives in particular and the women of the congregation in general. God has so arranged the body that the greater honor belongs to the inferior members. Let us never forget that.
3. Remember they are fellow-heirs of eternal life
   1. They are not "inferior" before the Lord
      1. Note: Peter does not consider the possibility of an unconverted wife. Remember that it was culturally expected that the wife would serve her husbands gods.
      2. Their weakness is temporary, transitory
         1. It will be shed at death and abolished at the second coming
         2. It has already been abolished in Christ
         3. In Christ there is already no male nor female
         4. What has been abolished in Christ is passing away and ready to disappear. Don't make too much of it.
   2. They will inherit along with you
      1. A surprising statement — Only sons can inherit
         1. But Peter's called them all to hope in the inheritance reserved in heaven
         2. For they are all sons of God — the women as well as the men.
         3. Rom 8 — The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are sons of God
      2. The gift of eternal life is theirs as much as yours
         1. God loved her from before the foundation of the world with as much love as he loved you
         2. Christ shed his blood for their sins; your wife's name is written on his hands along with yours.
         3. The Spirit called her with the same irresistible grace
         4. The same Spirit that causes you to persevere is granting her the gift of perseverance.
         5. She has access to Christ, just as you; not through you, but as your equal in Christ.
         6. And though your equal in Christ, God has called her to submit to you and endure your sometimes unwise rule.
         7. If you consider these things when you think of your wife, you will find it impossible to treat her harshly but will honor and respect her and study ways to make her position less burdensome. (This will not be done by abrogating your role as head of the house but precisely by assuming that role and pursuing it with all the strength God provides. You have been given the responsibility of caring for and nurturing one of God's eternal creatures. May God grant all husbands extra grace not to burden them with manipulations, neglect, ridicule, scorn, smugness, overbearing rule-making or whatever else is not consistent with their wife's status before God.)
   3. So, again, do not exploit a temporary inequality
      1. Do not be fooled by the status God has assigned your wife in this life
      2. To exploit it is silly at best and wicked at worst. It is like an elder who uses his power to lord it over the church and command them (and Peter will speak to that idea in chapter 5).
4. That nothing may hinder your prayers (together)
   1. In lording it over them, you will hinder your mutual prayers
      1. Peter has primarily in mind your prayers with your wife.
      2. And when you have treated her without respect and forced her submission by the law rather than won it by the gospel, how can you and she pray to God together?
      3. In prayer you confess that you both have one access to God. Preach that to yourself daily lest your conduct deny it.
   2. In taking advantage of their worldly weakness, you focus on your own pleasure
      1. Jms 4:3,4 "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God."
      2. Do you see how this ties in? You use your wife and exploit her inferior status to provide what you want (at her expense). How can this attitude fail to pervade your prayers.
   3. In forgetting they are fellow heirs, you forget your own inheritance
      1. You forget that you are an heir
      2. You cease being sober minded and alert, devoted to prayer.
      3. The things of earth fill your thought, etc.

CONCLUSION: Live with your wives according to this knowledge. And everyone else live as well with the same knowledge.

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