The Wives’ Subjection

by Richard St.James

The Wives’ Subjection

1 Peter 3:1 “Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;
2 While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.”

1. God’s Order
2. God’s Protection
3. God’s Method

1. God’s Order

Verse one starts with this: “Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands;”

Controversy … controversy, do we not have an “ax to grind” with God. Read it again. “Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands;”

Now this is where things really get rough on us. Why am I saying this? I am saying this because we are such a thin-skinned people [all of us] who live in this twenty-first century. This command by the Spirit of God grieves us [and angers us]. We are found, therefore, to be cross-wise with the God of this Bible.

Now, why are we in this condition [being cross-wise with the God]? We are in this condition because this following thing is true! We have a heart problem! This heart problem came as a result of ridding ourselves of God and His BOOK. We have literally divorced the God of Bible … out of our lives [out of our families … out of our schools … out of our nation. We have effectively become … an APOSTATE nation. We have left our roots. We have lost our original foundation. We have left the good path that was established by our fore-fathers. And what is really sad, this thing has happened to us right under our noses … degree … by degree over several generations. We have given God, and the Son of God, the “cold shoulder” … and have pushed HIM out of our marriages, out of our families, out of our schools and out of our nation.

• We [our Supreme Court] have declared in 1947 that we were no longer a Christian nation [in Everson v. Board of Education].

• We [our Supreme Court] have put God [PRAYER] out of our public schools in 1962 [in Engel v. Vitale].

• We [our Supreme Court] have put God [BIBLE] out of our public schools in 1963 [in Abington v. Schempp and Murray v. Curlett].

• We [our Supreme Court] have put God [The TEN COMMANDMENTS] out of our public schools in 1967 [in Dekalb v. DeSpain].

• We [our Supreme Court] have put God out of our public schools [by not allowing even the very mention of the words of God] in 1980 [in Stone v. Graham].

We [our whole nation] cannot stand to hear the pure words of God anymore.

This is to our own hurt. Look all around you, my friend. See the destruction of our marriages, our children, our families and our country. [Judgment is upon us.]

God’s revealed ORDER for the home [which is found in the King James Bible] is critically important to our health … as a people and as a nation. God’s order is this. Are you listening? In the home, the order [governmentally] is first … the husband [MAN], then the wife [WOMAN], and then the CHILDREN. This is the divine order … first the FATHER, then the MOTHER, and then the CHILDREN. Check this whole thing out for yourself. Read your Bible … from Genesis to the book of Revelation … [Believe your Bible] God’s order for the home is shown so clearly that we have to be “blind as a bat” to fail to see the truth of this. You may not like this at all. You may get as angry as you want but if you want to get along with the God of this BOOK then you must ACCEPT God’s ORDER for the family. If we get this thing wrong, or if we throw it out, we all will get hurt. Do you understand the consequences of rejecting this? The consequences of rejecting God’s order for the family will be our UNHAPPINESS. This very thing has happened. We have become an unhappy people.

Unhappy people … are unhappy people because they have “no stomach” for obeying God’s revealed will for them or their family [and for the nation].

2. God’s Protection

Next, verse two: “While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.”

God’s protection of a [spiritual] wife from the bad things [or mischief] in life … is conditioned by her obedience to the things of God. By obeying God in the command [“ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands;”] God will protect her by interceding in her behalf in her trial. God puts a fear of God inside her husband … a fear of doing wrong concerning his wife.

Now there is a principle that we can find here. Are you ready for this? LISTEN TO ME!

God is in control of all the situations in our life … once we give Him control of our life.

Did you get it? A wife … by being in subjection to her own husband … even when what he asking her to do is not right … will somehow come out of every trial in life “safe and sound”. I know this is controversial stuff today … in the twenty-first century, but God’s word is still TRUE, and it does show that God’s supernatural protection is extended to a Bible-believing woman who dares to trust [by faith] in God’s word [the Bible] in this matter of a wife being “in subjection” to her own husband.

Now consider the example of Abram and Sarai. Remember what the Bible says about these Old Testament “ensamples”. “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” [1 Corinthians 10:11] We are the people “upon whom the ends of the world are come.”

Read with me in the Bible in the book of Genesis chapter twelve. This is a classic example. This will clearly show God’s protection of Sarai. “And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon: Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive. Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.” [Genesis 12:11-13]

We see here that Abram is clearly doing wrong concerning his wife [and God]. He is submitting to “the fear of man” [which is a snare]. Only wrong can come of this. “The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.” [Proverbs 29:25] Abram should have been trusting in God for his welfare. His fear of man … causes him to command his wife to do something that was wrong. He is asking Sarai to tell a lie … to say something that was not the whole truth. He is asking Sarai to say that she is his sister … which is a half lie. [A lie … is a lie.] She is his wife. [I realize, also, that she is his half sister.] The whole point I am making here … is that Sarai is being asked to lie. She is, thereby, placed by own her husband into jeopardy [of adultery]. No husband should ever do that. Shame on you, Abram!

Now look at what happens next. Sarai never-the-less obeys her husband [being in subjection to her husband] and she does as she was commanded. Let’s read verses fifteen through seventeen. Ok, are you ready? Here we go. “The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels. And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife.” [Genesis 12:15-17]

Look at what happened. God intercedes in her behalf and protects her in spite of the wrong doing of her husband. Read verse eighteen through twenty to see the end of the story. “And Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way. And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.” [Genesis 12:18-20]
This illustrates God’s protection … for God’s woman … who by faith in God … obeys her own husband.

3. God’s Method

The last part of verse one: “they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;”

The “conversation” of a wife [the way she honors her husband] is the critical piece to note here. It is by her “conversation” [through the wife’s willing subjection to him] that God gets the attention of a disobedient husband. It becomes the hammer in the hands of God. An intelligent [a spiritually intelligent] woman through her “conversation” will win [many times] her husband to the obedience of the word of God … without the word of God. A wife’s FRONTAL ASSUALT [or the brow-beating] of her husband … is not God’s way of handling the erring God-disobeying husband. She WINS her husband … by her conversation [by the reverencing of her husband … though he is wrong concerning her … and wrong towards God].

The beautiful story is this. Many men have come to the obedience of God’s word because they beheld “the chaste conversation” of their wife. Wives, there is power in a chaste “conversation”! Amen! The “chaste conversation” of a wife … can cause a husband to have “the fear of God” to take hold of him in his life and bring him to God. Amen!

• This woman wins her husband to the LORD.

• This woman wins her husband to herself.

• This woman wins her safety.

Amen.

“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.” [Ephesians 5:22-24]

This is the way of blessing!

This is the way of health!

This is the way of happiness!

The Hidden Man

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The First Epistle of Peter

1 Peter 3:1 Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the
conversation of the wives;

1 Peter 3:2 While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.

1 Peter 3:3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;

1 Peter 3:4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

1 Peter 3:5 For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands:

1 Peter 3:6 Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.

1 Peter 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

1 Peter 3:8 Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:

1 Peter 3:9 Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.

1 Peter 3:10 For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:

1 Peter 3:11 Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.

1 Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.

1 Peter 3:13 And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?

1 Peter 3:14 But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;

1 Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

1 Peter 3:16 Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.

1 Peter 3:17 For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

1 Peter 3:19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;

1 Peter 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

1 Peter 3:21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

1 Peter 3:22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.

The Wives’ Subjection