1Pe 3 | Family | STEP | Be in subjection to your own husbands ; treat them as the rightful head of the family. The word ; the Scriptures and the preaching of the gospel. Be won ; led to embrace the gospel.

1 Peter 3

Be in subjection to your own husbands; treat them as the rightful head of the family.

The word; the Scriptures and the preaching of the gospel.

Be won; led to embrace the gospel. Chaste conversation; pure deportment.

Fear; a reverential demeanor, such as becomes the wife. Compare verses 1Pe 3:5,6. The salvation of relatives should be earnestly sought, and a uniformly Christian deportment is one of the most powerful means of promoting it. Let it be the hidden man of the heart; instead of outward adornments visible to man, let it consist in the inward spiritual state of the heart, invisible to sense, which alone God regards. 1Sa 16:7.

In; consisting or lying in.

That which is not corruptible--quiet spirit; or, the incorruptible ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, like that which Jesus manifested, and which those possess who imitate him. Mt 11:29. Calling him lord; thus acknowledging her subjection to him as her rightful head. Ge 18:12; 1Co 11:3.

Amazement; such apprehension of danger as would prevent them from doing their duty. The most excellent, lovely, and enduring ornaments of women are not those which are external, but those which are internal-- purity of heart, meekness, contentment, and delight in doing good. According to knowledge; knowledge of the nature and duties of the marriage relation.

Giving honor; due respect, kind attention, and affectionate assistance; such as love guided by wisdom dictates.

Heirs together; mutual partakers of divine grace, equally entitles to the blessings of the gospel. Daily family prayer is one of the most powerful means of grace; and husbands and wives should so live that uniting in it will be delightful, and a means of fitting them for the joys of earth and the bliss of heaven. 10-12. Quoted from Ps 34:12-16. Eschew; avoid.

Ensue; follow, practise. Over the righteous; for their protection and benefit.

Against them; he disapproves and will punish them. Will harm you; the general effect of a righteous life is to deter men from harming us. Even should wicked men persecute us for righteousness' sake, God will overrule this for our good, as Peter immediately shows. Happy; Mt 5:10.

Of their terror; of any evil which they threaten. This, and the first clause of the next verse, are taken from Isa 8:12,13. Sanctify the Lord God; treat him as God, trust in him to protect you and do for you what you need.

To give an answer; state the reasons why you believe the gospel, and hope to be saved by it. A good conscience; one that is enlightened, whose dictates you follow, and whose approbation you enjoy.

They; the wicked.

Good conversation; consistent life. So great is human wickedness that men will often be called to suffer for doing right; but instead of being discouraged, they should, with greater steadfastness and fidelity, go forward in duty, trusting in God to enable them so to live as never to be called to suffer for any other cause. In the flesh; in his human nature.

Quickened; made alive again; raised from the dead.

By the Spirit; his own divine Spirit. Joh 10:17,18. By which; divine Spirit.

He went and preached; by Noah.

Unto the spirits; which, when Peter wrote, were confined in torment as in a prison. Mt 5:25,26.