Peter wrote the first seven verses of 1 Peter 3 for married believers who were the first ones in their marriage to come to Christ. Not all spouses are ready to receive Christ when their partner first comes to Christ. It can be a sad and distressing experience to find that the other spouse is not ready, is closed, or even hostile, to the good news about Jesus. It is hard for a new believer to realize that just because one of them now has and understands new life in Christ, that the other may not yet be ready to believe! In verses 1-7, Peter tells these Christians how to get their message across, even if they find themselves prevented from speaking a single word! First he addresses Christian wives with unsaved husbands, and then he writes advice for Christian husbands with unsaved wives. These spouses are for at least a time “unequally yoked.”
Here is my paraphrase of 1 Peter 3:1-7
Advice to witnessing wives
1You unequally-yoked wives, be submitting yourselves to your own husbands so that even though they do not yet believe the Word, through your conduct without using a word, they may be won to faith in Christ, 2 when they observe your God-fearing, pure conduct
6Sarah, for example, trusted in God and submitted to Abraham her husband after the angel came. You are now her daughters by your well doing and your fearlessness of any disappointment.
Advice to witnessing husbands
7Likewise you unequally-yoked husbands, use good sense as you dwell with your unsaved wife while she is the weaker partner, treating her with dignity as a fellow human being, so that your prayers for her salvation might not be hindered.
Not all spouses are ready to receive Christ when their partner first comes to Christ. It can be a sad and distressing experience to find that the other spouse is not ready, is closed, or even hostile, to the good news about Jesus. It is hard for a new believer to realize that just because one of them now has and understands new life in Christ, that the other may not yet be ready to believe!
In verses 1-7, Peter tells these Christians how to get their message across, even if they find themselves prevented from speaking a single word! First he addresses Christian wives with unsaved husbands, and then he writes advice for Christian husbands with unsaved wives.
These spouses are for at least a time “unequally yoked.” These spouses are joined together in marriage but each one is not pulling their full weight in the spiritual realm. One is alive in Christ. The other, as yet, is not.
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Have you read the foundational research that makes all these studies possible? Please read The Book of Eden, Genesis 2-3 by Bruce C. E. Fleming (based on the research of Dr. Joy Fleming).