1 Peter Devotional | Week 9: June 27 - July 1

The passage we are going to be studying this week is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and for training in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16-17), and yet this is also a passage that can often spark questions and reactions. Rather than coming to the passage with your own conclusions, start today in prayer, asking God to soften your heart and open your ears to what He has intended for you through His Word, ridding you of your own preconceptions, and instead giving you understanding by the power of His Spirit for what He has for you in His Word.

Now, read 1 Peter 2:9-3:7 to get a sense of the greater context and the identity of all believers. Peter has just been calling these believers to live as Christians within the world, and now in chapter 3, he moves to the call to  live as a Christian within the home.

• Read 1 Peter 3:1-7 again, and make lists of the imperatives (commands) given to wives and then to husbands.
  • Who are the commands given to? What is their relationship to one another?
• Read our passage one more time, and next to each command, write the reason for each command (if given).

Peter seems to place great importance on the character and actions of members within a family, flowing out of their identity as a chosen people. Pray today in supplication for those within your family who do not yet “obey the word” and know Jesus, and for the ways you can “win them without a word” through your conduct.

Read 1 Peter 3:1-7 again. Today we’ll look at the differences between wives and husbands.

• 1 Peter 3:1-6 — What is the potential spiritual state of the husband to whom the wife is to submit to?
  • What conduct is the woman to pursue?
  • What adornment should not solely define a godly woman’s beauty? Instead, where is lasting beauty found? What is God’s response to this adornment?
  • Who is given as an example of a holy and godly woman through her obedience to her husband, and therefore unto the Lord? (Feel free to read Genesis 18 for this story in context)
• 1 Peter 3:7 — What are the two ways Peter calls the Christian husband to love his wife?
  • After identifying the woman as the weaker vessel (physically), in what way does Peter identify men and women as equal before the Lord?
  • What is the consequence for husbands who do not treat their wives as such?

Pray today in confession for the ways you have not lived out these commands as a spouse, and pray in supplication for the Lord to move in the marriages of those around you. If you’re not married, pray for your friends or family that are and have this difficult calling.

Read 1 Peter 3:1-7. Today we’ll look specifically at the role assigned to women in creation.

• Read Genesis 1:26-27 — Whose likeness were humans created in? What equality does this give them before God?
• Read Genesis 2:15-25 — What role was assigned to women in the garden, before the fall?
  • Read John 14:16, 26 — Who else is referred to as the Helper? How does this add to or challenge your understanding of a woman’s role?
• Read Genesis 3:1-19 — V16 How did sin and the curse affect the role of the woman as Helper? What role is she now vying for instead? 

Pray today in adoration for the ways God has uniquely and equally crafted both male and females to reflect Him to the world, despite the effects of sin.

Read 1 Peter 3:1-7 again, focusing on verse 7. Today we’ll focus on the role of the man.

• Read Ephesians 5:22-33 — What does the submission of wives to husbands mirror? What does a husband’s love for his wife mirror?
• Read Philippians 2:5-11 — Husbands are called to honour their wives. What example of receiving, grasping for, or relinquishing honour does Jesus provide?
  • How does this challenge or change your understanding of a husband’s call?

Pray today in thanksgiving for Christ’s example of humility and obedience that gave us access to God the Father, through his death and resurrection.

Read 1 Peter 3:1-7 one more time. Then, reflect on the following questions, and pray through each one, asking the “Helper” to guide you into all truth and teach you!

• Husbands: How could you, today, honour your wife, and seek to understand her physical, spiritual, and emotional needs as the Lord has called you to?
• Wives: How could you, today, submit to your husband, live purely, and seek after “the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit” that is precious in God’s sight? 
• How could you, Christian, live within the role that God has placed you righteously and humbly before him?

Now that you’ve put in the work and studied the text yourself, feel free to check out any of the free commentaries found on Bible Gateway (biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/) or gotquestions.org.