¹In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, ²as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior.

We now reprise the command to submit to all earthly institutions (see 1 Peter 2:13). Our passage today does not sit well with our present egalitarian mindset and has caused consternation for many women and men. One person interpreted this passage with humor as teaching women “to know how to duck so God can hit their husbands.” But no matter how we look at this, God’s Word is inspired and must be taken seriously.

Calling marriage a “human institution” does not minimize the fact that God created it, as Christians and Jews have consistently understood it. Yet the customs that define and regulate behavior in marriage vary from culture to culture. To the scattered believers, Peter gives an inspired and universal directive applicable to Christian marriages everywhere: the inevitable power struggles in marriage should be affected by a woman’s deferring authority to her husband.

Some would insist we should take this passage at face value as the final word on the subject. However, the Bible teaches that submission has limits (see Acts 5:29, where the apostles refuse to submit to religious authorities). Peter instructs servants (“slaves” NIV) to submit to their masters (1 Peter 2:18), but Scripture says that if the slave can take steps to be free from that submission, then he should do so (1 Cor. 7:21) So also, a woman’s submission to her husband has limits also. See, for example, Paul’s admonition:

Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace. For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife? (1 Cor. 7:15–16).

Furthermore, against taking an overly literalistic interpretation of our passage, we note the following verses instruct women not to wear braided hair or fine jewelry. We must be consistent in how we interpret Scripture, especially in verses that are back to back (we shall look at those verses shortly). So we take 1 Peter 3:1–2 as a general principle in this short letter, and not meant to be the final, comprehensive word on the subject of a wife’s relationship to her husband. Having said that, we must give careful, considered attention to what this passage does teach us. That is coming next.

Lord, help me understand the general principles in Your Word for submission.