Reverent Submission & Loving Service

But this morning, we are in 1 Peter.

We're going through the sermon series called Hold Fast to Faith, and we've been looking at what it means to live as a Christian in a new identity under various trials and circumstances.

And so this morning we're going to be cracking open chapter 3.

We have already gone through the first two chapters.

So we're in chapter 3, verses 1 through 7.

So if you have a Bible, or if you have an app or iPad or tablet, a phone near you, get it out of your mouth, Justin.

If you have something near you, crack open your app to be able to follow along with us because we're going to walk through this text of 1 Peter chapter 3.

1 Peter 3 · chapter mention

We're going to be just reading verses 1 through 7.

So hopefully you're there with me this morning.

We're going to dive right in.

It says this.

Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be one without a word by the conduct of their wives.

When they see your respectful and pure conduct, do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of the hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.

For this is how the holy women hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, and you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.

Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

This is the word of the Lord, thanks be to God.

Now, this passage of Scripture can be something that we kind of gloss over, or we read and we wrestle and struggle with it because a lot of our modern time and philosophy that we find ourselves in now seems to really kind of buck back against what this passage says.

It would seem maybe irrelevant to some people, it might seem oppressive to some people.

It might seem like we live in a modern culture that's more enlightened, more progressive, and this passage doesn't necessarily relate to us any longer.

But what we've been working to understand is that in the Christian life, the word of God is ultimately authoritative for all of his people throughout all time.

And so this passage is relevant for us.

This passage is something that we have to wrestle with.

Its meaning in this passage is something that we have to try to model our life in obedience to.

And so that's with every aspect of scripture.

We have to wrestle with it, we have to contextualize it, we have to work to apply it, we have to work in our lives to submit ourselves in obedience to it.

And so here, if we really understand this passage of scripture, now if we just pluck it out and kind of isolate it and look at it all by itself, we're gonna have uh a lot of issues because we're gonna read into it some of our own personal perspective, we're gonna read into it some of our own cultural standards, we're gonna read into it things that are not there.

And so what we have to do as we're trying to engage with scripture is understand that one of the most primary things we are uh responsible to do in interpreting scripture is to understand each passage in light of the context of which it's written.

And so Peter is continuing here in a thought process that he's been laboring through for several passages now.

And so this isn't something new that he's popping up into the middle of this letter that he's writing to these Christians.

No, this is something that he's continuing to carry through now down to the most personal relationship of husbands and wives.

He's already talked about our relationship with us and governmental leaders.

He's already talked about our relationship with us and our employers.

Now he's talking about us in the home.

So Peter's continuing to write about how believers are to now live amidst a culture that they no longer belong to.

You see, we are citizens of another kingdom.

We're sojourners, aliens in a foreign land.

And our home is the kingdom of God.

It's something in the future, it's something off in the distance to some of us as we are traveling through as sojourners to that promised land.

And so we are currently, though, resident aliens in a foreign land.

And we have to live as such.

There's things about our conduct, there's things about our behavior, there's things about our standards that we have to live as these foreign residents.

And so we have to understand how does our new identity as born-again believers in Jesus that has transformed every aspect of our lives, now live in such a foreign land that at times seems astronomically conflicted or contradictive to the new person who we are in the new kingdom of which we belong to.

But what Peter has been laboring to try to help us to understand is that the identity that we have as citizens of another kingdom informs and shapes the conduct of our lives.

And the way that we would kind of summarize this is that we now live for the glory of God and the good of others.

This really starts to form and shape every aspect of what we do in our lives.

We live for the glory of God, and we live for the good of our neighbor.

Now, Peter has been encouraging us that new life in Jesus fundamentally changes us.

But he also instructs us to remain in some of our most fundamental relationships.

So this is something that's kind of challenging for us, where we have a new identity, right?

We have a new personhood, and we have a new citizenship.

But we're called to remain in our fundamental relationships from our former life.

There's really nowhere in the scriptures where it calls you as a Christian to abandon that of which you once belonged to.

So we don't abandon the citizenship of the country we found ourselves in or the governance that we found ourselves in in our former life.

We don't now just abandon our employers unless maybe your employment was very unbiblical, right?

Maybe you need to find a different job.

But by and large, most of us are called to remain in our employment.

Even in the scriptures, if you were a soldier, remain a soldier.

If you were a slave, remain a slave.

If you were in this position in your formal life, you remain in this position.

And Peter's now even going to go to in marriage.

Even in marriage.

So maybe some of you got saved and your spouse is not saved, or hasn't been saved, or wasn't saved when you were, and you thought maybe there was something in you, oh, I gotta now find a new now liberate.

I've personally been liberated, and now I need to be liberated from the relationship and circumstance that I once was in.

That's not what Peter's saying.

He's saying what you need to do is learn how to now live amongst that former relationship in the new identity that you have in Jesus.

So the reality for us is this: we may not live a life here on earth that reflects the spiritual freedom we have been given in Christ.

There may be circumstances about our life, our employment, the government we find ourselves in, the relationships that we have already made covenant promises in, that don't really parallel or reflect the freedom that we have in Jesus.

And that's okay.

That's okay.

Because ultimately, we can be assured that our spiritual freedom is eternally greater and truer than any earthly freedom that we could ever experience.

And so some of us are gonna be, we're gonna be striving or we're gonna feel this inner turmoil to contend for a freedom here and now in this world that parallels or reflects the freedom of the promise of the kingdom.

But the Bible never promises that those two things will harmoniously live amongst each other here in this earth.

What it does challenge us to do, though, is that in spite of our earthly circumstance, even if it is oppressive and slave-binding, we live as free people in Christ.

And so reflects, it informs, it shapes every aspect of our conduct as these resident aliens.

So the principle Peter is applying is a life that is honorable, of good conduct, subjected to service, and for the hope-filled intentions that those we interact and engage with will be converted through the agent of our behavior.

This has been a theme that he's talked about from the beginning of this passage of scripture.

Whether it be our relationship with our government leaders, whether it be the relationship of our employers, whether it be the relationship of our spouses, what he's calling us to do is to humble ourselves, subject ourselves, live a life of service to those people so that there would be a hope-filled future of them being saved.

And the agent of their salvation would be our behavior.

How do we live?

How do we honor them?

How do we serve them?

How do we walk humbly before them?

You see, this is a complete shift in our understanding of being human.

To live in such a way that benefits others, that serves and subjects itself to even wicked and unjust circumstances for the end goal of the wicked and unjust good.

We don't live lives like that.

We're not accustomed to living lives like that.

It's not ingrained in our flesh nature to live lives that would even subject ourselves to wickedness and unjust circumstances for the end goal of the good and salvation of the one who's inflicting it upon us.

But that's love.

That's the message of the cross.

That Christ Himself would even subject himself to wicked and unjust people for the ultimate good of those who are inflicting him.

That's the gospel message.

That's the beauty of what the incarnation of God the Son demonstrates to us.

And we are called to be imitators of such a life.

But we are so prone to believe that every single circumstance, every single good gift, every single institution of which God has established is meant to serve us rather than seeing them as things for us to serve in.

And so we have to shift the way that we think.

We have to shift the way that we understand our role in this world.

Now, Peter previously belabored how we are capable of such a life.

He said this being slaves to Christ, we become free to serve.

So being slaves to Christ, we become free to serve.

It's now that we find our chains bound to a good and better master, are we empowered to turn subjection into service?

And so you can't take away my freedom.

There's nothing about you, there's nothing about my circumstances, there's nothing about the government that I find myself in, there's nothing about the relationships that I find myself in that could ever strip me of the identity of who I am now in Christ Jesus.

It can never take away my freedom.

I could not be oppressed, I could not be bound, I could not be cruelly punished by any earthly circumstance, because I have been bound to a true and better master.

And so this is why the early church was so emboldened to even give up their lives to such wicked and unjust circumstances.

This is why they were emboldened and zealous to continue to preach the gospel, even if it meant at the end of their preaching their lives would be taken from them, because ultimately they knew you can take nothing.

You may be able to destroy this flesh, but God, the one whom I'm served, has made alive my spirit, and there's nothing that you can do to me.

That emboldens us, that identity emboldens us to be able to face any circumstance of this world in a posture of liberated service.

Secondly, he says that we are to entrust ourselves to God.

Because here's the issue with us we want to take our circumstances into our own hands.

We can see it in culture right now.

We want to see injustice, and what we want to do is we want to take the circumstance into our own hands instead of trusting in the one whose hands we've been held in from the time of our salvation.

You see, there's nothing that can pluck us from the love of God.

There's nothing that can pluck us from his hand.

There's in Christ Jesus, there's nothing that can remove us from the comfort, from the rest, from the liberation, from every good and perfect thing that comes from resting in the Father's hands.

However, what we are so prone to do and to desire to do is to take the circumstances into our own.

And all that communicates is an absence of trust in God.

God has this.

God has us.

And we are to entrust our lives no matter what the circumstance of this earth places upon us in Him.

So those two things are how we're capable of such a life.

We're slaves to Christ, a good embedded master.

And we work to trust God in every circumstance of our lives, no matter what we are currently experiencing.

So let's dive into this passage of scripture.

That was just the introduction, SMC, but this is gonna be fun.

So here we go, one and two.

If we kind of broke this down and he starts to address wives at this point in time, so he's already addressed governmental leaders, he's already addressed our relationship with governmental leaders, he's already addressed our relationship with our employers.

Now he's gonna address our marriage relationship.

And so he says, likewise, wives.

If I was to kind of summarize verses one and two, it would be this wives are to be submissive to their husbands as their governing head.

So wives are to be submissive to their husbands as their governing head.

Now Peter starts off chapter three with likewise.

The posture and conduct of wives is a model that God has called all believers to live.

One of subjection and service.

So this likewise, again, that's what I was talking about.

If we try to pluck this out, isolate it, and look at it all by itself, we're gonna be um prone to uh to misinterpret or even abuse uh the intentionality of the passage that we're studying.

And so when he says this likewise, he's tethering to the instructions that he's previously given us about how we're to live under uh governance, how we're to live under our employers, now how we're to live inside the marriage relationship.

And so uh this is a call.

What we have to understand is when he says, wives, subject yourself, he's already told all believers in some form or fashion to subject themselves to governing heads.

This is not an isolated call to women, this is just a call in a specific context and role of wife.

So we are to live a life of subjection and service.

So the instruction for a wife is simply lived out in a distinct context and role.

This here.

Likewise, wives, be subject.

So Peter's now focusing in his attention as he's bringing such instruction to the Christians who are spread throughout Asia Minor, he's focusing his attention on wives.

But the message is still the same.

Likewise, you wives.

So what is he doing?

He's saying, in your specific context, as a wife, inside of a marriage, as your specific role as a woman, an image-bearer of God, here's how this should play out for you.

So Peter has worked to support two constructs with relentless integrity.

I love this because if you really look through this passage, he is so consistent.

And he's worked to support these two constructs with relentless integrity.

Number one is the construct of governance and authority.

There is nothing in Peter's writing that dismisses the reality of governance and authority.

And so this goes back to, again, our identity.

We've been given a new identity, we've been given a new life in Christ Jesus, but however, it doesn't dismiss or demolish governance and authority in our lives.

Even though we are under a new king and we are residents of his kingdom, it does not demolish or dismiss the reality of natural earthly governance and authority in our lives.

And so Peter again here, as he's addressing women, supports that construct with relentless integrity.

Submit yourselves to emperors, submit yourself to governors, submit yourself to your employers.

Now, wives, submit yourselves to husbands, because the husband is the governing head of the family.

The second thing that Peter labors to support is the construct of Christian subjection to that governance and authority.

So again, he's consistent.

He's consistent that to the emperors and rulers, the governors, you're just submitting yourself to them.

To your employer as a Christian, you're just submitting yourself to them.

And likewise, wives, the governing head of your home is your husband.

And Peter's consistently calling us to submission, subjection to that governance and authority.

But here, in regard to wives, Peter is still supporting those two things.

So a wife is called to be subject to her husband, whether he's a believer or not.

So when he starts off this passage, likewise, wives be subject to your husbands.

That's a more blanket term.

And then he shifts the focus.

For some of you wives may not have believing husbands, but even still be subject to them.

And so the very beginning is speaking to a broad range of just marriage.

Wives, subject yourselves to your husbands.

And then he focuses his attention on those who may not have believing husbands.

There are many women who were brought into the kingdom through gospel proclamation, who were zealous disciples and disciple makers inside that kingdom, but not all of them had spouses who would have converted as they did.

And so many women may have now found themselves inside of a relationship where they had an unbelieving husband.

So again, what the scriptures are calling us to, what God's word is demanding we subject ourselves and obey, is that even though we have new liberated life, we still have to serve and honor and subject ourselves to possible even bound situations or circumstances.

So liberated new life, but serving and subjected to bound situations and circumstances.

So a wife is called to subject to her husband whether he's a believer or not.

Here again, Peter stays locked into the way he is shepherding God's people to live.

Subjection and service under the governance or authority established by God, whether it demonstrates itself as good or not.

So if the husband is an unbeliever, the conduct and subjection of the wife is for a hope-filled future of the husband coming to faith.

Now, how is he to come to faith?

He's carried by the conduct of his wife.

Again, this is what we're talking about in the introduction that the agent of change would be the gospel witness of the life that we live.

So without a word.

Without a word, it says in that passage.

Now there's a possibility that the husband has become so hostile toward the message of the gospel that the wife is unable to even talk to him about it any longer.

Maybe this woman who Peter's writing to is a faithful, zealous, disciple-making Christian woman, and she has labored in gospeling her husband and proclaiming to him the new life that she now has in Christ Jesus, he can have too if he would just trust and submit himself to the ultimate authority, which is God, Christ Jesus, the living Son.

Now that's the ultimate authority that we're called to submit our lives to.

And she might have gospel him and proclaimed to him this new life that she has, and he's maybe become so hostile that she's even unable to speak to him about it any longer.

And so the agent of his change would be her conduct of life.

You see, the reality is that even without a word, she's still empowered by a mighty weapon.

And it's the testimony of a gospel-centered life.

One where she subjects herself, she lovingly serves the man who she is in covenant relationship with.

Now, Peter does not call the wife, as he has not called any of his hearers, to subject themselves to the point of sin or to the point of abandoning their faith.

No, he's called them to fight against such injustices and hardships through a life of gospel witness.

You see, that's the reality of God's kingdom.

We often think that war, we often think that fighting means to take up weapons and to defeat those who are oppressing us, to defeat those who are inflicting injustice upon us, to defeat those who are at war with us.

Now, God is a God of confrontation.

God is not weak, God is not dismissive, uh, God is not a victim, God is a God of confrontation.

But the reality is that his confrontation does not look like ours.

It does not come with sword and spear, but it comes with a cross and sacrifice.

That's how God confronts war through the gospel.

And we have to be people who confront the injustices in our lives to fight against these hardships that we face with a life of gospel witness.

Humility, subjection, service.

These are the character qualifiers of how we are to overcome the enemies that we face.

Then we look at verses 3 through 6.

The way that I would summarize this passage here would be that women should work to cultivate imperishable beauty in their lives.

So Peter talks to them.

Look, you were used to live in this old way, right?

He talked about this, this former life that you wants to live.

Don't live that way any longer.

Now we're having to change the way that we live.

And one of the calls to actions that he brings to change in the way that women live their lives is to not focus on external beauty and labor for this external beauty that fades and that perishes any longer.

Don't work in that.

Foster and cultivate imperishable beauty.

That is the beauty of the soul.

So this is not a legalistic statement.

And we're going to be prone to do that.

We're going to be prone to isolate this, look at it, and try to make some type of legalistic statement out of it.

Out of what you can wear, what you can't wear.

You should look like this instead of like that.

And this is how you would fulfill this passage.

That's not true, and we're very, very uh wrong and misinterpreting what's happening if that's what we're trying to accomplish at the end of this.

It's not a legalistic statement.

And we would reduce down the principle being applied to have no purpose if we saw it as such.

So listen, if I've seen women in the church culture, there's denominations and different interpretations of this passage of scripture where they've tried to reduce this down to a legalistic statement.

And the reality is a lot of times, not every time, this isn't a universal statement, but there's been a lot of times in that interaction where the women were both ugly on the outside and on the inside.

And that's not what this Pastor Scripture is trying to do, just to make you ugly or just to make you homely looking through this legalistic statement.

Because you can dress down the outside as much as you can dress up the outside and still not deal with the ugliness that's in your heart.

And so if you try to make this a legalistic statement and you don't really realize the purpose and intention of the internal beauty you're supposed to be cultivating that is imperishable, you might just end up with a double ugly woman.

Nobody wants that.

Right?

What we want to do is we want beauty to shine forth, not from the outside with a false inner beauty that's just ugly when we really engage with it, but one that's that wells and springs up from the inside, reflecting itself out.

We are to labor and work and the imperishable beauty of the soul.

So this is where we should put our effort.

This is where we should put our time and resources.

And that's what Peter's really trying to get to.

There's no dress code for the Christian woman.

Not legalistically, not something that we can define objectively, but there's a principle that is being declared that the outside beauty that you might be working on so hard to cultivate in your life, it's going to fade.

You're running against the clock.

Time is one of your greatest enemies.

You're not going to be able to sustain that.

But there is an imperishable beauty that time has no negative effect on that you can work to develop in your soul.

And that's what Peter's really calling us to here.

That's what Peter's really calling women to is to work on that imperishable beauty of the soul.

So if you're going to work on your beauty, let it be in the inner beauty that never fades.

The inner beauty of a woman is defined by Peter as a gentle and quiet spirit.

Time cannot damage these beauty marks of the soul.

Quiet and gentle are not just mandated upon women only, but is throughout the scriptures a noble calling to all believers.

So again, I want you to understand this is not some type of oppressive statement to women.

This is not some type of binding minimalism kind of approach to who a woman is and what she embodies.

What this is is a reminder of what he God has really called all people to, but he's speaking it now to a specific context and role in the life of women.

So in 1 Thessalonians 4, 2 Thessalonians 3, 1 Timothy 2, all call us to live quietly.

Both men and women.

But as different genders who express the image of God in different roles and responsibilities, the way that that is fleshed out, the way that that quiet and gentleness is lived in our lives is different.

Because it's being lived out among different genders who carry different responsibilities and different roles.

And so Peter's not telling all women, just be quiet.

It's not what he's doing.

He's affirming a theme that is throughout the scriptures of what should be characterized in the life of a Christian: to live quietly, to live gently.

We're all called to do that.

We're all called to do that in unique responsibilities, unique roles, unique context.

And Peter's simply addressing women specifically as wives to their husbands here.

And let's not forget, church, the example of our Lord Jesus, whom we're called to be imitators of.

Isaiah 53, 7 says, as a sheep before its shears is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

This is the model of Christ.

This is what we are called to be imitators of.

Christ Himself, quiet and gentle.

Even though He was, he is the almighty power of all the universe.

All of creation is made by Him and through Him and for Him and is held together by His very being.

You're talking about the most powerful being in all of creation, modeled His strength in quietness and gentleness.

That's mind-blowing.

That's mind shifting to the way that we understand how we should live.

And so Peter's saying, reflect your Lord, be imitators of him.

He's simply directing this toward the immediate audience of wives.

This quiet and gentle life is one that is precious in the sight of God.

And then I love this at the kind of end of this passage here.

Peter gives us replacement role models for pop culture.

And he points us back to godly women who cultivate unfading beauty, seen and expressed in submission to their husbands.

So how is this quietness and gentleness seen and reflected inside the life of a woman?

It's in submission to her husband.

That's what Peter says directly.

He points them back to godly women in the past who modeled this in their life, who mild this quietness and gentleness through submission to their husbands.

So he gives us replacement role models for pop culture.

And I'm just telling you, there's not a ton of pop culture women that I would say I want my little girls to grow up like.

Especially in now.

They totally are against everything that's being formatted in this scripture, that's being communicated to us in this passage.

So much time and energy.

If you go on YouTube and you look at top videos, it is video after video after video of how to do your makeup, how to do your hair, how to dress, how to do this.

And it's just screaming at women.

You've got to work tirelessly on how you look on the outside.

And so many of those people who are making that content and putting it out, and people are looking up to are just wicked and ugly on the inside.

It's this false shell that can be so easily cracked through such minimal pressure.

But we're not called to do that.

We're not called to have those people as our role models.

We should look at godly women.

I wish the church would look at the women in amongst our congregation who reflect this quiet and gentle, submission to their husbands.

I can think of some of just godly women inside of our congregation that I want to tell my little girls and I want to push my little girls to say, watch them.

They don't make a lot of noise.

You may not notice them a ton.

They're not trying to get front and center attention.

They're not trying to do A, B, or C.

You watch them because they're so quiet and so gentle and so imitators of Christ that they would almost be unknown amongst the people to praise them, to encourage them, to honor them in the way that they live their life.

Man, that's how I want my little girls to grow up and live, to be gentle and quiet.

You see, godly women, Peter encouraged us to look to, who have cultivated unfading beauty, seen and expressed in submission to their husbands.

He has previously called us to turn away from our former lives and that which was handed down to us.

And this would dictate for us to also find new role models for our lives.

So these women probably are experiencing the same things.

The former life you used to live, the things that were handed down to you from your former life, reject them.

They shouldn't shape and form the way that you live your life now.

So for some of these women, as they saw these role models of exterior beauty, now had to find new role models of internal, unfading beauty.

And what did that look like?

They were probably very unfamiliar with what that would or should look like.

And Peter points them to godly women, quiet and gentle, who reflected that unfading beauty through submission to their husbands.

Verse 7.

I would summarize it in this husbands should live likewise.

Husbands should live likewise.

Now turning his direction to husbands.

So he first instructed wives.

He's now turning his attention to husbands.

He instructs them with a likewise.

I love this about Peter and this consistency that he's demonstrating for us.

He turns to men and says, You husbands, likewise.

Likewise is pointing to the overarching theme of servitude and honor.

This is again not a distinct command placed upon gender, but a general command placed in a distinct context and role.

Let me say that again.

It's not a distinct command placed upon gender.

So it's not something unique and distinct just because you're a woman or just because you're a man.

But what it is, is a general command for all Christians placed into a distinct context and role.

There's a stronger call for the overarching theme of the Christian life played out in specific roles.

Since the role of the husband is different, the form of his service is different.

So here husbands are being called to demonstrate this in two primary ways.

Live with your wife in an understanding way.

Live with your wife in an understanding way.

Working to intimately know her, unlike anyone else is able to.

Now you should be, husbands, we should be working to know our wives more intimately than anyone else is able to know her.

And some of us husbands might have wives who have these girlfriends who they tell all of their fears, their concerns, their anxieties, their worries to, and we kind of get this other part where we're not let into that.

Or maybe, maybe it's not that we're not let into it, maybe we're not working to know them in such a way that we can understand those things as well.

You see, there should be no other person in your wife's life who knows her as intimately as you do.

But what this is, is that we have to live, we have to work toward, we have to labor to understand our wives, to understand them in all of their needs, to understand them in all of their fears and their desires and their strengths and their weaknesses.

We have to work to intimately know them because we are the only people in all of this earth who are able to intimately know them in such a way where these two flesh are now becoming one through this sexual union, through this covenantal marriage.

So there should be no one who's able to know your wife better than you.

And what some of us might do as men is we might seek the benefit of covenantal marriage in sexual relationship.

So we might seek the benefit of it without working tirelessly to reveal and demonstrate the fullness of that intimacy.

And it is not fully known, it is not fully reflected in the bed.

But it's fully known and reflected in the work to know her soul.

So you have to have both.

And that's what men are being called to.

To live with your wives in an understanding way.

And number two is to honor her as the weaker vessel.

We are to know the delicacy of her nature, know the delicacy of her feelings, and working not to exploit that delicacy, but to be the complementary strength to it.

So many times we can work to exploit that delicacy, the way that maybe the delicacy of her feelings or the delicacy of her nature.

Sometimes, as men, we work to exploit that in women rather than striving to be the complementary strength to it.

So I know in my relationship with my wife, there's places where I've over the last 14 years have labored to try and know her and understand her in the ways that she is fearful and the things that give her anxiety and the things that she is weak in.

And there's times where I've just exploited that.

I've exploited that for my own laziness, I've exploited that for the ability to finger point, I've exploited that for whatever reason, that's self-serving to me.

And it's taken me so long, and I'm still working so hard at it to not see those things as things to exploit, but for me to stand up, be a man, take responsibility, and be the complementary strength to those things.

That's what men are called to do.

Honor them as the weaker vessel.

And the greatest way we can honor them as the weaker vessel is in working to be the complementary strength to those weaknesses.

And why should we do this, men?

Since and so.

Right?

That's what Peter says.

Since and so, since they are co-heirs with you in the grace of life.

Equal in value, dignity and worth, fully precious in the sight of God.

And since they are co-heirs, since they are equal in dignity, value, and worth, we should work and labor to live with them in understanding ways and to honor them in their delicacy.

So they are co-heirs with us.

Since, so, so you may not be hindered in your spiritual life.

Peter actually says, your prayers will become ineffective.

Now listen, men, we're called to be spiritual leaders in our homes.

And while this beginning of this passage talks about women's subjection to their husbands, what we have to realize is that if we are to be imitators of Christ, then we are to cultivate in her heart a desire, a security, a trust to submit to us.

Because what Christ does for us is all of those things.

We don't have to fear in submitting to him.

We don't have to be concerned or worried in submitting to him.

We don't have to be anxious about submitting to him.

He is good and perfect.

And what the Spirit draws in us is a freedom, a joy, a liberation, a rest, a trust to submit to Christ as our head.

And we being imitators of him should work to do that in our wives' hearts as well.

We are from a man.

We are ones who still continue in sin in different aspects of our lives, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be fighting relentlessly against those things to have that developed in the heart of our wife.

And in that responsibility of being the head, and in that responsibility of being this government agent of your home, you are called to be the spiritual leader.

And Peter says your responsibility will be unequipped, will be hindered, hindered, will be ineffective if you fail to do these things.

And so it's trying to do the job without the right tools.

If we don't work to likewise, serve our wives, honor them, live quietly and humbly among them and with them, he says your very prayers will become ineffective.

Our ability to be those spiritual leaders that we're called to do will be astronomically tougher, harder than they are with the help and power of the Spirit.

So what's the main point here as we're starting to kind of close this down?

Is this that the Christian life works for the good of others through reverence, submission, and loving service.

The Christian life works for the good of others through reverence, submission, and loving service.

This is to be modeled in the fullness of the Christian life down to the intimate relationship between husbands and wives.

I had a physical difficulty amongst our technical ones.

This is to be modeled, right?

Okay, so let me start over.

The main point the Christian life works for the good of others through reverence, submission, and loving service.

This is to be modeled in the fullness of the Christian life down to the intimate relationship between husbands and wives.

There is not one aspect of the Christian life, not one, that should be absent of such a posture.

What better could we do in gospel witness than to allow for the formation of Christian lives to be driven from public, from private to public life?

What better could we do in the gospel witness than to allow for the formation of Christian lives to be driven from private to public life?

While Peter may have worked from public to private in his framework of thought, he is not oblivious to the truth that real transformation starts with the private and then is expressed to the public.

And so what I mean by that is that it's the private transformation of the soul.

It's the development of that inward beauty that never fades.

It's the fruit of the Spirit being cultivated inside of us.

It's becoming and conforming to the image of Christ, who we are now bound to as slaves.

It is those things privately within our souls that should reflect in public life.

In a public life of reverence, submission, and loving service.

And in this reverence, submission, and loving service, we allow proclamation and practice to point to the majesty of Christ.

And so, what's this work?

Inside of us causing us to do?

It's causing us, it should cause us, to live as citizens of a different kingdom, even though we are current resident aliens of this world.

And so it should shape the way that we live our lives.

It should express itself that we are foreigners, that we are these aliens in this foreign land.

And in this reverent submission and loving service, we allow proclamation and practice to point to the majesty of Christ.

We don't point to the majesty of self, the glory of self, not in what we speak, not in the way that we live.

No, every aspect about this Christian life should now point to the majesty of Christ.

Our story is this.

Some of us don't value reverence submission as part of a gospel-centered life.

Some of us don't value reverence submission as part of a gospel-centered life.

And this, as Peter's talking to husbands and wives, this works itself out so evidently in this space.

Women can see this call to reverence submission as something that's so oppressive, that's so out of date, that's something that isn't relevant to our time and context.

That we have progressed so far beyond that.

Don't you know how liberated women are?

But I'm telling you, the world offers a false liberation to you.

It just does.

The Bible is what is offering freedom.

The Bible is what is offering hope.

The Bible is what is offering true uh uh weight and power in your identity.

And so we can be tempted to reject this.

We can be tempted to not see reverence submission as part of a gospel-centered life, but the Bible's constantly declaring that it is.

It is part of reverence, it is part of the gospel-centered life.

And it's something that was modeled by Christ our Savior and is commanded for us to live in obedience to.

And so, women, I'm telling you that there's strength in submission.

There's strength in submission.

Just like all Christians are called to submit to even unjust governing rulers, even to unjust employers.

They're not weak for doing that, they're not pathetic for doing that, they're not sorry for doing that.

The Bible says that they're able to do that in strength and boldness because they understand the true freedom that they have in Jesus.

And we have to work, wives, you have to work to understand that and demonstrate that even in the relationship of your marriage.

You see, this affects the Christian life altogether as I've been trying to talk through this whole sermon.

This isn't just about women, this isn't just about gender, this is about the Christian posture in general.

And we really fail to value reverence submission as part of a gospel-centered life because we constantly think and we're constantly tempted to believe that all of the things in this world are caused to serve us, are meant to serve us.

And it's a horrible thing when we are so let down when the reality hits us that they don't.

They don't satisfy, they don't truly serve, they don't bring the happiness that we thought they would.

And it's devastating to our reality.

But if we were to shift our thinking, that we're these things are established in our life, these things are given to us in our life so that we can serve in them, then what we would be able to do is actually see a place for reverence submission as part of gospel-centered life.

And this points us to the other part that some of us don't value loving service as part of a gospel-centered life.

We expect the things which God has established in this world to serve us rather than for us to serve in.

Our government, our jobs, our marriages.

So, what's the Christian called to do?

Live a quiet and gentle life.

Subject.

Submit.

Honor.

Serve.

And we might find ourselves in circumstances where we are outraged with the injustice that we are experiencing.

We might find ourselves in circumstances where we just feel like we can't take it anymore.

The oppression, the absence of freedom, the injustice, whatever it might be.

But what we have a responsibility to do is respond to those circumstances biblically.

And so if we are going to raise our voice, let us raise our voice in crying out, God, your kingdom come.

Just pray, pray and yell out and raise your voice, God, may your kingdom come now on earth as it is in heaven.

And may your voice be raised again in zealous proclamation of the gospel, inviting the people around you into that kingdom.

Where there is actual freedom, where there is actual justice, where there is actual hope.

So we can raise our voice in crying for his kingdom to come, or we can raise our voice in zealously inviting others into it.

And if we're going to raise our hands, let it be raised in worship and surrender to the one who we entrust the entirety of our lives to.

Because he has us in his hands.

So with those things in mind, we should be able to have a value for loving service to be a part of a gospel-centered life.

And no matter what circumstance we find ourselves in, we come in to serve.

And Jesus modeled that.

Jesus modeled that in such transcendent yet even tangible ways.

And one of the ways that he modeled that loving service is on the night when he was being betrayed, before his crucifixion, as he knew what that night led to, he got up in front of his disciples, he put a towel around his waist, and he bent down and he washed their feet.

And he showed them, he demonstrated, he modeled that no matter what injustice you're going through, no matter what trial you're going through, no matter what tragedy you're going through, you walk through it in loving, humble service.

Our gospel conviction this morning is this that Jesus reverently submitted himself to the will of the Father while lovingly serving his bride the church.

Jesus reverently submitted himself to the will of the Father while lovingly serving his bride the church.

When we fail to submit, and we when we fail to serve, Jesus is sufficient.

Jesus is sufficient because he did it perfectly for us.

Jesus demonstrated a perfect life for the glory of God and the good of others.

See, he saw this need to reverently submit to the will of God, even if it meant the crushing of his own soul, even if it meant utter darkness for him, even if it meant being inflicted by the gravest injustice that this world has ever known.

Going through trial and tragedy, he submitted himself.

He submitted himself to the will of the Father.

And all of it was for the loving service of his bride, the church.

It was for the joy that was set before him that he was able to endure the suffering of the cross.

Man, part of that joy, I believe it astronomical, part of that joy was the glory and good of his church.

The joy that was set before him was through this work, through this suffering, through this uh submission, through all of this trial and turmoil on the other side of it is the glory and good of my bride.

What joy that fueled his heart and life to be able to give him the strength to endure even the suffering of the cross?

Oh, that we could model our life after that, that we could work to be imitators of that.

But ultimately, church, when we fail to do that, praise God Jesus didn't.

And he's sufficient for us to give us his righteousness, his perfect obedience, that it can be claimed as our own.

So, how would we live this life in light of this?

Number one, we would cultivate true beauty in our lives.

I think this is something that should apply to all Christians.

Peter does specifically talk to women in this because I believe Peter does it because of the propensity for women to work so hard on their outer beauty.

But this isn't absent or dismisses of men, and they do the same thing.

And so us as Christians are called to cultivate true beauty in our lives.

Gentle and quiet spirits, reverent submission, loving service.

We have to see the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

We have to work to be conformed to the image of Jesus even more.

And that's going to happen through obedience.

That's going to happen through studying of his word.

That's going to be happening through allowing us to respond faithfully when the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin through confession and repentance, so that the image of Christ might rise up from within us and that the image that we once bore is continually being put to death so that Christ can shine greater through our flesh.

As John the Baptist declared, may it be so that he might increase and I might decrease.

So the inner beauty that never fades, that eternal, imperishable beauty, let us work to cultivate it in our own lives.

Number two, we would live quietly through reverent submission.

Man, what would it look like if your life was framed through the lens of how you are to submit to people, to structures, to authorities in your life.

What would that look like for you?

And I know right now there might be many of you that don't, that have a, that have an ever-decreasing trust and authority.

I get it.

I understand.

The Bible understands.

The gospel understands.

In ways that you and I don't.

And no matter what we're going through, it calls us to do the same.

To reverently submit.

So what would it look like if every morning you asked, how am I submitting?

How am I quietly submitting, reverently submitting to the authorities, infrastructures, institutions, governing heads that Christ has put in my life?

How am I reverently submitting to them?

I bet you anything, because I know that it hasn't for me.

I've never woken up and thought that.

I think one of the end realities for us would be is that we would continue, we would start to live a life that asks God, how can I reverently submit to you?

Because my bet would be that we haven't asked that question either.

It hasn't been a constant question that shapes how we live day to day.

The good and perfect master, the one who would never execute injustice upon us because he already executed full justice upon his son.

In our place.

So we don't have to fear him any longer in the wrath of his vengeance against sin.

We don't have to do that.

He's a good and loving and perfect Father who lavishes all of his goodness and love upon us.

But I bet even still we fail to wake up day after day and ask ourselves, how can I reverently submit to that, to him?

We haven't asked it, I'm sure, in our marriages, in our employment, in our government.

How can we reverently submit today so that we might reflect a quiet and gentle spirit with the hope-filled future of your good on the other side of it?

Lastly, bring honor through loving service.

Bring honor through loving service.

Serve.

Serve.

Be like Christ.

Be like Christ and put around your waist a towel and bend down and wash the feet of people.

We have to be a people who lovingly serve in every aspect of our lives because we're not working for our good.

Christ has already worked for our good.

He's already accomplished it.

All of our eternal good Christ has worked for, Christ has accomplished, and Christ has freely given.

And so we don't have to work for our own good anymore.

We are now liberated and freed to work for the good of others.

And that comes through loving service.

So I pray that we would be a people who would work to cultivate true beauty in our lives, who would live quietly through reverence submission, and bring honor through loving service.

Let's pray.