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Peter has been addressing our relationships with our fellow believers, with our unbelieving neighbors and with governmental authorities. Next, Peter addresses the master-slave relationship. In Peter’s day, slavery was a brutal reality. About 15% of the people in the Roman Empire were slaves. Millions of human beings were owned as property. They were often treated harshly and without dignity.
Peter’s words are revolutionary. He call believers who are slaves to transform their suffering into a testimony of faith. Even in the lowest position as a slave, a follower of Yeshua can live a life that honors God and is a powerful witness to the truth. By enduring unjust treatment with patience and respect, they reflect the character of Messiah, who suffered innocently and entrusted Himself to God’s justice.
You who are slaves must submit to your masters with all respect. Do what they tell you – not only if they are kind and reasonable, but even if they are cruel. There is something in us that resists showing respect to someone who mistreats us. Yet Peter tells us to rise above our feelings. For the believer, submission to those in authority, even when they are cruel, is not weakness – but spiritual strength. We become living testimonies that God’s will and God’s grace are greater than human domination and cruelty.
For God is pleased when, conscious of his will, you patiently endure unjust treatment. Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong. But if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you. What pleases God is not the injustice and the suffering, but the godly attitude that endures injustice and suffering without hatred or the desire for revenge. When we respond to cruelty and injustice with humility and faith, we show that our faith is real. We show that we believe God cares and will one day set all things right. Our lives become a powerful witness to the transforming work of His grace.
God is pleased when we are doing what is right and suffer injustice and endure it patiently because that reflects the character of His Son. For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Messiah suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps. He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone. He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly. He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls.
God calls us to not merely avoid evil, but to actively do good. To do good means living righteously, being kind and generous, helping the people around us, serving the community of Yeshua’s followers and proclaiming the truth about salvation.
We might think that doing good would cause the world to love us – but the world isn’t good and doesn’t like those who do good. So doing good usually means experiencing suffering inflicted by the world.
Peter tells us to look at the life of Yeshua and follow His example. He did more good than anyone – and was treated unjustly and suffered – but He responded to injustice and suffering in the right way. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps. He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone. He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly.
Messiah never sinned. He always did what was right. He never deceived or mislead anyone. He always told the truth. When He was insulted, He didn’t retaliate against those who insulted Him. When He suffered, He didn’t threaten to harm those who caused Him to suffer. He didn’t want them harmed. He wanted them saved and transformed and blessed. Instead of retaliating or threatening revenge, He knew that God is the Judge of all things, and always judges fairly. He trusted God to right the wrongs He experienced – in God’s time and in God’s way.
When we imitate Yeshua and do good and suffer for it with patience and grace, we please God, and we reveal Yeshua’s character and His reality to the world.
We are to follow Yeshua’s example of responding to injustice and suffering – but more is going on with Yeshua’s life and sufferings and death than just example-setting.
He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls. Peter reinforces his teaching with the great prophecy of Isaiah 53, where God’s Suffering Servant, the Messiah, takes on Himself our sin to atone for us and heal us spiritually so we are reconciled to God.
When Peter writes, “He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right,” he’s teaching us that Yeshua didn’t just die so we could be forgiven – He died to free us from the control of sin. When we place our faith in Yeshua, our old sinful nature dies, and we are born again. This new birth gives us a new, godly nature – a nature like God’s nature, a nature that loves God and hates sin. We no longer live under sin’s control because along with our new nature, the Holy Spirit lives in us. He empowers us to say no to sin, no to temptation and yes to right, God-honoring living. Our desires begin to change; we start to delight in what pleases God rather than what pleases the old sinful nature and its corrupt desires.
To be dead to sin means that sin no longer has power over us, no longer controls us, no longer dominates us. To live for what is right means living daily in obedience and the power of the Spirit.
By his wounds you are healed. Healed of what? Not physical healing of the body. In context, this is all about spiritual healing: atonement; forgiveness; salvation; reconciliation to God; the sure hope of eternal life.
Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls. Peter reminds us that before we knew Messiah, we were like lost sheep – heading in the wrong direction and vulnerable to attack. But because of our faith in Yeshua, we have turned back to the true Shepherd. Yeshua the Messiah is the Guardian of our souls. He not only rescues us but continually watches over us, protects, and sustains our spiritual lives. We are no longer wandering away from the Good Shepherd. We are back with Him and living under His protective care – now and forever.
Now Peter addresses another relationship – the relationship between husbands and wives. In the same way, you wives must accept the authority of your husbands. Then, even if some refuse to obey the Good News, your godly lives will speak to them without any words. They will be won over by observing your pure and reverent lives.
In Genesis 3, the Lord established the husband as the head of the home: He said to Eve: your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you. This principle of male leadership in the home has never changed.
But what if the wife is a believer and the husband is an unbeliever? Isn’t the believing wife free to do what she thinks is best because she knows God and her husband doesn’t? No. Just as we are to obey the governmental authorities God has placed over us, even if they are not believers, wives are to submit to the authority of their husbands – even if they are not believers.
Just as we silence the accusations of our opponents – not by arguing with them, but by living lives of honor and integrity, wives win over their husbands when they observe the godly, pure, reverent lives of their wives – which includes yielding to the God-ordained authority of their husbands.
More instructions for women: Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. Women and beauty go together. God designed women to be beautiful – in part to capture a man’s heart. But for God’s women, beauty must go deeper than appearance. While outward beauty has its place, the Word of God teaches us that true beauty is found in the inward character of a godly woman.
Peter redirects our attention from what the beauty the world values – hairstyles, jewelry, and clothing – to what God treasures: inward beauty, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. Outward beauty fades, but inner beauty, which comes from faith and obedience to God, grows stronger and more beautiful over time.
You should clothe yourselves with the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. A gentle and quiet spirit describes a woman whose heart is at rest because she is resting in God. She is gentle not because she is weak. She’s strong – but her strength comes from her relationship to God. She is strong but humble, kind, and patient rather than harsh or demanding. “Quiet” refers not to silence, but to inner calm and stability that come from trusting God.
A woman with a gentle and quiet spirit doesn’t need to control people or circumstances because she knows God is in control. She knows God is greater than her husband. So she is able to face challenges in the home with grace and composure, responding with love even when she is provoked. This kind of beauty comes from faith. It comes from a relationship with the Lord. This kind of beauty is precious in His sight because this is what He designed women to be like.
The opposite of a gentle and quiet spirit is a contentious and anxious spirit. Such a woman is loud, argumentative, quarrelsome, easily offended, constantly trying to get her own way. Proverbs describes this repeatedly and vividly:
“It’s better to live alone in the corner of an attic than with a quarrelsome wife in a lovely home.”
“It’s better to live alone in the desert than with a quarrelsome, complaining wife.”
“A quarrelsome wife is as annoying as constant dripping on a rainy day.”
A woman who manipulates, complains, quarrels and insists on control reveals inner turmoil rather than trust in God. In contrast, the gentle and quiet woman brings peace to her home because her heart rests in God’s faithfulness.
This is how the holy women of old made themselves beautiful. They put their trust in God and accepted the authority of their husbands. For instance, Sarah obeyed her husband, Abraham, and called him her master. You are her daughters when you do what is right without fear of what your husbands might do. Peter points to the “holy women of old,” especially Sarah, as examples. What made them beautiful wasn’t jewelry or fine clothing but faith‑filled submission to God’s order and trust in His protection. Sarah’s respect for Abraham demonstrated her deeper confidence in God’s faithfulness. Peter is teaching believing women that they are Sarah’s daughters when they follow her example – doing what is right, walking in faith, and not being ruled by fear of their husbands or their circumstances.
Now Peter addresses husbands who are believers. In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered. Peter instructs husbands to give honor to their wives and treat them with understanding. To “give honor” means to treat one’s wife as precious and highly valued – not as property, not as a servant – but as a treasured partner. Living “with understanding” means a husband is to know his wife – her needs, her emotions, her burdens – and respond with wisdom, compassion and patience.
Though Peter acknowledges that a woman may be physically weaker than her husband, he also acknowledges her full equality in spiritual worth. She is an equal partner in God’s gift of new life, sharing the same wonderful new nature, and the same eternal life.
When a husband doesn’t honor his wife and treat her with understanding, he not only damages her and their relationship, he also damages his relationship with God. When a husband mistreats his wife, he is sinning against God and his relationship with God is affected. A husband who is harsh, selfish, or neglects his wife creates a barrier between him and God. His prayers lose effectiveness because he is not right with God. He is offending God who loves that woman. The Lord defends those who are wronged, and He will not listen to the prayers of a man who mistreats the woman God has given him and called him to love, nourish and protect.
On the other hand, when a husband honors his wife, loves her sacrificially, his prayers are unhindered. His prayers are heard and welcomed by God who is happy with us when we treat others with love and honor.
Let’s pray:
Heavenly Father, thank You for Messiah Yeshua, and that by His wounds we are healed – reconciled to You, the Eternal God, with whom we will live forever. Father, thank You for His perfect example of suffering unjustly yet trusting You completely. Help us to endure injustice and suffering with patience, reflecting His character. Teach us to do good even when it brings suffering, showing that our faith is real. Make us dead to sin and alive to righteousness through Your Spirit’s power. Give wives the inward beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, and husbands hearts that honor and understand their wives. Thank You for being the wonderful Guardian of our souls.