Bible Text: 1 Peter 3:1-6 | Preacher: Pastor Joe Ricchuiti | Series: 1 Peter, Beauty 101

1. A wife who had come to Christ, but whose husband was an unbeliever, was placed in a difficult position. She could best reach her husband by the beauty of her Christian character, rather than by argument. 1 Peter 3:1-6 is applicable to Christian women married to unbelieving husbands or even to those married to Christian husbands who show no spiritual interest.

A woman’s true beauty comes, not from outward adornment (things such as fine clothing, hairstyles, jewelry, make-up), but rather from the inner beauty of godly character which does not diminish with time (as does outward beauty) but grows with time.

Peter is not prohibiting things such as fine clothing, make-up, jewelry, hairstyling, but is correcting a wrong emphasis. He is, rather, promoting a proper perspective on those things and a proper set of values. Because of the restrictions on women in the ancient world, they spent enormous amounts of time on this kind of outward beauty. Peter (as well as Paul 1 Timothy 2:9) was teaching a more balanced view. A view expressed in passages such as Proverbs 31:29,30.

This truth is elaborated by Burton C. Murdock, “Beautiful to live with. Beautiful to talk to. Beautiful in virtue. Beautiful in godliness. That is the lovely charm that keeps a Christian wife endlessly attractive to her husband.”

Peter’s call is for Christian women to focus on the inner self expressed in gentleness. Which is described in the following way: “a gentle and quiet spirit is one which puts up with the impositions of others without causing any itself.” (Wheaton)

He concludes his argument with an appeal to the example of the women of the Old Testament, especially Sarah, Abraham’s wife. She acknowledges Abraham as the leader and head of the household. She expressed her faith and her submission by following Abraham when God told Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldees and go to a place he would be shown later, and in the incidences where she, in response to Abraham, portrayed herself as Abraham’s sister to protect his life, an act of love which put her at considerable risk and required faith in God.