It is then, when that
which is considered precious by the world is put aside, what is “precious in
God’s sight,” which is “the lasting beauty of a gentle and tranquil spirit,”
and which can be seen in the willful sacrifice of honor and a willful,
equalizing identification with those that do not posses honor or its trappings,
that the Gospel is lived out before an amazed and confused world. What
will result from this?
One can imagine that,
having gone without these things of external beauty in the course of table
fellowship, and undoubtedly experiencing the power of the Gospel and the
presence of the Spirit because of this act of self-sacrifice, that a conclusion
may be reached that such things of external beauty are not entirely
necessary. This could very well lead to an unforced and un-coerced sacrificial
liquidation of assets once held so dear, so that the community might be
benefited, the hungry fed, the thirsty given drink, and the naked clothed,
while the widow and orphan receive the care that the Creator God demands from
His people.
Indeed, it is with
such thoughts in mind that one can hear Peter go on to remind this church of
their responsibility to engage in public benefaction as the kingdom of the
covenant God, as he writes in reference to Abraham’s wife Sarah and the example
she provided that “You become her children when you do what is good (providing
food, drink, clothing---public benefaction) and have no fear in doing so”
(3:6b).
That last line is a
strange addition. Why would they have to fear doing good? Well,
those very things of which Peter speaks---the jewelry and fine
clothes---represented a wife’s economic security in the event of her husband’s
death or his decree of divorce. Peter’s insistence that all engage in
doing good works, and his insistence on a loving and preferring attitude that
could cause a woman to forego that which may be her only means of subsistence
apart from her husband in the event of death or divorce, is a radical demand
upon the follower of the Christ. It can be a cause for fear while also being
an exercise in faith. In accordance with this line of thinking then,
Peter writes “Husbands, in the same way, treat your wives with consideration as
the weaker partners” (3:7a), recognizing the potential hardship that they are
creating for themselves as they do that which will allow them to also engage in
good works.
This use of weaker,
quite naturally, is not to be understood as weak in the sense that raises the
ire of feminists in the western world, but rather in the sense that, in that
day (and today in many unfortunate cases and places) women were far more
vulnerable and more likely to be subjected to oppression. Peter takes
this one step further, and in the midst of a culture that prized honor and
shame, husbands are instructed to do that which will cause the last to be first
and the first to be last, writing “show them honor as fellows heirs of the
grace of life” (3:7b). All of this would play out at the meal
table.
Summing up what he
has just communicated to the gathered congregation, Peter writes “Finally, all
of you be harmonious, sympathetic, affectionate, compassionate, and humble”
(3:8). With the specter of division and social stratification (always
based on honor and shame, as there was no “middle class” of which to speak,
though honor would naturally gravitate towards wealth and vice versa) looming
large in the background, it seems reasonable to posit that the problems being
experienced in the churches were nearly universal, as these words from Peter
are effectively what Paul can also be heard to be saying to the churches in
Rome and Corinth.
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