To Wives

3:1  Peter’s linking phrase in the same way occurs again in verse 7, as he turns to speak to husbands. So the expression is not to be taken as being too significant in itself: in verse 7 there is no question of husbands being admonished to be submissive to their wives. Neither is Peter implying that wives are to be submissive in the way expected of the slaves he has just been addressing (2:18), for the husband/wife relationship is on a different plane. Each wife is instructed to be submissive to her own husband (as the Greek indicates)—that is to say, this is not a general directive to all women to be subject to men, but to each wife to be faithful in conjugal relations solely to her husband. The reference to Sarah in verse 6 has the same sexual implication. The occasion when she i…