In the context of being a wife, and the question of submission to our husbands, am I willing to obey what God shows me?

Bible Studies for Women

Daughters of Sarah: Wives of Great Worth

Choosing Obedience

"Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands..." (3:1).

Most of us as wives have convinced ourselves that this Scripture does not apply in our own circumstances. It can't mean we are to be submissive to our husbands if their decisions are not in line with what we understand God's will to be.

Yet upon closer examination we realize that this passage in 1 Peter was written especially for us when our husbands are not Christians or fail to make decisions in line with what we understand to be God's direction. Read the rest of the verse:

"Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives," (3:1).

Do you have the courage to look into what God is really saying here? If so, be prepared to make some changes.

To understand what God means by, "In the same way," we must start at the beginning:

"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance" (1:1-2)

This Scripture is written to those who have accepted Christ as Savior and Lord and thus have become part of God's elect. He has elected those who accept his Son for special blessing, provision, protection, and honor.

Notice first that we have been "chosen." From the very beginning, the God who had all foreknowledge of the situations we would face in our marriages today chose you and me!.

What are we chosen for? First we are chosen for obedience. Because we are chosen, we are immediately faced with a choice. Our choice is: "Will I choose to be obedient or disobedient to God's choices for me?"

In the context of being a wife, and the question of submission to our husbands, am I willing to obey what God shows me? That is the only question that really matters.

It is not a question of whether our husbands are capable; or whether they are worthy of leadership; or whether we can do a better job. Those areas are for God to decide.

The question for me, ultimately is not whether I will submit to my husband. It is whether I will submit to my God. I have been "chosen...for obedience." Will I choose obedience or disobedience to God?

If we are unwilling to submit to God here, at the foundation of his call to us, how do we dare to judge our husbands for their failures in the leadership areas God has called them to?

God knew we would blow the obedience issue before we ever got started. We have not always chosen to submit to our husbands. But the real problem is that by choosing not to submit to our husbands in the ways that God has ordained, we have chosen to rebel against God's design for us.

So the second thing that God chose us for is "sprinkling by his blood." I thank my God that his choices for me have the power to overcome and rescue me from the wrong choices I have made!

I am chosen for obedience. Because God knew I would fail in obedience to God, he chose me for forgiveness, for redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade -- kept in heaven for you" (1:3-4).

This is a hard choice God has called us to make. It always seems that it would be easier to have someone else's choice -- to be required to make someone else's commitment. Commitment is never easy.

Commitment to God by submission to another human has to be one of the toughest callings God has ever required. But it brings with it the richness of God's protection and blessing in a way that frees us as nothing else can.

We are "chosen...for obedience" through the "sprinkling by his blood," into "an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade -- kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time" (1:4-5).

Lord,

The topic of submission is really a place that we don't want to go. We would like to write something else into what you are saying in your word on this subject. But we cannot. You have told us that our submission is ultimately an act of commitment and submission to you.

Thank you for the privilege of saying "yes" to you, Lord. Thank you that we can give you the gift of our desires and even the security we feel at being in control. We trust in a greater security of your control and your desires for our good, Lord.

We don't want to go to the topic of submission. But we choose to go there because that is where you have called us, and we go with you, Lord. Thank you for leading us safely through all the troubled waters we must travel as we submit to your plan for us.

Amen.

1. What does it mean to you to be chosen for obedience?
2. How does being chosen cause us immediately to be confronted with a choice?
3. If our husbands are not following God in their lives, should we follow their leadership? How does this work?
4. Why is submitting to our husbands so important?
5. If God had chosen us for obedience without choosing us for redemption, where would that have left us?