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A STRATEGY FOR WINNING
UNBELIEVING HUSBANDS TO CHRIST
(1 PETER 3:1–6)
The most extensive passage on this topic is 1 Peter 3:1–
6. Here Peter gives specific instructions for how a Christian
wife can evangelize her unconverted husband. In
the first century it was not uncommon when a husband
converted to a religion for the entire family to follow.
However, when the wife converted to a religion it was
less likely that the husband would follow automatically.
Peter offers wise counsel to these women. He provides
for them a strategy for wordless evangelism. I do not
mean by this that Peter would discourage Christian
wives from speaking the gospel to their unconverted
husbands. It is more likely that he is warning them
against “badgering” them with the gospel. Peter encourages
Christian wives to influence their husbands by their
godly behavior.
Peter gives more detailed instructions to Christian
wives (3:1–6) than to Christian husbands in this passage
(3:7). 1 The reason for this is seen when the larger
context is considered. In the larger context Peter is
instructing those who are in a vulnerable position to
live out their hope in God by submitting to those in
authority over them. This larger context goes back to
1 Peter 2:11–12. There Peter speaks of his readers as
“sojourners and exiles.” The imagery suggests that the
believer’s true home is not this world. In light of this
reality Peter wants believers to live godly lives in order
to highlight the gospel. He then gives several examples
of how believers are to live in this “foreign land”: Citizens
are to live in submission to the governing authorities
(2:13–17), slaves are to be subject to their masters
(2:14–25), and wives are to live in submission to their
husbands (3:1–6). The goal is that they (governing
authorities, masters, and unbelieving husbands) would
see the believer’s good works and “glorify God on the
day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:13). 2
This passage will be examined around four thoughts.
First, Peter admonishes Christian wives to be submissive
to their “disobedient” husbands (3:1). The word
“submission” is one of the most detested words in our
culture. This is no more evident than when the topic
comes up in the discussion of male and female roles
in the family. (I am writing from a complementarian
position. 3 ) A Christian wife is to joyfully embrace the
divinely ordained headship of her husband as the leader
of their home, whether he is a Christian or not. Thus the
primary duty enjoined on the wife is submission. The
phrase translated “in the same way” (homoios) should
not be interpreted to mean that a wife is to submit to
her husband like a slave submits to his master. 4 The word
is used here as a connective much like “and.” 5 This same
construction is found in verse seven.
The command to submissiveness suggests no sense of
inferiority—spiritual, moral, or intellectual; rather, it is
subordination of function involving a wife’s role within
the marriage and home. Submitting is certainly easier
said than done when a woman is married to an inconsiderate
man. This challenge necessitates that a woman
be convinced her greatest motivation for submitting to
her husband is the glory of God. A wife’s submission is
a means of glorifying the God of her salvation. She does
not submit to her husband for her husband’s sake, or
even her own. Rather, she submits to him for the Lord’s
sake (2:13). She submits to her husband for the sake of
the one who bore her sins in his body on the tree so that
she could die to sin and live to righteousness (2:24).
True submission is to be willingly given and conducted
in a way that is in keeping with God’s character. Her
submission is to be motivated by faith, hope, and love
in the Lord, not fear. Just as Jesus entrusted himself into
the hands of the one who judges justly (2:23) she can
do the same. This elevates the practice of submission
from being a mere commandment to a glorious means
of expressing one’s devotion to the Lord. The special
purpose given for the command is expressed in the latter
part of the verse (3:1b).
The fact that the husband does not obey
(apeithousin) the word implies an open and hostile
response to the word. The thought suggests more than a
rejection of the gospel, but of a lifestyle that is in opposition
to it. 6 The implication is that the wife is living
under difficult circumstances. Many Christian wives
married to unconverted men think that they would be
willing to live in submission to their husbands if they
were at least good husbands. But Peter seems to be writing
to those whose husbands live in direct rebellion to
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