Sundays are special. For as long as I can remember, Sunday morning has been the highlight of my week. Now, maybe it was the box of doughnuts that Mrs. Rieman brought to Sunday School Hour. That didn’t hurt, but even in my younger years I found Sunday mornings to be a time that was special because I experienced God in a different way and I got to see people I really considered to be family.
The Apostle Peter is no masochist. He does not say that the Christian should go out looking for suffering, but that as the beloved of God we should not be surprised when it comes. Our world is fallen (the effects of the first sin) and - because of that - suffering is a reality of life.
The strange thing about being middle-aged is that you are old enough to remember a generation that has vanished; see a generation before you rising to old age; see your own generation building families and businesses; and see a generation just being born.
Chapter 3 is complicated. St. Peter assumes the headship that St. Paul writes of in 1 Cor 11:3; Eph. 5:22; Col 3:18. Submission of wives to their husbands is an inherent good for all Christians. St. Peter argues that it brings about virtue in the wife as an adornment in place of vanity (Pt. 3:1-4). A “gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious” (1 Pt. 4:4). This contrasts greatly with what some have pushed in our own day for many years now - that man and wife in marriages are interchangeable.
We live in a very cynical era where institutions are constantly being undermined and overthrown. This is leading to a great deal of instability and vice (in the name of “freedom”). Christians need to take this chapter to heart and ask themselves how they are interacting with society. We are not called to separate and throw rocks from the outside. We are also not called to have no opinion. It is difficult, but we must model honor so we can call to account when necessary with our hope set on the eternal.
Sundays are special. For as long as I can remember, Sunday morning has been the highlight of my week. Now, maybe it was the box of doughnuts that Mrs. Rieman brought to Sunday School Hour. That didn’t hurt, but even in my younger years I found Sunday mornings to be a time that was special because I experienced God in a different way and I got to see people I really considered to be family.
