Q.
182
Do women need to follow the commands of
1 Peter and submit to their husbands? Why?
What does it mean to submit?
Kathy Escobar
A.
The fi rst letter of Peter 3:1 says, “Wives, in the same way, accept the
authority of your husbands.” This follows 1 Peter 2:18, which gives
instructions for slaves to submit to their masters. It would be just as
easy to use those passages to support slavery today, but most everyone is clear
that slavery is wrong.
I believe strongly in mutual submission; one of the most underused
passages in this argument is Ephesians 5:21, “Be subject to one another out of
reference for Christ.” The word for this kind of submission means “to obey, to
subject ourselves to, to yield to one’s admonition or advice, to submit to one’s
control.” This passage suggests that we do that to each other, not just women
to men.
We must remember that when Paul originally wrote these letters, they
were one long letter, not divided into sections that men along the way decided
to subtitle. Almost every Bible divides Ephesians 5:21 from 5:22, which along
with 1 Peter 2:18, is one of the most quoted passages about the issue of hier-
archy in relationship. The cultural issues of women in the context of Paul and
Peter’s letters cannot be dismissed, and we must continually go back to Jesus
and the message he fulfi lled—freedom for the captives (Lk. 4).
It makes no sense to me that Jesus would come to keep half of the popu-
lation in captivity, unable to freely proclaim and live out the gospel to the full
extent of their giftedness. The gospel came to set people free, not bind them
up further. We are all submitted to God, and to each other, and that signifi cant
and central piece of our spiritual journey must cross gender boundaries. In
Jesus, there is no male or female, Jew or Gentile; we are all free (Gal. 3:28).
Taking one passage of scripture and building an entire unhealthy, imbal-
anced, oppressive system around it seems very religion-like, but completely
contradictory to the kingdom principle of equality and freedom for all.Jim L. Robinson
A.
Although there is a paternalistic bias in 1 Peter (as well as in Eph.
5 and Col. 3), the underlying theme in these passages is an ethic of
mutual surrender. While the paternalistic bias cannot be ignored,
it must be remembered that the culture that produced these texts was totally