Thinking and acting in the same way, wives don’t fight with your husbands. Not-fighting is the key to “winning.” And the goal here is that unbelieving husbands would be won over. It’s your beautiful and godly actions that will accomplish this, not your words. What makes you truly beautiful isn’t the time you spend in front of the mirror or the new clothes and bangles you long to buy. It’s your true self, shining from the inside out, a beauty that doesn’t dim as you age, but grows smoother and mellower and richer in the Spirit and in God’s sight.
This is the way it’s always been done: Holy women pinning their hope wholly on God and refusing to bang heads with their husbands. Those are the most beautiful clothes to get dressed up in. Remember Sarah? She treated Abraham with the utmost respect in what she did and what she said. So, do what is right and don’t give in to your fears and you’ll look just like her. Like mother, like daughter.
And you men, be attentive to and thoughtful of your wives. Treat them with your highest respect. They’re breakable. And they are equal heirs with you to this grace-gift of life. Don’t let the way you treat them cancel out your prayers.
What I’m getting at for all of you together is this: Find common ground. Try to see things through the eyes of others. Choose the way of love. Feel the pain others go through. And stop thinking about yourself so much. No more matching blow for blow, insult for insult. Instead when someone pays you in evil, repay them with good. This is the kind of life you have been called to. Stick to it and you’ll overflow with wholeness and abundance.
Remember the words of Psalm 34:
Love life
And live love.
Do that and you’ll get what you want
From life.
Mind your mouth.
Bite your tongue
When death words reach its tip.
Seal your lips
From lies.
Never tear people down.
It’s hard not to strike back
At those that hurt us,
But turn your back
On that way of living.
Be an agent of wholeness
In this broken world.
Chase that kind of life
With every ounce of energy you can muster.
Open eyes and open ears
Are the marks of God’s relationship
With people of peace.
He gives his full attention to those who give themselves
To his work in the world.
Pursed lips and a frowning face
Are the marks of God’s relationship
With people of destruction.
He gives his full attention
To erasing their work from the world.
What I’m getting at is this: People won’t go after you if you are focused on doing good for them, will they? But if they do and you end up suffering for trying to do the right thing, you’ll receive good from God. As Isaiah 8 tells us, “Don’t fear their threats. Don’t be afraid.” Instead, keep your heart centered on the anointed king of the world. He is Lord.
People are going to ask why you’re so hopeful. So always be ready to tell them. You’ll want to be thoughtful and respectful when you do so. And you’ll need to make sure there’s nothing that can soil your conscience. That way, anyone who tries to slander you maliciously — when you’re really doing what’s right because you follow the anointed king of the world — will just end up looking stupid because of it, their bad words backfiring on them.
The point is: it’s much better to suffer for doing good if it serves God’s purposes than for doing bad. That’s what the anointed king of the world did. You know how he suffered for our sins — the good one suffering for the bad ones — in order to bring you to God. He was killed in the body but was made alive in the Spirit.
And what did he do after being made alive again? He sought out and spoke to spirits locked in death’s dark dungeon — the worst of the worst, the ones God put up with while Noah built the ark. An interesting thing about the ark: Only a few people, just eight, were saved from the water by it. In a similar way, the waters of baptism save us. Baptism isn’t a bath for our bodies, but for our souls, cleaning up our consciences before God.
All of this depends on the resurrection of Jesus, the anointed king of the world. Because of it, he is now in heaven, enthroned at the right hand of God. And that means angels and all in positions of authority and power do what he says.