And welcome back to our program.
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Dr. Shepherd, in
verse 2, there is a word
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that caught my attention.
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And it says fear,
and my version says,
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in the New King
James Version says,
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"When they observe your chaste
conduct accompanied by fear."
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What is this
reference "fear" in verse 2?
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My version, the English Standard
Version in verse 2 says,
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"When they see your
respectful and pure conduct."
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The word in
Greek is fear, phobos.
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And this is probably
a relationship to God
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that the woman has.
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Her conduct, her way of
life is typified by two things.
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It's typified by purity,
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this kind of
something that's clean and pure
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and it's typified
by fear or reverence.
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Probably both of
these related toward God,
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His standard of
conduct, His way of thinking,
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and His values
have become the woman's,
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as we've already
talked about before
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where the person
is conscious of God.
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God has become the primary group
that they accept those values.
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So they've--she has taken
on these concepts of purity
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and of reverence towards God.
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And the husband
is observing this
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and this is part of the process
of him becoming a Christian.
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He observed--
remember we talked about
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that circle of salvation before.
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The pagan
observes the Christian.
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Here's Christianity
and the world face-to-face.
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You know, having
contact with one another.
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This woman is in a home
where the husband is a pagan
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and yet he is
observing something attractive
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about what she's doing.
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So she's like an
open letter? Yes, yes.
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Well, let's look at verse
3, Peter talks about adornment.
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What is Peter
teaching on this subject?
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Yeah. Well, this is a--
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I'm looking forward to
what you have to say on this.
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This is one of
those controversial parts.
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Before we get there, I
just want to mention verse 1.
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There's something kind
of interesting about verse 1
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where it says
that the husband will--
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maybe won, he'll be won.
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It's a passive
voice in, in Greek.
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He will be won.
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And the passive voice is
indicative of God's activity.
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So the woman is living her
life in front of her husband
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but it is God
who wins the husband.
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It is the Holy Spirit
that uses her witness to draw.
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Too many times we--
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we want to be God's lawyers
instead of His witnesses.
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He wants us to be
on the witness stand
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and too many times we're
ready to nail Him to the wall.
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Well, more flies are
attracted by honey than vinegar
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and the simple quiet life
is attractive, it's attractive.
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Now that's when the things
that Peter kind of focuses in on
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is this idea of attraction.
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So I'd like you to
read verse 3 again.
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"Do not let your
adornment be merely outward
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arranging the hair, wearing gold
or putting on fine apparel."
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All right, let me read it in
the English Standard Version.
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Now I want you to
notice the difference
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between the two versions.
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I'm gonna ask you a
question about your version.
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That's the New King
James Version? New King James.
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Okay, here's the ESV,
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"Do not let your adorning
outward the braiding of hair
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and the putting
on of gold jewelry
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or the clothing you wear."
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Did you notice any
word different between them?
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Well, your version added
a word, it seemed, jewelry.
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Mine does not say jewelry.
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Your's doesn't say jewelry,
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well, and then yours
added a word as well. Okay.
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And yours used-- added
the word merely, I think.
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Merely outward, and
yours just said outward.
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Just said
externally, yeah. Okay.
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Now is the word
merely in italics? It is.
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It is. How did I know
that? That's interesting.
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I did see it, but
it didn't really mean
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anything to me other than--
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All right, well, here's--
in the King James Version
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and the New King James Version
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and there's a few others
that will do this as well,
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the New American Standard Bible.
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Whenever they add a word to
the text to help interpret it,
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every translation
is an interpretation.
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But whenever they add
on an extra word in there
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to help interpret
it, in the King James,
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the New King James,
the New American Standard,
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they will put it in italics
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so that you'll know
that it's an added word.
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So read that first part again.
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"Do not let your
adornment be merely outward."
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All right, so don't let your--
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take out the
merely that they added in.
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"Do not let your
adornment be outward."
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Which is exactly what
we have here in the ESV,
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"Do not let your
adorning be external," okay?
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Peter really sets up a
contrast between two ways of--
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shall we say adorning yourself.
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The second part of it
is actually in verse 4.
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So now read verse 4.
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"Rather let it be the
hidden person of the heart,
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with the incorruptible beauty
of a gentle and quiet spirit,
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which is very
precious in the sight of God."
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All right. All right.
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So we have two contrasting
ways of adorning ourselves.
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And Peter, when
he expresses these,
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he does it in a
very nice way, in Greek.
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I've to explain little bit of
Greek grammar to explain this.
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But the word "the"
in Greek is sometimes--
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well, if we said
"the adorning" okay?
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But sometimes the
"the" can be separated
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from the word
adorning and they go together.
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We can tell from the
way Greek grammar is set up.
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But they can sometimes put
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a whole string
of words in between
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and the way that-- we
call this a box construction.
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The way--the reason they do this
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is to kind of capture everything
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and pull it
together into one idea.
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And the bookends
of the word "the"
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and the other word that it
goes with are around all this.
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That's exactly what
he does in this passage.
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So if I give it to
you kind of a translation,
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a very literal kind
of translation, he says,
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"Let not your adorning be
the outer with braiding of hair
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and wearing of gold or
putting on garments," adornment.
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Not that but instead--
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So it's all in one
package? All in one package.
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Okay. Yeah.
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He says, your
adornment should not be typified
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by this external
adorning, you know.
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And it refers to several
things, the braiding of hair,
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the wearing of gold,
the-- putting on garments.
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Now he's not talking about
people not wearing clothes,
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but he's talking
about adorning themselves,
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making themselves
attractive with this, okay?
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So he says, "that's
not the way to do it."
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Now I'll have to say
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the tradition of
the Adventist Church
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has been very
opposed to outward adorning,
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you know, wearing of
jewelry and all kinds of things
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that kind of draw
attention to themselves.
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That seems to have
slipped in some quarters,
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I'm sad to say,
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and I think Peter is
actually calling us back.
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When you say don't let
it merely be the outward,
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it sort of
softens it a little bit.
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I think Peter's point is
little stronger than that.
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He says, "not this but this.
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Don't do this, do this," okay?
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So what he tells you to do
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is to have the
hidden of the heart person
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that's another one of
those box constructions,
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in the-- now here's another one,
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"in the
imperishable of the gentle
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and quiet spirit." Okay.
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So, it's not this, but this.
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And what Peter
suggests is that the thing
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that is really attractive--
remember we talked--
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we started by talking
about that which is attractive.
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What is attracting
the husband's attention?
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Is when the
woman doesn't dress up,
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but that the
real beauty inside--
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the gentle and quiet
spirit, which is imperishable,
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he says, shines forth.
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This is very precious to God.
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Remember, God is
her reference point.
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And it says that this kind
of adorning is imperishable.
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It's the same
terminology that he--
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kind of terminology
that he used in chapter 1.
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When he talked
about our inheritance
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that's imperishable,
that's saved in heaven for us.
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The trouble with beauty is that
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time and gravity
starts to take over.
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After a while
things start to sag,
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you know, and hair
falls out and the crease lines
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and the crows feet
come in and everything
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and you don't
look quite so pretty
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as you used to when you
were 20 or 25, you know.
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Peter says there's
something that never loses--
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the ravages of time have no
effect on this kind of beauty.
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It's really quite an
amazing kind of presentation.
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Well, we better press on
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because we're
running out of time.
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Well, let's look
at verse 5 and 6,
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it talks about Sarah,
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and suddenly why is
she an example here?
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Sarah is given as the
example of the holy women of old
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who hoped in God and were
submissive to their husband.
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She's kind of
like the mother figure
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that the women here
are called on to follow.
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And it's interesting
that these women are--
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that they say that,
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you know, they have the
fear of the Lord and she is--
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it says that
she's not to be afraid
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or have any
fear of intimidation.
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In the Greco-Roman world
the women could easily have,
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you know, fear of her
husband and be intimated by him.
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But her new outlook is that she,
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she belongs to God
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and she is to not be afraid
of what her husband has to say.
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Okay. And the verse 7, Peter
gives instructions to husbands.
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Yeah, we better
read this again. Sure.
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"Husbands, likewise dwell
with them with understanding,
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giving honor to the
wife as to the weaker vessel
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and as being heirs
together of the grace of life
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that your prayers
may not be hindered."
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Okay. Now there's
something important here.
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There's a strong
emphasis on mutuality
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in this presentation
that Peter gives here.
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He uses two words that have
connected with them in Greek,
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the word "with." Okay.
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So, they are to
dwell "with" their wives
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and the wives are heirs
"with," they're fellow heirs.
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So there's a strong emphasis
on mutuality between the two.
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The men are to be
wise to dwell together
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with in
accordance with knowledge.
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They are not to be harsh
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and just go on emotion in
relationship to their wives.
00:11:25.36\00:11:29.24
Now, Peter says something here
00:11:29.27\00:11:30.90
that kind of gets some
people upset a little bit.
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He speaks of the
wife as the weaker vessel.
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Now the word vessel
is simply a terminology
00:11:36.62\00:11:39.05
that was used in the ancient
world to refer to the body.
00:11:39.08\00:11:42.61
So it's not some kind
of demeaning of a woman.
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A male could be
called the vessel as well.
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And it--and is
elsewhere in scripture.
00:11:50.39\00:11:54.02
But when he says
that they are weaker,
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this is simply a question of
them being weaker physically.
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Not that they are weaker people
morally or anything like that.
00:12:00.00\00:12:06.15
There's a reason today why
men and women in the Olympics
00:12:06.18\00:12:10.01
have separate competing sports.
00:12:10.04\00:12:13.59
Men and women
don't compete together
00:12:13.62\00:12:14.99
because men are physically
stronger and it's not fair.
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You have to have be, you
know, matched up properly.
00:12:17.80\00:12:20.33
So the men are
to honor their wives
00:12:20.36\00:12:23.65
because they are fellow
heirs of the grace of life.
00:12:23.68\00:12:27.80
And then Peter gives a warning,
00:12:27.83\00:12:29.35
he says if you don't do this,
your prayers will be hindered.
00:12:29.38\00:12:33.11
Now some people
say, "Oh, big deal,
00:12:33.14\00:12:35.52
so who cares if, you know,
if your prayer are hindered.
00:12:35.55\00:12:38.46
What difference
does that make--"
00:12:38.49\00:12:39.86
I mean, in Peter's world
this is very serious business.
00:12:39.89\00:12:43.44
You don't want
your prayers hindered.
00:12:43.47\00:12:45.53
And so God is giving
instruction to husbands
00:12:45.56\00:12:49.57
that they need to
take their wives seriously,
00:12:49.60\00:12:51.29
they need to treat them fairly,
00:12:51.32\00:12:52.69
they need to treat
them as equal partners
00:12:52.72\00:12:55.09
and not look down on them.
00:12:55.12\00:12:57.18
So it's a very
interesting passage
00:12:57.21\00:13:01.07
that winds
through a social system
00:13:01.10\00:13:04.32
where male
dominance is very strong.
00:13:04.35\00:13:06.85
It turns it topsy-turvy
while at the same time
00:13:06.88\00:13:10.16
affirming a typical
kind of pattern of the home.
00:13:10.19\00:13:14.15
So really it's an
amazing piece of rhetoric
00:13:14.18\00:13:17.74
for how it uplifts the wife,
00:13:17.77\00:13:20.47
how it instructs
her in what to do,
00:13:20.50\00:13:22.80
instructs the husband,
00:13:22.83\00:13:24.22
and it shows that mutuality that
is God's idea for His people.
00:13:24.25\00:13:28.41
Well, Dr. Shepherd, we
want to thank you again
00:13:28.44\00:13:30.22
for being with us today in this
Bible Study of 1 and 2 Peter.
00:13:30.25\00:13:35.41
We are continuing our study
in the next coming up programs
00:13:35.44\00:13:38.61
and we ask that
you continue to join us
00:13:38.64\00:13:40.75
as we continue reading
the Books of 1 and 2 Peter.
00:13:40.78\00:13:44.40