Participants: Tom Shepherd & Deyvy Rodriguez
Series Code: PBOTB
Program Code: PBOTB00010B
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00:01 And welcome back to our program.
00:02 Dr. Shepherd, in verse 2, there is a word 00:05 that caught my attention. 00:07 And it says fear, and my version says, 00:09 in the New King James Version says, 00:11 "When they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear." 00:15 What is this reference "fear" in verse 2? 00:18 My version, the English Standard Version in verse 2 says, 00:22 "When they see your respectful and pure conduct." 00:26 The word in Greek is fear, phobos. 00:28 And this is probably a relationship to God 00:33 that the woman has. 00:35 Her conduct, her way of life is typified by two things. 00:40 It's typified by purity, 00:43 this kind of something that's clean and pure 00:49 and it's typified by fear or reverence. 00:52 Probably both of these related toward God, 00:56 His standard of conduct, His way of thinking, 01:02 and His values have become the woman's, 01:05 as we've already talked about before 01:07 where the person is conscious of God. 01:11 God has become the primary group that they accept those values. 01:14 So they've--she has taken on these concepts of purity 01:19 and of reverence towards God. 01:21 And the husband is observing this 01:24 and this is part of the process of him becoming a Christian. 01:28 He observed-- remember we talked about 01:30 that circle of salvation before. 01:32 The pagan observes the Christian. 01:35 Here's Christianity and the world face-to-face. 01:39 You know, having contact with one another. 01:41 This woman is in a home where the husband is a pagan 01:46 and yet he is observing something attractive 01:49 about what she's doing. 01:51 So she's like an open letter? Yes, yes. 01:54 Well, let's look at verse 3, Peter talks about adornment. 01:59 What is Peter teaching on this subject? 02:01 Yeah. Well, this is a-- 02:02 I'm looking forward to what you have to say on this. 02:03 This is one of those controversial parts. 02:06 Before we get there, I just want to mention verse 1. 02:09 There's something kind of interesting about verse 1 02:12 where it says that the husband will-- 02:17 maybe won, he'll be won. 02:20 It's a passive voice in, in Greek. 02:25 He will be won. 02:27 And the passive voice is indicative of God's activity. 02:32 So the woman is living her life in front of her husband 02:36 but it is God who wins the husband. 02:39 It is the Holy Spirit that uses her witness to draw. 02:43 Too many times we-- 02:45 we want to be God's lawyers instead of His witnesses. 02:49 He wants us to be on the witness stand 02:51 and too many times we're ready to nail Him to the wall. 02:54 Well, more flies are attracted by honey than vinegar 02:58 and the simple quiet life is attractive, it's attractive. 03:04 Now that's when the things that Peter kind of focuses in on 03:08 is this idea of attraction. 03:10 So I'd like you to read verse 3 again. 03:14 "Do not let your adornment be merely outward 03:16 arranging the hair, wearing gold or putting on fine apparel." 03:22 All right, let me read it in the English Standard Version. 03:24 Now I want you to notice the difference 03:26 between the two versions. 03:27 I'm gonna ask you a question about your version. 03:29 That's the New King James Version? New King James. 03:32 Okay, here's the ESV, 03:33 "Do not let your adorning outward the braiding of hair 03:37 and the putting on of gold jewelry 03:40 or the clothing you wear." 03:42 Did you notice any word different between them? 03:45 Well, your version added a word, it seemed, jewelry. 03:48 Mine does not say jewelry. 03:49 Your's doesn't say jewelry, 03:51 well, and then yours added a word as well. Okay. 03:55 And yours used-- added the word merely, I think. 03:58 Merely outward, and yours just said outward. 04:00 Just said externally, yeah. Okay. 04:03 Now is the word merely in italics? It is. 04:06 It is. How did I know that? That's interesting. 04:09 I did see it, but it didn't really mean 04:12 anything to me other than-- 04:13 All right, well, here's-- in the King James Version 04:15 and the New King James Version 04:17 and there's a few others that will do this as well, 04:19 the New American Standard Bible. 04:21 Whenever they add a word to the text to help interpret it, 04:26 every translation is an interpretation. 04:28 But whenever they add on an extra word in there 04:32 to help interpret it, in the King James, 04:35 the New King James, the New American Standard, 04:37 they will put it in italics 04:39 so that you'll know that it's an added word. 04:42 So read that first part again. 04:45 "Do not let your adornment be merely outward." 04:48 All right, so don't let your-- 04:50 take out the merely that they added in. 04:53 "Do not let your adornment be outward." 04:56 Which is exactly what we have here in the ESV, 04:58 "Do not let your adorning be external," okay? 05:04 Peter really sets up a contrast between two ways of-- 05:09 shall we say adorning yourself. 05:11 The second part of it is actually in verse 4. 05:17 So now read verse 4. 05:19 "Rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, 05:23 with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, 05:27 which is very precious in the sight of God." 05:29 All right. All right. 05:30 So we have two contrasting ways of adorning ourselves. 05:36 And Peter, when he expresses these, 05:42 he does it in a very nice way, in Greek. 05:46 I've to explain little bit of Greek grammar to explain this. 05:49 But the word "the" in Greek is sometimes-- 05:53 well, if we said "the adorning" okay? 05:57 But sometimes the "the" can be separated 06:00 from the word adorning and they go together. 06:04 We can tell from the way Greek grammar is set up. 06:08 But they can sometimes put 06:09 a whole string of words in between 06:12 and the way that-- we call this a box construction. 06:14 The way--the reason they do this 06:16 is to kind of capture everything 06:19 and pull it together into one idea. 06:22 And the bookends of the word "the" 06:24 and the other word that it goes with are around all this. 06:28 That's exactly what he does in this passage. 06:30 So if I give it to you kind of a translation, 06:33 a very literal kind of translation, he says, 06:36 "Let not your adorning be the outer with braiding of hair 06:42 and wearing of gold or putting on garments," adornment. 06:48 Not that but instead-- 06:49 So it's all in one package? All in one package. 06:51 Okay. Yeah. 06:52 He says, your adornment should not be typified 06:55 by this external adorning, you know. 06:59 And it refers to several things, the braiding of hair, 07:02 the wearing of gold, the-- putting on garments. 07:06 Now he's not talking about people not wearing clothes, 07:09 but he's talking about adorning themselves, 07:11 making themselves attractive with this, okay? 07:15 So he says, "that's not the way to do it." 07:18 Now I'll have to say 07:21 the tradition of the Adventist Church 07:23 has been very opposed to outward adorning, 07:27 you know, wearing of jewelry and all kinds of things 07:30 that kind of draw attention to themselves. 07:34 That seems to have slipped in some quarters, 07:38 I'm sad to say, 07:39 and I think Peter is actually calling us back. 07:43 When you say don't let it merely be the outward, 07:46 it sort of softens it a little bit. 07:48 I think Peter's point is little stronger than that. 07:50 He says, "not this but this. 07:53 Don't do this, do this," okay? 07:56 So what he tells you to do 07:57 is to have the hidden of the heart person 08:00 that's another one of those box constructions, 08:03 in the-- now here's another one, 08:05 "in the imperishable of the gentle 08:08 and quiet spirit." Okay. 08:10 So, it's not this, but this. 08:13 And what Peter suggests is that the thing 08:17 that is really attractive-- remember we talked-- 08:20 we started by talking about that which is attractive. 08:22 What is attracting the husband's attention? 08:25 Is when the woman doesn't dress up, 08:29 but that the real beauty inside-- 08:32 the gentle and quiet spirit, which is imperishable, 08:35 he says, shines forth. 08:38 This is very precious to God. 08:39 Remember, God is her reference point. 08:42 And it says that this kind of adorning is imperishable. 08:46 It's the same terminology that he-- 08:48 kind of terminology that he used in chapter 1. 08:50 When he talked about our inheritance 08:52 that's imperishable, that's saved in heaven for us. 08:55 The trouble with beauty is that 08:58 time and gravity starts to take over. 09:01 After a while things start to sag, 09:03 you know, and hair falls out and the crease lines 09:07 and the crows feet come in and everything 09:09 and you don't look quite so pretty 09:12 as you used to when you were 20 or 25, you know. 09:17 Peter says there's something that never loses-- 09:19 the ravages of time have no effect on this kind of beauty. 09:24 It's really quite an amazing kind of presentation. 09:26 Well, we better press on 09:28 because we're running out of time. 09:29 Well, let's look at verse 5 and 6, 09:31 it talks about Sarah, 09:32 and suddenly why is she an example here? 09:35 Sarah is given as the example of the holy women of old 09:41 who hoped in God and were submissive to their husband. 09:46 She's kind of like the mother figure 09:48 that the women here are called on to follow. 09:53 And it's interesting that these women are-- 09:55 that they say that, 09:57 you know, they have the fear of the Lord and she is-- 10:01 it says that she's not to be afraid 10:03 or have any fear of intimidation. 10:07 In the Greco-Roman world the women could easily have, 10:11 you know, fear of her husband and be intimated by him. 10:13 But her new outlook is that she, 10:17 she belongs to God 10:18 and she is to not be afraid of what her husband has to say. 10:22 Okay. And the verse 7, Peter gives instructions to husbands. 10:26 Yeah, we better read this again. Sure. 10:30 "Husbands, likewise dwell with them with understanding, 10:34 giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel 10:37 and as being heirs together of the grace of life 10:40 that your prayers may not be hindered." 10:43 Okay. Now there's something important here. 10:46 There's a strong emphasis on mutuality 10:50 in this presentation that Peter gives here. 10:53 He uses two words that have connected with them in Greek, 10:56 the word "with." Okay. 10:59 So, they are to dwell "with" their wives 11:04 and the wives are heirs "with," they're fellow heirs. 11:10 So there's a strong emphasis on mutuality between the two. 11:15 The men are to be wise to dwell together 11:20 with in accordance with knowledge. 11:22 They are not to be harsh 11:25 and just go on emotion in relationship to their wives. 11:29 Now, Peter says something here 11:30 that kind of gets some people upset a little bit. 11:34 He speaks of the wife as the weaker vessel. 11:36 Now the word vessel is simply a terminology 11:39 that was used in the ancient world to refer to the body. 11:42 So it's not some kind of demeaning of a woman. 11:47 A male could be called the vessel as well. 11:50 And it--and is elsewhere in scripture. 11:54 But when he says that they are weaker, 11:55 this is simply a question of them being weaker physically. 12:00 Not that they are weaker people morally or anything like that. 12:06 There's a reason today why men and women in the Olympics 12:10 have separate competing sports. 12:13 Men and women don't compete together 12:15 because men are physically stronger and it's not fair. 12:17 You have to have be, you know, matched up properly. 12:20 So the men are to honor their wives 12:23 because they are fellow heirs of the grace of life. 12:27 And then Peter gives a warning, 12:29 he says if you don't do this, your prayers will be hindered. 12:33 Now some people say, "Oh, big deal, 12:35 so who cares if, you know, if your prayer are hindered. 12:38 What difference does that make--" 12:39 I mean, in Peter's world this is very serious business. 12:43 You don't want your prayers hindered. 12:45 And so God is giving instruction to husbands 12:49 that they need to take their wives seriously, 12:51 they need to treat them fairly, 12:52 they need to treat them as equal partners 12:55 and not look down on them. 12:57 So it's a very interesting passage 13:01 that winds through a social system 13:04 where male dominance is very strong. 13:06 It turns it topsy-turvy while at the same time 13:10 affirming a typical kind of pattern of the home. 13:14 So really it's an amazing piece of rhetoric 13:17 for how it uplifts the wife, 13:20 how it instructs her in what to do, 13:22 instructs the husband, 13:24 and it shows that mutuality that is God's idea for His people. 13:28 Well, Dr. Shepherd, we want to thank you again 13:30 for being with us today in this Bible Study of 1 and 2 Peter. 13:35 We are continuing our study in the next coming up programs 13:38 and we ask that you continue to join us 13:40 as we continue reading the Books of 1 and 2 Peter. |
Revised 2014-12-17