5. Husbands and their Christian wives (3:7)

Peter finishes his exhortations to specific groups by addressing Christian husbands. Because husbands and wives both share a new life by God’s grace (1:3-4), they stand in a new relationship to each other. They must now live in partnership. That wives generally are acknowledged to be physically weaker should prompt the Christian husband to show her all the more consideration and honor.

It is important to note the basis and purpose for Peter’s exhortation. Christian husbands and wives are fellow heirs of the gracious gift of life. Both share a common experience of grace and a common destiny of salvation. A husband must honor his wife since she, as much as he, has access to God’s grace in Christ. In addition, since husbands and wives are partners together in grace, a husband’s relationship with God will be affected for good or ill by his relationship with his wife. When husbands treat their wives with consideration and honor, they are true to the nature of grace. They are acting as God’s people, and thus their relationship with God may be deepened through prayer.