June 13-16 the Southern Baptist Convention is preparing for a win against women. One way or the other, they plan to throw the bible at women.
So, I will do it for them. Let’s start with 1 Peter 3, one of their favorite chapters.
If 1 Peter 3 is not about wives submitting to their husbands, then what does it mean? What message does Peter really have for women?
Here it is: They would become mothers like Sarah because they themselves would be founding a new nation of believers, not by giving birth in the physical sense, but by spreading the gospel message so people can be born again by the spirit.
“Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear (1 Peter 3:1-7).”
This passage has been misused to tell women they must submit to their husbands. Some preachers even tell women that they must treat their husbands as Lord, because they say Sarah called Abraham “Lord.” But that is a misinterpretation and belittling of this passage. It is being used as a self-serving demand that women submit to their husbands, and, thus, to all men.
What is not taught is that this passage has a wonderful message to women today, just as it did to women in the First Century. The message is that they will be Mothers of a new nation. This time it would not be Israelites, but a new nation of Christians. These women are not just going to be daughters of Sarah, but they will be Mothers like Sarah. Being a daughter means that you are taking your cue from your mother, but being a Mother means that you are the one who is in charge.
When Peter said they would be Sarah’s daughters, he was telling them that the new life they had chosen as Christians was not going to be easy. Their husbands might not be Christians, and this would prove hard for them to live a Christian life when the father in the family did not live as a Christian. So, while it would be hard, if they do what is right (stay the course), and do not let fear control them, they will be birthing a new nation of Christians, and therefore they would be Mothers like Sarah. Instead of one Sarah, they would all be Sarahs!
The following paragraphs are from my book Dethroning Male Headship1 found at the end of the chapter called “They asked for Sarah first.”
Some like to quote Peter when he said Sarah called Abraham “master” in Genesis 18:12, “So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, ‘After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?’” The New International Version Bible uses the word “master,” unlike other translations that use the word “Lord.”
It is impossible to connect 1 Peter 3:1-6 to the words of Sarah found in Genesis to support the doctrine of wifely submission, but Bruce Ware, one of the members of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, attempts to do just that in his book, The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: The Trinity as Theological Foundation for Family Ministry. Ware writes, “I find it astonishing that it is in this text, of all New Testament passages that teach on husband and wife relations, that the strongest language is used to describe a wife’s submission! Peter appealed to Sarah as an example and said that she “obeyed Abraham, calling him lord” (1 Pet 3:6a), indicating that they would be Sarah’s “children” if they fearlessly followed this example.”
Ware, who is a professor Christian Theology, has missed the beautiful promise of this passage. The promise is not that women would be Sarah’s children if they are submissive, but that they would become mothers like Sarah because they themselves would be founding a new nation of believers, not by giving birth in the physical sense, but by spreading the gospel message so people can be born again by the spirit.
To emphasize, Peter does NOT tell wives they are Sarah’s daughters if they submit to their husbands like Sarah did. What he DOES say was startling, and raised the hairs on their heads by its audacity. Peter tells these women that “like mother, like daughter” and just as their mother Sarah birthed a new nation, they, too, are birthing a new nation of believers.
We can interpret Peter’s words something like this, “That was the way it was done back in Sarah’s day, but things have changed. We are now under grace by faith, not under the law. You have done what is right in becoming Christ-followers, and are Sarah’s daughters—children of the freed woman—if you do not fear as you keep following Christ, and, like Sarah, you will birth this new nation of God’s people.”
Again, Paul says the same thing:
“Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother (Sarah)….Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman,” Galatians 4:21-26, 31.
1 Peter 3 contains a powerful promise of building a nation of believers that is for all time.
Twenty-first century Christian women are also children of the free woman, but some still choose to cling to Hagar by holding to a master/slave relationship with their husbands, and pastors still enforce this type of submission, even when they know it is wrong.
Sarah is mentioned four times in the New Testament, three of which are specifically about her becoming the mother of a nation. 1 Peter 3:6 is too, but the greater truth of it has been neglected. By passionately claiming the first part of the scripture that says wives must submit to their husbands, the promise it held for New Testament wives has been ignored. This particular reference to Sarah in 1 Peter 3:6 emphasizes the new covenant and has those new Christian women actively participating in the ministry of the gospel by birthing a nation of believers (1 Peter 3:6; Hebrews 11:11; Romans 4:19; Galatians 4:2-26, 31).
Wives, continue in your marriages even if your husbands are unbelievers, for by doing so, you will be like Sarah, mothers of a nation of believers.
Male headship is dethroned when Peter told Christian women that they will be like Sarah, mothers of a nation of believers.
bWe Baptist Women for Equality's Blog 
The NIV translates the Greek word “apeitheo” as “not believe” while the NASB translates it as “disobedient.” So Christian women are to submit to “unbelievers” or “men who are disobedient to God’s Word”? What if your non believing husband was Ted Bundy? Or your so called Christian husband was the kidnapper and rapist Phillip Garrido? NO!! Women are not supposed to submit to men. Men are sinners. Women are only to submit to God. I wonder if women will ever wake up to the fact that men have mistranslated our Bibles on passages having to do with women.
Shirley, you are correct when you say that the real meaning of 1 Peter 3 is not submission. The Greek word “hypotasso” is not a word of subjection, but rather, it is a word of placement and means “to place, to put, to set.” I know this is its true meaning because Paul uses this word when he quotes from the Old Testament. So Peter is not telling wives to submit to unbelievers or husbands who are disobedient to God’s Word, rather, he is saying to women:
“So in the same way [that Christ was set], you wives [also] be set to your own husbands, so that even if any of them are disobedient to the Word, they may be won over without a word by the behavior of their wives, by observing the reverent and pure way you live your lives.” So Peter is not asking for submission, but rather, he is asking for righteous living because right before he addresses women he says, “But if when you do what is right and endure suffering for it, this finds favor with God. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example for you to follow in His Steps, WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously ; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness…” (1 Peter 2:20-24)
So again, the word “hypotasso” is a word of “placement” not a word of “subjection.” Jesus taught that submission is to God and that servanthood is to one another. Furthermore, it is ridiculous for people to say that “hypotasso” means “submission” and then say that it really doesn’t mean that. If “submission” is its true meaning, then it means submission. But if it is mistranslated, then we need to tell people what its true meaning is. So we will never be able to correctly interpret something that is mistranslated. Therefore, it is time that women wake up to the fact that our Bibles have mistranslations on passages having to do with women.
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“even as Sara obeyed Abraham calling him lord”
Did you know that Abraham also obeyed Sara calling her “ruler”?
GOD HIMSELF changed her name from Sarai (contentious) to Sarah (ruler)… which means that every time Abraham addressed his wife by name, he called her “ruler” and he would have been very much aware of that. (so its only fair that she addressed him as lord- like a queen calling her husband king and vice versa)
“But I thought ‘Sarah’ means ‘princess’?”
Right.
What is a ‘princess’?
One has to get past our disney fairy tale image to “get” the impact of her GOD given name. One also has to remember that a name- in Hebrew culture- was understood to identify truth about a person.from Net Bible Dictionary-
SARAH; SARAI [ISBE]
SARAH; SARAI – sa’-ra, sa’-ri: ….
Sarai was the name this woman brought with her from Mesopotamia. On the other hand there can be little doubt that the name Sarah, which she received when her son was promised, means “princess,” for it is the feminine form of the extremely common title sar, used by the Semites to designate a ruler of greater or lesser rank. In the verse following the one where this name is conferred, it is declared of Sarah that “kings of peoples shall be of her” (Gen 17:16).
‘Sarah’ means ruler. GOD Himself instructed Abraham thus:
Genesis 17:15
God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah.
^^”STOP calling your wife contentious! Call her Ruler!”
Do you think Peter’s readers knew that? I do. Do you think Peter’s readers knew that Sarah had a great deal of authority in her household? I do. I think they knew their scriptures and I think they honored Sarah. Sarah/ruler/so-named by God was a powerful woman, so much so that when she told her husband that his son must go… “a matter which greatly displeased Abraham”
Abraham had the spiritual integrity to check with God:
Gen 21:10-12 So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son; … And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham… But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased… whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, Abraham… But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased… whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you,
Exactly how much more authoritative can one get?
All at once she speaks with authority into Abraham’s life, into history, and right into the Word of God in the new covenant:
Gal 4:29-31
I think Peter’s readers knew all that.
I also see that the instructions of 1 Peter 3:1-6 are directed exclusively to wives. In other words, no male is given any authority by Peter to interpret those instructions for wives. WIVES are trusted by Peter and by GOD to figure out for themselves what was meant by the instructions given to them. WIVES with Scriptures and prayer (and not much education when Peter wrote down those instructions). WIVES who don’t know ancient languages, haven’t read church fathers (and wouldn’t). That GOD HIMSELF trusts a mere female WIFE to read and interpret her own mail speaks volumes.
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