Wives Respect Your Husbands

All righty, so we're gonna continue on in 1 Peter here. And today we've been through, I kind of labeled this, I used Macaulay's kind of outline, if you will, God's plan of submission. We've been through the Ruth's submission. And those two verses I know we talked about a lot are really key in 11 and 12. Kind of set the stage for the rest of the submission section here. We talked about submission in government. in the workplace, our slave master relationship. In the last two weeks we talked about submission of our savior, you know, just the wonderful aspect that he's our pattern for suffering, if you will, because we have his life. And he's our substitute, just wonderful passages there.

And then today, we get down to the rubber meets the road, so to speak. We get into the section of the family. We're going to talk about the responsibility of the wife today, one through four. And in the coming weeks, we're going to talk about the example of Sarah as a wife, and then the responsibility of the husband. And then finally there's a summary in 8 through 12 that summarizes this whole section. So we're going to start with the wives today.

So we're going to talk about wives submissions. So wait for the part for your husband if you're concerned about that. And sometimes this can cause some ruffling of feathers, so to speak. But it really should not. In some ways, You know, I'm actually working on my message for my son's wedding coming up here.

So it's been a neat time and studying a lot of those passages. But the more I look, it's just incredible. God's design of mankind, if you will. I mean, it's unique. He made two individuals to be together in a unique way. It's just incredible. I mean, it's almost so beyond our thinking that it's hard to grasp it, hard to, but he has definite plans, especially in the home with husband and wife. We'll talk about that quite a bit today. So let's just kind of jump into it here. So here are the verses for today. So I get somebody to read those, Bonnie, or I pick on her.

It's easy. Go ahead. In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands, so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. Your adornment must not be merely external, braiding the hair and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses. but let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. Great, thank you. All right, so I thought to start this out.

In my studies for my son's wedding, I came across this org chart. If you're in the business world, medical world, wherever you're at, there's always an organization chart, right? You got the boss at the top, president of the company and so on, and it goes all the way down to the peons, right? Well, in a way, God, he has his org chart, too. But it's the divine org chart.

Pretty incredible. So this is our brother Hal's crack at this. I actually have not seen it done before, but I thought it was really cool, so I thought I'd present this. And it kind of fits in well, because we're going to talk about the wife's responsibilities and the husband's responsibilities. So the question comes up, well how do we fit in God's plan in the marriage? How does that work? And most of you already know this, this is all not new stuff to you, but kind of good to review it.

So we start off, God the Father is sovereign over all, right? He's subordinate to no one. He has authority over Christ and Matt might be a bit of a shocker sometimes But if you look through the Gospels you see over and over again Christ said I always do what I see the father doing that doesn't mean he's less than God it just means He and this is his term about submission. He lines up under You know I think Macaulay said God is God is never one of of committees. God doesn't work by committees. That's not in his plan. He never does that. You have a question, go ahead.

Amen, okay, God would agree with you amen so Okay, so so Christ in in God's and Christ is Subordinate to the father and he said that he said that over and over again. He didn't say that in a demeaning way He said that that's just the way God has arranged it okay in the family situation Christ has authority over the husband and The husband is subordinate to Christ, and he has authority over the wife and children.

The wife is subordinate to the husband, but we're going to see this wonderful thing that links the husband and the wife together. And this is what is so amazing as I study through the passages. You know, the passages in Genesis that talks about the one in particular. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh. So even though there's an authority structure, if you will, there is still this thing that's determined one flesh. So between the husband and wife, there is to be this unity of purpose, focus, interest, and sympathy.

I was thinking about that. For a Christian husband and wife, Hopefully, they're together on all that. They realize that Christ is their focus. They realize that their whole life is to be a life that glorifies Him. And they're together on that. There's no disagreement about that.

Now, we're going to see a situation in today's passage where it's not the case. Unfortunately, we have a wife with an unbelieving husband. But with a believing husband and wife, there's this wonderful idea of one flesh. And there's a lot to be said about that. And the last part is, as we well know, the husband and wife have different viewpoints, right? And actually, that's a good thing. Some see that as a negative. But it's a positive. Anyway, there's a lot of cases.

I'm so thankful that I have a different opinion because it's many times very you know That's the way God designed it and then lastly here the children are subordinate to the parents Now this doesn't mean that the husband always makes the best decision or the wife, but God and Christ make perfect decisions, but human beings don't always make perfect decisions. So we read God's word, we see the structure, and we realize that's one reason why the teaching about about having two natures is so important because we see the struggle that the godly husband has and the godly wife has.

So that's another whole thing we could get into. So this kind of sets the stage for our verses today. All right, so let's get into it here. It says, in the same way you wise be submissive to your own husbands. So he kind of links back to the previous chapter 2 verses. He says, well we talked about submission in government, we talked about submission in terms of the master and the slave, and we talked about the submission of our Savior. So I just kind of put down the verses that we covered in the past.

Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution whether to a king as one who is an authority, so that's the one about government. Then the one about masters and slaves. Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable, which is challenging sometimes. And then lastly, it's not exactly saying submission, but it's this cool passage, and we studied it in the last couple weeks here, about where Christ, even though he was reviled and he suffered, he entrusted, or you could say submitted himself to the Father who judges righteously.

So he realized that there was a plan in place and he's willingly entrusted himself to that. So that kind of sets the stage. In the same way, it kind of links chapter 3 with the previous chapters. Okay, so now we get into the instruction here. You wives, be submissive. And this is word, Andrew covered it, I think, at least once or we covered it multiple times. It's hupotasso. It's a military term.

You know, if you've been in the military, you usually have a ranking officer, and you voluntarily, because you're in the service, you line up under, or you arrange yourself under his command. Once again, sometimes he's not the, may not be the best, but you, because of his position, you willingly do that.

So that's what this verse is saying. Be submissive to, and notice it's your own husband, This doesn't mean that every husband out there, a wife isn't submissive to every husband. It's only to her own husband. And that's that special relationship of one flesh. And a lot to be said about that. And this is God's order, as we saw in our organization chart. And this is the special relationship of this one flesh idea that exists between the husband and wife.

And they both have responsibilities in that. You know, and they're both responsibilities. If you look at the ones when I know Miles is doing some counseling, I'm thankful for that with my son. And I know when you get down to the responsibilities, for both of them, it's incredible. It's something, you know, my son's to love his wife as Christ loved the church. Well, okay. And she's to line up under him.

So both of them have responsibilities that they have to depend upon the Lord to do. And then we have a couple of verses that Paul, The very similar verses to this verse, wise be subject to your own husband as to the Lord. And that's where we're going to see the example of Sarah here a little later on. And then Colossians, wise be subject to your husband as is fitting in the Lord. OK, so that's the general command for the wives. And so now we're going to step into an anomaly, if you will.

And I've heard people talk about this differently. This is a situation, and it seems to be, and I can't exactly verify with every part of this, but the approach here is that this is most likely a husband and wife, a wife got married to a man, and they were husband and wife. At some point she became a believer, it seems like. But I'm not sure it excludes other situations. So we have her as a believer and her husband as an unbeliever.

That seems to be the scenario we're going to start talking about here. Okay, so let's go ahead. Roger, yes, go ahead. The thing about marriage is respect is earned, not demanded. Amen, I agree. there's usually a problem in marriages about that. It can be. It can be. It can be.

But if you both realize that you have fallen in nature, I mean, that's a huge step. I think that's something I'm so thankful that I had that teaching. When I realize that I may not always represent Christ, and I may fall short of that, which I should already realize, but I don't, you know. I realize, okay, my wife has to still And because of that organization, she still has to respect me in that place, even though I may not have earned that respect.

So it's interesting. You know, God has, you know, us as believers with fallen natures involved in this incredible relationship, the closest relationship. Most women today don't like that. OK. They have an opinion. They have an opinion. Well, they should. Go ahead.

What's interesting is that both the husband's responsibility towards his wife and the wife's responsibility towards her husband, neither one of them is conditional. Right. Whoever says husbands, love your wives so long as this. No. No. No. I respect your husbands as long as he's respectable.

But it's, you know, so that's kind of the. That's actually the difficulty of it. We always want to make it conditional. Well, I would love her if only she would do this, right? If he was more respectable. Exactly. So we think in terms of, well, respect is earned, and so forth. And there's some truth to that. But this is not a, that's what the flesh requires in order to carry out that kind of thing. But this is not actually respect or love. in this case, he's not even a believer. I know. Well, it's interesting.

Peter's going to tell her, I want you to line up under your husband, even though he's not a believer. And boy, that is a difficult road to hoe. And I mean, we all have family members and relations of people we know that are in that exact situation. And it is a tough, lifelong situation. A woman and her husband are not a believer. So it's a tough road. to be a godly woman in that situation is a tough road to go.

But the Lord says, this is what I want, this is my order. Okay, so we said, in the same way you wives be submissive to your own husbands, so that, so this introduces a purpose, so this is a purpose, so that, even if, so it's an if, but it's assumed to be true, first class condition, any of them, speaking of the husbands, are disobedient. And this is a really interesting word.

I'm not sure I can pronounce it exactly. But anyway, it's the idea to refuse to be persuaded or to refuse to believe. And it's translated disobedient sometimes. And literally, it's the idea is to not allow oneself to be persuaded. Boy, in talking with unbelievers, I find that to be, in fact, we have some right now, I know.

That's exactly their mindset. They will do everything they can. They will refuse to believe. They have the information. They know it, but they won't believe it. So that's an awful situation, really. That person's in terrible jeopardy. But that's the mindset. So in this situation, it seems like the husband refuses to believe. He seems to have the information. But he's disobedient.

So that word is used here in John 3.36. He who believes in the Son has eternal life. He who does not obey, see it's translated obey here, the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Pretty stern. And that's why it's so important.

So that's why Peter's gonna give the wife a game plan, if you will. He's gonna give her a game plan. It's not the game plan that maybe she thought about. He says, well, I know what I'll do. I tracked him in the first place, and I got the game plan here. I'll just find some more cool this and cool that, and I'm sure he'll come around. Go ahead.

OK, bye and see yours, Bob. yet your question for you i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think i think So the purpose here, even if he's disobedient, he refuses to believe the word, then what is the wife to do? And the game plan is this next part of the verse. So what does this mean? So basically a couple of summary ideas here.

So we see unbelieving husbands are disobedient. They're not believing in Christ. So some have called this a mixed marriage or unequally yoked marriage. And we have ones that actually in Vonnie's family, that was her situation. Her mom was a believer, her dad was an unbeliever, but he eventually came to the Lord.

In time. That was wonderful. There are shades of that, friend. I, I, I... Go ahead. My wife's dad. Mm-hmm. Military. Okay. In charge. Good. Mm-hmm. Attention on deck. Exactly. And guess who was the smartest one? Okay. I'm serious. Go ahead. My wife. Absolutely. No, I, I know...

She was 15. okay she was twenty zero when i engaged her she was twenty one when i married her and that submit thing has been hard on her all her life nevermind enough said alright we'll carry on here so the instruction the wife is This is his instruction. The point is, it's the same instruction as our org chart, right? Even though he's an unbeliever, it's the same instruction. She's to submit to him. And what follows is, this is God's plan for how to interact with her husband that will win him to Christ, if you will.

Because it's going to go on to say, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives. So the inner linear has it, they, husbands, will gain or win one without a word through or by their wise behavior. So the words here are really kind of cool. OK, without a word.

So it sort of seems like he knows us, right? He knows our nature. And maybe our nature, and I'm maybe the same way too. I feel if I tell a person 100 times, Maybe the hundredth and first time they'll believe me. Well, no. Probably after about five times, that's probably enough. Well, if they're Mormons, you can talk to them all night. I'm sorry about that. I'm LDS. I'm sorry. Current temp. Go ahead, Bob. You have something to say? Well, I mean, this is my personal story.

My late wife and I began dating when we were 14 and 13. Basically, never dated anybody else. a research fellowship in Seattle, which is why I went there to get trained for a career path. Her father came to our home and noticed our inconsistencies as being parents and said, you guys need some help. You guys are disagreeing over things, you're permitting things when your mood is good and not permitting them when your mood is angry or upset. collegiate environment, evolution and all that stuff, and scientifically engaged.

And so Sharon was not a woman who... I did not feel like I was in any way in command of the marriage, but I was just paying attention for a whole year. That's interesting, that's interesting. She was a new woman. She was growing in grace through women. There's no question of that. It wasn't anything she said or did. She was putting no pressure on me. And I saw, again, a woman I hadn't known for 15 years, basically. And so this is a perfect person for me.

That's great, Bob. Actually, we're going to see some of the things that you just said are exactly what Scripture says. It's her behavior, and it's interesting how you phrase it. We'll get to a point that kind of really connects here. Roger, this will be short. OK. All right. After I saw her singing in the choir, we had a cup of coffee. She brought her mom and dad to Jesus. But the seed of... had been sown. I was going to ask Bob, how are you going to defend evolution in the Bible? I don't defend it.

In fact, my puzzle is addressed to the American Heart Association. I thank the Lord for all He's done in my life. And I got criticism that was sent to the American Heart Association. How can you let someone who wrote each other in six days, defending God's creation plan, How can you accept someone so non-scientific and allow him to be a leader in the American Heart Association?

Don't they try and use the gap theory? That's all I'll say. Can I say more? I walked into a church carrying a finest Jennings-Day annotated reference Bible. The guy sitting right where she is said, he believes in a pre-existent creation! He does. And he can defend it. Not that I do. I woke up this morning and was thinking about the creation and I realized from Genesis chapter 1 that God created light before he created the sun and the moon. You know? Where'd the light come from? It must have come from him, you know? He's got a God.

Okay, we're getting a little bit of feel to it. Yeah, thanks Bob. No, that's wonderful. Alright, so let's look at this. Okay, without a word, so... It's her behavior that's going to change him. And Bob tells us about that. It's great. So the behavior is this word. It's actually manner of life or lifestyle. It's her lifestyle that he's going to see. And we've had this word before. Anistrophe, keep your behavior or your lifestyle, your manner of life excellent among the Gentiles so that they may because of your good deeds as they observe them and glorify God. So I was just thinking, you know, we know that this is not saying that the wife has a list. You know, I'll make sure all the clothes are done for my husband. He'll have great meals.

That's not that kind of list. We're going to see that it's going to be what's inside the woman that's going to change him, not some external bunch of stuff she might do. So we're going to see it. That's going to be Peter's point. It's not going to be the externals. It's going to be the internal that's coming out of her. It's going to be the life of Christ that's going to change her. Go ahead, Bob. This is Peter's mother I'm talking about. No, amen, amen. And the only person that's heard her do her other than Peter is Barbara. So, she blew my first one. No, that's, thanks Bob, thanks so much for sharing that. I kept my first one too.

So the wise focus is going to be on our behavior, but I want to caveat that with it's not making a list about I'm going to do behavior X, Y, and Z. It's that I'm going to focus on my relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what's going to change you. That's what that person is going to see. That's what the scripture is going to teach us here.

So it's as they observe, or having observed, your pure conduct of you in fear. So there's some interesting things here. So the husband's observation, this is just what Bob talked about. This is a word that talks about epi, upon, ahura, to see, to see upon. So actually, what's interesting is its use of witnessing as a spectator or an inspector. And this is the cool part. It's not the present tense.

It's actually eris, but it's I would say it's successive heiress events, it's repeated observations and that's just about what Bob was nailed. It's repeated observations by the husband again and again and again. He sees that his wife acts the same way, responds the same way again and again. He says, That's what he starts changing his mind. That's what happens.

It's the wife responding to the Holy Spirit and living her life, pleasing God. And as she does that, the husband deserves it again and again and again, which I thought was just incredible. And it's this pure conduct, which is the idea of, the root comes from the word holy, hagios. pure conduct, pure lifestyle, and that can't be, instead of showing disrespect, Merriman says, instead of showing disrespect for her husband, and that's kind of the tendency.

Unfortunately, you know, when the husband isn't a believer, and let's take the thing, like when I want to go to church, that can be a huge stumbling block. The husband sometimes will say, no, I'm not going to go. You go, take the kids, I'm not going to go. That can be a huge separating point.

But I've heard of many cases where the wife will lovingly make her case, and the husband will come around. Okay, if you want to go, and she'll explain to him how helpful that can be, and that the kids need to hear the message about Jesus Christ, and she can make her case, and it's wonderful that things can happen.

So pure conduct, this pure lifestyle, in fear, in reverential fear, same way. So what's interesting is that, that reverential fear, that respect. They actually see the Lord through the wife in her pure conduct, which I thought was pretty cool. And then the last verse about fearing God, honoring all people.

Okay, so let's go on to verse three. So now we start into, he starts with a negative first. This is the first reaction that the wife might have. Well, I know what I'm gonna do. I'm going to look even better than I am looking now. That will certainly change his heart. I'll find extra good things.

And actually, Verne Peterman had, I remember when he taught this passage, I guess the Hellenistic woman in the Roman times, they had these hairdos that would go up super high. I mean, they were really high that you actually couldn't touch the top of your head. Jimmy Swagger, Pentecostal. So anyway, so it is Frankenstein. There is some. Oh no, these women were godly. And I think they put all kinds of ornaments. They did. They had bird nests. I think it had actually birds up there too. Just absolute craziness. I mean, you know, just fake ones, I hope. Not that there's anything wrong with that. No. Careful. Okay, so Peter starts out, and he says, your adornment is, this is not the way to win your husband. This is a negative first.

Adornment is the idea of, actually, adornment is supposed to be orderly and harmonious. And here's a verse from Timothy. He says, likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly, discreetly, not with braiding of hair, gold, or pearls, or costly garments. It kind of amazes me that 2,000 years ago, the same things were discussed.

Hair. Hair was important back then. Hair is important today, right? I mean, the hair industry for women is a huge industry. And it's a good thing. I like to see nice looking hair. It's wonderful. And people, I'm not big on jewelry, but anyway, some people like jewelry. And costly garments. How about just a nice garment? What's that? You left out that tinkling walk part. That's the jewelry, I think. Hair is getting to be a big thing for men too, with the implants and all that kind of stuff. It's getting to be a big deal. Okay, so your adornment must not be, or let not be, merely external. So he says don't focus on the external part.

There's three things, the braiding of hair, the wearing of gold jewelry, and putting on dresses. Let me see if there's one more thing I wanted to say here. Okay, two points here. This is from Constable. Peter's not telling the wives to refrain from giving attention to their physical appearance. Now that's a good thing. They look their best. But he's pointing out that it should not be the total or primary concern. It's the inner woman that should be the concern. And amen. I'm not disagreeing with that. And what was my point I wanted to make here? Oh yeah.

And unfortunately, and maybe you know some people, there are certain groups of believers that have taken some of these things and saying, well, OK, braiding of hair, gold, and putting on dresses. They say, well, I'm not going to wear any gold jewelry. Or any jewelry at all. I'm going to dress in super plain clothes, no makeup, and that's not what God has in mind. No, He wants you to look your best. So anyway, you can take these verses out of context and make it into a law about the braiding of hair, the gold jewelry, but that's not His point.

This is this contrast between the external and the internal. So we're moving on toward the internal here. All right, so here's the internal. But let it be the hidden person of the heart. So this is where the focus is to be. In contrast to the external adornment, right? This is a focus for the Christian woman toward her husband.

But let it be, this is supplied, the adorning be, the hidden person of the heart this is what matters okay can you tell me anybody have some thoughts about what would you say just without the whole lot of thought what would uh... what would you say If somebody said, what's the hidden person of the heart? Does that remind you of something we know from other passages in scripture? What would you think about that? Is there some connection you might see about that?

Just kind of curious. I mean, I went through and studied this out, and I think I agree with what, but what do you think the hidden, what is that speaking of, what do you think? The new man. Okay. Excellent. Excellent. I think that's right. I think it does.

It kind of speaks of, because we're a new creation in Christ. He's speaking of, and you can't see that. You can't see that you're a new creation in Christ. You can't, that's an internal, that's in you, right? It's in the believer. Roger, I don't know where Peter's coming from. I mean, this is so-called circumcision of the heart. Okay. That's good. That's good. So hidden here is this word for the secret person of the heart, the internal person.

And Merriman kind of commented, and I kind of agree, it's Christ's life, if you will. That's a hidden person that you see in a believer. You see the hidden person. is really the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not I, but Christ. You see, His life being lived out.

And that's what Peter is talking here about. He's talking about that internal life of Christ in the believer. And then this is what just quoted this way, talked about, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature, all things passed away, Behold, behold, new things have become. So Peter says, it's your life in Christ, it's the Lord Jesus Christ that is to be in view.

And now he's going to go on with what's kind of interesting. He's going to describe that. He's going to say, the qualities of this hidden person. And you almost can guess where he's going to go. He's going to say, It's a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in God's sight. What's interesting is you're going to see some of these words connect up to words that describe our Savior.

In fact, this word we're going to see here, it's one of the words that describes the Lord Jesus Christ, which is kind of interesting. So you see, this has to be His life and not our life. So it's the imperishable quality. So internally, who you are in Christ can't be corrupted, can't be changed, because it's his life, not your life. It's not subject to decay or corruption. Whereas the gold, your hair may get gray, it may fall out, the gold you may lose, it may tarnish, and your dresses may not fit you anymore.

I don't know. I had that idea. I'm sorry. Or maybe it'll be a new style or whatever. Anyway, so those are corruptible things. But the internal you, which is our Savior, that's going to be the same yesterday, today, and forever. That's going to live. That's going to go on. And that's going to change people's lives. And that description really reminds me of the end of chapter 2 where Christ is in focus. Excellent. Excellent. But the hidden person is imperishable. And it reminded me of this.

It's not exactly equivalent, but store up for yourselves treasure in heaven where neither moth nor rust, where neither thieves can break in or steal. So that's the thing that you're building up. You're building up your relation with the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's going to make the difference for your husband. He's going to see that, as Bob so wonderfully told us. There's a scripture about I will put my law in your hearts. Yeah. Right. Jeremiah. Thanks man. Yeah. Jeremiah what? That's speaking of Israel. Anyway. I'll take it. Okay.

So the cool thing here, he's going to describe a couple of qualities. He says that, let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable qualities of a gentle and quiet spirit. So there are two qualities, he says, that are gonna be in view here. The first one is a gentle, and it's this word for gentle, mild, or meek, and it's used to describe our Savior when he says, take my yoke upon you, learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart. So what's cool is that gentle and quiet spirit is the description of the Lord Jesus.

It's just wonderful. You know, you come back to the fact, and that's what's so wonderful to realize, is that the Christian life is not you. It's our Savior. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And these verses, even though they're not necessarily talking about, it comes out, what does the wife have to offer? She doesn't have herself to offer. She has the Lord Jesus Christ to offer. That's who she's offering her husband, not herself, but him. And vice versa.

Okay, so it's a gentle spirit and it's a quiet spirit. And this is quiet, tranquil, undisturbed from without. Tranquility arising from within, causing no disturbance to others. So in this use here of, I often think of this verse of like Holly Hills and my family and things like that. pray for the kings and all who are in authority so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness.

I've always thought it never helps to have lots of, some people like lots of stuff going on. They like a super busy life. I mean, things are just a wreck. Everybody's going 10 different directions. Well, the Lord says, no, that's not gonna be helpful. Go ahead. I was just going to make a comment.

I mean, we all have different personalities. Some people are not very talkative, very shy, bashful. And some people, I mean, Margaret is not gentle and quiet all the time, but I know her heart. I know her heart. Her personality is just more outward and very social. But we're all a little different that way. You don't want to be judgmental, but I know her heart.

And the heart is that of the Lord Jesus Christ. Right, that's cool. I think we just sometimes, everybody's got to be the same. What's a quiet and gentle spirit? In part, it's very outward. I love her to death. So would you say this comes from a position of rest?

Yeah, I think that seems it is you're not disturbed. You're not because you know who you are and you know, you know, you can present the Lord Jesus just naturally. You don't have to put on an air. You're just yourself. And you just, you know, and it says it's done quiet, you know, you don't have to make them, you know, do, do, do. I'm going to tell you about the Lord Jesus. No, you just do it, you know, with a gentle and quiet spirit.

And I would agree, Bob, you know, people, some people aren't necessarily quiet. We're all different, but it, but it isn't, but it isn't on the flip side. It is interesting that he does. And I wonder about that, that about being quiet. Some people, you know, it's kind of back to the idea of not, beating a person over the head. You want the person to come to Christ, but you can't talk them into submission. You may try. Some people do. I think it's not a personality thing, because personalities vary. It's a character thing. And the same character can be expressed through different personalities. And that's the neat thing about it. Well, who does the converting, anyhow?

It's God. All right, and basically the bottom line to this is, which is precious, or actually it's a word for costly. That behavior that shows Christ's life through you is precious in God's sight, because that is demonstrating that life that's lived out through you. It's a not I, but Christ's life, so. All right, well actually that's all I had. Thanks for the, here. But you know, that goes to what we always used to hear Hal say. you may be the only Bible anyone ever reads.

And that's so true. And in the going, people always, you know, it's like, why is this person different? What is that? And then they realize what it is. That's in any walk of life. I know. Well, that's just what Bob's testimony was. He just said there was something different, and it impacted him, and he saw that. And that's exactly what the Lord is about, how he changes people. So in our going, whatever we're doing, that's what's... people are paying attention even if we don't realize it.

I know. It is interesting. People notice what you do and what's important to you. Go ahead. How did they know the initial Christians were believers? I'll tell you. They loved each other. Yeah, that's what the scriptures say. And that's how they're going to know us yet. Because they love us. We've got an honest man up there. He just didn't say it. Roger, I really like that word precious. You contrast what's precious in God's sight versus all these other things that are precious in man's sight.

That's excellent. No, I know. Isn't it interesting? I know. I think that men in general are attracted by physical appearance. There's no question about that. And women who continue to look nice and dress nicely, it's important, I think. You know, that sounds to me all attractive in the wrong way, but just having a nice, a woman who looks nice is important.

Well, I, I was going to do, I went out on the internet and I said, can I find some really wild examples of hairdos and, and this and that, and I found some and I said, I guess I'm not going to show. It's not, you know, you can, you see them enough, you don't have to, I don't have to show them to you. But there are plenty of people that just go crazy over, I mean, just insane stuff out there, hairdos and, All kinds of crazy clothing.

What's that? And the Lord says, no, that's not what it's about. It's the hidden person. It's our Savior. That's what's going to change him. And we know that. That's the only thing that can change a person. All the rest of it doesn't change anybody. When I think of entertainment tonight, I think of the red carpet. Okay, all right.

Let's close in prayer then dear heavenly father. We thank you so much Lord We thank you for the blessings. We have Lord. Thank you for your your plan for marriage Thank you for you the relationship the husband and wife have as one flesh Lord Just something that is so incredible and we thank you for your plan for Women that have husbands that are not believers. We pray there are some maybe that we know of or our relationship you encourage them father that they would understand your plan and let the Lord Jesus show out through them. We ask in his name, amen.