back to indexBerean Community Church Wednesday Bible Study 04/06/2022
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Good evening everyone. We're going to go ahead and get started with Bible study. 00:08:30.000 |
So why don't we take a couple of minutes to just prepare our hearts. 00:09:26.000 |
Father, we thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to meet, 00:09:34.000 |
We thank you so much for Christ and Christ's example for us as we live on this earth. 00:09:41.000 |
We pray as we study through your word, being reminded of Christ's humility and submission, 00:09:47.000 |
that we ultimately submit to you and to your authority. 00:09:53.000 |
We're reminded that Christ is our savior, but we pray that we would remember that Christ is also our Lord. 00:10:01.000 |
So we pray that we would submit to this Lordship and that we center our lives around giving you worship and honor and glory. 00:10:15.000 |
We pray for tonight you would give us strength. 00:10:19.000 |
We just pray for this time of praise that it would fill our hearts with gratitude 00:10:26.000 |
and an ultimate reverence and respect for you. 00:10:32.000 |
So we love you and pray all this in your name. 00:11:10.000 |
The greatness of mercy and love at the feet of Jesus. 00:11:38.000 |
The greatness of mercy and love at the feet of Jesus. 00:17:26.640 |
- All right, let me go ahead and open this up 00:17:55.240 |
which I'm sure you guys have all kinds of thoughts on. 00:18:04.380 |
Lord, we're very thankful that you are so kind 00:18:17.460 |
We thank you, Lord, that you didn't treat us fairly, 00:18:21.760 |
but you treated us with compassion and mercy, 00:18:25.160 |
and in turn, Lord, you're calling us to do the same 00:18:34.420 |
for some, this may be a lot more painful and sensitive 00:18:57.960 |
for all of these things we pray in Jesus' name. 00:19:16.720 |
to your own husbands, so that even if any of them 00:19:25.200 |
as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. 00:19:53.940 |
just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, 00:19:57.420 |
and you have become her children, if you do what is right, 00:20:05.420 |
live with your wives in an understanding way, 00:20:07.980 |
as with someone weaker, since she is a woman, 00:20:11.740 |
and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, 00:20:18.340 |
To sum up all of chapter two, verses 13 and on, 00:20:22.640 |
all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, 00:20:28.400 |
not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, 00:20:38.480 |
So questions one and two are pretty standard, 00:20:43.760 |
and you guys are probably familiar with this. 00:20:46.280 |
Question number three is something that I feel is important, 00:20:54.420 |
What are the objections that rise up in and around you 00:20:57.480 |
when you think through the ramifications of these verses? 00:21:03.380 |
he tells us to abstain from fleshly lusts, right? 00:21:08.140 |
We're no longer living in our former ignorance 00:21:20.960 |
what are the knee-jerk reactions that rise up 00:21:24.780 |
in your heart and for sure in the hearts of those around you? 00:21:29.700 |
And this isn't something that you wanna avoid asking, 00:21:33.740 |
we wanna know how to answer them appropriately, right? 01:23:08.580 |
Lord, give us wisdom and insight into your truths. 01:23:21.580 |
that we would know how wisely to apply these verses 01:23:31.580 |
where it's more of our convenience and our pride 01:23:40.580 |
and cause us to be tender-hearted before you. 01:23:51.580 |
and help us to really glean much from this passage. 01:24:26.580 |
Okay, so the purple bowl, there's only that one. 01:24:29.580 |
That's the major imperative, the submit yourselves. 01:24:49.580 |
that are precious to God in regard to my attitude. 01:25:02.580 |
I was debating whether to make it green or not, 01:25:04.580 |
and at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. 01:25:06.580 |
It's an imperfect one, and that can be adjusted. 01:25:11.580 |
is just so that it organizes the main thoughts in my head 01:25:15.580 |
and keeps me focused on what's the main point. 01:25:21.580 |
We covered servants, masters a couple weeks back, 01:25:26.580 |
and today we're looking at wives and husbands. 01:25:29.580 |
The red bolded words are the key words, okay? 01:25:34.580 |
And remember, the not only to those who are good and gentle, 01:25:40.580 |
but in the same way for the wife and the husband, 01:25:47.580 |
So even if a husband is a punk, in the same way, 01:25:52.580 |
even if a wife is the biggest bratty princess, 01:25:56.580 |
even if the wife is abusive, in the same way. 01:25:59.580 |
So it kind of, not only to those who are good and gentle, 01:26:06.580 |
So it keeps me focused on the thrust of the whole thing. 01:26:41.580 |
I didn't look at like every participle, every word, 01:27:01.580 |
just all the be submissives are in the participles, 01:27:07.580 |
Remember, the main verb is to submit yourself. 01:27:17.580 |
The third column are just the different subordinate ideas. 01:27:50.580 |
And that's very important for us to understand 01:28:00.580 |
And the yellow highlight are the charis with God 01:28:12.580 |
is the italicized, just the example of Christ. 01:28:49.580 |
But in this context, I don't think that's the case. 01:29:04.580 |
Just the grammatical construction of the Greek 01:29:13.580 |
where the woman is there without her husband. 01:29:15.580 |
All right, so that's why I highlight that in the red. 01:29:30.580 |
We're trying to figure out if you're a Christian. 01:29:52.580 |
More important than these big, lofty decisions, 01:30:04.580 |
"keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely 01:30:11.580 |
if you don't do these things, it's disobedience. 01:30:15.580 |
"to the former lusts, which were yours in your ignorance." 01:30:21.580 |
"be holy yourselves also in all your behavior." 01:30:27.580 |
it comes out a lot, conduct, behavior, behavior, behavior. 01:30:33.580 |
"This is the will of God, such is the will of God, 01:30:48.580 |
"For this finds favor for the sake of conscience 01:30:55.580 |
"and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? 01:30:57.580 |
"But when you do what is right and suffer for it, 01:30:59.580 |
"you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. 01:31:07.580 |
"leaving you an example to follow in his steps." 01:31:15.580 |
it's like a tracing, this is how Christ lived his life, 01:31:27.580 |
The first few words in chapter 3, verse 1 says, 01:31:38.580 |
Does this mean that a wife who is being hurt and abused 01:32:08.580 |
'Cause our mind naturally goes to the exceptions. 01:32:11.580 |
And I'm gonna talk about that in a little bit. 01:32:16.580 |
even if it means your harm, you live a good life. 01:32:28.580 |
you live a life that is full of good conduct. 01:32:39.580 |
just even if it's at risk for our inconvenience. 01:33:00.580 |
to build his church, to proclaim his excellencies, 01:33:25.580 |
now I have to, I'm doing one of these things, okay? 01:33:33.580 |
I used to make fun of fat, bald, and blind people. 01:33:37.580 |
In his fairness, he's hit me with all kinds of stuff 01:33:58.580 |
"If you address his father, the one who impartially judges 01:34:13.580 |
"Servants, be submissive to your masters with all, 01:34:25.580 |
"Just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, 01:34:28.580 |
"if you do what is right without being fabos, 01:34:34.580 |
So if you actually hear the original language, 01:34:36.580 |
you hear the word phobia, fabos, quite a bit. 01:34:44.580 |
But is this fear toward man, like chapter three, 01:34:46.580 |
verse two, "When they see your pure conduct with fear." 01:34:51.580 |
Like is a wife supposed to cower before her husband? 01:34:54.580 |
Or is this a wife's fear of God that causes her, 01:35:01.580 |
to be willing to endure the criticism of her husband, 01:35:11.580 |
And you're gonna see this word fear come up again. 01:35:20.580 |
But just know that a lot of these reverence and respect 01:35:23.580 |
and fear, a lot of those words are all one and the same, 01:35:38.580 |
So in this culture, women were viewed as inferior to men. 01:36:02.580 |
that you would understand as patria potestas. 01:36:15.580 |
The children, for a father, was like his property, legally. 01:36:24.580 |
Adult women had few legal rights of their own. 01:36:30.580 |
And usually marriages in this time were arranged. 01:36:35.580 |
When the girl was somewhere between 12 to 14, 01:36:40.580 |
So this is not like freedom for you to isogete 01:36:58.580 |
In this context, most marriages were arranged 01:37:06.580 |
So in this culture, a wife becoming a Christian 01:37:13.580 |
A husband likely is going to be socially embarrassed 01:37:17.580 |
and shamed by this perceived act of defiance by his wife. 01:37:23.580 |
So in this situation, a wife needed to be very prudent, okay? 01:37:29.580 |
Women often had social clubs where they shared gossip, okay? 01:37:34.580 |
There was a bathhouse hour where the women gathered together 01:37:38.580 |
to gossip and to talk religion and to do what women do 01:37:43.580 |
when they're a bunch of them gathered together. 01:37:45.580 |
And I'm going to leave it at that, or I'm going to get in trouble, okay? 01:37:49.580 |
And women generally are more interested in religion than men. 01:37:57.580 |
So there are a lot of religious cults on this side. 01:38:00.580 |
There's a polygamous culture, but women were more religious. 01:38:06.580 |
They would end up with these little fan clubs of these different gods. 01:38:11.580 |
And so religiosity in many ways was like a hobby in this culture. 01:38:19.580 |
Usually the family's religion was the father's decision 01:38:29.580 |
So if a man is a polytheist and his wife meets Christ 01:38:36.580 |
and she wants to have him convinced that Christ is the only way 01:38:41.580 |
because she's met him, she's encountered him, 01:38:45.580 |
that's very tricky and that's very difficult. 01:38:49.580 |
But when a man meets Christ and he comes to faith, 01:38:58.580 |
That's why when I'm reading this, I'm like, okay, 01:39:00.580 |
this is not a church where it's like 99% women. 01:39:05.580 |
For the wife, there are a lot of social ramifications 01:39:20.580 |
because remember, in some ways, they were property in this time. 01:39:26.580 |
So if I was a very good wife, I would want to submit well 01:39:32.580 |
so that my husband can treat me as a trophy wife 01:39:37.580 |
and so my husband can be honored and famed for whatever the reason. 01:39:45.580 |
And in this period of time, most adornment for women 01:39:48.580 |
was usually the societal norm or modest adornment. 01:39:53.580 |
So this wasn't talking about like some very radical idea. 01:39:57.580 |
All of a sudden, like Peter says, dress appropriately. 01:40:00.580 |
Don't worry about your hair or like all this other stuff. 01:40:05.580 |
Now, Plutarch is a very famous Greek philosopher, 01:40:13.580 |
but should make her husband's friends her own. 01:40:16.580 |
The gods are the first and most significant friends. 01:40:20.580 |
For this reason, it is proper for a wife to recognize only those gods 01:40:23.580 |
whom her husband worships and to shut the door 01:40:26.580 |
to superstitious cults and strange superstitions." 01:40:30.580 |
And he was contemporaneous to the situation of 1 Peter. 01:40:38.580 |
Hopefully, this gives you a little bit more insight 01:40:40.580 |
into the dynamics of the household in 1 Peter. 01:40:45.580 |
And I think that's why there are six verses for the wife 01:40:56.580 |
going behind what may feel like her husband's back 01:41:01.580 |
than for a husband to not be selfish and to be considerate. 01:41:07.580 |
All right, you guys gave me some kind of feedback. 01:41:11.580 |
Now, this is what this passage is not saying. 01:41:16.580 |
I figured this would be a more helpful wrap-up, okay? 01:41:34.580 |
Some Christian organizations, like churches, whatever, 01:41:41.580 |
A church has structure because God--1 Corinthians 14, 33-- 01:41:44.580 |
God is not a god of confusion but of order, okay? 01:41:49.580 |
But this passage is not saying that all women 01:41:54.580 |
The second thing is the relationship between husband and wife 01:41:57.580 |
is parallel to the relationship between master and slave. 01:42:07.580 |
The relationship between husband and wife, Genesis 1:27, 01:42:19.580 |
It is not good for a man to be alone, all right? 01:42:25.580 |
This is not saying it's okay for a Christian woman 01:42:28.580 |
to marry a non-Christian man, or obviously vice versa. 01:42:33.580 |
So some people who want to make some kind of a justification 01:42:43.580 |
I'm not going to go home today and be like, "Beggay." 01:42:52.580 |
From now on, you don't call me babe, honey, yubba, or nothing. 01:43:03.580 |
But her calling Him Lord is in a present participle tense. 01:43:13.580 |
Some of you guys, I'm sure you guys argued about, 01:43:21.580 |
and then he related with Hagar, out came a child, 01:43:25.580 |
and then she got mad at him for listening to her. 01:43:31.580 |
But generally, because for her, this man has been chosen by God, 01:44:01.580 |
He addressed him as Lord at the promise of the baby 01:44:04.580 |
But when I just look at the tense, it's like, look, 01:44:06.580 |
that was her natural disposition toward her husband. 01:44:15.580 |
External adornment is a sin, is not what it's saying. 01:44:28.580 |
But when beautifying yourself becomes your idol, 01:44:32.580 |
when attention from men or attention from other ladies 01:44:38.580 |
then you've got some other issues that you work with. 01:44:56.580 |
So I've been focusing on working out the inner man. 01:45:07.580 |
"Oh, after I'm married, like, it doesn't matter what I look like." 01:45:10.580 |
No, please brush your teeth, brush your hair, do stuff. 01:45:17.580 |
but let your beauty not just--let your adornment 01:45:25.580 |
It is a noble thing for a woman to remain married 01:45:27.580 |
to an abusive husband is not what this is saying. 01:45:31.580 |
So I actually looked into--because I was curious 01:45:35.580 |
what domestic violence laws and things look like 01:45:39.580 |
It's very similar to what you and I live in today. 01:45:43.580 |
Does domestic violence happen in today's cultural context? 01:45:53.580 |
But domestic violence does not happen in the public square. 01:45:57.580 |
Domestic violence does not happen just, like, 01:46:03.580 |
In a society where arranged marriages are the thing, 01:46:06.580 |
domestic violence is actually a little bit more 01:46:24.580 |
So if my daughter were to tell me that her husband 01:46:27.580 |
struck her, I wouldn't say that it's a noble thing 01:46:38.580 |
There are many different things that we need to consider 01:46:41.580 |
and talk through, and those are case by case, 01:46:51.580 |
If I am an abused woman, to know how to proceed. 01:46:55.580 |
Because even in scripture, like we talked about 01:47:09.580 |
But if she chooses to remain to minister to him, 01:47:28.580 |
by a man cheating on her than by him hitting her. 01:47:37.580 |
before we just blanket apply passages like this 01:47:40.580 |
to the sisters in our church and our culture. 01:47:46.580 |
But that's kind of a sensitive and tricky thing. 01:47:52.580 |
So when you say, "Well, in the same way," right? 01:48:17.580 |
This is not saying that women are inferior to men. 01:48:24.580 |
Intellectually substandard or more prone to wickedness? 01:48:36.580 |
and if there is weakness, it could be societal, 01:48:53.580 |
It's a lot of, there's a lot of counseling involved 01:48:56.580 |
in trying to dissect every aspect of this passage, 01:48:58.580 |
so we're not gonna do that just for the sake of time. 01:49:01.580 |
But the word fear, who are we to fear more, God or man? 01:49:09.580 |
or who can send both the body and soul to hell? 01:49:25.580 |
or a God who is perfectly good and is perfectly loving? 01:49:45.580 |
We need to really be protective and sacrificial 01:49:51.580 |
We need to die to ourselves for the sake of our wives 01:49:59.580 |
Women, it's an art to raise up and elevate your husband 01:50:06.580 |
If you've gotten into a habit of tearing your husband down 01:50:28.580 |
Even in those situations, the call is to submit. 01:50:34.580 |
I'm not gonna go as far as I call him Lord, right? 01:50:39.580 |
even when you think he's doing it all wrong, okay? 01:51:02.580 |
and this is something we covered a few weeks back 01:51:12.580 |
for those who submit to his lordship in their lives. 01:51:18.580 |
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ 01:51:22.580 |
"has caused us to be born again to a living hope 01:51:26.580 |
"through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 01:51:29.580 |
"to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled, 01:51:33.580 |
"will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 01:51:37.580 |
"who are protected by the power of God through faith 01:51:41.580 |
"for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 01:51:47.580 |
"even though now for a little while, if necessary, 01:51:57.580 |
"being more precious than gold which is perishable, 01:52:03.580 |
"may be found a result in praise and glory and honor 01:52:09.580 |
If you haven't noticed, there are many similar words used here 01:52:31.580 |
So we'll see you Monday through Wednesday for devotions here 01:52:58.580 |
"What does it mean for you to sanctify Christ as Lord in your heart?" 01:53:04.580 |
It sounds very, like, photo-frame--like, frame-worthy. 01:53:07.580 |
But what is that, to sanctify Christ as Lord in my heart? 01:53:19.580 |
in the discussions that you have with your small group members, 01:53:24.580 |
in what specific areas do you need help in better applying these verses? 01:53:29.580 |
Any sins to confess or practical applications to make. 01:53:33.580 |
You don't want today's study just to be an academic exercise. 01:53:40.580 |
If you're unmarried, in what practical ways do you need to improve 01:53:44.580 |
in the way you are interacting with the human institutions nearest to you? 01:53:50.580 |
Because regardless of whether you're married or not, 01:53:58.580 |
it needs to be that of the inner self, the inner man. 01:54:03.580 |
So what areas do you need wisdom and improvement? 01:54:07.580 |
Secondly, are there specific ways your group members can pray for you 01:54:19.580 |
Fearing consequence will lead you to other applications. 01:54:27.580 |
So I'll give you guys time to break up into your groups, 01:54:42.580 |
And lead us to genuinely consider others more significant than ourselves. 01:54:50.580 |
Help us to look after not only our own needs but to the needs of others. 01:54:55.580 |
Help us to imitate Christ in every way that we can. 01:55:01.580 |
And, Lord, in the event you lead us to suffer for good, 01:55:08.580 |
I pray that you would give us joy, that you would guard our hearts, 01:55:14.580 |
and, Lord, that our response to those painful circumstances 01:55:18.580 |
really can give you the glory that you are due. 01:55:22.580 |
Help us in times of peace and in times of suffering 01:55:30.580 |
For you are the God who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. 01:55:34.580 |
So help us to reflect you appropriately in our lives, 01:55:37.580 |
in our relationships, in our attitudes, in our conduct. 01:55:41.580 |
In all of these things we pray in Jesus' name.