Godly Submission and Conformity to Christ

1 Peter 3:1-6 

1 Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives, 2 when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. 3 Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel— 4 rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. 5 For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands, 6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror.

Submission in the proper biblical context is not slavery or denigration, but willing service to another.  Here Peter talks first of wives submitting to their husbands (not all women to just any man) as a way to gently correct them when they stray from following God’s word as we ought.  The submission is control over responses and actions so that the behavior, the conduct, influences by example to godliness.  He then goes into explaining that the conduct is what is important, not the outward making up of beauty to win their husband towards Christ through them, for then they would only be winning their husbands to themselves instead of to Christ.  The inner hidden beauty of Christ and the resulting character within, the gentle and quiet spirit which is precious to God, this is the goal for wives (and husbands).  The examples from scripture such as Sarah with Abraham show this willing obedience of yielding as true beauty and fearlessness, adorned with righteousness of inner beauty in willing submission as unto God.  Feminism’s goal is to disrupt God’s order in marriage by pride and disobedience in refusing to yield in godly submission, and worldly submission amounts to control and other abuses, but godly submission honors all and has its goal of conformity to Christ.