from us, be won to Christ. To add the phrase, “by the conversation of the wives,” seems to be paradoxical. But the word “conversation” meant vastly more then than it does today. It was not just oral speech monologue or dialogue, but rather the individual’s actual conduct, behaviour, or manner of Mfe. What is it that happens when people get together and start talking, rightly or wrongly, about other peo ple? The behaviour or conduct of oth ers is usually discussed. 'Hence, a per son’s actions become the “conversa tion” piece. That is why this word is so practical and applicable. Make sure that your conversation (behaviour and manner of life) measures up to what you seek to present by testimony. After all, “Faith is more a way of walking than it is a way of talking.” A national survey was taken by a family relations institute dealing with the traits in mates that are particular ly distasteful one to the other. The thing the majority of the men pointed out as what they disliked in their wives was “nagging.” Of course the men had many faults themselves, but what they couldn’t appreciate in their wives was nagging. Dr. Vance Havner says, “A wife who has good horse sense never turns out to be a nag.” His teaching is borne out in Scripture for we read in Proverbs 29:9, “It is better to dwell in the comer of the housetop than with a brawling woman in a wide house.” Have you heard of the man who was brought before a judge and accused of desertion? When asked how he would plead the man respond ed by saying, “Well, Judge, if you knew the woman I married you wouldn’t call me a deserter; you would rather realize that I’m a refugee!” Are men repulsed from the Gospel be cause of us? Have our words, our con tinual proding almost to the point of nagging, been the cause of turning our loved ones away from Christ rather than to His blessed truth? The Bible says “If any obey not the Word of God, they also may without a spoken word be won by the behaviour or manner of life and the conduct of their mates.”-
not revered, women are merely the chattels of men. Scripture states, “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as unto the Lord” (Ephe sians 5 :22 ). This is not a case of in feriority or superiority. The words submission means to adapt oneself, in cluding both will and desires, to that of another. WHAT? What would you think of a bird, my friend, Which had no use for the air? What would you say of a maiden sweet Who had no wish to be fair? Or what of a pale and rain-washed flower Which had no use for the sun? Or the bounding heart of a healthy child That had no use for fun? What of the wanderer, lonely, faint. Weary and sad and sore, Who gets no throb of his homesick heart, At the sight of his father's door? Ah, what would you say of a germ- filled seed Which had no use for the sod? And what can be said of a human soul Who has no use for— God? Peter now comes to the heart of the message concerning the unbelieving mate. “If any obey not the word,” sug gests the obstinacy of the hardened, unbelieving heart. Yet if they obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives.” This may sound like a paradox on the surface, but Peter al most uses a pun in order to get across his point. Both the definite and in definite articles are used so that the verse more appropriately reads, “If any obey not TH E word (the Bible, the Word of God), they may also with out A word (spoken testimony) be won by the conversation of »the wives.” This is really a sermon without words. The Scripture teaches if loved ones obey not the living Word of God, then they may without a single spoken word
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