rightly substitute the word since for it indicates that these people have repeatedly rejected Christ. You know, it’s both interesting and thrilling to see how the Holy Spirit has inspired the Scriptures. The Bi ble is anything but a dull, dry book! As a matter of fact, in this particu lar verse, one of my favorites, the Apostle uses sort of a pun, or a play on words, by stressing the definite and the indefinite article. The key to the verse is the word conversa tion. It doesn’t mean oral communi cation as we would think of the term today. The original language has in mind conduct, behavior, or manner of life. In other words, the way you live becomes a conversation piece. Going back to this play on words which the Spirit of God brings to our attention, perhaps I can best illustrate it by some special empha sis and a legitimate literal rendering. Since the unbelieving husband does not Obey THE word (which is the Bible), he may also without A word be won by the behavior or conduct of the wife. In other words, this is what has been known as the silent sermon. Our position in Christ is that when we are bom again, we are sanctified or separated unto the Lord. Our lives, however, do not al ways measure up to this position. We continually need to mortify the flesh, to put off the old man and to put on the new. After all, you see, faith is more a way of walking than it is a way of talking. Notice the prime objective here in I Peter 3 :1 which reminds us that these loved ones may “be won.” To win something means to gain it or to acquire it with rejoicing. To win a lost soul brings rejoicing not only to our own hearts, but also to the very courts of heaven. Sometimes husbands are repelled by the Gospel because their wives are constantly after them, needling and pressuring. A dear friend of ours, Dr. Walter
Wilson, wittily puts it this way, “A wife who has good horse sense never turns out to be a nag.” He has a point there! God has ordained that a family unit should be held together. Scrip ture tells us that the Lord has set the solitary in families. There is a real purpose for marriage. I f God had only wanted to have people re plenish the earth, He could have done it in ways which wouldn’t have made it necessary for individuals to exist together in a close family unit. Contrary to the way some people live, the home is not established to give us battleground experiences for life. God has ordained marriage and chil dren to draw all of these people to gether and ultimately to Himself. Continuing in this portion of Scripture, I Peter 3 :2 refers to the husband who beholds “chaste conver sation coupled with fear.” The word beholds means to narrowly inspect, to view intently. You may not realize it, but that unsaved loved one of yours is watching your life a lot more closely than you suspect. I f in actual practice you show no signs
Dr. Samuel H. Sutherland (left) Biola president, looksoverplans for the school's 33rd Annual Torrey MemorialBible Conference to be held in key churchesthroughout Southern Califor nia. Withhim is the Rev. RalphHetrick, pastor of the Calvary Church of PacificPalisades, whichwill be one of the locations for the meetings, January 28 to February2, 1968. The Rev. Mr. Hetrick is a graduate of Biola.
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