Beautiful Hair, Expensive Jewelry, and a Fire Fit in 1 Peter 3:1-6

   In 1 Peter 3:1-6, the Apostle Peter uses rhyming ideas to contrast what a follower of Jesus should and should not do. A theme in 1 Peter is "do this" and "don't do this." Here is what the literary structure of the passage looks like:

A. 1. 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, 2. As they observe your pure behavior in fear.

    B. 3. And let not your adornment be 

        C. merely external             

            D. Braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, And adorning with dresses.

    B. 4. But let it be

        C. the hidden person of the heart,

            D. with the incorruptibility of a gentle and quiet spirit, Which is valuable in the sight of God. 

    X. 5. For in this way in former times, the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves,

A. Being submissive to their own husbands. 

X 6. Thus, Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children. 

A. If you do what is right without fearing any terror.

    Peter frames the passage with a pair of ideas: "be submissive to your own husbands" in verse one, then second, "fear" in verse two. These two ideas are parallel in verse 5, "Being submissive to their husbands" and "without fearing any terror." These two rhyming ideas are intentionally put at either end of the passage to tell us what comes between them in 1 Peter 3:2-5 is one complete idea. 

  In verses 3 and 4, Peter gives two contrasting commands. In 3, he says "let not" and "let it be." In verse three, Peter provides an instruction with about the adornment "let not," then gives a location of the adornment "external," and then follows with an example of the adornment "hair," "jewelry," and "dresses." In verse 4, Peter uses the same format as verse 3. He starts with command about the adornment, "let it be," then gives a location of the adornment, "hidden parts," then gives an example of the adornment "a gentle and quiet spirit."

   Peter follows these two examples of what not to do and what to do with a call in verse 5 to follow the example set by godly women in the Bible. This idea of following the example of holy women is paralleled in verse 6 by a call to follow the example of Sara. Peter does this because he wants his readers to see female submission as trusting in and fearing God, not their husbands. Peter says many husbands would be "disobedient to the word" and needed to be "won without a word by the behavior of their wives." In the Bible, the subtle craft of femininity is not outward adornment aimed at attracting a male but a godly spirit woman that will please God.