Joint heirs of the grace of life

This week’s discussion in the Letters of Peter class created a lot of debate over the interpretation of a passage and the solution the Bible offers to women in bad marriages. In this blog I am looking at the discussion on the interpretation of I Peter 3:7 and in the next post I will look at I Peter 3:1-6.

In I Peter 3:7 Peter uses the phrase “joint heirs together of the grace of life”. This phrase means that the husband and wife are together the “joint heirs of the grace of life”. What does the phrase “grace of life” mean in this context?

 

In I Peter 3:1 it speaks of women being submissive to their husbands “even if they do not obey the word”. So does “not obeying the word” mean that they do not believe and do not have salvation or does it mean that they have salvation but are wrong in their behaviour on some issues?

Most take I Peter 3:1 as referring to non-believing husbands. This creates a difficulty as if I Peter 3:7 is linked with I Peter 3:1 then even the non-believing husband is becoming a “joint heir of the grace of life” and we need to interpret the phrase “grace of life” accordingly.

The various interpretations given at the discussion were as follows:-

1. Linking I Peter 3:1 with I Peter 3:7 the “grace of life” is seen as the grace of childbirth or parenthood. Even the non-believing husband partakes in this. (This is the line taken by the TAFTEE course.)

2. Linking I Peter 3:1 and I Cor 7:14 with I Peter 3:7 “the grace of life” is seen as God’s presence in the present life in a way that is less than salvation. In other words, God is present in the family even though the father is not a believer, because of the sanctification the believing wife brings. (This was my suggestion and I think no one agreed with this J.)

3. Separating I Peter 3:1 from I Peter 3:7 since I Peter 3:1-6 speaks of women’s behaviour with respect to the husband and I Peter 3:7 speaks of the husbands behaviour with respect to the woman.  So I Peter 3:7 began a new thought.

Since in the context of the time, most women would adopt the faith of the husband, when speaking to believing husbands, Peter assumes that the wife also believes. (This may not be true today). So “the grace of life” is eternal life which the couple share as joint heirs. (This is from one of the study Bibles a student had.)

 

These were the three possible interpretations the group came up with. Any further ideas or suggestions?