The Weaker Vessel

1 Peter 3:7 (ESV): "Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered."

Once again, as always, I was doing my devotions reading through 1 Peter a few times. A book like 1 Peter I try to read through a few times in one sitting because of the brevity of the book. As we should all do when reading the Scriptures I was seeking to mine out the precious jewels that the Bible has for us to find. This verse in the 3rd chapter of the book stuck out like a sore thumb. To truly expound upon this verse I am going to have to talk to men (and I do not use that term flippantly).

As men we often look at passages throughout the Bible that deal with marriage and the such and focus on the subordination of women and the elitism (or so we think) of masculinity. Somehow we have got it in our minds that for a truly "biblical" marriage/relationship that we are suppose to be some radical dictator and that woman are suppose to obey our every whimper. This is very much NOT the case. You are suppose to be leaders; but for you to be a true leader you yourself must follow Christ in the way in which you have been called. There are no dictators in a biblical relationship, only followers of Christ. We like to quote Ephesians 5:22 without taking any responsibilities for the rest of the passage.

This brings me to this gem of a verse in 1 Peter. As Peter is writing here, he refers to women as the weaker vessel and how as men, we must live with them and guide them in a way accordingly. Instantly, our male egos are boosted knowing that we are sequentially the "stronger" vessel. Now put your male ego in check. I sat for a while and meditated on this verse and this is what I came up with. What are things around us that are weaker? I started making a short list. Things like silk, fine china, ornate glasses, etc. See a pattern here? I started to realize that the things in our life that are "weaker" are far more precious then those things that we look at as "stronger". There is so much more value in silk then say, a tough piece of rope.

So what are the implications? Since women are the weaker vessel, thus much more precious then us, we need to treat them as such. Treat the women around you like they are precious and valuable, because they are. Treat your wife or your girlfriend like they are priceless, because they are. They may be "weaker", but that is only because they are far more priceless then us and need to be cherished and treated with care. So men, do so accordingly.