Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Peter · About this commentary
Husbands, and the Hindered Prayer
1 Peter 3:7
7 You husbands, in the same way, live with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor to the woman as to the weaker vessel, as also being joint heirs of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered. · WEB
One verse to the husbands, and it carries the only sanction in the household section.
The brevity is not neglect. Six verses go to wives and one to husbands, and the single verse contains a consequence that none of the other instructions carry.
In the same way again, so the husband is placed under the same pattern as everyone else. Three things are asked. Live together according to knowledge — attention rather than mere cohabitation. Show honor, which is the same verb used of everyone and of the emperor 1 Peter 2:17. And do so recognizing her as a weaker vessel.
That phrase needs stating carefully, because the sentence itself limits it. The comparison is not moral or spiritual, since the next clause calls her a joint heir of the grace of life — equal standing in the only inheritance the letter cares about 1 Peter 1:4. What is described is a difference in strength within an arrangement where the husband held the power, and it is given as the reason for honor rather than as a licence.
Then the sanction: so that your prayers may not be hindered. A man's treatment of his wife is said to obstruct his access to God. Nothing said to the wives, the slaves or the citizens carries anything like it, and in every household pair in this letter the party holding power receives the sharper word.
settled What this mark means