"The Weaker Vessel"
Context: Peter, writing perhaps from Babylon what seems to be a circular letter to several churches in Asia Minor, praises God for the redeeming power of Christ and notes the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. Declaring the Son to be the "living stone" of God's house and urging the people also to be "living stones" of the spiritual house, he exhorts them to obey the powers of government and to imitate the sinless Christ. In a list of instructions for domestic tranquillity and grace, he tells wives to be submissive to their husbands, but he also admonishes husbands to honor their wives that the couple may have together eternal life:
Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.
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