{"id":636,"date":"2009-01-08T21:03:04","date_gmt":"2009-01-09T03:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=636"},"modified":"2009-01-08T21:03:04","modified_gmt":"2009-01-09T03:03:04","slug":"1-peter-34-great-inward-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/1-peter-34-great-inward-value\/","title":{"rendered":"1 Peter 3:4 – Great Inward Value"},"content":{"rendered":"

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1 Peter 3:4<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

rather<\/span> let it be<\/span><\/em> the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible<\/span> beauty<\/span><\/em> of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

God places great value on a humble and quiet spirit.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The expression, \u201cthe hidden person of the heart<\/span>\u201d is one that I find particularly interesting. The word translated \u201cperson<\/span>\u201d (\u201cman\u201d in some translations) is anthropos,<\/span><\/em> which literally means \u201cman faced.\u201d It is derived from ana trepon opa<\/span><\/em> meaning \u201cturning the face upward.\u201d It refers specifically to human-kind and is used with various descriptors to portray different aspects of our being. Some of these include the inner man in Romans 7:22<\/span><\/strong> (the soul), the outer man in 2 Corinthians 4:16<\/span><\/strong> (the body), the new man in Ephesians 2:15<\/span><\/strong> (regenerate or \u201csaved\u201d man), the old man in Romans 6:6<\/span><\/strong> (unregenerate or \u201csinful\u201d man), and the hidden man here in 1 Peter 3:4<\/span><\/strong>. Some Greek scholars believe that \u201cthe hidden man\u201d refers, like \u201cthe inner man,\u201d to our soul. I think of it, rather, as the real man. It is our character, that is, who and what we are when we think no one is watching. It is what others who know us well see in us when the acting, the psychological make-up, the pretense, the fa\u00e7ade, and the phoniness are all stripped away. It is who we really are on the inside. According to the latter part of this verse, it is the seat of our spirit.<\/p>\n

The word \u201cgentle<\/span>\u201d comes from the Greek word praeos<\/span><\/em>,<\/span> which means \u201cmild\u201d or \u201chumble,\u201d and \u201cquiet<\/span>\u201d is from the Greek hesuchios<\/span><\/em>,<\/span> which literally means \u201ckeeping one\u2019s seat.\u201d Hence, by implication it means \u201cstill\u201d or \u201cquiet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPrecious<\/span>\u201d is from the Greek word polutel\u0113s<\/span><\/em>, which is made up of polus<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cmuch\u201d or \u201cgreat\u201d and telos<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cexpense\u201d or \u201ccost.\u201d Hence, this word refers to \u201cgreat value.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Peter tells us that the thing which is most adorning in wives is the inward quality of a gentle and quiet spirit. It sounds like someone who is at peace with God, doesn\u2019t it? Someone who has such a solid faith in God, even in the midst of the tumultuous storms of life, that she can rest peacefully in the hands of \u201cthe One who judges rightly.\u201d Peter says that God considers this type of spirit as being of great value.<\/p>\n

And\u2026 there isn\u2019t a husband in his right mind who wouldn\u2019t want a wife like this. Unfortunately, finding a man who is in his right mind, who is focused on God instead of himself is a rare commodity indeed. Particularly an unsaved one like the one Peter is talking about in these verses. Therefore, Peter does not make the behavior of wives conditional. He says, in essence, \u201cWives, instead of focusing your attention on outward adornment, focus on spiritual development, on being who and what God wants you to be because this witness may be the very message that God uses to speak to your husband.\u201d I personally cannot count the times that God has spoken to me about my own sinfulness through just such a witnessing spirit in my own wife.<\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Wives, there is nothing wrong with attractive clothing and other outward cosmetic means of looking nice. That is, as long as your real effort to be attractive is applied to being a godly woman with a humble and quiet spirit.<\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2009 <\/span>Will <\/span>Krause. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

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<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 Peter 3:4 rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. Truth to Learn God places great value on a humble and quiet spirit. Behind the Words The expression, \u201cthe hidden person of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[30,31,32,33,34,35],"class_list":["post-636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-beauty","tag-gentle","tag-hidden-man","tag-precious","tag-quiet","tag-wife"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-ag","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}