«　WEEK 4　DAY 5　»

　　1 Pet. 3:7 Husbands, in like manner dwell together with them according to knowledge, as with the weaker, female vessel, assigning honor to them as also to fellow heirs of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.

　　4:10 Each one, as he has received a gift, ministering it among yourselves as good stewards of the varied grace of God.

　　In 1 Peter 3:7 Peter uses another unique expression—grace of life. We are familiar with the words grace and life, but not with the expression grace of life.. .What a sweet expression! We, however, may be familiar with the grace of salvation or the grace of forgiveness without ever having been impressed with the grace of life. (Life-study of 1 Peter, p. 4)

　　Peter… speaks of the grace of life that is the inheritance of all the believers, whether strong or weak (1 Pet. 3:7). Peter teaches the believing brothers to love and to sympathize with their wives because the wives as the weaker vessels are fellow heirs of the grace of life …This life is the Triune God Himself as our life, living in us to be our inheritance.

　　First Peter 4:10 speaks of the varied grace of God that indicates the riches of the grace of God in its varieties ministered by the saints to one another. You minister to me one variety of grace, and I minister to you another variety. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans,” p. 404)

　　The husbands should appreciate the preciousness, the valuable worth, of the wives, and apportion it, assign it, as honor to them duly and reasonably as to the weaker, female vessel. Man, including woman, was made a vessel to contain God (Rom. 9:21, 23), and believers in Christ are vessels to contain Christ as the treasure (2 Cor. 4:7). The female, according to nature in God’s creation, is weaker than the male physically and psychologically…They are still vessels of the Lord and can be vessels unto honor (2 Tim. 2:21), deserving a certain honor. In 1 Peter 3:7 Peter says that husbands and wives are “fellow heirs of the grace of life.” Grace of life is God as life and life supply to us in His Trinity—the Father as the source of life, the Son as the course of life, and the Spirit as the flow of life, flowing within us with the Son and the Father (1 John 5:11-12; John 7:38-39; Rev. 22:1). All believers are heirs of this grace.

　　In brief, the grace of life is the Triune God processed to become the all-inclusive, life-giving, indwelling Spirit. The Triune God is now within us as the grace of life. Both husbands and wives are joint-heirs of this grace of life. We inherit the grace of life together.

　　This inheritance is part of the “inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled and unfading” (1 Pet. 1:4). All the items of our eternal inheritance are related to the divine life which we received through regeneration and which we are experiencing and enjoying throughout our entire Christian life. All husbands and wives need to see that in their married life the husband and wife are co-heirs of such an inheritance, in particular, of the grace of life.

　　If a brother is unmarried, he will lack a particular aspect of grace. A married brother will experience grace in a particular aspect. Furthermore, if a brother’s wife is naturally very good, he may be short of a rich aspect of grace. But if his wife is difficult and even somewhat stubborn, he will have the opportunity to enjoy a very specific and rich aspect of grace. Grace varies according to our situation and environment. For example, it will vary according to the kind of wife you have, whether she is naturally submissive or difficult. If your wife is good, you will not have as much grace as if she were difficult. Likewise, if you do not have any children, you will not enjoy the aspect of grace related to children. Oh, we all need to know this varied grace! (Life-study of 1 Peter, pp. 208, 210-211, 5-6)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of 1 Peter, msgs. 22-23, 27