As “sojourners and exiles” (1 Peter 2:11) Peter’s readers were to maintain an honourable form of conduct among the Gentiles with whom they lived (1 Peter 2:12). An essential part of this honourable conduct included being “subject…to every human institution” (1 Peter 2:13). One example of a “human institution” where honourable conduct was notoriously difficult was slavery (1 Peter 2:18–25). A second “human institution” (including how people work with that institution in real life, i.e., the real as opposed to the ideal) was marriage, particularly the expected position of the wife—though not to exclude the husband as a further aspect of this “human institution.” So in the present paragraph Peter draws out what honourable conduct for the born-again partner looks like in relation to the spouse.
1 Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives,