1 Peter 3:1–7 is Peter’s second application (after 1 Peter 2:18–25) of the principle of 1 Peter 2:13, Be subject…to every human institution
(with its consequent demand to honor everyone,
1 Peter 2:17). Peter was aware that that instruction would raise many practical questions rooted in real life, such as how to honor
an inconsiderate, absent, or despotic husband, let alone be subject
to him. Through his focus on marriage in the present passage, Peter adds colour to what he wrote in 1 Peter 2:13. This helps today’s reader find fitting consequences for the principle of 1 Peter 2:13 in our changed circumstances.
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,