Few topics are more personal and controversial today than that of gender, and gender roles and what it means to be a man or a woman.

These issues are not just academic. They are part of our culture and percolate down to affect daily life for many people. Now we come to a part of 1 Peter that talks about following Jesus in marriage and the whole passage has an underlying emphasis on some God-given distinctions between men and women. While Peter's words here are especially directed to husbands and wives they are important for all of us because they reflect on what it means to be a man or a woman. Why does Scripture, when speaking about following Jesus, give different directions to men and women?

My goal is to look at the big picture in this message. We will move more deeply into the passage in the weeks to come.