“Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.”
and as being heirs together of the grace of life,
The phrase “heirs together” means co-heirs. The husband and wife are joint-heirs. This is a statement of equality. Cremer, the great Greek scholar, said that “heirs together” means personal equality based on equality of possession.
The word “together” means that the wife is a co-heir of fellowship, unity, and sharing. What are they joint-heirs of? They are joint heirs of the grace of life. God gives them grace to live this life.
The wife has equal spiritual rights with her husband,
Gal. 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Marriage is not an end in itself from a biblical viewpoint. God intends that marriage serves the ultimate end of glorifying God.
PRINCIPLE:
The woman has equal standing before God with the man.
APPLICATION:
This verse says that the woman has just as much standing before God as the man. Man and women are equal. They are not equal in role but equal in person. They stand equally before God. She has just as much eternal life as the man. She has just as many promises as the man. She has everything that the man has spiritually. She is a joint-heir with him. She is a co-heir with her husband because she possesses all that Jesus provided for her. Christianity flew in the face of the culture of its day. This was revolutionary thinking about the culture of that day.
