<p>3:6 <em>As Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord- </em>The way in which God chooses the good side of Sarah and recognizes it for what it is can be seen even more finely in 1 Pet. 3:4-6. Here sisters are bidden follow Sarah's example of <br />1. Having a meek and quiet spirit<br />2. Not outwardly adorning herself<br />3. Obeying Abraham<br />4. And calling him her &quot;Lord&quot;. <br />It can be shown that the Spirit in Peter is adopting an extremely positive reading of Sarah.</p><p>1. She isn't revealed as having a meek and quiet spirit at all; but presumably, God saw that underneath her anger and bitterness there was a meekness and quietness, perhaps especially seen as she grew older.</p><p>2,3. Concerning not outwardly &quot;adorning&quot;, the Greek text is alluding to the Septuagint of Gen. 20:16, which says that Abimelech told Sarah that he had given Abraham many silver pieces &quot;that these may therefore be for thee to adorn thy countenance&quot;. Abimelech is speaking sarcastically (note how he calls Abraham &quot;thy brother&quot;, referring to Sarah and Abraham's family relationship). It was a custom for married women to wear their silver pieces on their face (cp. Lk. 15:8). Presumably she had taken these off, in order to appear single and sexually available. Abimelech is saying: &quot;I've given your so-called 'brother' Abraham 1000 silver pieces, so just make sure you wear them in future and don't lead any more men into sin&quot;. And what does the Spirit comment? &quot;Thus she was reproved&quot; (Gen. 20:16). Her willingness to pretend she was single and not refusing the sexual advances of Abimelech can only be seen in a negative light from the Genesis record. She lacked continued faith in the promises of a seed, and she disregarded God's marriage principles for the sake of an all too convenient 'obedience' to her husband. It may have been that she regarded her inability to have children as partly his fault (cp. the deadness of Abraham's body, Rom. 4:19). The thing is, she had already shown enough faith to conceive (Heb. 11:11), and presumably the effect of this was seen in the physical rejuvenation of her body, which made her so attractive to men, although she was 90 years old. Both Sarah and Abraham had shown faith, she was living with her own body as the constant reminder of God's faithfulness, and yet in the incident with Abimelech she wavered and had to be reproved. Yet she is seen in a positive light by the Spirit; her lack of wearing ornaments, even though it was to show she was single, is commended; as is her obedience to her husband, even though she was reproved for this. The point is, like all of us, her motives were probably mixed. She did want to be truly obedient to Abraham, she did want to have a meek spirit rather than outward adorning. Her wrong motives surfaced, and were rebuked. But God saw deep inside her heart, and saw the good motives, and drags them out and holds them up as an example.</p><p>4. Sarah is commended for calling Abraham her &quot;Lord&quot; (1 Pet. 3:6). She is recorded as doing this in one place only: &quot;Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?&quot; (Gen. 18:12). She doubted God's promise; she is rebuked for this by the Angel. Yet in doing so, when she came to think of Abraham, in her heart she called him &quot;my lord&quot;. So in the midst of her lack of faith in one respect, she also had a commendable attitude to Abraham. All this, don't forget, was going on &quot;within herself&quot;. God searched her thoughts, He saw her wrong attitudes there deep in her heart, and He saw what was commendable there too; and through Peter He drags this out and reveals it to us all as an inspiration. See on Gal. 4:30; Heb. 11:11.</p><p><em>Whose children you now are, if you do well- </em>Peter was writing to Jewish believers. But his point is that they were only the true descendants of Abraham and Sarah if they acted and believed as they had. Whilst this was quite confronting for Jewish believers to be reminded of this, in this context it was comforting; for those back in Jerusalem who had driven them into exile were not in fact the children of Abraham and Sarah. Paul makes the same point in writing to the Galatians, the same area where Peter's audience were located. He says that orthodox Judaism is the offspring of Hagar and not Sarah.</p><p><i>And are not put in fear by any terror</i>- Perhaps an allusion to how Abram and Sarai lied about their marital status.</p>