The King James Version, my mother’s Bible, has these words:

If non-Christian husbands "obey not the word" of God to "repent and be baptized for the remission of sins" (Acts 2:38), they "may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives" (1 Peter 3:1).

Some non-Christian husbands can be won by listening to verses from "the word" of God, while others resent their wives reading "the word" to them. When husbands show irritation, wise wives "without the word" make another approach, a silent one, displaying "a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price" (1 Peter 3:1, 4). They have found that conversations with such husbands about obeying Jesus Christ get no where.

But why does the King James Version say that non-Christian husbands "may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives" (1 Peter 3:1)? Those words are a contradiction: win a husband without the word, that is, without talking, and win a husband by conversation! "Conversation" is "a talking together; informal or familiar talk" (Webster).

However, the word "conversation" at the time the King James Version was written, back in 1611, did not mean "talk," but "general behavior, deportment," a definition that Webster says is now "Archaic." Therefore, since the word "conversation" now means only "talk," it is not an accurate translation of Peter’s inspired word anastrophe, "manner of life, conduct." The New King James Version of 1980 has eliminated the word "conversation" (twice in 1 Peter 3:1-2) and replaced it with "conduct."

Thus we see that Peter was advising Christian wives, who have not won their husbands to Christ by talk, to stop talking and exhibit good conduct. Their best approach to husbands is not conversation, but a "pure manner of life" with "a gentle and quiet spirit, which before God is of surpassing value" (1 Peter 3:2-4).

The power of a wife, for good or for bad, someone has expressed in these words: "For every woman who has made a fool out of a man there is a woman who has made a man out of a fool." Thank God, there are many examples of Christian wives who have won their husbands to Christ by following Peter’s inspired advice.

DAYMIE PEARLE GIBBS

Daymie Pearle Gibbs obeyed the gospel in Centralia, Illinois, but, writes her daughter,

He gave up fishing and hunting on Sunday, and they never missed a service after that. I too can thank my mother for her influence on me. I became a Christian because of her teaching (Mary Juanita Boyd, 11919 NE Knott St., Portland, OR 97220).

WILLIE FAYETTE

A Christian young lady married a non-Christian, and in much grief she paid for it. He hated the church and church people. His language was of cursing and bitterness, even in the presence of their son and daughter, and when visitors were present. Wisely, Willie stopped asking Al to go to church, though she and the children never missed. At home she went out of her way to be a kind and thoughtful wife.

With no spiritual leadership from Al, Willie decided meals would not be eaten unless thanksgiving had been expressed, and she led the prayers. She subscribed for that worthwhile magazine of daily devotionals, POWER FOR TODAY, and at the breakfast table she read a selection each morning. This Al tolerated with a frown and tried to ignore it.

One day their son, seeing a baptism at services, went home and asked his father if he had been baptized. Al’s reply was coldly negative. But apparently the lad’s question was not forgotten. Soon Al volunteered to go to church on Sunday mornings only, but he told Willie, "Don’t ask me to go at any other time." Wisely, she agreed.

At a Sunday morning service, while they were standing up for the invitation song, Willie was weeping, which Al noticed. At home he asked her why she cried. She said, "Sit down, Al, I want to talk to you." When they had sat, she continued:

That was enough. Shortly Al was baptized. He went through quite a struggle to quit using habitual curse words. He became a daily Bible reader and never missed a service at church. Such amazing growth he made in a knowledge of the word (reading it morning and night on long bus rides to and from work), the elders at Gretna, Louisiana, asked him to supervise the Bible school. Now, in retirement, he works diligently with correspondence work and in a jail ministry in Natchez, Mississippi.

DORIS DARLING

George Darling was attracted to Doris, a fine Christian girl. He dated her often, and soon went to church with her at every service. She thought he would soon be baptized, and made the mistake of marrying him unbaptized. On the first Sunday after their wedding, he asked her to stay home with him. She refused, and went to services alone. He was stubborn (he told me later) and stopped going to church with her completely.

She remembered Peter’s words that if husbands "obey not the word" they may "without the word be won by the conduct of the wives" (1 Peter 3:1), not "the conversation of the wives." So, with a "meek and quiet spirit" she lived with George, with no nagging, being a good wife in every way.

When their first child was born, she stayed home from services one Sunday, but the next Sunday she arose early, bathed herself and the baby, prepared breakfast, and soon was ready to go to church. George, unknown to her, had gone out to their car in the garage, raised the hood, disconnected some wires, lowered the hood, and returned to the living room.

Doris wrapped the baby, put on a raincoat, and went to the car. It would not start. She got out, and started walking with the baby toward the church building, about a mile away. George looked out the door, opened it, and called to her, "Come back. I’ll fix the car, and take you."

To himself he said, "What a heel I am, treating this precious woman this way." He told her what he had done, apologized, and drove her to the church service, and stayed. That night he drove her to services again, and stayed. In three weeks he was baptized.

He became a gospel preacher, and lived long enough to baptize some 3000 people. When I was with him in a gospel meeting in Jacksonville, Florida, he told me what had happened. Doris loved George, but she loved her Lord even more. Three thousand souls may never have been baptized had it not been for Doris.

MARY JANE ROYSE

"My grandparents" (writes Nyal D. Royse), "A. J. and Mary Jane Royse resided three miles west of Covington, Indiana, on the old Danville and Covington road. They had a large family. Grandmother was a Christian but grandfather wished to have nothing to do with church. Each Sunday morning she would get the horses up, put on the harness, hitch them to the wagon, and drive into Covington for worship.

"One bitter cold day Grandpap said to her, ‘Maw, you’re not going to take these children out in this cold weather, are you?’ She replied, ‘Pap, we are going.’ She got the horses harnessed and hitched up and then went to the house to get the children ready. When she went out to go he had unharnessed the horses and turned them back out in the pasture. She sent the children to the house and went back out and got the horses and hitched them up and drove to worship. Granddad never pulled that trick again.

"Another real cold day he asked her again not to go. He got the same answer. He told her that he was going to drive them in, not because he wanted to, but he was ashamed for the neighbors to see her driving to town in the cold and know that he was home, comfortable by the fire. He drove them to Covington but said he would stay in the wagon. Before the service was over he almost froze and had to come in to get warm.

"After that he drove them quite often and then all the time, but he would always sit alone on the back seat. One day he came walking down the aisle and was baptized. Grandmother died in 1922 and he died in 1933. For the eleven years he lived alone he was faithful to the end, thanks to a wife who took over the spiritual leadership of the family while he served Satan."

Mary Jane Royse was God’s vessel of honor, for she is the cause of five generations of Christians.

CALLIE ALLISON

Callie Allison, an Indianapolis mother of seven sons and two daughters, had a backsliding husband. For years he stayed home while Callie got the children ready and took them to all church services. She saw all of them baptized. One son has become an elder, and two are song leaders.

At Callie’s passing, her husband came to the funeral service, one Friday afternoon. On Sunday morning, for the first time in 30 years, he was at church. When the invitation song was sung, he walked down the aisle, and told the preacher, "Ask the church people to pray for me. I want to be restored. When I die I want to go where Callie is."

8/27/99