Having explained before how Christians should conduct themselves in the world, Peter next gave directions about how Christian wives and husbands should behave. He did this to help his readers identify appropriate conduct in family life during times of suffering as well as at other times. [source][source][source]
". . . he [1] discusses husbands and wives, and unlike the Pauline Haustafeln, he omits references to children. The reason for this omission is simple: He probably did not consider children who had one believing parent outside the true people of God (i.e, the nations), whereas the husbands of some Christian women certainly were. Peter"s concern at this point is not life within the Christian community, but life at those points where the Christian community interfaces with the world around it.... [source][source][source]
"But what was probably surprising to the original readers is that here in a seemingly traditional ethical section wives are addressed at all. In that society women were expected to follow the religion of their husbands; they might have their own cult on the side, but the family religion was that of the husband. Peter clearly focuses his address on women whose husbands are not Christians (not that he would give different advice to women whose husbands were Christians), and he addresses them as independent moral agents whose decision to turn to Christ he supports and whose goal to win their husbands he encourages. This is quite a revolutionary attitude for that culture." [2][source]
This section, like the preceding one addressed to slaves, has three parts: an exhortation to defer ( 1 Peter 3:1-2; cf. 1 Peter 2:18), an admonition about pleasing God ( 1 Peter 3:3-4; cf. 1 Peter 2:18-20), and a precedent for the advocated attitude or action ( 1 Peter 3:5-6; cf. 1 Peter 2:21-25). The section on respect for everyone ( 1 Peter 2:13-17) contains the first two of these parts ( 1 Peter 2:13-17) but not the third. [3][source]