‘For in a similar way in the past the holy women also, who hoped in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose children you now are, if you do well, and are not put in fear by any intimidation.'
Peter now relates what their behaviour should be in terms of what the Scriptures reveal about godly women in the past. They too had hoped in God, adorned themselves modestly and discreetly, and obediently submitted to their husbands. And one example of this was the wife of the one to whom they now looked as their spiritual father, Abraham (Galatians 3:29). Sarah both obeyed Abraham and called him ‘lord' (Genesis 18:12). So as the children of Sarah (compare Galatians 4:21-31) they should do the same. There may here be a contrast to the way in which they had previously addressed pagan gods as ‘lord'. Now they are to call only one their ‘lord', the One Who is God's representative, as Abraham was to Sarah.
(On the other hand all this may tie in with the looseness of their living before they became Christians. Previously they may well have indulged in ‘sacred' sexual activities with pagan ‘lords', for the temples were quite happy to practise deceit and find men quite content to mysteriously act as ‘gods' so as to forward the women's desires for ‘worship'. It will be noted that Genesis 18:12 does actually put ‘lord' in a context of sexual relations and childbearing. Thus lordship and sexual relations were seen as going together. Then the point here might be that now the Christian women must only see their husbands as their ‘lords' from that point of view).
‘Whose children you now are, if you do well, and are not put in fear by any intimidation.' This is the first hint, following 1 Peter 2:18-25, of the dark clouds that lie in the background to their lives. The one possible ‘intimidation' that might draw them from the way of living that he has described is the one that had previously influenced their lives before they became Christians, the pagan temples and their influence. Such temples and their priests would no doubt have used any pressure that they could to woo these women back, including possible curses and threats of what the gods might do to them. So the women must ‘do well' and must not let the fear of this ‘intimidation' replace the fear of the Lord in their lives. Then they will be true children of Abraham. This fits the context and explains why Peter does not feel that he has to add further background in order to explain what other kind of intimidation he might have in mind.