1 Peter 4:15

For let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil-doer, or as a meddler in other men's matters:

Murderer ... The crime of murder stands at the head of the list here; and we should not be surprised at Christians being warned against it. In the reprobacy that prevailed in those days, reaching even to the vaunted throne of the Caesars, it would have been quite easy for Christians to have rationalized the extension of their right of self-defense (manslaughter) and to have made it include preventive murder. Despite every temptation to the contrary, the people of God, the New Israel were to continue as honorable, law-abiding citizens, not attempting to take justice into their own hands.

Meddler in other men's matters ... The word from which this comes is one of the most curious in the New Testament, Barclay surmising that "Peter may well have invented it."[22] "The word is [@allotriepiskopos]."[23] The last part of this word, of course, is the one from which we get the word "bishop"; and as the first part of it means "pertaining to others," it is clear enough that the word bears the translation, "bishop of other people's business"! Peter not only forbade this on principle, but in the turbulence of those evil times, Christians would have found it exceedingly wise and prudent to avoid any kind of conduct with outsiders, or even contact with them, that could have resulted in their arraignment and death.

[22] William Barclay, op. cit., p. 259.

[23] Raymond C. Kelcy, op. cit., p. 94.