1 Pedro 2:11-17

1 Peter 2:11-17

Analysis:—Exhortation to show our election of grace in the various relations of the life of our pilgrimage, primarily with respect to established authority.

11Dearly beloved, I beseech you as23strangers and pilgrims,24 abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; 12Having your conversation25 honest among the Gentiles: that,26whereas they speak against you as evil doers, they may by your good13 works,27 which they shall behold,28 glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves29 to every ordinance of man30 for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king,31 as supreme;32 14Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by33 him for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well.34 15For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:35 16As free, and not using36 your liberty37 for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.17 Honour38 all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1 Peter 2:11. I exhort you, etc.—This exhortation alludes to 1 Peter 1:1, and enjoins the cleansing of the soul and a comely behaviour among the Gentiles, on the grounds of their condition of pilgrims.—παροίκους should be joined with ἀπέχεσθαι. πάροικος=one who lives as a stranger or denizen in a country or community; παρεπιδήμος = one who stays in a place for a short time, like travellers on a journey, 1Pe 1:1; 1 Peter 1:17. By their present state he reminds them of the general lot of men on earth. “We are in body and soul expatriated; nothing is permanent on earth.” Calov. Lasting joys and riches are only in our true home. It is also befitting that as strangers you should not offend those among whom you live.—ἀπέχεσθαι even stronger than μή συσχηματιζόμενοι, 1 Peter 1:14; it denotes inward and outward abstinence.—σαρκικαὶ ἐπιθυμίαι ἐπιθυμίαι τῆς σαρκός, Eph 2:3; 2 Peter 2:18;= κοσμικαὶ ἐπιθυμίαι, Titus 2:12; cf. 1 John 2:16. In a narrower sense it denies all desires and impulses that seek pasture39 in sensual thoughts and gratification—in eating and drinking, and obscenity and incontinence. The primary reference may be to these, but there is also an ulterior reference to those lusts whose seat is rather in the soul than in the body, e. g., hatred, idolatry, wrath, conceit of knowledge, avarice, cf. Galatians 5:19; 1 Corinthians 3:3; Romans 8:6; Ephesians 2:3; Colossians 2:18. Consequently all manifestations and motions of the selfishness of man in general. They are said to war against the soul; they go out against it, surround and assault it. Bengel calls this “a great saying”; cf. James 4:1; Romans 7:23. The design is not so much to describe the nature of the lusts as to enforce the exhortation.—κατὰ τῆς ψυχῆς. Neither the contrast between flesh and spirit, described by St. Paul, Romans 7:14, etc.; Galatians 5:17; nor as Calov and Steiger take it, “they war against the nature of the regenerate soul.” The proposition is general, and ψυχή denotes elsewhere the principle of personal life. 1 Peter 1:9, it is the soul that is to be saved, and 1 Peter 1:22, it is the soul that is to be sanctified through faith. The life of the soul is hidden, hurt and killed by fleshly lusts, cf. Matthew 10:39; Matthew 16:25; Luke 17:33. [Alford remarks, “ψυχή, the man’s personal, immortal part, as opposed to his body, his μέλη in which the ἐπιθυμίαι στρατεύονται is held in suspension between influences from above and influences from beneath—drawn up and saved, or drawn down and ruined,—and among its adversaries are those fleshly lusts, warring against it to its ruin.”—M.]

1 Peter 2:12. Having your conversation good among the Gentiles.—ἀναστροφή, 1 Peter 1:14.—ἔχοντες. If. we do not read ἀπέχεσθε, the Accusative ought to follow; but sometimes Participles, removed from the verbs by which they are governed, stand in an abnormal case; the casus rectus gives greater prominence to an idea, v. Winer § 64, 2. Christians are opposed to an ungodly world, and are charged to be the salt and the light of the world, which closely watches them. (Matthew 5:16).—ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν is a hint that the Epistle was addressed to Jewish Christians. The unbelieving Jews are probably reckoned among the ἔθυη; so Weiss.—καλήν. The deeper view of Greek philosophy represented immorality and ugliness, and morality and beauty as convertible ideas.

In the matter in which they speak against you as evil doers.—ἐν ᾧ not: instead of, while, but in the same matter, in the same occasion in which, because of which, they speak against you as evil doers. [The sense is, “that that conduct, which was to them an occasion of speaking against you as evil doers, may by your good works become to them an occasion of glorifying God. Alford.—M.] Join ἐν ᾧ with δοξάσωσι, cf. 1 Peter 3:16. It was just the good conversation of Christians, their Christian works, judged superficially and referred to evil motives, that gave occasion to the heathen to slander and persecute them, έν ᾧ is defined by καλὰ ἔργα, compare in point of language, Romans 2:1.—καταλαλοῦσιν ὑμῶν ὡς κακοποιῶν.—Tertullian says: If the Tiber rises to the walls of the city, if the Nile does not irrigate the fields, if an earthquake takes place, if famine or the pestilence arise, they cry forthwith: Away with the Christians to the lions.

For your good works’ sake…glorify.—ἐποπτεύσαντες refers to ἐν ᾧ, from which we must supply τοῦτο. It signifies: to look closely upon a thing in order to see through it. So it was applied to those mysteries which were difficult to explain, cf. 1 Peter 3:2; Ephesians 3:4. Superficial observers, as appears from the account given by Tacitus, regarded the brotherly love of the Christians as a secret covenant imperilling the state, their decision as obstinacy, their heavenly-mindedness as hatred of the human race. Their departure from the sinful customs of their fathers was treated as contempt for and rejection of all human ordinances, cf. 1 Peter 2:19-20; 1 Peter 3:10-12; 1Pe 3:17; 1 Peter 4:15; 1 Peter 2:14. A definite date, e. g., the time of the persecutions under Nero, or even under Trajan, can hardly be substantiated. Join ἐκ τῶν καλῶν ἔργων to δοξάσωσιν, for the good works’ sake, proceeding out of them.

δοξάσωσιν.—Calvin rightly observes that our aim ought not to be to make unbelievers speak and think well of us, but rather to keep before our eyes the glory of God. More correct knowledge may constrain them to glorify God, to give honour to God, of whom believers are said to be the children. Peter evidently thinks of the words of Jesus at Matthew 5:16. Roos adds: In such a case we must not always look for a proper praise of God. Provided people praise the good works, they praise our heavenly Father, as the Author of them, just as he that praises the good manners of a child, virtually bestows praise on his instructor. Although people treat the faith of God’s children as superstition and folly, they may for all that praise their works, and thus give glory to God. Justin Martyr supplies an illustration of such δοξάζειν. He confesses that, when still a heathen, he deemed it impossible that the Christians could be addicted to the unnatural vices of which they were accused, because they were so ready to die for Christ.

In the day of visitation.—ἐπισκοπή, ἐπισκεπτέσθαι = פָּקַד denotes both the merciful visitation of God, and His judicial and primitive inquisition; for the former sense cf. Genesis 21:1; Genesis 1:24; Exodus 3:16; Exo 4:31; 1 Samuel 2:21; Job 7:18; Luke 1:68; Luke 1:78; Acts 15:14; for the latter, see Jeremiah 9:24-25; Jeremiah 44:13; Jeremiah 46:25; Jeremiah 9:9; Psalms 59:6; Exodus 20:5. Commentators are divided, either sense finding many advocates. It is perhaps best to combine both views, as the Apostle himself does not define his meaning, and as both visitations of mercy and wrath, do often occur together. It is by no means an insoluble riddle that unbelievers are made to glorify God by sufferings, since experience shows that in seasons of heavy judgments, stony hearts are sometimes softened and melted. The word ἡμέρᾳ relates, as is often the case, to longer periods of time than a day of twenty-four hours. The allusion here is neither to the day of judgment (as Bede maintains), nor to an investigation of the life of believers on the part of the world (as Roos suggests).

[The day of God’s visitation in wars, earthquakes, plagues, etc., brought out the faith and love of the Christians, as contrasted with that of the Jews and Heathens. Wordsworth cites the history of the plague at Carthage, in Cyprian’s Episcopate, as described by his deacon, Pontius, p. 6. “The majority of our brethren,” says Pontius, “took care of every one but themselves; by nursing the sick, and watching over them in Christ, they caught the disorder which they healed in others, and breathed their last with joy; some bare in their arms and bosoms the bodies of dead saints, and having closed the eyes of the dying, and bathed their corpses, and performed the last obsequies, received the same treatment at the hands of their brethren. But the very reverse of this was done by the Gentiles; those who were sinking into sickness, they drove from them; they fled from their dearest friends; they threw them expiring into the streets, and turned from their unburied corpses with looks of execration.” See also Cyprian’s words in his treatise published on that occasion, De Mortalitate, sive Peste, capp. 9, 1 Peter 10: Mortalitas ista, ut Judæis et Gentilibus et Christi hostibus pestis est, ita Dei servis salutaris excessus est.—M.]

1 Peter 2:13. Be subjected, therefore, to every human institution, etc.—From the wholly general precept concerning the conversation of Christians among the heathen, the Apostle, moved by the very common slanders uttered against them, that they were dangerous to the State, and aiming at the overthrow of all the bands of law, takes occasion to descend to the most ordinary duties, to the exhortation of submitting to the secular authority, and of not abusing Christian liberty.

ὑπόταγητε.—The Aorist Pass, is sometimes used in a Middle sense, v. Winer.—οὗν primarily connects with 1 Peter 2:12, secondarily with 1Pe 2:11.40—πάσῃ .—The word κτίσις, like κτίζειν, is generally applied to Divine creations and institutions, or used to denote a creature; but here the adjective ἀνθρωπίνῃ shows that it signifies any institution or appointment irrespective of origin. Limiting κτίσις to the idea of the Divine institution of the world is confusing. The Apostle intends by the use of the adjective ἀνθρωπίνῃ to meet the objection that Christians, in view of their Christian liberty, were bound to obey only authorities immediately appointed by God, because there was much sinfulness mixed up with such human institutions; he further desires to distinguish the Divine ordinance of the State from that of the Church, 1 Peter 2:5, without, however, denying the mediately Divine institution of the secular power, as Paul avers at Romans 13:1-2; Romans 13:4. Flacius rightly remarks: “It is called a human ordinance because secular constitutions do not originate in an explicit and specific word of God, as true religion does; but they are rather ordained by man and his agency, at least as far as we are able to judge, that cannot see the hidden sway of God.” If this Epistle belongs to the time of Nero, light is shed on the selection of this predicate. Peter may have recollected the words of his Master, Matthew 17:26-27. Luther comments in this respect as follows: “Although you are free in all externals (for you are Christians) and ought not be forced by law to be subjected to secular rule (for there is no law for the just [i. e., to the justified—M.]), yet you ought spontaneously to yield a ready and uncoerced obedience, not because necessity compels you, but that you may please God, and benefit your neighbour. Thus did Christ act, as we read, Matthew , 17.”—πάσῃ—be it Heathen, Jewish, or Christian authority; be it this or that constitution.

[Wordsworth:—“Water may be made to assume different forms, in fountains and cascades, and be made to flow in different channels or aqueducts, by the hand of man; but the element itself, which flows in them, is from God. So again, marble may be hewn by man’s hand into different shapes: under the sculptor’s chisel it may become a statue, a frieze or sarcophagus, but the marble itself is from the quarry, it is from the creative hand of God.—So it is with the civil power. The form which power may assume, and the person who may be appointed to exercise it, may be κτίσεις , ordinances of man; but the authority itself (ἐξουσία) is from God. Consequently, as St. Peter teaches, we are bound to submit to every ordinance of man, in all lawful things, “for the Lord’s sake,” whose ministers and vicegerents our rulers are; and, as St. Paul declares, “he that resisteth the authority, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.” See Romans 13:1-3.—M.]

For the Lord’s sake.—Probably to be understood of God the Father, who had been mentioned in 1 Peter 2:12, although 1 Peter 2:3, and elsewhere in Peter, as in Paul, Christ is called Lord. [But is not the reference rather to Christ? For, 1. κύριος with Peter always describes Christ, except in quotations from the O. T. (Alford): 2. Christians derive their liberty from their union to Christ.—M.] The sense is: because God demands it, because He has founded this institution, Romans 13:1; Romans 13:5. This defines, also, the limits of Christian subjection: the duty of obedience ceases, where God from heaven decisively forbids it, Acts 4:19; Acts 5:29. The Apostle specifies two classes of political powers whom Christians are bound to obey: first, the king or emperor, second, his ambassadors or representatives. The Jews and the Greeks called the Roman Imperator, king.—ὡς ὑπερέχοντι.—ὡς denotes a well known reason. ύπερέχοντι, wielding the highest sovereign power on earth. Otherwise, 1 Timothy 2:1. Bengel rightly: supereminens.—αὐτου connects, of course, with βασιλεῖ, not with κύριος. “In inferior powers, we must see and honour the king, in the king, God Himself.” Gerhard. The ethical purpose of the power wielded by all authorities is to punish evil-doers, and to recognize the good with marks of praise and approbation, cf. Romans 13:3-4. Calov cites the language of Plato, that rewards and punishments keep the state together, and quotes from Cicero the saying of Solon, that the state is best governed if the good are attracted by rewards and the evil kept in bounds by punishment.—ἐκδίκησις, not execution of the laws, but punishment, vengeance.—κακοποιῶν, to be taken in a general, objectively ethical sense, and to be interpreted by 1 Peter 4:15, which treats of murderers and other malefactors. This passage contains not the faintest reference, altogether, to the character of Christians, as drawn by Suetonius and Tacitus, to wit, that they were political offenders. How could the Apostle have subscribed to such a delineation of their character! This passage, therefore, cannot be used to determine the date of the Epistle.—ἔπαινος, recognition by word and deed, praise, protection and promotion.

1 Peter 2:15. For so is the will of God…men.—Gerhard:—Even though your innocence and obedience are insufficient to effect the conversion of others or their praising God, you will be able, according to the will of God, to silence blasphemers.—οὔτως εστί, after this manner, is the will of God. [Then follows what the will of God is in this direction, viz.: ἀγαθοποιοῦντας φιμοῦν κ. τ. λ..—M.]—φιμοῦν from φιμός, a muzzle, to muzzle, to shut up the mouth, as with a muzzle, cf. Deuteronomy 25:4; Sir 20:31.—This ignorance originated in the corruption of the heart, and in its turn influenced it, (1 Peter 2:12; 1 Corinthians 15:34; John 16:3). It was marked by varying degrees of guilt. Paul contrasts the knowledge of the Divine will with this state of ignorance, Ephesians 5:17. Because they are blind as to Divine things, they are unable to understand our manner of conversation.

[Wordsworth:—“Christ was crucified by the power of Rome, as He had foretold that He would be (Matthew 20:19). St. Peter and St. Paul, as they also foreknew, were martyred by Rome; but yet they preached submission to Rome.”—M.]

1 Peter 2:16. As free…God.—ὡς ἐλεύθεροι may best be construed as the antecedent of the next verse, but only of its first member, πάντας τιμήσατε. To construe it with 1 Peter 2:15 would require ἐλευθέρους. [But even this limitation to the first member of 1 Peter 2:17 renders such a construction hardly tenable. The supposition of the contrary seems to establish its untenableness. Does my freedom absolve me from the obligation of honouring all men? Am I not bound, on the general ground of Christian duty and equity, to give to all their due? On the whole, I consider the explanation of Wiesinger, adopted by Alford, the best, viz.: to regard 1 Peter 2:16 as an epexegesis on 1 Peter 2:15, not carrying on the construction with an Accusative, but with a Nominative, as already in 1 Peter 2:12, and, indeed, even more naturally here, because not the act consequent on ἀγαθοποιεῖν, as there on ἀπέχεσθαι, is specified, but the antecedent state and Christian mode of ἀγαθοποιεῖν. For arguments see Wiesinger and Alford.—M.] It is different with 1 Peter 2:12. Such subjection and true Christian liberty are not irreconcilable antagonisms. For the latter, founded on the redemption through Christ, is spiritual in its nature; it delivers us from sin and error, from the world and the devil, and unites us to God and His word by the bands of love, cf. John 8:32; Romans 6:18; Romans 6:22; Galatians 5:13; 2 Peter 2:19. In the sequel Peter cuts off all misunderstanding and abuse of liberty. The Gnostics abused Christian liberty by the commission of all kinds of infamous and criminal indulgences. The Jews, on the plea of being the people of God’s inheritance, claimed to be free from the laws of the heathen. On this account we read: “and not as having [=not as those who have—M.] freedom for a cover of malignity.” It is uncertain whether (as Cornelius and others suppose) there is here an allusion to the white baptismal robe, which was also a symbol of the liberty obtained through Christ.—ἐπικάλυμμα = παρακάλυμμα, something spread in order to cover a thing, hence, a cloak, a cover, a veil. Luther says: “If Christian liberty is preached, godless men without faith immediately rush in, and claim to be good Christians because they do not keep the laws of the Pope.”—κακία should not be explained with Wiesinger in the restricted sense of disobedience to the magistrate, but in a wider sense, just as the antithesis ἀγαθοποιεῖν is a more general ideal—δοῦλοι Θεοῦ.—To serve God, says Augustine, is the highest liberty. What was expected of Israel as a nation (often called the servant of God, Isaiah 44:1; Isaiah 44:21; Isaiah 48:20; Jeremiah 30:10); what Jesus was in a peculiar sense (and Peter calls Him so by preference, Acts 3:13; Acts 3:26; Acts 4:27; Acts 4:30), should be realized in every believer of the New Testament.

1 Peter 2:17. Honour all men.—The chief duties of a good conversation among the Gentiles are now briefly comprehended, according to the several relations in which they stand.—τιμήσατε, Aorist Imper., used of actions that are either rapidly completed and transient, or viewed as occurring but once. Winer § 48, 3, a.

All men.—Not only the chief, but all men. In your intercourse with equals, show to each the respect you owe them, first, as God’s creatures, James 3:9, and, secondly, as having been redeemed by Christ, cf. 1 Peter 5:5-6; 1 Peter 3:8; Matthew 20:26; Matthew 23:12; Luke 14:11; Luke 18:14; Luke 22:26-27; Mark 10:43-44. The passage, Psalms 15:4, rightly translated, is not in conflict with this exhortation. Paul, in a similar exhortation, takes cognizance of civil position and personal goodness, Romans 13:7. To qualify this passage by limitation is arbitrary. τιμᾶτε, from τίω, to value, to define and pay the value of a thing or person.

ἀδελφότης, the brotherhood viewed as a whole, all who are, or are called your brothers, cf. 1 Peter 1:22. Because such a disposition of esteem for and brotherly love of all can Only flow from a true relation to God, the next exhortation is: “Fear God,” cf. 1 Peter 1:17. Holy fear of the majesty of God is peculiarly in place, if you are tempted to abuse your Christian liberty. “He that fears God, loves his brethren, and embraces all mankind with becoming love, will not fail to render also to kings the honour that is due to them.” Calvin. Peter probably recollects Proverbs 24:21, which defines the same attitude of fearing God and honouring the king. Weiss calls attention to Matthew 22:21. [The variations of the Imperative form in this verse are noteworthy and suggestive. τιμήσατε, the Aor. Imper., marks the general principle, the following three Present Imperatives define its application in particular relations.—M.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Peter in the second part of the Epistle, 1 Peter 2:11, resumes the thought that believers are citizens of another fatherland, and only strangers here on earth, cf. 1 Peter 1:1; 1Pe 1:4; 1 Peter 5:10; 1 Peter 1:17. This fundamental view of the Apostle runs through the whole Epistle; on it are based the exhortations which follow 1 Peter 4:6. It must, consequently, be of the highest importance that we should constantly keep up a lively sense of our status as strangers. It belongs to the most noble and powerful incentives to sanctification, cf. 2 Corinthians 5:8; 2 Corinthians 5:6; Philippians 3:20.

2. Holy Scripture wisely prescribes no rules as to the best form of constitution: we learn from the Old Testament that the theocratic form of government is, properly speaking, the institution which corresponds to the will of God; this is also the end contemplated by Christianity. God is to be the all-animating principle in those who gladly obey Him, 1 Corinthians 15:28; Revelation 21:3; Revelation 22:3. But this end can be attained only after Satan has been bound, and after the great separation has been consummated, Malachi 4:2; Matthew 13:40, etc. Many, impatiently anxious to anticipate the end towards which the development of the Christian Church is being led, rejected existing forms of government. Hence the Apostle exhorts, substantially, that it is the part of true Christians to be subjected to any human institution, whether monarchical, republican or aristocratic. The only limitation set to obedience to the government is its commanding any thing which militates against the clearly revealed will of God. It is not for us to ask how such and such a ruler did acquire his power, whether the constitution of a state be so framed as to contain the fundamental laws of God for the regulation of human relations, (as some try to press the word κτίσις), but we must obey for the Lord’s sake, who says: “By me kings reign and princes decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.” Proverbs 8:15-16. All rebellion against the ordained government is to be repudiated, as our evangelical Church has established it from the beginning, contrary to jesuitico-papistical teaching. [Fronmüller refers to Germany. Those who wish to see the whole subject illustrated on sound Church principles are referred to the Homilies against Wilful Rebellion in the Book of Homilies, authoritatively set forth by the Church of England, and received by the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States “as an explication of Christian doctrine and instructive in piety and morals.”—M.] Rieger capitally observes: In the words “human institution or ordinance, the Apostle does not deprive governments of the honour that they are the servants of God, Romans 13:1, etc. The state and office of the government are God-derived; they have, indeed, in course of time, manifold human shapes, and in the hands of men have been variously instituted. But even this human element, so far from serving as a pretext for the withdrawal of submission, should rather be a root of patience, gladly to put up with human and inevitable infirmities, even in this respect.”

3. The Christian must adapt himself to every form of government, and, as a pilgrim, finds it not difficult so to do.4. Every government is bound, for its own interest, to punish the wicked, and to protect the good. An unchristian, unjust government is a sore punishment to a country; but there is no greater evil than anarchy, as Sophocles already perceived.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

What is necessary to walk as a pilgrim on earth? 1. Abstaining from fleshly lusts; 2. Obeying all human governments; 3. Patiently suffering wrong.—Which are the marks that a Christian is a stranger and pilgrim here? Consider, (a) his speech; (b) his carriage; (c) his manners; (d) his aims.—The Christian state a continuous warfare, Job 7:1; Psalms 24:8. the enemies; 2. the weapons; 3. the victory.—Walk as lights in the heathenish-minded world!—The manifold days of visitation.—The Christian’s demeanour towards the secular power.—How to shut up most effectually the mouth of the ignorant?—The Pharisaic hearts that make liberty the cloak of maliciousness.—True liberty a blessed bondage before God.—The four main points of a good conversation in this world.—Why and how we should, as Christians, give honour to all men?

Kapff:—What makes up true liberty? 1. To be the servants of God and Jesus; 2. to be subject, for the Lord’s sake, to all human authority; 3. to lead a good conversation, as strangers in the world.

Staudt:—Maintaining the state of strangers: 1. In relation to the flesh; 2. In relation to the world.

Starke:—Pilgrim, how long dost thou stay at the inn? Yonder is thy fatherland. Away with the voluptuous joys of the village, through which thou art journeying!—He that would be free from the breaking out of the lusts of the flesh, must seize them by the root and choke them in the beginning.—Fleshly lusts, though they begin sweetly and are soothing to the heart, are the soul’s inveterate enemies, and bring forth sin, James 1:15; Sir 21:3.—Fie! Christians like heathen. Beware and pray, “Gracious God, put an end to gross offences.”—The more a man is surrounded by false, hostile, watching people, the more must he be on his guard, not only to avoid evil, but the appearance of it, 1 Thessalonians 5:22.—The pious have always to endure slander, yet their best defence is not in their mouth or pen, but in their works and deeds, 1 Peter 2:15.—A Christian’s holy conversation must also aim at the conversion of others, which is realized in the case of some, 1 Peter 3:1.—The secular power is as much bound to reward virtue as to punish wickedness, Psalms 82:3-4; Proverbs 20:26.—Calumnies are best contradicted, if we prove by a holy conversation that they are untrue.—To requite evil with good has generally a good effect.—We are free, but not from the law of Christ and God, 1 Corinthians 9:21.—Christian courtesy tends to good reputation, to the favour and good-will of our neighbour, and to reciprocal good-will and confidence, Romans 12:10.—Mark that the fear of God is mentioned first, the honour of the magistrate afterwards, Acts 5:29.—There are two kingdoms, God’s and the emperor’s, each must remain within its bounds; God reserves to Himself the soul and conscience; the body, goods and possessions are under the emperor’s rule, Matthew 22:21.

Lisco:—Walk, as it pleases God.—Which is the deepest foundation of Christian morality?—How does a Christian’s liberty exhibit itself?

Basle Collections:—Christian abstinence: 1. its nature; 2. its motives.

[Leighton:

1 Peter 2:11. There is a faculty of reproving required in the Ministry, and sometimes a necessity of very sharp rebukes, cutting ones. They that have much of the spirit of meekness may have a rod by them, too, to use upon necessity; but sure the way of meekness is that they use most willingly.—It was a very wise abridgment that Epictetus made of philosophy, into those two words, bear and forbear.—It was the high speech of a heathen, That he was greater, and born to greater things, than to be a servant to his body; how much more ought he that is born again to say so, being born heir to “a crown that fadeth not away”! 1 Peter 5:4.—Fleshly lusts.—They war against the soul; and their war is made up of stratagem and sleight, for they cannot hurt the soul but by itself. They promise it some contentment, and so gain its consent to serve them and undo itself; they embrace the soul that they may strangle it.

1 Peter 2:12. Mark three things, 1. one point of a Christian’s ordinary entertainment in the world is, to be evil spoken of; 2. Their good use of that evil, to do the better for it; 3. The good end and certain effect of their so doing, the glory of God.—The goodness or beauty of a Christian’s conversation consisting in symmetry and conformity to the word of God as its rule, he ought diligently to study that rule and to square his ways by it; not to walk at random, but to apply that rule to every step at home and abroad, and to be as careful to keep the beauty of his ways unspotted, as those women are of their faces and attire, that are most studious of comeliness.—What have we to do in the world as His creatures, once and again His creatures, His new creatures, created unto good works, Ephesians 2:10, but to exercise ourselves in those, and by those to advance His glory?—that all may return to Him, from whom all is, as the rivers run back to the sea, from whence they came.

1 Peter 2:15. Whereas those that have most real goodness, delight most to observe what is good and commendable in others, and to pass by their blemishes, it is the true character of vile, unworthy persons (as flies sit upon sores) to skip over all the good that is in men and fasten upon their infirmities.—And this is a wise Christian’s way, instead of impatiently fretting at the mistakes or wilful miscensures of men, to keep still on in his calm temper of mind and upright course of life and silent innocence; this, as a rock, breaks the waves into foam that roar about it.—M.]

[Warburton:

1 Peter 2:13-14. Reward cannot, properly, be the sanction of human laws.—M.]

[Harrington:—To say, because civil magistracy is ordained of God, therefore it cannot be the ordinance of man, is as if you said: God ordained the temple, therefore, it was not built by masons; He ordained the snuffers, therefore, they were not made by a smith.—M.]

[Whately:—A timely, steady and mild resistance, on legal grounds, to every unlawful stretch of power (as in the well-known case of the ship-money) will prove the most effectual means, if uniformly resorted to, for preventing the occurrence of those desperate and extreme cases which call for violent and dangerous remedies.—M.]

[M.:—The principle on which we should resist ordinances in conflict with the will of God is fortiter in re sed leniter in modo.]

[Luther:

1 Peter 2:16. Christ’s truth maketh us free, not civilly, nor carnally, but divinely. We are made free in such sort, that our conscience is free and quiet, not fearing the wrath of God to come. This is the true and inestimable liberty, to the excellency and majesty of which, if we compare the other, they are but as one drop of water in respect of the ocean. For who is able to express what a thing it is, when a man is assured in his heart that God neither is, nor ever will be angry with him, but will be forever a merciful and loving Father to him, for Christ’s sake! This is, indeed, a marvellous and incomprehensible liberty, to have the Most High Sovereign Majesty so favourable to us that He doth not only defend, maintain and succour us in this life, but also, as touching our bodies, will so deliver us as that, though sown in corruption, dishonour and infirmity, they shall rise again in incorruption, and glory, and power. This is an inestimable liberty, that we are made free from the wrath of God forever, and is greatly more valuable than heaven and earth and the created universe. “Blessed is the man who is in such a case; yea, blessed is the man whose God is the Lord.”—M.]

[Olshausen:—Without law, or altogether above the law, man can never be, for the law is the expression of the Divine Essence itself.—M.]

[Milton:—There are

“That bawl for freedom in their senseless mood,And still revolt when truth would set them free;License they mean when they cry liberty.”—M.][Sanderson:—Luther complains of “men who would be accounted good Christians merely because they rejected the authority of the Pope; who will do nothing that either the magistrate or God would have them to do; remaining in their old, disorderly nature, however much they may make their boast of the Gospel;” and who, as Calvin says, “reckoned it a great part of Christian liberty, that they might eat flesh on Fridays.”—Better is it by voluntary abstinence to part with some of our liberty as to God’s creatures, than by voluntary transgression to become the devil’s captives.—M.]

[Hooker:—It was not the meaning of our Lord and Saviour, in saying “Father, keep them in Thy name,” that we should be careless in keeping ourselves. To our own safety our own sedulity is required.—M.]

[Barrow:

1 Peter 2:17. Human nature has become adorable as the true Shechinah, the everlasting palace of the Supreme Majesty, wherein the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily; the most holy shrine of the Divinity, the orb of inaccessible light, as this, and more than all this, if more could be expressed, or, if we could explain that text, “The word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”—M.]

[Sanderson:—When a piece of metal is coined with the king’s stamp, and made current by his edict, no man may henceforth presume either to refuse it in payment, or to abate the value of it; so God, having stamped His own image upon every man, and, withal, signified His blessed pleasure, how precious He would have him to be in our eyes and esteem, by express edict proclaiming, “At the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man; I require every man to be his brother’s keeper: for in the image of God made He man.”—M.]

[The brotherhood.—Cf. Rom 16:1; 3 John 1:8-9. When a Christian entered a foreign city, his first inquiry was for the Church (the brotherhood); and here he was received as a brother, and supplied with whatever could contribute to his spiritual or bodily refreshment. The Church letters, which were as tesserae hospitales, received the name of γράμματα τετυπωμένα, epistolae fermatae, because, to guard against counterfeits, they were drawn up after a certain form, τύπος; and also γράμματα κοινωνικἀ, epistolae communicatoriae, inasmuch as they indicated that the bearers were in the fellowship of the Church. Euseb. 4, 23; Cyprian, Ep. III.; Neander vol. I. § 2, p. 280.—Sic honorandus rex, ut ne contra Deum peccemus. Chrysostom.—M.]

Footnotes:

1 Peter 2:11; 1 Peter 2:11. [Sojourners and strangers; German: guests and strangers.—M.]

1 Peter 2:11; 1 Peter 2:11. Tisch., 7th ed., reads ἀπέχεσθαι, but ἀπέχεσθε is well supported. [A. C. L. Syr. Copt. Aeth.—M.]

1 Peter 2:12; 1 Peter 2:12. [καλήν=good, comely.—M.]

1 Peter 2:12; 1 Peter 2:12. [ἐν ᾧ=in the matter which.—M.]

1 Peter 2:12; 1 Peter 2:12. [ἐκ τῶν καλῶν ἔργων=for your good works’ sake.—M.]

[28] 1 Peter 2:12. Tisch. prefers ἐποπτεύοντες. So Cod. Sin. Render “which they see”, or “being spectators of them.”—M.]

[Cod. Sin. *δοξασουτρεμουσιν. sic.—M.]

1 Peter 2:13; 1 Peter 2:13. [ὑποτάγητε, Aor. Pass.=be subjected.—M.]

[30] 1 Peter 2:13. [Human institution; German: ordinance, order.—M.]

[κτίσιν , ἤ καὶ αὐτοὺς βασιλεῖς, καθότι καὶ αὐτοὶ ὑπὸ . Oecum.—M.]

1 Peter 2:13; 1 Peter 2:13. [Taking, without the Article.—M.]

[32] 1 Peter 2:13. [ὑπερέχοντι, præcellenti = super-eminent.—M.]

[Cod. Sin. omits οὖν with A. B. C. al. *πάσῃ.—M.]

1 Peter 2:14; 1 Peter 2:14. [διὰ=through.—M.]

1 Peter 2:14; 1 Peter 2:14. [Well-doers as contrasted with evil-doers.—M.]

[35] 1 Peter 2:15. [Of the foolish men referred to in 1 Peter 2:12.—M.]

[Cod. Sin. reads φιμοῖν.—M.]

1 Peter 2:16; 1 Peter 2:16. [ὡς belongs to ἔχοντες, not to ἐπικάλυμμα.—M.]

[37] 1 Peter 2:16. [ἐλεύθεροι=free, ἐλευθερία=freedom.—M.]

[Translate the whole verse: “as free, and not as having your freedom for a cover of malignity, but as the servants of God.”—M.][Cod. Sin. Θεοῦ δοῦλοι.—M.]

1 Peter 2:17; 1 Peter 2:17. [Give honour to all men. Suum cuique.—M.]

[39]The readers of this Commentary will pardon my attempt to give currency to a most striking Germanism; I do so on the supposition that every term of speech which sheds light on the workings of the mind and soul, is a most valuable accession to language.—M.

[40] οὖν is wanting in A. B. C. and other Manuscripts.

1 Peter 2:18. [δεσπόταις ὑμῶν Cod. Sin.—M.]