Bible Commentaries

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 good 13 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 God17 Honour³⁸ all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

[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; 1 Peter 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; Exodus 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; Psalm 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, p6. “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, capp9, 1 Peter 10: Mortalitas ista, ut Judæis et Gentilibus et Christi hostibus pestis Esther, 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 1 Peter 2:11.⁴⁰—πάσῃ ἀνθρωπίνη κτίσει.—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 Judges, 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 Acts, 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 ἀνθρώπιναι, 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; Sirach 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.]

[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, Psalm 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. [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; 1 Peter 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; Psalm 24:8–1. 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; Sirach 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, Psalm 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 Song of Solomon, 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. Romans 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, p280.—Sic honorandus rex, ut ne contra Deum peccemus. Chrysostom.—M.]

Footnotes

1 Peter 2:18-25

Analysis:—Exhortation of believing servants to self-denying obedience in doing and suffering after the example of Christ.

18 Servants,⁴¹ be subject to your masters with⁴² all fear; not only to the good and gentle,19 but also to the froward.⁴³ For this is thankworthy,⁴⁴ if a man for conscience⁴⁵ toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully 20 For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it,⁴⁶ ye take it patiently, this is acceptable⁴⁷ with God 21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us⁴⁸ an example, that ye should follow his steps: 22Who did no⁴⁹ sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 23Who, when he was reviled,⁵⁰ reviled not again; when he suffered,⁵¹ he threatened not; but committed himself⁵² to him that judgeth righteously: 24Who his own self⁵³ bare our sins in his own body on⁵⁴ the tree, that we,⁵⁵ being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes⁵⁶ ye were healed 25 For ye were as sheep going astray;⁵⁷ but are⁵⁸ now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1 Peter 2:18. Domestics—but also to the crooked.—οἰκέται less harsh and more comprehensive than δοῦλοι. Estius in Calov shrewdly suggests that the Apostle may have selected this designation because he was addressing Jewish Christians, to whom the term ‘slave’ was obnoxious, as incompatible with the people of God.

ὑποτασσόμενοι.—The most simple construction is to connect the Participle with the preceding Imperatives, especially with the τὸν Θεὸν φοβεῖσθε, to which the following ἐν παντἰ φόβῳ seems also to refer. It is the Apostle’s way to intertwine his sentences after this manner: the following exhortations begin with similar participial sentences, 1 Peter 3:1; 1 Peter 3:7-9. We learn from it, that he considers the duties to which he exhorts included in the principal duty, 1 Peter 2:12. He particularizes the exhortation, 1 Peter 2:13, as to the manner how the fear of God should be evidenced, 1 Peter 2:17.

In all fear.—Primarily, holy awe of God, after 1 Peter 2:17. Cf. Colossians 3:22; Ephesians 6:5; with full, entire fear; but it also involves the dread of an earthly master. There are, as Cornelius observes, different kinds of fear: a, fear of punishment; b, fear of the guilt of offending God; c, fear of the offence of exciting masters to animosity against the faith.

ἀγαθοῖς good in themselves and kind to others.—ἐπιεικής indicates a particular exhibition of ἄγαθος=indulgent, yielding, kind like the Syrian captain, 2 Kings 5:13-14.—ακολιός—עִקֵּשׁ, the contrary of the two other qualities, crooked in ways and therefore in heart, Psalm 101:4; Proverbs 11:20; Proverbs 17:20; Proverbs 4:24, similar to a piece of crooked wood that cannot be bent and is not fit for use, perverse, contentious, morose in disposition and behaviour. “Before such masters the false longings for liberty are most apt to break out: but here is just the point at which Christian views and principles appear in the strongest possible contrast with merely human and natural ones, and at which the peculiarity of the Christian calling, as a power of endurance, shows its marvellous glory.” Wiesinger.

1 Peter 2:19. For this is grace.—The sense of these words is determined partly by the following χάρις παρὰ Θεῷ, partly by the antithesis ποῖον γἁρ κλέος. This question suggests that of our Lord, Luke 6:32. “For if you love them, which love you, what thanks have you?” ποία ὐμῖν χάρις ἐστί; in Matt. it reads τίνα μισθὸν ἔχετε. The ideas of thanks, reward and praise are here conjoined. Here as there the reference is to thanks, praise, or honour before God. You have no praise before God, you cannot glory in your tribulations (cf. Romans 5:3), if you remain stedfast in troubles brought on by yourselves; but if, suffering wrongfully, you remain stedfast, you will have honour before God and secure His approval and good pleasure. Weiss compares the Hebrew מָצָא חֶך,=εὑρίσκειν χάριν ἐναντίον θεοῦ, Genesis 6:8; Genesis 18:3; Genesis 30:27; cf. Luke 1:30; Luke 2:52; Acts 2:47. As to the sense it is therefore=χαρίεν, cf. 1 Timothy 2:3; 1 Timothy 5:4. Colossians 3:20. The following explanation of Steiger is neither clear nor suited to the context. “It is grace indeed, even in the sight of God, to be able to suffer for God’s sake.” If he means: “Grace effects and shows its power in this, or the power and blessing of grace are exhibited in this,” παρἁ Θεῷ militates against his view.

For consciousness of God, etc—διὰ συνείδησιν Θεοῦ.—συνείδησις, the sharing of some knowledge, from σύνοιδα, I am conscious. Many take Θεοῦ as Genit. obj. on account of our knowledge of God, of His good will and pleasure; but it seems more natural to interpret: “because of the consciousness of God, because God knows all, because His eye sees all and because His arm punishes all evil,” cf. Colossians 3:23. In this sense Joseph suffered innocently; he thought, “how then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” Genesis 39:9. He suffered διὰ συνείδησιν Θεοῦ.—To take συνείδησις here in the sense of conscience is forbidden by the addition of Θεοῦ, although it often has that meaning, John 8:9; Acts 23:1; Acts 24:16; Romans 2:15; Romans 9:1; Romans 13:5; 1 Corinthians 8:7; 1 Corinthians 8:10; 1 Corinthians 10:25; 1 Corinthians 10:28; 2 Corinthians 1:12; 2 Corinthians 4:2; 1 Timothy 1:5; 1 Timothy 1:19; 1 Timothy 3:9; 2 Timothy 1:3; Titus 1:15; Hebrews 9:14; Hebrews 10:22; 1 Peter 3:16.—Weiss explains; “The consciousness of God, as that of Him who has ordained this subjection, should ever accompany and prompt us to the discharge of this duty. The idea συνείδησις is here too much narrowed and taken subjectively instead of objectively.”

ὑποφέρει equivalent to the following ὑπομένειν= to endure with constancy, 2 Timothy 3:11; 1 Corinthians 10:13, to bear up under afflictions and to carry them cheerfully on one’s shoulders.—λύπαι, events causing multiform grief.

1 Peter 2:20. When ye be buffeted for your faults—suffer patiently.—ἁμαρτάτοντες καἱ κολαφιζόμενοι ὑπομενεῖτε.—The antithesis of ἀδίκως πάσχειν—κολαφιζόμενοι=to beat with the fist (vulgo “box the ear”), if as malefactors and punished, you suffer afflictions patiently. [κολαφιζόμενοι; Bengel says: pœna servorum, eaque subita.—M.] The world may praise such conduct as courage and bravery, it will not give you glory before God.—Wrong: if the scourgings notwithstanding you persist in sinful courses; for the contrast is between merited suffering and martyr suffering. (Lachmann and Tischendorf read ποῖον γὰρ, but γὰρ is wanting in many MSS.).

1 Peter 2:21. For even hereunto were ye called,—namely, to do good and to endure with patience, 1 Peter 3:9, as we read, 1 Thessalonians 3:3 : “We are appointed, set thereunto,” Acts 14:22. The first reason of the endurance of wrongful sufferings and perseverance in well-doing was the favour of God; the second is the calling of Christians as a further inducement to which is mentioned the example of Christ. The words are primarily addressed to slaves, as Bengel explains: this belongs to your Christian calling, which finds you in the condition of slaves; but they may be applied to all Christians, as is evident from the adduced motive.

Because also Christ suffered for you.—καὶ Χριστὸς, even Christ, the wholly Innocent One, has suffered. καὶ refers to ἀδίκως πάσχων [Alford makes καὶ apply to ἔπαθεν ὐπὲρ ὑμῶν on the ground that the last two words carry with them the ἀγαθοποιῶν, as explained below, 1 Peter 2:24.—M.].—ἔπαθεν. Huss: “Peter does not say what Christ did suffer, his object being to intimate that Christ endured for us every kind of suffering. Herein then we are to imitate Him, viz.: in patiently carrying whatever is laid upon us.” As the disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord, he may not refuse to endure such sufferings.

ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν (Scholz and Tischendorf read ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν); ὑπὲρ may mean: in your stead, or for your benefit, or both. The last is probable, if reference be had not only to 1 Peter 2:22-23, but also to 1 Peter 2:24, cf. 1 Peter 3:18, where the vicarious character of the death of Jesus is unmistakably asserted. Winer remarks at p458 that ὑπὲρ sometimes touches closely upon ἀντί, because the agent, one acting for the benefit of another, in most instances becomes his substitute, cf. Galatians 3:13; Romans 5:7; Romans 14:15 : Matthew 20:28; John 15:13; John 10:15; John 6:51. The redemptive and typical nature of the sufferings of Christ are here intimately connected. Steiger justly asks: “What is it that makes the example of Christ obligatory to us, unless it be the fact that that typical suffering was at once and primarily a suffering for us, an offering of Christ and a benefit, engaging us to serve Him?”—This passage expresses in pregnant language the double idea: 1. You are obliged to obey Christ, because He suffered for you2. You are consequently called to innocent suffering, though you be guiltless, because also Christ, in suffering for you, suffered innocently and with the intent that in this respect you should imitate Him.

Leaving you—steps.—ὑπολιμπάνω another form of ὑπολείπω. Bengel remarks, “in abitu ad Patrum.”—ὑπογραμμός, 2 Maccabees 2:29, a pattern to write or draw by, a copy-head such as a writing-master would give to his pupils. This requires a steady hand and daily practice. Hence, pattern, copy, example. It is characteristic of this epistle, that it lays great stress on the pattern of Christ, cf. John 13:15; Matthew 11:29; Matthew 20:28 with 1 Peter 3:18; 1 Peter 4:1; 1 Peter 4:13.

ἴνα ἐπακολουθήοητε τοῖς ἴχνεσιν—ἴχνη, a footprint, also the heels of shoes. The figure of a copyhead passes into that of a guide, whose footprints travellers along a steep, narrow and slippery path must follow up step by step. The footprints of His readiness to suffer, of His gentleness and humility are particularly alluded to. ἴνα dependent on ἔπαθεν, not on ἐκλήθητε. The imitation and following of Christ consists especially in the daily taking up of the cross, [This passage is also imitated by Poly-carp, 100:8: Χριστὸς Ἰησοῦς ἀνήνεγκεν ἡμῶν τὰς ἁμαρτίας τῷ ἰδίῳ σώματι ἐπι τὸ ξύλον, ὃς ἁμαρτίαν οὐκ εποίησεν, οὐδὲ εὑρέθη σόλος ἐν τῷ στόματι αὐτοῦ · μμηταὶ οὖν γενώμεθα τῆς ὑπομονῆς αὐτοῦ….τοῦτον ἡμῖν τὸν ὑπογραμμὸν ἔθηκε σἰ ἑαυτοῦ.

Tertullian de Patientia, c3. “He Who is God, stooped to be born in the womb of His Mother, and waited patiently and grew up; and when grown up, was not impatient to be recognized as God. He was baptized by His servant, and repelled the tempter only by words. When He became a Teacher, He did not strive nor cry, nor did any one hear His voice in the streets. He did not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax. He scorned no man’s company; He shunned no man’s table. He conversed with publicans and sinners. He poured out water and washed His disciples’ feet. He would not injure the Samaritan village which did not receive Him, when His disciples called fire from heaven to consume it. He cured the unthankful; He withdrew from those who plotted against Him. He had the traitor constantly in His company and did not expose him. And when He is betrayed and is brought to execution, He is like a sheep which before his shearers is dumb, and a lamb that doth not open its mouth. He who, Lord of angelic Legions, did not approve the sword of Peter drawn in His defence, He is spit upon, scourged, mocked. Such long-suffering as His, is an example to all men, but is found in God alone.”—M.]

1 Peter 2:22. Who did no sin, etc.—This description of the innocent and patient suffering of Jesus is almost a literal quotation from the Septuagint version of Isaiah 53:9, the word ἁμαρτίαν, alone being substituted for ἀνομίαν. The passages Isaiah 1, 6; Isaiah 53:7, are more freely treated in 1 Peter 2:23. The servant of God there designated is therefore none other than the Messiah. His perfect sinlessness is even more explicitly affirmed in Hebrews 7:26; 2 Corinthians 5:21.

εὑρίσκω not absolutely like εἶναι, but: no guile could be discovered in or proved from His words, all watching and sifting notwithstanding, and yet He was condemned. See Winer p701, cf. James 3:2. Bengel notices the fitness of this exhortation to slaves, who were greatly liable to the temptation of deceiving, slandering and menacing their fellow-slaves.

1 Peter 2:23. Who being reviled—threatened not.—He fulfilled Proverbs 20:22; Proverbs 24:29; He did what David had done, 2 Samuel 16:10, etc. The strong and bitter words, which Jesus had sometimes to use, Matthew 7:5; Matthew 16:3; Matthew 22:18; Matthew 23:13; Matthew 23:33; Matthew 12:34, were not the utterings of personal hatred, nor retorts of insults heaped upon Him, but necessary evidences of the truth in order to cast a sting into the heart of His adversaries, and if possible to save them.

But delivered—righteously.—The second part of the sentence contains a climax. He even abstained from threatening, while He saw into the impending judgments, παραδίδου δὲ, He committed His cause to God, not however by invoking the vengeance of God on His enemies, but by praying for their conversion and pardon. If they persisted in repelling the overtures of grace, He left him to the justice of God. In this sense He said: “I seek not mine own glory: there is One that seeketh and judgeth.” John 8:50.—Jeremiah spoke differently in the spirit of the Old Testament: “Let me see Thy vengeance upon them, for unto Thee have I revealed my cause.” Jeremiah 11:20.

To Him that judgeth righteously, otherwise than the anger of the injured part, and the violence of ungodly enemies would make it. It is both a great consolation and an invitation to leave vengeance to Him, cf. Romans 12:19; Romans 2:6-11; 1 Peter 3:9; 2 Thessalonians 1:6; Luke 18:7-8; Luke 9:55. Lechler remarks, that the Apostle’s language was giving one the impression of coming in contact with an eye-witness of the arrest, of the trial, of the rough ill treatment and even of the crucifixion of the Lord. [Calvin has the following: “Qui sibi ad expetendam vindictam indulgent, non judiciis officium Deo concedunt, sed quodam modo facere volunt suum carnificem.—M.]

1 Peter 2:24. Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree.—This verse is connected with ὑπερ ὑμῶν of 1 Peter 2:21, and defines it more particularly; it also brings the antithesis to 1 Peter 2:22 to a climax. Not only had He no sin, or did not sin Himself, but He bore our sins, etc.—ἀνήνεγκεν. The exegesis is determined by Isaiah 53which evidently was before the Apostle’s mind. In that chapter occur the words נָשָׂא, סָבַל, φέρειν. The LXX. render: τῷ μώλωπι αὐτοῦ ἡμεῖς ἰάθημεν; in 1 Peter 2:12, καὶ αὐτὸς ἁμαρτίας πολλῶν ἀνήνεγκεν; in 1 Peter 2:10, “When His soul shall make an offering for sin.” All exegetical attempts to explain away the idea of substitution and the system of sacrifice closely connected with it, are altogether futile. As in the Old Testament, the expressions, “to carry one’s sin,” or, “to bear one’s iniquity,” are equivalent to “suffer the punishment and guilt of one’s sin,” Leviticus 20:17; Leviticus 20:19; Leviticus 24:15; Ezekiel 23:35, so “to carry another’s sin,” denotes “to suffer the punishment and guilt of another,” or “to suffer vicariously,” Leviticus 3:19, 17; Numbers 14:33; Lamentations 5:7; Ezekiel 18:19-20. Can this be done in any other way than by the imputation of the guilt and sin of others, as was the case in the sin and guilt-offerings? Weiss is quite arbitrary in persisting to exclude the idea of sacrifice from Isaiah 53, for 1 Peter 2:10 clearly refers to it. From a Jewish point of view such a separation of the doctrine of substitution from the idea of sacrifice is simply impossible, cf. John 1:29; Leviticus 16:21-22.—The juxtaposition of ἡμῶν and αὐτός both here and in Isaiah 53is not insignificant, but gives prominence to the idea of substitution. Calvin says: “As under the law the sinner, in order to become free from sin, offered a sacrifice in his stead, so Christ took upon Himself the curse which we have merited by our sins in order to expiate it before God.” Calov. “The cross of Christ was the lofty altar to which, when He was about to offer Himself, He ascended laden with our sins.”

ἀναφέρειν ἐπὶ τὸ ξύλον=to carry up to the tree of the cross and thus to carry away and blot out, cf. James 2:21; Hebrews 9:28. The expression “tree” for “cross” is by no means undesigned, but selected as in Acts 5:30; Acts 10:39, with reference to Deuteronomy 21:23, cf. Galatians 3:13, where it is said of him that is hanged on a tree, “he is accursed of God.”

τὰς ἁμαρτίας not sin-offerings or offerings for our sins, a rendering which is inadmissible on grammatical grounds, but the guilt and punishment of our sins;—these He took upon Himself and expiated them, cf. Colossians 2:14; Galatians 3:13; 2 Corinthians 5:21.

In His own body, cf. Ephesians 2:15. This expression is far from singular in connection with the fact that Christ bore the punishment of sin also in His holy soul, provided we start from the idea of sacrifice and assume that Peter was comparing the body of Christ with the body of the slain victim. Gerhard says: “The body is mentioned in particular, because it was visibly suspended from the cross, and because His bodily sufferings were more immediately perceptible by the senses.” Weiss tries to find a reference to the words of the institution of the Lord’s Supper—but this seems to be rather far-fetched. How this carrying of the punishment of man’s sin—which goes far beyond a compassionating entering into the feelings of our sinful misery—was possible must ever remain a wonderful mystery, on which the Petrine and Johannean doctrine of Christ as the real and original Head of mankind, sheds only a feeble light.

That having died to sins, we should live to the righteousness of Him.—Calov. “Peter combines the two benefits of the death of Christ, 1st, by it our sins are expiated, and 2 d, in virtue of it sin is killed in us. We add, that the combination gives prominence to holiness as the end and aim of the atonement.

ἀπογίνομαι=ἀποθνήσκω, cf. Romans 6:2. Bengel remarks: “γενέσθαι τινὸς means to become somebody’s slave, ἀπό denotes removal. The body of Christ was removed, taken away from that tree, up to which He had carried our sins; thus we should remove ourselves from sin, become free from it.” This explanation is more acute than satisfactory. The negative, dying unto sin, must go hand in hand with the positive. The connection of holiness and renovation with the death of Jesus is not indicated here, but may be supplied by recollecting that the gift of the Holy Ghost and the power of faith were acquired by the death of Jesus. Thereby the vital strength of sin is broken and the desire of righteousness planted in the soul.—ζῇν τῇ δικαιοσύνῃ to live in the service of righteousness, in keeping the commandments of God and Christ instead of the former service of sin. Bengel: “The whole of righteousness is one, sin manifold.”

By whose stripe ye were healed.—Μώλωψ, a wound like that inflicted on slaves by scourging, a stripe or rather the weal left by a stripe. The Singular is used here as in Isaiah 53; the sacred body of Jesus was so tortured that it was, as it were, only one wound or stripe.—οὖ τῷ μώλωπι αὐτοῦ. (Lachmann and Griesbach. omit αὐτοῦ; Tischendorf retains it as the more difficult reading in his last edition). More emphatic than the relative by itself; supply τούτου before it.—Ἰάθητε. The apostle passes from the first person to the second, resuming his direct address to Christian slaves. So also at 1 Peter 2:25; the whole section from 1 Peter 2:18-25 is addressed to them. μώλωψ and ἰᾶσθαι suggest the secondary thought: You have to endure no kind of sufferings and wounds, but Christ, your Lord, endured them also; your Master exacts not more from you than He has borne Himself; He bears all in your stead in order to save you; how much more ought you, who are sinful, quietly and patiently to endure suffering?—But how shall we solve the prophetical and apostolical paradox, that Christ’s stripe is our healing? Healing is here primarily not to be understood as a sinner’s entire restoration to the image of God, else the preceding exhortation would not have been necessary, but as designating the healing of the stings of conscience, caused by sin; but this involves of course the principle that entire healing is rendered possible. “Sins, committed against, our conscience, hurt the soul and leave scars which ever and anon open afresh, sting the conscience and hurt the soul.” Steinhofer.—These wounds of your soul were healed when by faith in the atoning death of Jesus you received forgiveness. He suffered the smiters to draw long furrows on His back, Psalm 129:3, to wound His head and face, His hands and feet, and to pierce His heart that in our stead, as the Head for the members, He might make atonement.”—

“Thou didst suffer stripe and weal,

Treatment full of shame and pain,

That my plague thou mightest heal,

And my peace forever gain.”

[German Hymn,—

Du hast lassen Wunden schlagen,

Dich erbärmlich richten zu,

Um zu heilen meine Plagen,

Um zu setzen mich in Ruh!—M.]

Tauler:—“He had to die that we might live: He was afflicted that we might rejoice; He was wounded that we might be healed: He shed His blood that we might be cleansed: the blood of the Physician was shed and made the patient’s remedy.”

1 Peter 2:25. For ye were straying like sheep.—The Apostle adds how and from what state they came to this healing. For ye were straying like sheep. A sheep is a stupid animal: so is the sinner, repelling salvation and straying in the ways of corruption. Sheep, as Aristotle observes, are subject to as many diseases as man. Stray sheep, separated from the shepherd and the flock, lack food and care, are exposed to many dangers, may become a prey to the wolf or fall into some abyss. The expression is taken from Isaiah 53, and the figure is of frequent occurrence in the Old Testament, Numbers 27:17; 1 Kings 22:17; Psalm 119:176; Ezekiel 34:5; Ezekiel 34:11, and in the New, Luke 15:4, etc.; John 10:15 etc.; Matthew 9:36. It may have been particularly appropriate to the case of slaves of the dispersion who often changed masters and their place of domicile. Straying and sickness are often conjoined. “The figure of stray sheep alludes to original union with God and represents straying as alienation from God in consequence of sin.” John 10:12. Wiesinger.

But ye are now brought back (from the wilderness of sin, error and death) to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.—ἐπεστράφητε, ye have been converted and have suffered yourselves to be converted. By faith you have laid hold of the atonement made for all and have returned from your wanderings. Christ is the arch-Shepherd, the true, the good Shepherd, promised already in the Old Testament, Isaiah 40:11; Ezekiel 34:23; Ezekiel 37:24; Psalm 23:1; cf. John 10, 11; Hebrews 13:20; 1 Peter 5:4. He even gives His life for the sheep, John 10:12. The Apostle turns to that side of the pastoral relation of Christ which exhibits Him as the Bishop and Guardian of souls.—ἐπίσκοπος is used of God in the LXX. version of Job 20:29; the phrase is however more probably taken from Ezekiel 34:11-12, where we read: “For thus saith the Lord God, Behold I, even I, will both search my sheep and seek them out (ἐπισκέψομαι). As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.” He is ever careful of the salvation of His sheep and seeks to protect them from destruction. He is the Shepherd and Guardian of souls.—ψυχῶν not without special significance as it relates to slaves, and servants who are so often treated, as if they had no immortal soul, and who may therefore so much the more readily forget that they have a soul which they may lose, and that with the soul lost, all else is lost.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The Divine origin of Christianity may also be demonstrated by the fact that it enters into and hallows every relation of life and descends to the most degraded of men and to the lowest conditions of society.

2. The glory of the Christian vocation is peculiarly manifested by endurance of wrong and indefatigable well-doing under it.

3. Plato anticipated the ideal of such a righteous man in the following passage of his second book on the State: “Without doing any wrong, he must have the greatest appearance of unrighteousness in order to be thoroughly approved in righteousness, since even slander and its consequences cannot move him, and although all his life-long considered unrighteous, he is yet righteous. The righteous, thus minded will be bound, scourged, tortured, blinded in both eyes and finally, having endured every possible evil, he will be hung.” Plato’s ideal and conception find their strongest fulfilment and reality in Christianity.

4. The exhortation that we should copy in ourselves, the pattern which Christ has left us in His life and death is enclosed forwards and backwards, 1 Peter 2:21 and 1 Peter 2:24, by the recollection that He was crucified for us. This is the impelling motive which at once enables us to imitate Christ and to do it cheerfully.

5. The vicarious sacrificial death of Jesus, based on Isaiah 53, is here affirmed with so much clearness that even rationalistic adversaries are unable to resist it, cf. Wegschneider, Instit. p407, 6th ed. How we are healed by the wounds of Jesus, is a mystery which reason cannot fully solve, and to which we have to submit by faith in the clear testimony of Holy Writ. “Jesus, who by His blood has effected our reconciliation, is Himself the Physician who heals our souls.” Even Dr. Baur is constrained to admit that the idea of substitution cannot be denied in such passages of the New Testament as Romans 4:25; Galatians 1:4; Romans 8:3; 1 Corinthians 15:3; 2 Corinthians 5:19, that the preposition ὑπέρ denotes both the idea of substitution and what takes place for the benefit of man; that these two points are passing the one into the other, so as to interpenetrate each other, but that the latter is decidedly predominant; that according to the Apostle’s doctrine the justice of God had to be satisfied by an actual atonement for the punishment of sin; that viewing the death of Jesus from the stand-point of Divine justice, is only the outer side of the event and its merely judicial aspect, but that the inmost ground of the Divinely-made institution is the grace of God, Romans 3:24, 2 Corinthians 5:19, and a point so much more extensive than the other as to constrain us to regard only as an emanation of Divine grace whatever Divine justice may claim of the death of Jesus; that it was grace that God would not allow men to be punished in their own persons, but in their substitute. See Baur, Lehrbegriff des Ap. Paulus p541. This is certainly a wonderful testimony from the lips of an unbeliever.

6. The medicine has been prepared by His wounds, the balsam has been cleared under the press of the cross.—“The blood of Jesus is the most precious balsam with which Jesus washes and heals our wounds, as the good Samaritan poured oil and wine in the wounds of the bleeding and half-dead man to lessen their smart and to heal them. There is vital strength in this crimson oil whereby we are fully healed.” Steinhofer, Evang. Glaubensgrund, p434.

7. Observe the important distinction between the atonement as the objective act of God in Christ in virtue of which salvation has been acquired for and is offered to sinners, and the subjective appropriation of salvation by means of conversion. The words of Paul: “Ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God,” 1 Corinthians 6:11, apply only to those who have sought Christ in penitence and faith and laid hold of His merits.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

How may the much-lamented difficulties relating to domestics be remedied? 1. By the return of the fear of God into the houses and hearts of men; 2. By masters and servants entering upon the imitation of Christ.—The secret of partaking more and more of the grace of God.—The Christian call, 1. To a state of grace, in order to be and live in it; 2. To suffer innocently and patiently; 3. To persevere in well-doing.—The Christian’s consolation in innocent suffering.—Righteousness of life must flow from righteousness by faith.—The sufferings of Christ for us and before us.—The power of Christ’s example.—The great change in conversion.—Man a stray sheep, while excluded from the calling of God in Christ.

Starke:—God ordains, that one should rule and another serve.—Bad masters are for the trial and perhaps also for the chastisement of servants.—Masters are often decried as whimsical for desiring propriety and right in things spiritual and temporal. Servants, be ashamed and do not slander your godly masters, but learn to be wise and to do all things right after the will of God and their mind—Many masters may deal ill with their people, but if they endure wrong patiently, attend to their service in the fear of God, pray diligently for their masters, they are God’s people and God will be their helper and reward, Genesis 31:12.—As it is the shame of servants to be punished for ill-doing, so it is their veritable honour and glory before God and man if they endure wrong innocently and patiently, 1 Peter 4:15-16.—Christians are not called to voluptuousness and good days but to the cross, 1 Peter 2:21.—We should often look at ourselves in the sufferings of Christ, as if they were a mirror, that we may be glorified into the same image, Hebrews 12:3.—Christ is our Gift and Pattern, our Mediator and Head, our Shepherd and Light. What is our duty? To believe and to obey (follow) John 8:12.—The words, the ways and the works of Christ are, as it were, living letters and footprints for us to copy and follow, Hebrews 12:6.—If you have a just cause and yet are oppressed, be still and persevere, God will maintain your cause, Psalm 94:15.—Away with foolish sacrifices for the living or the dead! The one sacrifice of our High-priest Jesus Christ on the cross is sufficient for the reconciliation of the whole world, Hebrews 9:12; Hebrews 9:26; Hebrews 10:11-12.—The exaltation and glory of Christians blossom forth from the cross.—Sin was sacrificed and slain by Christ that it should also be dead in us. Where it lives, the virtue of the death of Christ is as yet unfelt, Romans 6:6.—Sin is like a maze: whoso enters the same cannot easily find his way out.—Whoso remains in the wilderness out of Christ (extra) must at last fall into the abyss of hell and eternally despair, Acts 4:12; Psalm 119:176.

Augustine:—“We must not cease to hope for the wicked, but rather pray for them the more diligently, that they may become good, because the number of saints has at all times been increased by the number of the ungodly. Those who are goats to-day, may be sheep to-morrow, those who are weeds to-day, to-morrow may be wheat.”

Kapff:—What is necessary in conversion? 1. That we should be healed by the wounds of Jesus2. That we should die to sin and live to righteousness.

[Leighton:

1 Peter 2:18. It is a thing of much concernment, the right ordering of families; for all other societies, civil and religious are made up of these. Villages and cities and churches and commonwealths and kingdoms, are but a collection of families: and therefore such as these are, for the most part, such must the whole societies predominantly be. One particular house is but a very small part of a kingdom, yet the wickedness and lewdness of that house, be it but the meanest in it, as of servants one or more; and though it seem but a small thing, yet goes in to make up that heap of sin that provokes the wrath of God and draws on public calamity.—Servants1. Their duty (be subject); 2. Its extent (to the froward); 3. Its principle (for conscience toward God).—The eagle may fly high and yet have its eye down upon some carrion on earth; even so a man may be standing on the earth and on some low part of it, and yet have his eye upon heaven and be contemplating it. That which one man cannot at all see in another, is the very thing that is most considerable in their action, namely, the principle whence they flow and the end to which they tend. This is the form and life of actions, that by which they are earthly or heavenly. Whatsoever be the matter of them, the spiritual mind hath that alchymy indeed, of burning base metals unto gold, earthly employments into heavenly.— 1 Peter 2:21. The particular things that Christians are here said to be called to, are suffering, as their lot, and patience, as their duty, even under the most unjust and undeserved sufferings.—He that aims high, shoots the higher for it, though he shoot not so high as he aims. This is that which ennobles the spirit of a Christian, the propounding of this our high pattern, the example of Jesus Christ.— 1 Peter 2:24. The eye of a godly man is not fixed on the false sparkling of the world’s pomp, honour and wealth. It is dead to them, being quite dazzled with a greater beauty. The grass looks fine in the morning, when it is set with those liquid pearls, the drops of dew that shine upon it; but if you can look but a little while on the body of the sun, and then look down again, the eye is as it were dead; it is not that faint shining on the earth that it thought so gay before: and as the eye is blinded and dies to it, so within a few hours that gayety quite vanishes and dies itself.—Faith looks so steadfastly on its suffering Saviour, that, as they say (Intellectus fit illud quod intelligit), it makes the soul like Him, assimilates and conforms it to His death, as the Apostle speaks. That which Papists fabulously say of some of their saints, that they received the impression of the wounds of Christ in their body, is true in a spiritual sense of the soul of every one that is indeed a saint and a believer; it takes the very print of His death by beholding Him and dies to sin, and then takes that of His rising again, and lives to righteousness; as it applies it to justify, so to mortify, drawing virtue from it. Thus said one, “Christ aimed at this in all those sufferings that with so much love He went through; and shall I disappoint Him and not serve His end?”—M.]

[On the duties of Christian servants see Bp. Fleetwood’s “Sermons on relative duties.”—M.]

[Jortin:

1 Peter 2:18. “The law of nature knows no such thing as slavery, for by nature all men are free and equal; but by the civil laws, and by the practice of nations, it was established, and still continues among those who know not the Gospel; and the more is the shame and the pity, it is to be found in some places where Christianity is professed. The religion of Christ, when it first made its progress in the world, left the civil laws of nations, in a great measure, as it found them, lest by altering or repealing them, it should bring confusion and disturbance into human society; but, as by its own genius and tendency, it leads men gently back to the precepts of nature and equity, to kindness and to mercy, it put an end by degrees, in most civilized nations, to that excessive distance and difference between masters and slaves, which owed its origin to outrage and war, to violence and calamity; so that in Christian countries the service which is performed is usually, as it ought to be, voluntary and by agreement. But what the writers of the New Testament have said concerning slaves, holds true concerning hired servants and all those who are employed in other denominations under a master, that they discharge their office modestly, diligently and willingly, and act with faithfulness and integrity in every thing that is committed to them.”—M.]

[Macknight:—“In this verse the Apostle establishes one of the most noble and important principles of morality, namely, that our obligation to relative duties does not depend, either on the character of the persons to whom they are to be performed, or on their performance of the duties which they owe to us, but on the unalterable relations of things established by God.”—M.]

[Bp. Horne:

1 Peter 2:21. “Our Lord was ‘both a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life.’ (Collect for second Sunday after Easter.) By His sacrifice He procured us grace to follow His example, which otherwise would have been proposed to us in vain; by His example He showed us how to make a right use of that grace, which, unless we do, it is given in vain. So that if he who regards Him as an example, and not as a Redeemer, will be lost, because he cannot follow Him; he who takes Him for a Redeemer, and not for an example, will be lost, because he does not follow Him, since redemption was in order to holiness; and although it be most certain that without Christ no man can attain unto holiness, yet it is no less certain that “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” He only is fully and effectually redeemed, and has evidence to assure him of it, who bears stamped on his soul the image and superscription of his Saviour.”—M.]

[Dean Stanhope:

1 Peter 2:24-25. “A consideration of the purpose for which our Saviour suffered should be a matter of great consolation to us, when we meditate upon His sufferings, and cause us to mingle tears of joy with those of grief. The latter we should be insensible not to pay to the excruciating agonies of our beloved Master; the former we should be unthankful and cruel to ourselves not to give to the happy effects of the misery which He so graciously condescended to undergo for us. But, to make both effectual, let us, inflamed with zeal and gratitude and love unfeigned, endeavour for our own particular, and most devoutly beg for the rest, as the best of Churches teaches us, that the innumerable benefits of this precious blood-shedding may have their full extent and free course; that “we and the whole Church of Christ may receive remission of sins” and all the other blessed effects of His passion; that Hebrews, who “hath made a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world,” would cause His way to be known, and show His saving health to the yet dark and unbelieving nations; and that all, who do already know it, may walk worthy of their knowledge and of the high vocation wherewith they are called. And O! that the death tasted by our Redeemer for every man may be effectual to the saving of every man! Even Song of Solomon, blessed Jesus, “by thine agony and bloody sweat, by thy cross and passion, good Lord, deliver us.”—M.]

Footnotes