1 Peter 2:14

Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. GOVERNORS - subordinate to the emperor; delegated by Caesar to preside over provinces. FOR THE PUNISHMENT. No tyranny ever has been so unprincipled that some equity was not maintained in it: however corrupt a government be, God never suffers it to be so much so as not to be better than anarchy (Calvin). Although bad kings often oppress, yet that is scarcely ever done by public authority (and it is of public authority that Peter speaks), except under the mask of right. Tyranny harasses many, but anarchy overwhelms the whole state (Horneius). The only justifiable exception is where obedience to the earthly king involves disobedience to the King of kings. PRAISE OF THEM THAT DO WELL. Every government recognizes the excellence of Christian subjects. T...

14_Or unto governors, _or, _Whether to presidents_. He designates every kind of magistrates, as though he had said, that there is no kind of government to which we ought not to submit. He confirms this by saying that they are God’s ministers; for they who apply _him _to the king, are greatly mistaken. There is then a common reason, which extols the authority of all magistrates, that they rule by the command of God, and are sent by him. It hence follows (as Paul also teaches us) that they resist God, who do not obediently submit to a power ordained by him. _For the punishment _This is the second reason why it behoves us reverently to regard and to respect civil authority, and that is, because it has been appointed by the Lord for the common good of mankind; for we must be extremely barbarous and brutal, if the public good is not regarded by us. This, then, in short, is what Peter means, t...

13-17 A Christian conversation must be honest; which it cannot be, if there is not a just and careful discharge of all relative duties: the apostle here treats of these distinctly. Regard to those duties is the will of God, consequently, the Christian's duty, and the way to silence the base slanders of ignorant and foolish men. Christians must endeavour, in all relations, to behave aright, that they do not make their liberty a cloak or covering for any wickedness, or for the neglect of duty; but they must remember that they are servants of God....

Verse 14. _OR UNTO GOVERNORS_] By _king as supreme_, the Roman _emperor_ is meant; and by _governors_, ηγεμοσιν, are meant, leaders, governors, presidents, proconsuls, and other chief magistrates, sent by him into the provinces dependent on the Roman empire. _FOR THE PUNISHMENT OF EVIL DOERS_] This was the object of their mission; they were to punish delinquents, and encourage and protect the virtuous....

OR UNTO GOVERNORS - Subordinate officers, appointed by the chief magistrate, over provinces. Perhaps Roman proconsuls are here particularly intended. AS UNTO THEM THAT ARE SENT BY HIM - By the king, or the Roman emperor. They represent the supreme power. FOR THE PUNISHMENT OF EVIL DOERS - One of the leading ends of government. “The Roman governors had the power of life and death in such conquered provinces as those mentioned in 1 Peter 1:1“ - Doddridge. Ulpian, the celebrated Roman lawyer, who flourished two hundred years after Christ, thus describes the power of the governors of the Roman provinces: “It is the duty of a good and vigilant president to see to it that his province be peaceable and quiet. And that he ought to make diligent search after sacrilegious persons, robbers,

EXPOSITIONS 1 PETER 2:1 WHEREFORE LAYING ASIDE. Those who would wear the white robe of regeneration must lay aside the filthy garments (Zechariah 3:3) of the old carnal life. So St. Paul bids us put off the old man and put on the new (Ephesians 4:22, Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:8, Colossians 3:10; comp. also Romans 13:14

OR UNTO GOVERNORS,.... Inferior magistrates, such as were under the Roman emperor; as proconsuls, procurators, c. such as Pontius Pilate, Felix, and Festus, who had under the emperor the government of particular nations, provinces, and cities: AS UNTO THEM THAT ARE SENT BY HIM either by the king, the Roman emperor, by whom they were sent, from whom they received their commission, and derived their authority, under whom they acted, and to whom they were accountable; or by God, by whom they are ordained, and whose ministers they are, and for the ends hereafter mentioned; so that this contains an argument or reason why they should be submitted to: FOR THE PUNISHMENT OF EVILDOERS; the breakers of the laws of God and men, on whom punishment is to be inflicted, by the civil magistrates, for the breach of them, by lines, scourgings, imprisonment, and death itself, according as the crimes are:...

1 Peter 2:1. _Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious._ When the apostle describes us under the character of «newborn babes,» he would have us lay aside all that is inconsistent with that character. Newborn children have no malice; they have no guile or craftiness; they have no hypocrisies, nor envies, nor evil speakings. They are clear from all these evils; would God we were as clear as they are! It would be better to be infants, not speaking at all, than to be among those who speak evil. It would be better to begin life over again than to live long enough to have gained a treasure of malice, and a hoard of cunning, and to have learned the tricks of hypocrisy. Let us be as simple as little c

III. CHRIST THE PATTERN FOR HIS SAINTS CHAPTER 2:11-3:9 _ 1. Abstinence and submission (1 Peter 2:11)_ 2. Christ the pattern for those who suffer (1 Peter 2:18) 3. Glorifying Christ in the marriage relation (1 Peter 3:1) 4. True Christian character (1 Peter 3:8) 1 Peter 2:11 The first exhortation is addressed to them as strangers and pilgrims. Such all true believers are. Because we belong to a heavenly home we cannot be at home in a world which lieth in the wicked one, which has cast out the Lord of glor

1 Peter 2:13. As Jesus had given them an example so were they to live in all dutiful obedience to human authority from the emperor to his representatives, since they constituted the bulwarks of the State. Their service was not mainly to the commonwealth of men, but to the City of God. Of this they were free men, but for that reason they must act so as to commend it their Emperor had as His servants men whose freedom spelled obedience. It is interesting to compare and contrast the view here taken of civil authority with that of Paul in Romans 13 (pp. 774 f.). The State is a human institution to this writer, while to Paul it is a Divine one, and the magistrate himself a minister of God. St. Peter, throughout the epistle, maintains that God is King, but rules through Law. His frame of mind is constitutional; St. Paul, the Roman citizen, is imperialist both in politics and in theology (Bigg)...