1 Peter 2:18

Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. SERVANTS, [ oiketai (G3610)] - 'household servants:' not [ douloi (G1401)] 'slaves;' including freedmen remaining in their master's house. Masters were not commonly Christians: he therefore mentions only servants' duties. These were often persecuted by unbelieving masters. Peter's object is to teach them submission, whatever the master's character is. Paul not having this design, includes masters' duties. BE SUBJECT, [ hupotassomenoi (G5293)] - being subject: a particular instance of the general exhortation,...

18_Servants, be subject _Though this is a particular admonition, yet it is connected with what is gone before, as well as the other things which follow; for the obedience of servants to masters, and of wives also to their husbands, forms a part of civil or social subjection. (30) He first would have servants to be subject _with all fear; _by which expression he means that sincere and willing reverence, which they acknowledge by their office to be due. He then sets this fear in opposition to dissimulation as well as to forced subjection; for an eye-service ( ὀφθαλμοδουλεία, Colossians 3:22,) as Paul calls it, is the opposite of this fear; and further, if servants clamor against severe treatment, being ready to throw off the yoke if they could, they cannot be said properly to fear. In short, fear arises fro

18-25 Servants in those days generally were slaves, and had heathen masters, who often used them cruelly; yet the apostle directs them to be subject to the masters placed over them by Providence, with a fear to dishonour or offend God. And not only to those pleased with reasonable service, but to the severe, and those angry without cause. The sinful misconduct of one relation, does not justify sinful behaviour in the other; the servant is bound to do his duty, though the master may be sinfully froward and perverse. But masters should be meek and gentle to their servants and inferiors. What glory or distinction could it be, for professed Christians to be patient when corrected for their faults? But if when they behaved well they were ill treated by proud and passionate heathen masters, yet bore it without peevish complaints, or purposes of revenge, and persevered in their duty, this woul...

Verse 18. _SERVANTS_, BE _SUBJECT_] Ephesians 6:5; _"_Colossians 3:22_"_; and _"_Titus 2:9_"_. _WITH ALL FEAR_] With all submission and reverence. _THE GOOD AND GENTLE_] Those who are ever just in their commands, never requiring more work than is necessary or proper, and always allowing sufficient _food_ and sufficient _time_. _THE FROWARD._] σκολιοις. The crooked, perverse, unreasonable morose, and austere. Your time belongs to your master; obey him in every thing that is not sinful; if he employs you about unreasonable or foolish things, let him answer for it. He may waste you

SERVANTS, BE SUBJECT TO YOUR MASTERS - On the duty here enjoined, see the notes at Ephesians 6:5. The Greek word used here (οἰκέται oiketai) is not the same which is employed in Ephesians, (δοῦλοι douloi.) The word here means properly “domestics” - those employed about a house, or living in the same house - from οἶκος oikos, “house.” These persons might have been slaves, or might not. The word would apply to them, whether they were hired, or whether they were owned as slaves. The word should not and cannot be employed to prove that slavery existed in the churches to which Peter wrote, and still less to prove that he approved of slavery, or regarded it as a good institution. The exhortation her

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

SERVANTS, BE SUBJECT TO YOUR MASTERS,.... This was another notion of the Jews, that because they were the seed of Abraham, they ought not to be the servants of any; and particularly such as were believers in Christ thought they ought not to serve unbelieving masters, nor indeed believing ones, because they were equally brethren in Christ with them; hence the Apostle Peter, here, as the Apostle Paul frequently elsewhere, inculcates this duty of servants to their masters; see 1 Corinthians 7:20 2 Timothy 2:9 the manner in which they are to be subject to them is, WITH ALL FEAR; with reverence to their persons, strict regard to their commands, faithfulness in any trust reposed in them, diligence in the discharge of their duty, and carefulness of offending them: and all this,...

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

This is one of the noblest passages in the NT _on_ the real meaning of service. It raised the position of slave at one moment to the highest honour. A man could take all degradation out of it, for he might put into his slavery the whole spirit of Jesus. With exquisite reminiscences of prophetic language and touches of personal experience the writer sketches Christ's life and death of ministry, which wrought righteousness and healing. So might their lives, thus ordered, bring a new reign of purity, sweetness, and well-ordered power in the world (and they did!). All this they know, for the wanderers slaves of sin have returned to One who is Shepherd and Guardian. _The_ Master transforms all service. Catching His spirit they can become gentle even to the harshest taskmaster, and rejoice in such an opportunity. _Cf._ p. 649. 1 PETER 2:19. FOR CONSCIENCE TOWARD is more accura