1 Peter 2:12

having your conversation honest among the Gentiles On "conversation," see note on chap. 1 Peter 1:15. There is perhaps no better equivalent for the Greek word than "honest;" but it carries with it the thought of a nobler, more honourable, form of goodness than the English adjective. The special stress laid on the conduct of the disciples "among the Gentiles" confirms the view taken throughout these notes that the Epistle is addressed mainly to those of the Asiatic Churches who were by birth or adoption of "the Circumcision."

that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers It is not without significance that St Peter uses the same word as had been used by the chief priests of our Lord (John 18:30). This Epistle (here, and 1 Peter 2:14; 1 Peter 3:16; 1 Peter 4:15) is the only book in the New Testament, with the exception of the passage just referred to, in which the word occurs. The words indicate the growth of a widespread feeling of dislike shewing itself in calumny. So in Acts 28:22 the disciples of Christ are described as "a sect everywhere spoken against." The chief charge at this time was probably that of "turning the world upside down" (Acts 17:6), i.e. of revolutionary tendencies, and this view is confirmed by the stress laid on obedience to all constituted authority in the next verse. With this were probably connected, as the sequel shews (1 Peter 2:18, chap. 1 Peter 3:1), the accusations of introducing discord into families, setting slaves against their masters, wives against their husbands. The more monstrous calumnies of worshipping an ass's head, of Thyesteian banquets of human flesh, and orgies of foulest license, were probably of later date.

they may by your good works, which they shall behold The verb which St Peter uses is an unusual one, occurring in the New Testament only here and in chap. 1 Peter 3:2. The use of the cognate noun in the "eye-witnesses" of 2 Peter 1:16 may be noted as a coincidence pointing to identity of authorship. The history of the word as applied originally to those who were initiated in the third or highest order of the Eleusinian mysteries is not without interest. If we can suppose the Apostle to have become acquainted with that use of it, or even with the meaning derived from the use, we can imagine him choosing the word rather than the simple verb for "seeing" to express the thought that the disciples were as a "spectacle" (1 Corinthians 4:9; Hebrews 10:33) to the world around them, and that those who belonged to that world were looking on with a searching and unfriendly gaze.

glorify God in the day of visitation The usage of the Old Testament leaves it open whether the day in which God visits men is one of outward blessings as in Job 10:12; Luke 1:43, or of chastisement as in Isaiah 10:3. The sense in which the term is used by St Peter was probably determined by our Lord's use of "the time of thy visitation" in Luke 19:44. There it is manifestly applied to the "accepted time," the season in which God was visiting His people, it might be by chastisements, as well as by the call to repentance and the offer of forgiveness. And this, we can scarcely doubt, is its meaning here also. There is a singular width of charity in St Peter's language. He anticipates "a day of visitation," a time of calamities, earthquakes, pestilences, famines, wars and rumours of wars, such as his Lord had foretold (Matthew 24:6-7), but his hope is not that the slanderers may then be put to shame and perish, but that they may then "glorify God" by seeing how in the midst of all chaos and disorder, the disciples of Christ were distinguished by works that were nobly good, by calmness, obedience, charity.