1 Peter 2:14

1 Peter 2:14. or to governors, i.e administrators of provinces, procurators, propraetors, proconsuls, as also Asiarchs and other officials. Wycliffe renders it ‘dukes;' Tyndale, Cranmer, the Genevan and the Rhemish, ‘rulers.'

as sent through him, that is, through the king; not, as some (including even Calvin) strangely imagine, through the Lord, a reference precluded not only by the parallelism with ‘as supreme,' but also by the choice of the peculiar preposition ‘through.' These governors should have our submission, because they are the king's delegates.

for punishment of evil-doors and for commendation of well-doers. The object, with a view to which they are sent with their delegated powers, is itself a reason for yielding them respect and subjection. They are meant to be on the side of order and right, and therefore on the side of God. The idea of their office is the repression (the word is a very strong one = vengeance, as Wycliffe puts it; it is rendered ‘revenge' in the Rhemish Version) of the evil, and the protection and praise, i.e the honourable recognition of the good (this last term, literally = well-doers, occurring only here in the New Testament). Peter says nothing of the questions which may be forced upon the Christian when the idea of the office is perverted, or when the governor sinks the office in his person and personal ends. Neither does he suggest that the duty of submission extends the length of abstention from the use of ordinary civil rights in withstanding the unjust action of rulers. Paul made the most of his rights as a Roman citizen, and carried his appeal from governor to Caesar (Acts 16:37; Acts 22:25; Acts 25:11). He speaks, nevertheless, of the heathen magistrate as the ‘minister of God,' and of the duty of being ‘subject not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake' (Romans 13:5). The rule that injures is to be obeyed until it can be amended. The rule that offends morality and conscience is not to be obeyed; yet its penalties are to be submitted to.