1 Peter 2:15-16

James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary - 1 Peter 2:16

THE AMBITION OF LIFE‘Servants of God.’ 1 Peter 2:16 I wish to set before you service as the great object and ambition of life. There can be no more princely motto than this ‘I serve.’ I. Service is the only true measure of greatness.—Run your minds over the good men of the world, and ask why it is that generation after generation has determined to stamp them as great. Why is it? Because they have done great service to God and to man. Think of any of the departments of life. Why do we call... read more

Peter Pett

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Peter 2:11-25

Their Obedience And Heavenly Connection Is To Be Revealed By Their Lives And By Their Due Submission To Lawful Authority In The Same Way As Christ Submitted Himself Through Suffering And Thereby Wrought Salvation For His People (1 Peter 2:11 to 1 Peter 3:12 ). Peter now tells them how, as sojourners and pilgrims in the world, they are to behave in order to fulfil the role given to them by God in 1 Peter 2:1-10. They are first of all to live in obedience and in accord with their environment... read more

Peter Pett

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Peter 2:13-17

They Are To Be Obedient To The Authorities (1 Peter 2:13-17 ). He emphasises here that being sojourners does not mean that Christians are rebels or that they deny their responsibilities towards authority. Nor does being ‘free’ mean that they think that they can now do as they like. For after all in their freedom they are bondservants to God. They are therefore to recognise that in general God has put authorities in place in order to preserve peace and control evil, and thus Christians will... read more

Peter Pett

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Peter 2:15

‘For so is the will of God, that by well-doing you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men,’ And one good reason for behaving in this way is because by doing what is seen to be right evil tongues will be silenced. This indeed is God’s will. And the point is that God’s will is that no one should be able honestly to accuse Christ and His followers of wrongdoing or of flouting the law. This is partly in order to aid the spreading of the Gospel, and partly because God is indeed against... read more

Peter Pett

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Peter 2:16

‘As free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of God.’ By this they will be recognising that, while as God’s own children (1 Peter 1:3) they are free, they are not to use that freedom as an excuse for doing what is palpably wrong, or doing what might make the authorities’ task of ensuring justice difficult, or might unnecessarily cause offence. They are rather to see themselves as bondservants of God, and thus as subject to His will and to the law.... read more

Arthur Peake

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Peter 2:13-17

1 Peter 2:13-Esther : . 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... read more

Matthew Poole

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - 1 Peter 2:15

For so is the will of God; his command. That with well-doing; all manner of offices of humanity, whereof obedience to magistrates is a principal one. Ye may put to silence; Greek, muzzle, stop the mouths, Titus 1:11; viz. by taking away all occasion of evil-speaking. The ignorance; either their ignorance of the state and conversation of believers, which may be the occasion of their speaking evil of them; or their ignorance of God and his ways, to which Christ imputes the fury of persecutors,... read more

Matthew Poole

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - 1 Peter 2:16

As free; he prevents an objection; they might pretend they were a free people, as Jews, and therefore were not to obey strangers, Deuteronomy 17:15; John 8:33; and made free by Christ. He answers: That they were free indeed, but it was from sin, and not from righteousness, not from obedience to God’s law, which requires subjection to magistrates, for they were still the servants of God. And not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness; not using your liberty to cover or palliate your... read more

Joseph Exell

Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary - 1 Peter 2:13-17

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES1 Peter 2:13. Submit yourselves.—This belongs to the care Christians should take not to be in any sense an occasion of offence in Society (Romans 13:1-7). Ordinance of man.—Every human institution. A spiritual life can find expression in every form of governmental and social life. For the lord’s sake.—Lest reproach should come on Him, through reproach coming on you. King.—Here an abstract word for the person in chief authority. Then an emperor.1 Peter 2:14.—Even an... read more

William Nicoll

Sermon Bible Commentary - 1 Peter 2:16

1 Peter 2:16 The text sets before us the limits of Christian liberty, the responsibility which lies upon every Christian for the right government of his private individual will, according to what he knows, or ought to know, or might have known, of the will of God. I. The love of liberty is generally said to be a feeling implanted in the heart of man. It begins to show itself in his earliest years. Even in our childhood we are all apt to show impatience at the control exercised over us by our... read more

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