Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church Manhattan KS, 5 July 2015
11 Loved ones, I am offering an encouragement like [I would to] temporary residents and pilgrims,
to keep yourselves away from the fleshly desires which are at war against your soul
12 while keeping your lifestyle among the nations good,
in order that, in that which they are trash-talking you about
as [though you were] evildoers ,
they might glorify God
after observing [for themselves] some of your good works,
during a day of supervision .
13 [Therefore], submit to every human institution on account of the Lord,
whether to a king
as unto him who is a superior ,
14 or whether to governors
as unto those who are sent by Him
for vengeance against evildoers and praise for good-doers,
15 because the will of God is thus:
to silence the ignorance of mindless men through y’all doing good.
Around the year 200 a Latin-speaking Christian by the name of Marcus Minucius Felix wrote an account[1] of a conversation between His Christian friend Octavius and his pagan friend Caecilius while they were walking through the Roman port city of Ostia one day. Caecilius blew a kiss to the statue of the god Serapis as they passed by it, and Octavius took him to task for this act of worshipping an idol. Offended, Caecilius launched into a scathing critique of Christianity, denouncing Christians for being ignorant, poor, unpatriotic, and downright vile. I quote, “They having gathered together from the lowest dregs the more unskilled, and women, credulous and... yielding, establish a herd of a profane conspiracy, which is leagued together by nightly meetings... a people skulking and shunning the light, silent in public, but garrulous in corners... Everywhere also there is mingled among them a certain religion of lust, and they call one another promiscuously ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’... [T]heir vain and senseless superstition glories in crimes... I hear that they adore the head of an ass, that basest of creatures, consecrated by I know not what silly persuasion,--a worthy and appropriate religion for such manners... [C]ertainly suspicion is applicable to... ceremonies referencing a man punished by extreme suffering for his wickedness [on a] cross... Now the story about the initiation of young novices is as much to be detested as it is well known. An infant... is slain by the young pupil... they lick up its blood; eagerly they divide its limbs... Such sacred rites as these are more foul than any sacrileges.” It gets worse, but I’ll stop there. Hopefully you see some of the terrible accusations that Christians were having to refute just 100 years after the epistle of 1 Peter was written.
Today we are seeing frightening similarities to the accusations that those Christians had to face. Charges of us being ignorant and superstitious, hateful and fearful, smugly self-righteous, on the wrong side of history, even subversive and unpatriotic – Here’s a slide from a U.S. military briefing from two years ago which identifies “evangelical Christians” as #1 on the list of “religious extremists” in front of Al Qaeda and the Ku Klux Clan[2]. Soldiers attending that pre-deployment briefing say they were told that evangelical Christians were a “threat to the nation” and that “any soldier donating to evangelical Christian groups would be subjected to punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.” Even local Police have been trained to identify ‘fundamentalist Christians who take the Bible literally’ as politically ‘dangerous people[3]’ and even terrorists[4]. What should you do in the face of this kind of slander?
· The main verb, ἀπέχ- “keep away from/abstain”
o is the same verb used in the Jerusalem council: “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you [Gentiles] no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality...” (Acts 15:28-29, NKJV),
o and is echoed by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God” (NKJV)
· The “Passions/desires” mentioned here
o are the same word used in 1 Peter 1:14, “As children of obedience, not being shaped with [your] earlier desires during your ignorance, but rather, in accordance with the Holy One who called you, you yourselves should also start becoming holy in all [your] lifestyle” (NAW).
o Peter also mentions these evil desires in chapter 4: “no longer live the rest of [your] time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries” (NKJV).
o The book of James also speaks of this “war” in terms of “lustful desires”: “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have...” (James 4:1-2a, NKJV).
o Galatians 5 also lists what “fleshly” deeds are: “sexual immorality, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, fighting, drunkenness, etc.”
· If “you only go around once,” – if the physical universe is all there is, then you should indeed “go for the gusto” (Schlitz) because there would be no reason to abstain from pleasure in the here and now. But since, in actuality, you have a soul which will outlive this planet we’re living on, and since your eternity will be organized around the person of Jesus Christ and the community He is developing to exist around Him forever into the future, then it makes all the sense in the world to live in this world like a “pilgrim/sojourner/temporary resident” who is passing through to another destination, because the place you are going to spend the next thousand years – and more – is alien to this world. Setting about to immediately satisfy the “cravings/desires” you have for physical and social fulfillment in this world actually is fighting a war against your soul! We need to look at things differently!
· So how do we fight back these desires to do evil?
o Galatians 5 says with “love,” the fruit (singular) of the Holy Spirit.
o And the Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:3-5, NKJV),
o Paul also said the same sort of thing to Timothy: “wage the good warfare using the prophecies... by keeping faith and a good conscience” (1 Tim. 1:18-19, NAW).
· But the world may still call you an “evildoer.” This is something that governors are supposed to “punish” in verse 14, and it is associated with murder and stealing in 1 Pet. 4:15. These and other imagined evils are the sorts of things that Christians may get accused of.
· This is due, in part to the world’s antipathy to Christ Himself – to whom we are related.
o Jesus said, “I didn’t come in order to drop off peace, but rather a sword! For I came to divide a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a bride against her mother-in-law, and the man’s enemies will be those of his household” (Matt. 10:34b-36, NAW).
o He also said, “Y’all are blessed whenever liars reproach you and hunt [you] down and speak all evil against you for my sake. Keep rejoicing and leaping for joy, because your reward is bountiful in heaven, for they hunted down the prophets before you in the same way. It is y’all who are the salt of the earth” (Matt. 5:11-13a. NAW).
o “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” [7](John 15:19, NKJV).
o Because we are different, the world naturally regards us with suspicion.
· The sense of this verse is that non-Christians are probably going to say bad things about Christians, but Christians should maintain a lifestyle that non-Christians can recognize as being good, decent, and honorable.
o Modern commentator James Moffat wrote that this verb translated “behold/observe/see,” “...refers to the scrutiny at a Roman cognitio or preliminary cross-examination of accused persons, which the magistrate held, when the charges were considered and evidence sought for the case. The apostle confidently hopes that the charges will break down, perhaps even that the accusers will be converted.”
o Peter’s second use of this word is very similar to this one: 1 Peter 3:1-2 “Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives, when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear.” (NKJV)
o Why is it that the King of Saudi Arabia wanted to hire a Christian man as his personal physician in the last year?
o Why is it that often Christians are chosen as treasurers?
o Because we have a reputation for honesty and integrity and industry. That is good! If you have gained that kind of reputation, now, proceed to point to the truth and integrity and work of Jesus as the source of those qualities in you so that the world may be brought to glorify God.
· Thus in Municius Felix’s Octavius, the Christian replies to the outrageous accusations of his pagan friend, “[W]ith such as these stories, did... demons fill up the ears of the ignorant against us... for by them false rumours are both sown and cherished. Thence arises what you say that you hear, that an ass's head is esteemed among us a divine thing. Who is such a fool as to worship this? [Only you pagans who worship Epona and Isis!] ... These, and such as these infamous things... it is even disgraceful with any more words to defend ourselves from such charges. For you pretend that those things are done by chaste and modest persons... And now I should wish to meet him who says or believes that we are initiated by the slaughter and blood of an infant... No one can believe this, except one who can dare to do it. [And you pagans are the ones who do it!]... And of the incestuous banqueting, the plotting of demons has falsely devised an enormous fable against us, to stain the glory of our modesty... but in our heart we gladly abide by the bond of a single marriage; in the desire of procreating, we know either one wife, or none at all. We practise sharing in banquets, which are not only modest, but also sober: for we do not indulge in entertainments nor prolong our feasts with wine; but we temper our joyousness with gravity, with chaste discourse, and with body even more chaste... assembled together with the same quietness with which we live as individuals... Thus we love one another, to your regret, with a mutual love, because we do not know how to hate. Thus we call one another, to your envy, ‘brethren’: as being men born of one God and Parent, and companions in faith, and as fellow-heirs in hope... why do we grudge if the truth of divinity has ripened in the age of our time? Let us enjoy our benefits, and let us in rectitude moderate our judgments; let superstition be restrained; let impiety be expiated; let true religion be preserved.”
· The hope in the end is that God will use the testimony of our lives to win our adversaries over to worship God when it becomes observable who the good guys and the evil people really are.
o In the end, Octavius had to admit that he had never actually seen a Christian do any of the bad things they were rumored to have done.
o I am reminded of Jesus’ example. The Pharisees accused Him of blasphemy, but when Jesus was crucified and the sun turned dark, the Roman captain said, “Surely this was the son of god.”
o And Paul and Silas, who were beaten and jailed in Philippi as a result of the false accusations of the owner of a witchcraft business whose main fortune-teller Paul and Silas had converted to Christianity. When the officials realized that Paul and Silas were not actually criminals, the jailer’s whole family converted to Christianity and the city magistrates made a public apology (Acts 16).
o And, even if the non-Christians do not become Christians as a result of observing us, then when Jesus comes back and judges the earth, the non-Christians, at the very least, will have to admit that God was just and fair in His judgments because Christians were not characterized by the kind of evil that was tolerated by non-Christians.
· By the way, the Greek phrase at the end of the verse does not necessarily mean the “final judgment day.”
o The main word is the exact same word that is translated “overseer” in 1 Timothy 3, and it is indefinite – there is no “the” there in the original.
o I’m not saying that it cannot refer to Jesus’ second coming; I’m just saying that there could be other occasions that this could also refer to.
o For instance, this word was used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament when God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt[8].
o It is also used to describe the time that God swallowed Korah, Dathan, and Abiram into the earth for trying to usurp Moses (Num. 16:29),
o and of the events surrounding the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles of the Jews for their apostasy, “And what will they do in the day of visitation? for affliction shall come to you from afar: and to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?” wrote Isaiah in chapter 10:3-4 (Brenton)[9].
o In the New Testament, Jesus mentioned it in Luke 19:44, speaking of the coming destructtion of Jerusalem under Titus as a punishment for not recognizing Jesus as Messiah: “...they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation” (NKJV).
o On the final day of God’s judgment, certainly every lie will be exposed and all will be set to rights, but there are many preliminary visitations of the Lord which, although temporary and partial, can still be turning-points for some non-Christians to be powerfully convicted of their sin and converted to Christ[10].
o Sometimes lives are transformed by cataclysmic events, but sometimes it can come in a quiet way. I am reminded of the book published three years ago by a lesbian activist whose preconceived notions about Christians and vitriolic articles in the newspaper against Christians were challenged by a thoughtful letter from a local pastor who followed up by inviting her to dinner at his house and then to engage with the community of the church. This led to her conversion. The name of the book is The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor’s Journey into Christian Faith.
o I believe that even something as mundane as a letter and an invitation to dinner could be one of those “days of visitation” in which a non-Christian may become convinced that Jesus is the God who supervises all of life and will hold us accountable to Him. And that is what we hope for in this life: that non-Christians may repent of their antagonism and instead glorify God.
· “Submission” is a key word in 1 Peter, occurring in more verses than in any other book in the New Testament. Peter will go on to speak of
o submitting to your employer (2:18),
o a wife to her husband (3:1-5),
o submission of children to their parents and of church members to the elders in the church (5:5),
o and ultimately, submission to Christ (3:22).
o The Greek word hupotassw literally means “orderly arrangement underneath”
o “Submission” makes for a peaceful and orderly state. [13]
· What we should submit to, in order to deal with slander, is “every human institution/ordinance of man.”
o This phrase is found nowhere else in the Greek Bible, because everywhere else in the Bible, the act of “creation” is attributed to God, but here it is talking about something that humans created – “man-made institutions.”
o One example might be speed limits.
§ Nowhere does the Bible set a limit on how fast you should travel. But for whatever reasons, our civil government has chosen to use their authority to impose limits on how fast we are allowed to drive.
§ I have libertarian friends who disregard the speed limit because they do not believe it is based upon morally-defensible law, but God’s word tells us to obey those laws anyway.
§ The reason is that this cramping of what might be considered a God-given liberty nevertheless does not require you to break any moral law of God, and whether or not you agree with it, the speed limits were designed to lend to the peace and stability and safety of our community, and peace, stability, and safety are Godly values.
§ I believe this verse calls Christians to observe speed limits, if for no other reason than to be a testimony that our God is a God of peace, order, and safety.
§ What if our local police noticed a pattern over the next few years, “Why is it that only non-Christians break the speed limits around Manhattan? What’s with that?” What an opportunity for Christians to be a witness!
o Realize now, the point is not to be a goodie-goodie who is trying to make yourself look good by following man-made rules; the goal is to give Jesus a good reputation in the world.
o 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 comes close to offering a balancing perspective, using some of the same Greek words: “...reckon us as officers of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries.... as for me, it amounts to very little that I was judged under you or under a human [court] date ... rather, the one who judges me is the Lord... who will both bring to light the secrets of the darkness and will reveal the plans of their hearts, and then the praise from God will happen to each [person].”
· Let’s apply this practically.
o A few weeks ago, two women asked to rent this location in order to get married to each other here. How should the owners of this place respond?
o In the not-too-distant future, another ENDA-style discrimination law is likely to be passed again which will make it a crime for me as your pastor to attempt to influence you to believe that homosexuality is morally wrong. It will threaten us with hefty fines if we do not convert to their unbiblical religious views. Are we prepared to say that we will obey God rather than men? We had better be. But we had better not be convicted for stealing from, or killing, or abusing, or bearing false witness against one of these sexual revolutionaries in the middle of it!
· “for the Lord’s sake” can be applied as submitting out of respect to the Lord Jesus because, as Romans 13:1-2 states, “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves” (NKJV).
o We should submit to our civil authorities out of respect to Jesus who set those authorities in power,
o and furthermore, we should submit as far as our conscience can possibly allow to these authorities because it fosters an environment of goodwill between Christians and non-Christians that can enable the gospel to spread.
· Specifically, we are to submit to “kings and governors”
o Herod and Agrippa are called “kings” (basileus) in the book of Acts, and I have it on good authority (Calvin, Vincent) that this word was commonly used by Greek authors to refer to the emperor (Caesar) as well.
o This, of course, is not a statement that the king or emperor’s authority is supreme over God’s law – the Greek word is not a superlative. But obviously, this is as high as it goes in terms of the “human institutions” that Peter mentioned in the previous verse.
o Submitting to some civil authorities (such as our President) may require extending a lot of benefit-of-the-doubt. John Calvin noted in his commentary on First Peter, “Roman [kings] through unjust means - rather than in a legitimate way - penetrated into Asia [where the recipients of Peter’s epistle were] and subdued these countries. Besides, the Caesars, who then reigned, had possessed themselves of the monarchy by tyrannical force. Hence Peter, as it were, forbids these things to be controverted [don’t make a big deal of it if you don’t have to], for he shews that subjects ought to obey their rulers without hesitation, because they are not made eminent, unless elevated by God’s hand.” and “Even tyranny is better than anarchy.” ~John Calvin
o “Governors,” in contrast to “kings,” exercised hegemony over smaller demographic segments, and were under the authority of the Roman kings. These governors included Pilate, Felix, and Festus in the Gospels and Acts, as well as what we might call “sheiks” in the Arab world.
o Jesus told His disciples that they would be arrested and brought before “kings and governors” in order to be a witness to those in authority (Mark 13:9, Luke 21:12). When that time comes, if you are hauled up on charges before the authorities, they had better not find that you also have a criminal record of real wrongdoing; that would not set you up to be a good witness for Christ.
o Romans 13:3-5 tells us that that this “praise” for “good works” and “vengeance” for “evildoing” can come from such human rulers.
o Ultimately, however, we know that “Vengeance [ekdikesis] is mine, says the Lord; I will repay” (Heb. 10:30), and 1 Corinthians 4:5 also tells us God is the one ultimately who will reward the righteous with “praise” (epainos).
· The first line of defense is to do what is good. What kind of “good-doings” are mentioned in Scripture?
o This same root word is used in the context of Jesus healing the man with the shrivelled hand (Mark 3:4, Luke 6:9),
o in Jesus’ encouragement to lend without interest to the needy (Luke 6:35),
o and in 1 Peter to speak of working hard to bring benefit to your employer or to your household (1 Pet 2:20, 3:6).
o I wouldn’t call those three things a comprehensive list, but these explicit links in the Bible are a start: healing, helping financially, and doing good quality work.
o Do these things characterize your life?
There are more details to get into, such as a Biblical response to injustice, but we will have to save that for another day. Let me conclude with the end of the Octavian document by Minucius Felix:
“When Octavius [the Christian] had brought his speech to a close, for some time we were struck into silence... While, therefore, I was silently turning over these things in my own 'mind, Caecilius [the pagan] broke forth: ‘I congratulate as well my Octavius as myself... For even as he is my conqueror, so I am triumphant over error. Therefore... I both confess concerning providence, and I yield to God; and I agree concerning the sincerity of the way of life which I shall now own. Yet even still some things remain in my mind, not as resisting the truth, but as necessary to a perfect training of which on the morrow... we shall inquire at length...’... After these things we departed, glad and cheerful: Caecilius, to rejoice that he had become a believer; Octavius, that he had succeeded; and I, that the one had believed, and the other had conquered.”
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11 ᾿Αγαπητοί, παρακαλῶPAI ὡς παροίκους καὶ παρεπιδήμους, ἀπέχεσθαιPMN τῶν σαρκικῶν ἐπιθυμιῶνGPF, αἵτινεςNPF στρατεύονταιPMI-3P κατὰ τῆς ψυχῆς, |
11 Loved ones, I am offering an encouragement like [I would to] temporary residents and pilgrims, to keep yourselves away from the fleshly desires which are at war against your soul |
11 [Dearly] beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; |
11 Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, |
11 Beloved, I urge [you] as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. |
11 Beloved, I urge [you] as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. |
11 Dear [friends], I urge [you], as aliens and strangers [in the world], to abstain from
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12 τὴνASF ἀναστροφὴν ὑμῶν ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἔχοντεςPAP-NPM καλήνASF, ἵνα, ἐν ᾧ καταλαλοῦσινPAI ὑμῶν ὡς κακοποιῶν, ἐκ τῶν καλῶν ἔργωνGPN ἐποπτεύσοντες[14]AAP-NPM δοξάσωσιAAS-3P τὸν Θεὸν ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ἐπισκοπῆς GSF. |
12 while keeping your lifestyle[15] among the nations good, in order that, in that which they are trash-talking you about as [though you were] evildoers, they might glorify God after observing [for themselves][16] some of your good works, during a day of supervision. |
12 Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, |
12 having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that |
12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that |
12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in [the] day of visitation. |
12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, |
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13 ῾ΥποτάγητεAPM [οὖν[18]] πάσῃ ἀνθρωπίνῃ κτίσειDSF διὰ τὸν Κύριον· εἴτε βασιλεῖDSM, ὡς ὑπερέχοντιPAP-DSM, |
13 [Therefore], submit to every human institution on account of the Lord, whether to a king as unto him who is a superior, |
13 [X] Submit [yourselves] to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to [the] king, as supreme; |
13 [Therefore] submit [yourselves] to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to [the] king as supreme, |
13 Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to [the] emperor as supreme, |
13 Submit [yourselves] for the Lord's sake
to every human institution, whether to a king as [the one] |
13 Submit [yourselves] for the Lord's sake to every [authority] instituted among men: whether to [the] king, as [the] supreme [authority], |
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14 εἴτε ἡγεμόσινDPM, ὡς δι᾿ αὐτοῦ πεμπομένοιςPPP-DPM εἰς ἐκδίκησινASF κακοποιῶνGPM, ἔπαινονASM δὲ ἀγαθοποιῶν· |
14 or whether to governors as unto those who are sent by Him for vengeance against evildoers and praise for good-doers, |
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. |
14 or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. |
14 or to governors as sent by him to
punishX those who do evil and |
14 or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. |
14 or to governors, X who are sent by him
to punishX those who do wrong and |
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15 ὅτι οὕτως ἐστὶ τὸ θέλημαNSN τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἀγαθοποιοῦνταςPAP-APM φιμοῦνPAN τὴν τῶν ἀφρόνων ἀνθρώπων ἀγνωσίανASF · |
15 because the will of God[19] is thus: to silence[20] the ignorance of mindless men through y’all doing good. |
15 For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: |
15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good [you may] put to silence the ignorance of foolish men— |
15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good [you
should] put to silence the ignorance of foolish |
15 For such is the will of God that by doing right [you may] silence the ignorance of foolish men. |
15 For it is God's will that by doing good [you should] silence the ignorant [talk] of foolish men. |
[1] You can see an English translation of this early apologetic work at http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/octavius.html or a more contemporary rendition at http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1-300/why-early-christians-were-despised-11629610.html
[2] http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/10/u-s-military-taught-treat-christians-as-extremists-potential-terrorists/
[3] https://shortlittlerebel.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/dhs-trains-law-enforcement-that-christians-are-domestic-terrorists/
[4] http://start.umd.edu/start/publications/research_briefs/LaFree_Bersani_HotSpotsOfUSTerrorism.pdf
[5] παροίκους This concept of being only temporary residents goes back to Leviticus 25:23 “And the land shall not be sold for a permanence; for the land is mine, because ye are strangers and sojourners before me” (Brenton). cf. 1:17 And since the Father y’all are calling upon is the One who judges against the work of each man without showing favoritism, y’all should start lifestyling the time of your temporary residence with respectfulness...
[6] παρεπιδήμους cf. 1:1 “to elect pilgrims scattered...” and Hebrews 11:13-14 “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland” (NKJV)
[7] cf. John 17:14 – expressing the same thought in 3rd person
[8] Gen. 50:24-25 “...God will surely visit you, and will bring you out of this land...” Ex. 3:16, 13:19
[9] Isa. 10:3-4 is the only other place that the phrase “day of visitation” occurs. but “visitation” also occurs in Isa. 29:6, Jer. 6:15 & 10:15, and in reference to a day in court in Lev. 19:20, and in reference to a turn of fortune for the city-state of Tyre in Isa. 23:17.
[10] cf. Calvin: “I know that some refer this to the last coming of Christ; but I take it otherwise, even that God employs the holy and honest life of his people, as a preparation, to bring back the wandering to the right way. For it is the beginning of our conversion, when God is pleased to look on us with a paternal eye; but when his face is turned away from us, we perish. Hence the day of visitation may justly be said to be the time when he invites us to himself.” (Matthew Henry and JFB speak to the same effect.)
[11] “The word for ‘law’ here is a strange one. It ... usually means ‘creation’ or ‘creature.’ This makes no sense here; plainly it must mean ‘a law.’ Liddell and Scott give the meaning, ‘created or ordained authority.’ If this be an acceptable meaning, it hints that Christians are not under obligation to obey and authority that is not ordained. For surely Peter himself (Acts 5:29) teaches us to obey God rather than men. And was Moses; mother sinning when she disobeyed Egyptian law to preserve her son’s life? This hints that there are occasions when the Christian is obligated to disobey the secular law is made explicit in the phrase, ‘for the Lord’s sake.’ This phrase shows that secular obedience is a divine command and at the same time sets its limits. If and when a state commands anything forbidden by the Scriptures, then the state must be disobeyed and our allegiance given to God... [We can take comfort in the history of Daniel that even in a pagan country like Babylon, our God is still the one who] ‘removeth kings and setteth up kings’ (Daniel 2:21).” (Gordon H. Clark, New Heavens, New Earth, pp. 100-101.)
[12] A.T. Robertson (following Calvin) argued that this pronoun refers to Christ, whereas Vincent (following Henry and JFB, and followed by Moffatt), who believed it referred to the king. The question arises from this verse, “Who sends governors? God or Kings?” Different commentators take different sides on this question. Although I lean towards saying it refers to God, logic, as well as Biblical doctrine, can accept both as true. This prepositional phrase “through/by/on account of him” closely parallels the same preposition in the previous verse “for the sake of/on account of the Lord,” and the word “king” is only two words closer to the word “him” than the word “Lord” is in the Greek text, and the next noun to show up in the next verse is the word “God,” so from the Greek grammar, there is just as much reason to consider the “him” to be referring to the Lord as there is to refer to the king. However, in a monarchy such as Rome, we know that governors were hand-picked by Caesar and were accountable to Caesar.
[13] as it was under Solomon’s rule in 1 Chron. 29:24), but there is a place for careful insubordination, such as when Daniel disobeyed the law of the King of Babylon which forbade prayer to God (Dan 6:13).
[14] There is a minority textual tradition dating back to the earliest-known papyrus, which throws this participle for “behold/observe/see” into the Present tense (εποπτευοντες), but the Byzantine majority which spells it Present tense is well-supported by some of the earliest manuscripts such as Clement of Alexandria and the Alexandrian text.
[15] ἀναστροφὴν cf. 1:15 “Just as the One who called you is holy, so be holy in all your lifestyle/behavior/conduct,” and the “empty lifestyle which came from [pagan] forefathers” (1:18)
[16] Peter is the only Bible author to use this word (and he uses it 3x), except for one occurrence in the book of Esther (another interesting corroboration between Peter and Babylon).
[17] This participle is Nominative in Greek, thus related to the main subject and verb “they might glorify,” but the KJV translated it as though it were a Genitive absolute or an adjective modifying the Genitive “works.” It is admittedly a difficult sentence to translate.
[18] Although this conjunction is in the Byzantine majority of manuscripts, it is not in any of the manuscripts dating earlier than the 9th century, so it is suspect.
[19] Peter perhaps discerned the will of God by observing Jesus “doing good” (agathopoiuntas, Mark 3:4, Luke 6:9) – that is the only other use of this word in the Bible prior to 1 Peter. Here is a list of all the passages in the New Testament which mention “the will of God” is: Matthew 21:31; Mark 3:35; John 7:17; Romans 1:10; 12:2; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Galatians 1:4; Ephesians 6:6; Colossians 4:12; 1 Thessalonians 4:3; Hebrews 10:36; 1 Peter 2:15; 3:17; 4:19; 1 John 2:17.
[20] During His earthly ministry, Jesus “silenced” Saducees and Pharisees (Matt. 22:34), demons (Mark 1:25), and storms (Mark 4:39). The only other appearances of this Greek word fimw are connected with the unrelated principle of not “muzzling” an ox while it is working.