1 Peter 2:12

2:12 when he judges the world (or on the day of visitation): The phrase day of visitation is used in the Greek Old Testament to describe the time when God will visit his enemies to judge them (Isa 10:3; Jer 6:15).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Pe 2:12. Τὴν ἀναστροφὴν, your conversation) There are two things in which strangers and foreigners ought to conduct themselves well: The conversation, which is prescribed in excellent terms for subjects, 1Pe 2:13; for servants, 1Pe 2:18; for wives, ch. 1Pe 3:1; for husbands, ch. 1Pe 3:7; for all, 1Pe 2:8: and confession, ch. 1Pe 3:15-16, which passage has a manifest reference to this. Each passage is derived from the will of God: ch. 1Pe 2:15, 1Pe 3:17.—καταλαλοῦσιν, speak against you) That was common even then, 1Pe 2:15, ch. 1Pe 3:16, 1Pe 4:4; 1Pe 4:14.—ὡς κακοποιῶν, as evil-doers) As though ye were not obedient to authorities and magistrates and good laws: 1Pe 2:13-14.—ἐκ, from) Constructed with they may glorify.—καλῶν ἔργων, good works) Hence well-doing, 1Pe 2:14-15. This is true submission.—ἐποπτεύσαντες, closely inspecting) The same word occurs, ch. 1Pe 3:2. Other men narrowly look into the actions of the righteous.—δοξάσωσι τὸν Θεὸν, they may glorify God) God, who has children like unto Himself.—ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ἐπισκοπῆς, in the day of visitation) ἡμέρᾳ, in the day, used indefinitely. [The note in the Germ. Vers. interprets it of the last day.—E. B.] There is an allusion to the divine visitation, when God brings to light the innocence of the righteous, which has long been hidden: and He often brings about this result by means of even hostile magistrates, during the process of inquiry, and he often converts adversaries themselves. Thus Septuagint, ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῆς ἐπισκοπῆς, in the day of visitation, Isa 10:3; ἐν καιρῷ ἐπισκοπῆς, at the season of visitation, Jer 6:15. Until such a day arrives, there is need of patience.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Pe 2:12 . Adaptation of the saying, ὅπως ἴδωσιν ὑμῶν τὰ καλὰ ἔργα καὶ δοξάσωσιν τὸν πατέρα ὑμῶν τὸν ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς (Mat 5:16 ). The good behaviour on which the resolved ἀναστρέφεσθαι permits stress to be laid is the fruit of the abstinence of 1Pe 2:2 ; cf. Heb 13:8 ; Jas 3:13 . This second admonition is disjointed formally against formal grammar from the first; cf. Eph 4:1 f., παρακαλῶ … ὑμᾶς … ἀνεχόμενοι . ἐντοῖς ἔθνεσιν , the people of God (1Pe 2:9 ) is a correlative term and implies the existence of the nations , who are ignorant and disobedient. The situation of the Churches addressed justifies the use of Dispersion in 1Pe 1:1 . But the point of the words here is this: you the new Israel must succeed where the old failed, as it is written my name is blasphemed ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν on your account (Isa 52:5 ; LXX, cited Rom 2:24 ). ἵνα … ἐπισκοπῆς , in order that as a result of your good works they may be initiated into your secrets and come to glorify God in respect to your conduct when He at last visits the world, though now they calumniate you as evildoers in this matter . ἐν ᾧ in the case of the thing in which, i.e. , your behaviour generally; cf. 1Pe 3:16 , 1Pe 4:4 , and for δοξ . τὸν θεὸν ἐν , 1Pe 4:11 ; 1Pe 4:16 . καταλαλοῦσιν ὡς κ . Particular accusations are given in 1Pe 4:15 . This popular estimate of Christians is reflected in Suetonius’ statement: Adflicti suppliciis Christiani, genus hominium superstitionis novae et maleficae (Num 16 ). ἐποπτεύοντες takes Acc. in iii. 2 ( overlook, behold , as in Symmachus’ version of Psa 10:14 ; Psa 33:13 ); but here the available objects are either appropriated ( θεόν with δοξ ). or far off ( ἀναστροφήν ). It will therefore have its ordinary sense of become ἐπόπτης , be initiated . The Christians were from the point of view of their former friends members of a secret association, initiates of a new mystery, the secrecy of which gave rise to slanders such as later Christians brought against the older mysteries and the Jews. St. Peter hopes that, if the behaviour of Christians corresponds to their profession, their neighbours will become initiated into their open secrets (for as St. Paul insists this hidden mystery has now been revealed and published). δοξάσωσιν τὸν θεόν , come to glorify God like the centurion, who said of the crucified Jesus, Truly this was the Son of God (Mar 15:39 ) i.e. , recognise the finger of God either in the behaviour of the Christians or in the whole economy (see Rom 11 .). ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ἐπισκοπῆς , from Isa 10:3 , What will ye do ye the oppressors of the poor of my people in day of visitation ( יּום פקדה ) i.e. (Targum), when your sins are visited upon you . But St. Peter looks for the repentance of the heathen at the last visitation ( cf. 1Pe 4:6 ), though the prophet found no escape for his own contemporaries. Compare Luk 19:44 .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The fourth argument, taken of the profit of so doing: for by this means also we provide for our good name and estimation, whilest we compel them at length to change their minds, which speak evil of us.

When God shall also have mercy on them.

The fifth argument, which also is of great force: Because the glory of God is greatly set forth by that means, whilst by example of our honest life, even the most profane men are brought unto God, and submit themselves unto him.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

conversation--"behavior"; "conduct." There are two things in which "strangers and pilgrims" ought to bear themselves well: (1) the conversation or conduct, as subjects (Pe1 2:13), servants (Pe1 2:18), wives (Pe1 3:1), husbands (Pe1 3:7), all persons under all circumstances (Pe1 2:8); (2) confession of the faith (Pe1 3:15-16). Each of the two is derived from the will of God. Our conversation should correspond to our Saviour's condition; this is in heaven, so ought that to be.

honest--honorable, becoming, proper (Pe1 3:16). Contrast "vain conversation," Pe1 1:18. A good walk does not make us pious, but we must first be pious and believe before we attempt to lead a good course. Faith first receives from God, then love gives to our neighbor [LUTHER].

whereas they speak against you--now (Pe1 2:15), that they may, nevertheless, at some time or other hereafter glorify God. The Greek may be rendered, "Wherein they speak against you . . . that (herein) they may, by your good works, which on a closer inspection they shall behold, glorify God." The very works "which on more careful consideration, must move the heathen to praise God, are at first the object of hatred and raillery" [STEIGER].

evildoers--Because as Christians they could not conform to heathenish customs, they were accused of disobedience to all legal authority; in order to rebut this charge, they are told to submit to every ordinance of man (not sinful in itself).

by--owing to.

they shall behold--Greek, "they shall be eye-witnesses of"; "shall behold on close inspection"; as opposed to their "ignorance" (Pe1 2:15) of the true character of Christians and Christianity, by judging on mere hearsay. The same Greek verb occurs in a similar sense in Pe1 3:2. "Other men narrowly look at (so the Greek implies) the actions of the righteous" [BENGEL]. TERTULLIAN contrasts the early Christians and the heathen: these delighted in the bloody gladiatorial spectacles of the amphitheater, whereas a Christian was excommunicated if he went to it at all. No Christian was found in prison for crime, but only for the faith. The heathen excluded slaves from some of their religious services, whereas Christians had some of their presbyters of the class of slaves. Slavery silently and gradually disappeared by the power of the Christian law of love, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." When the pagans deserted their nearest relatives in a plague, Christians ministered to the sick and dying. When the Gentiles left their dead unburied after a battle and cast their wounded into the streets, the disciples hastened to relieve the suffering.

glorify--forming a high estimate of the God whom Christians worship, from the exemplary conduct of Christians themselves. We must do good, not with a view to our own glory, but to the glory of God.

the day of visitation--of God's grace; when God shall visit them in mercy.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 12. Having your conversation honest] Living in such a manner among the Gentiles, in whose country ye sojourn, as becomes the Gospel which ye profess.

That whereas they speak against you as evil doers] In all the heathen countries, in the first age of the Church, the Christians and the Jews were confounded together; and as the latter mere everywhere exceedingly troublesome and seditious, the Christians shared in their blame, and suffered no small measure of obloquy and persecution on this very account. It was doubly necessary, therefore, that the Christians should be exceedingly cautious; and that their conduct should prove that, although many of them were of the same nation, yet they who had embraced Christianity differed widely in their spirit and conduct from those, whether Jews or Gentiles, who had not received the faith of Christ.

In the day of visitation.] I believe this refers to the time when God should come to execute judgment on the disobedient Jews, in the destruction of their civil polity, and the subversion of their temple and city. God did at that time put a remarkable difference between the Jews and the Christians: all the former were either destroyed or carried into slavery; not one of the latter: nor did they deserve it; for not one of them had joined in the sedition against the Roman government. That the day of visitation means a time in which punishment should be inflicted, is plain from Isa 10:3: And what will ye do in the DAY of VISITATION, and in the desolation which shall come from afar? To whom will ye flee for help? And where will ye leave your glory? Some think that by the phrase in this place is meant the time in which they should be brought before the heathen magistrates, who, after an impartial examination, should find them innocent, and declare them as such; by which God would be glorified, the work appearing to be his own. Others think that it signifies the time in which God should make them the offer of mercy by Jesus Christ. The words, however, may refer to the time in which the Christians should be called to suffer for the testimony of Christ; the heathens, seeing them bear their sufferings with unconquerable patience, were constrained to confess that God was with them; and not a few, from being spectators of their sufferings, became converts to Christianity,

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12 Your conversation The second part of the exhortation is, that they were to conduct themselves honestly towards men. What, indeed, precedes this in order is, that their minds should be cleansed before God; but a regard should also be had to men, lest we should become a hindrance to them. And he expressly says among the Gentiles; for the Jews were not only hated everywhere, but were also almost abhorred. The more carefully, therefore, ought they to have labored to wipe off the odium and infamy attached to their name by a holy life and a well-regulated conduct. For that admonition of Paul ought to be attended to, “To give no occasion to those who seek occasion.” Therefore the evil speakings and the wicked insinuations of the ungodly ought to stimulate us to lead an upright life; for it is no time for living listlessly and securely, when they sharply watch us in order to find out whatever we do amiss.

That they — may glorify God He intimates that we ought thus to strive, not for our own sake, that men may think and speak well of us; but that we may glorify God, as Christ also teaches us. And Peter shews how this would be effected, even that the unbelieving, led by our good works, would become obedient to God, and thus by their own conversion give glory to him; for this he intimates by the words, in the day of visitation. 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.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(12) Conversation.—A favourite word with St. Peter, occurring (substantive and verb) seven times in this Epistle, and thrice in the second—i.e., as often as in all the other New Testament writings put together. It means the visible conduct of the daily walk in life. This, as among Gentiles—i.e., heathen (the words are synonymous, though St. Paul generally says “those without” when he means heathen as opposed to Christian)—is to be “honest.” We have no word adequate to represent this charming adjective. It is rendered “good” immediately below and in Joh_10:11 (“the Good Shepherd”), “worthy” in Jas_2:7, “goodly” in Luk_21:5. But it is the ordinary Greek word for “beautiful,” and implies the attractiveness of the sight, the satisfaction afforded by an approach to ideal excellence.

That whereas.—The marginal version is more literal, and in sense perhaps preferable, “wherein.” It means that the very fact of the heathen having slandered them will make their testimony “in the day of visitation” all the more striking, as (by way of illustration) the doubts of St. Thomas tend to “the more confirmation of the faith.” So in Rom_2:1, “wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself;” or Heb_2:18 (lit.), “wherein He Himself hath suffered, being tempted.”

They speak against you as evildoers.—A significant phrase. St. Peter asserts distinctly that calumnies were really rife, about some particulars of the Christian morality, at the time that this letter was written. It is a mark of a late date, for at first the Christians had not attracted sufficient notice, as a body, to be talked of either in praise or blame. The heathen at first regarded them as merely a Jewish sect (Act_18:15; Act_25:18-20), and as such they received from the Roman Government a contemptuous toleration. The first state recognition of Christianity as a separate religion, with characteristics of its own, was the Persecution of Nero in the year 64. Now, it so happens that we have almost contemporary heathen documents which bring out the force of this passage. Suetonius, in his life of Nero (chap. 16), calls the Christians by the very name St. Peter uses, “the Christians, a kind of men of a new and malefic superstition.” Only about forty years later, we have Pliny’s famous letter to Trajan, written actually from the country in which St. Peter’s correspondents lived, and referring to some of the very persons (probably) who received the Epistle as having apostatised at the time of the persecution under Nero; in which letter Pliny asks whether it is the profession of being a Christian which is itself to be punished, or “the crimes which attach to that profession!” The Apologists of the second century are full of refutations of the lies current about the immorality of the Christian assemblies. The Christians were a secret society, and held their meetings before daylight; and the heathen, partly from natural suspicion, partly from consciousness of what passed in their own secret religious festivals, imagined all kinds of horrors in connection with our mysteries. From what transpired about the Lord’s Supper, they believed that the Christians used to kill children and drink their blood and eat their flesh. Here, however, the context points to a different scandal. They are warned against the fleshly lusts, in order that the heathen may find that the Christians’ great glory lies in the very point wherein they are slandered. “Evildoers,” therefore, must mean chiefly offences on that score. It is historically certain that such charges against Christian purity were extremely common. Even as late as the persecution under Maximin II., in the year 312, it was reported that these meetings before light were a school for the vilest of arts.

By your good works which they shall behold.—More literally, they may, in consequence of your beautiful works, being eye-witnesses thereof—The “good works” are not what are commonly so called—i.e., acts of benevolence, &c. Rather, their “works” are contrasted with the current report, and mean scarcely more than the “conversation” mentioned already. The present passage is, no doubt, a reminiscence of Mat_5:16, where the word has the same force.

Glorify God in the day of visitation.—This “glorification” of God will be like that of Achan in the book of Joshua (Jos_7:19), an acknowledgment how far they had been from the glorious truth. Some commentators understand the day of visitation to mean the day when the heathen themselves come really to look into the matter. This is possible; and it came true when Pliny tortured the Christian deaconesses and acquitted the poor fanatics, as he thought them, of all immoral practices. But from the ordinary use of the words, it would more naturally mean the day when God visits. And this will not mean only the great last day, but on whatever occasion God brings matters to a crisis. The visitation is a visitation of the Christians and the heathen alike, and it brings both grace and vengeance, according as men choose to receive it. (See Luk_19:44, and comp. Luk_1:78.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12. having your conversation honest among the Gentiles] On “conversation,” see note on chap. 1Pe_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 (Joh_18:30). This Epistle (here, and 1Pe_2:14, 1Pe_3:16, 1Pe_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 Act_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” (Act_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 (1Pe_2:18, chap. 1Pe_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. 1Pe_3:2. The use of the cognate noun in the “eye-witnesses” of 2Pe_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” (1Co_4:9; Heb_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, Luk_1:43, or of chastisement as in Isa_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 Luk_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 (Mat_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.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man,.... Or, "to every human creation", or "creature"; not to "all the sons of men", as the Syriac version renders it; or to all the individuals of mankind; for there are some that are in such stations and circumstances, that they are not to be submitted to, but to be ruled over, and governed: so kings are not to submit to their subjects, nor are parents to be subject to their children, nor husbands to their wives, nor masters to their servants, which would be preposterous; but submission is limited and restrained to persons in such a place and situation: "the human creature", or "creation", here designs the Gentiles, who are elsewhere called the creature, the whole creation, every creature, and every creature under heaven, Rom 8:19 and particularly Heathen magistrates, styled creation, or creature: not as men, for all men, as such, are creatures; but as magistrates, being created, constituted, and appointed such, and installed into, and invested with such an office: and "human"; not only because they were men, and were taken out from among men that bore the office of magistrates, and governed over men, and were for the good and advantage of mankind, but because they were created and placed in such a station by men; though government itself is of God, is a divine institution, yet this and that particular form of government is of man; and especially the forms of government among the Gentiles were human; and are here so called, in distinction from the form of government among the Jews, which was a theocracy, and was divine; wherefore the Jews, and so these converted ones, scrupled yielding obedience to Heathen magistrates; on which account they were spoken against, as evildoers; hence the apostle, in the first place, and as a principal part of their honest conversation among the Gentiles, exhorts them to submission to civil magistrates, though they were creatures of men; and to everyone of them, though a Gentile, an unbeliever, and a wicked man: and this he urges,

for the Lord's sake; for the sake of Christ Jesus the Lord, because of his command, who ordered to give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and in imitation of him, who paid tribute to whom tribute was due; and for the sake of his honour and glory, who was ill thought and spoken of by the Gentiles, because of the disregard of the converted Jews to their magistrates; and which served to prejudice them against Christ and his Gospel: the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions, read, "for God's sake"; because civil government is of God; magistracy is of divine appointment; the powers that he are ordained of God, though this or the other form is of man's prescription: it is the command of God that magistrates should be obeyed; and it makes for his glory, as well as for the good of men, when they are submitted to in things that do not contradict the revealed will of God; for otherwise, not man, but God, is to be obeyed:

whether it be to the king; to Caesar, the Roman emperor; and the then reigning one seems to be Nero, who, though a wicked man, was to be submitted to in things civil and lawful; and it holds good of any other king that has the supreme government of a nation: the Syriac version reads it in the plural number, "to kings"; and though the name of king was odious to the Romans, from the times of Tarquin, nor did they call their chief governor, or governors, by this name, yet other nations did; see Joh 19:15 and subjection was to be yielded to him, "as supreme"; for the sake, and in consideration of his being in so high and exalted a station, having the supreme power and government of the people in his hands. The Syriac version renders it, "because of their power"; and the Arabic version, "because of his power"; and the Ethiopic version, "because all things are his"; the Roman emperors were absolute monarchs; see Rom 13:1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

12 Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Ver. 12. Having your conversation honest] Leading convincing lives, the best arguments against an atheist adversary.

They speak evil of you] {See Trapp on "Mat 5:11"}

Which they shall behold] Whiles they pry and spy into your courses (as the Greek word εποπτευοντες imports) to see what evil they can find out and fasten on.

In the day of visitation] When God shall effectually call and convert them. {See Trapp on "Mat 5:16"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Having your conversation honest - Your conduct. See the notes at Phi 1:27. That is, lead upright and consistent lives. Compare the notes at Phi 4:8.

Among the Gentiles - The pagans by whom you are surrounded, and who will certainly observe your conduct. See the notes at 1Th 4:12, “That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without.” Compare Rom 13:13.

That, whereas they speak against you as evil doers - Margin, “wherein.” Greek ἐν ᾥ en hō - “in what;” either referring “to time,” and meaning that at the very time when they speak against you in this manner they may be silenced by seeing your upright lives; or meaning “in respect to which” - that is, that in respect to the very matters for which they reproach you they may see by your meek and upright conduct that there is really no ground for reproach. Wetstein adopts the former, but the question which is meant is not very important. Bloomfield supposes it to mean inasmuch, whereas. The sentiment is a correct one, whichever interpretation is adopted. It should be true that at the very time when the enemies of religion reproach us, they should see that we are actuated by Christian principles, and that in the very matter for which we are reproached we are conscientious and honest.

They may, by your good works, which they shall behold - Greek, “which they shall closely or narrowly inspect.” The meaning is, that upon a close and narrow examination, they may see that you are actuated by upright principles, and ultimately be disposed to do you justice. It is to be remembered that the pagan were very little acquainted with the nature of Christianity; and it is known that in the early ages they charged on Christians the most abominable vices, and even accused them of practices at which human nature revolts. The meaning of Peter is, that while they charged these things on Christians, whether from ignorance or malice, they ought so to live as that a more full acquaintance with them, and a closer inspection of their conduct, would disarm their prejudices, and show that their charges were entirely unfounded. The truth taught here is, “that our conduct as Christians should be such as to bear the strictest scrutiny; such that the closest examination will lead our enemies to the conviction that we are upright and honest.” This may be done by every Christian this his religion solemnly requires him to do.

Glorify God - Honor God; that is, that they may be convinced by your conduct of the pure and holy nature of that religion which he has revealed, and be led also to love and worship him. See the notes at Mat 5:16.

In the day of visitation - Many different opinions have been entertained of the meaning of this phrase, some referring it to the day of judgment; some to times of persecution; some to the destruction of Jerusalem; and some to the time when the gospel was preached among the Gentiles, as a period when God visited them with mercy. The word “visitation” (ἐπισκοπή episkopē,) means the act of visiting or being visited for any purpose, usually with the notion of inspecting conduct, of inflicting punishment, or of conferring favors. Compare Mat 25:36, Mat 25:43; Luk 1:68, Luk 1:78; Luk 7:16; Luk 19:44, in the sense of visiting for the purpose of punishing, the word is often used in the Septuagint for the Hebrew פּקד paaqad, though there is no instance in which the word is so used in the New Testament, unless it be in the verse before us. The “visitation” here referred to is undoubtedly that of God; and the reference is to some time when he would make a “visitation” to people for some purpose, and when the fact that the Gentiles had narrowly inspected the conduct of Christians would lead them to honor him.

The only question is, to what visitation of that kind the apostle referred. The prevailing use of the word in the New Testament would seem to lead us to suppose that the “visitation” referred to was designed to confer favors rather than to inflict punishment, and indeed the word seems to have somewhat of a technical character, and to have been familiarly used by Christians to denote God’s coming to people to bless them; to pour out his Spirit upon them; to revive religion. This seems to me to be its meaning here; and, if so, the sense is, that when God appeared among people to accompany the preaching of the gospel with saving power, the result of the observed conduct of Christians would be to lead those around them to honor him by giving up their hearts to Him; that is, their consistent lives would be the means of the revival and extension of true religion. And is it not always so? Is not the pure and holy walk of Christians an occasion of His bending His footsteps down to earth to bless dying sinners, and to scatter spiritual blessings with a liberal hand? Compare the notes at 1Co 14:24-25.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

In the day of visitation. God is said to visit his people, sometimes by afflictions and punishments, and sometimes by graces and favours. Some think St. Peter here, by the day of visitation, means the approaching destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and that the sense is, that the heathen Romans seeing your peaceable dispositions and pious conversations, may have a favourable opinion of the Christian religion, and be converted. Others, that you and they to whom the gospel is preached, may glorify God when he visits them with graces and favours, whether exterior or interior. (Witham) --- Be careful not to give occasion to scandal. Detraction is the life of the world, and piety is most exposed to its shafts, because it most condemns the maxims of its followers.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Having your conversation honest; irreprehensible, fruitful, such as may gain men’s love, and commend the religion you profess.

Among the Gentiles; who, by reason of their differing from your religion, are the more likely to observe you. This proves this Epistle to be written to the Jews.

They may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God; not only think more favourably of you, but of your religion; acknowledge the grace of God in you, and more readily subject themselves to him, (the best way of glorifying him), it being usual with God to make way for the conversion of sinners by the holy conversation of saints.

In the day of visitation; viz. a gracious visitation, when God calls them by the gospel to the knowledge of Christ, Luk 1:68,78; 7:16; Luk 19:44.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12. Conversation—Conduct, behaviour, as in chap. 1Pe_1:18.

Honest—Good, becoming their holy profession. Justin Martyr says of himself, that he was led to believe the Christians falsely accused, by the apparent impossibility of people who lived so blamelessly being guilty of the unnatural vices imputed to them. So St. Peter exhorts these suspected and closely-watched brethren, to live so purely that their very detractors should, upon the closest scrutiny of their good behaviour, be led to glorify God, giving him praise and honour.

Day of visitation—Whether in wrath or mercy, is not said; and the phrase is used in both senses. But only the latter fits the word glorify. See Luk_1:68; Luk_1:78; Luk_7:16; Luk_19:44; Act_15:14. It points to a time of mercy and offers of grace to their convinced and awakened souls, which apostolic faith expected.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles. If we read ajpecesqai, in ver. 11 (some ancient manuscripts have ajpecesqe), there is a slight irregularity in the construction, as the participle e]nontev is nominative; it gives more force and vividness to the sentence (comp. in the Greek, Eph_4:2; Col_3:16) The conversation (ajnastrofh, mode of life or behavior) of the unconverted is described as vain" in, 1Pe_1:18; the conversation of Christians must be seemly (kalh) exhibiting the beauty of holiness. The Churches to which St. Peter wrote were in Gentile countries; they must be careful, for the honor of their religion, to set a good example among the heathen a warning, alas! too often neglected in modern as well as in ancient times. That, whereas they speak against you as evil-doers; literally, wherein, in the matter in which they speak, i.e. in reference to manner of life. Christians were commonly accused of "turning the world upside down;" of doing "contrary to the decrees of Caesar," as at Thessalonica; (Act_17:6, Act_17:7) of being atheists and blasphemers of the popular idolatry, as at Ephesus. (Act_19:37) Suetonius calls them a "genus hominum superstitionis novae et maleficse". ("Vit. Neron.," 1Pe_1:6) Probably the grosser accusations of Thyestean banquets, etc., came later. They may by your good works, which they shall be hold, glorify God in the day of visitation. The word rendered, "which they shall be bold" (ejpopteusantev, or, according to some of the older manuscripts, ejpopteuontev, beholding), occurs only here and inpthv, 1Pe_3:2. It implies close attention; the Gentiles watched the conduct of the Christians, narrowly scrutinizing it to discover faults and inconsistencies. The use of the corresponding substantive, ejpo in 2Pe_1:16 is a coincidence to be noticed. It is not probable that there is any reference to the heathen use of the word in connection with the Eleusinian Mysteries. St. Peter hopes that this close observation of the lives of Christian people would lead the Gentiles to glorify God; he was thinking, perhaps, of our Lord"s words in the sermon on the mount: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Perhaps in the following clause also we may trace an echo of the Savior"s words in. Luk_19:44, Because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation" (ejpiskophv, as here) St. Peter hopes that the holy lives of Christians may be made the means of saving many Gentile souls in the time of visitation; that is, when God should visit the heathen with his converting grace, seeking to draw them to himself, whether by gracious chastisement or by the preaching of his servants. This seems more natural than to understand the words of God"s visitation of the Christians in the persecutions which were impending; though it is true that many Gentiles were won to Christ by the calm and holy bearing of suffering Christians.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Honest - Not barely unblamable, but virtuous in every respect. But our language sinks under the force, beauty, and copiousness of the original expressions. That they by your good works which they shall behold - See with their own eyes. May glorify God - By owning his grace in you, and following your example. In the day of visitation - The time when he shall give them fresh offers of his mercy.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

From the apostle’s dehortaton in the former verse, he comes to an exhortation in this, and the duty exhorted to is strict godliness or holiness in all manner of conversation, Having your conversation honest; it is not a single action, but our general course and conversation, that denotes us either good or bad; and the word translated honest, signifies fair and amiable, beautiful and adorning, the doing nothing that is unseemly or a blemish either to our person or profession; Christians should not only live free from evil, but as much as may be from the very suspicion of evil: it is added, among the Gentiles, that is, amongst the idolatrous nations and people, who had not received the Christian faith; great care must be always taken by the professors of Christianity, that they do nothing which may increase the prejudices of the wicked world against religion and the ways of godliness, but remember that they are our watchful observers and bold censurers; and accordingly endeavour, that, by a regular piety, a strict sobriety, a diffusive and extensive charity, we may render religion venerable to the world, and stop the mouth of slander as much as in us lies, by cutting off occasion from them that seek occasion.

Observe farther, The apostle exhorts them to have their conversation honest amongst the Gentiles; he doth not say religious, though that be included, but outwardly square, strictly just, and honest; this is that which the world judges us by; vain are all our pretences to piety, if we fail in honesty; we must make conscience of the duties of the second table, as an argument of our sincerity, and as an ornament to our profession.

Observe next, What was then, and is now, the lot and portion of good men, namely, to be evil spoken of as evildoers: Whereas they speak evil of you as evildoers. Christ himself did not escape the scourge of the tongue; he was charged with gluttony, blasphemy, imposture, with having a devil, and with working miracles by the power of the devil; and it is sufficient for the disciple to be as his master was.

Yet mark, they speak evil of you, says the apostle, as evil doers: to be an evil-doer is miserable, but not to be spoken of as an evil-doer Nemo miser sensu alieno, no man is miserable in another man’s evil opinion of him: a bad report, much less a bad opinion, makes no body a bad man; if it be enough to censure and accuse, who can be innocent?

Observe again, The apostle exhorts these believing Jews to a conspicuous fruitfulness in good works: That they may by your good works which they shall behold: implying, that Christianity sets men to work, (though we shall never be saved for our works, yet without working we can never be saved,) and that good works may and ought to be so done, that men may behold them; though we must not do good works to be seen of men, yet we ought to do good works that may be seen of men, Mat 5:16 how else can men be patterns of good works, as they are required, Tit 2:7 if their good works be not conspicuous, and exposed to the world?

Observe lastly, The blessed fruit and effect of good works: they cause such as behold them to glorify God in the day of visitation. This may be understood two ways.

1. With respect to believers: your good works will cause the wicked world to glorify God in the day of your visitation,, that is, in the day of your persecution and affliction; though they afflict and persecute you, yet they shall glorify God when they behold your faith, your patience, your constancy in and under sufferings, in the day of your visitation.

2. With respect to the wicked; and so the day of visitation is the day of their conversion; and then the exhortation is, to be so conspicuous in good works, that their adversaries may praise and glorify God, when he shall visit them with his grace, and draw them by his gospel, to believe in his Son: the day of saving conversion is a day of gracious visitation.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12. Having your conversation. Daily life. Let it be such as to refute slanders of their enemies. Evil doers. See Acts 17:6. The Jews often accused Christians to heathen rulers of being seditious. Because they rejected the heathen gods, they were accused of being atheists. The best way to answer these charges was to live them down. By your good works. Compare Matt. 5:16. Day of visitation. The day when God will make all clear and the heathen shall be converted.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

12. τὴν ἀναστροφὴν ὑμῶν … καλήν. καλήν is the predicate. Your intercourse with the heathen round you must be such as commands their respect. In 1Pe 3:16 the enemies of the Christians are described as reviling their ἀναστροφὴν ἀγαθήν. ἀγαθός denotes that which is intrinsically good in itself and its results, whether it is recognized as such or not, while καλός is that which commends itself as good.

ἐν ᾧ sometimes means “while” as in Mar 2:19; Luk 5:34; Luk 19:13; Joh 5:7. But here it means in the very matter in which, cf. 1Pe 3:16, ἐν ᾧ καταλαλεῖσθε; 1Pe 4:4, ἐν ᾧ ξενίζονται = wherein.

κακοποιῶν. In Mar 3:4; Luk 6:9 the verb κακοποιεῖν seems to retain its original meaning of “doing an injury,” but in the LXX. it has a wider meaning “evil-doing.” So also in 1Pe 3:17 it = ποιοῦντας κακά of 1Pe 3:12. The adjective κακοποιός is used three (or four) times in 1 Pet. (1Pe 2:14 (1Pe 3:16, v.l.), 1Pe 4:15) and seems to have been a favourite term of abuse directed against Christians. Possibly it represents the Latin maleficus by which it is translated in 1Pe 4:15 by some of the Latin Fathers. Suetonius (Nero 16) speaks of Christians as men of a novel and pestilent (maleficae) superstition, while Tacitus, Ann. xv. 14, describes them as being hated per flagitia, and in the immediate context he includes Christianity among the atrocia aut pudenda which poured into Rome. Gwatkin (Ch. Hist. i. 76) therefore considers that foul charges of immorality, such as were prevalent in the 2nd cent., were brought against Christians even before the Neronian persecution. But κακοποιός is a vague and comprehensive term. It was used of our Lord, Joh 18:30, v.l., while the two thieves are called κακοῦργοι, Luk 23:32, a term which St Paul applies to his own treatment, 2Ti 2:9.

ἐποπτεύοντες. The T.R. reads ἐποπτεύσαντες which might possibly denote coincident action with that of the main verb, but more naturally antecedent action = glorify God having beheld. But the best reading is the present participle which suggests that the “beholding” is coincident with the glorifying. It is therefore doubtful whether τὰ καλὰ ἔργα should be understood as the object of ἐποπτεύοντες as A.V. and R.V.

ἐκ τῶν καλῶν ἔργων ἐποπτεύοντες does not merely mean ἐποπ.… τὰ καλὰ ἔργα. ἐκ denotes the result, the recollection or impression carried away, and ἐποπτεύειν may have a more special meaning than mere “beholding.” It is not used in the LXX. but by Sym. Psa 10:14; Psa 33:13 of God as watching over human conduct, and it is so used in Attic poetry; in late Greek prose the verb is used in a general sense of watching or beholding. There was however a technical use of ἐπόπτης to denote one who was initiated in the mysteries and Plato uses the verb in that sense, so Clem. Al. Strom. iv. 152, etc., uses the phrase ἐποπτεύω τὸν θεόν.

In 2Pe 1:16 the spectators of Christ’s glory in the Transfiguration are described as ἐπόπται, possibly with a trace of this technical meaning.

So here the meaning may be that by the recollection of your good works their eyes may at last be opened and so they will glorify God. ἐποπτεύειν is used again, however, in 1Pe 3:2 of husbands being converted by beholding the chaste conduct of their wives, but even there the idea of “seeing behind the scenes,” or being “initiated into the secret of” would be quite appropriate.

ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ἐπισκοπῆς. The following explanations have been given of the phrase (1) the day when Christians are brought to trial, (2) the day when their enemies are themselves judged, (3) the day when God’s mercy “visits” or comes home to them.

In the O.T. God is sometimes described as “visiting” people in mercy, e.g. to deliver them from Egypt or from Babylon, and so our Lord weeping over Jerusalem lamented her misuse of “the time of her visitation” evidently referring to lost opportunities of blessing, cf. Luk 1:78, “The dayspring from on high shall visit (ἐπισκέψεται) us.” But elsewhere God is described as “visiting” sinners with judgment, so ἡμέρα ἐπισκοπῆς in Isa 10:3. But frequently God’s judgments are themselves a means of bringing His mercy home to men. So here St Peter seems to anticipate some judgment of God which will open the eyes of heathen opponents and lead them to give glory to God through the memory of His servants’ lives. The whole passage manifestly alludes to our Lord’s words, Mat 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12.] Ver. 11, negative, exhorts to abstinence from fleshly lusts: ver. 12, positive, to cause the unconverted Gentiles around, by their fair Christian walk, to glorify God.

12.] Positive result of this abstinence, and its important fruit: having (we have the same disjunction of the construction in Eph 4:1, Eph 4:2, παρακαλῶ … ὑμᾶς … ἀνεχάμενοι. It serves to give vividness to the description, taking the participle out from under the παρακαλῶ, and depicting, as it were, the condition recommended, as actually existing. It is so eminently, though not under exactly the same circumstances as to construction, in the beautiful procession of participles and adjectives in Rom 12:9-19) your behaviour among the Gentiles comely (as over against the ματαία ἀναστροφή of the Gentiles, ch. 1:18. Cf. ch. 3:16), that (aim of the preceding) in the matter in which (so ἐν ᾧ in reff.: not, ‘while,’ for that would not apply to δοξάσωσιν below: both could not be going on together: nor “whereas,” E. V., “pro eo quod,” Beza, for which sense of ἐν ᾧ there is no precedent. The sense is, ‘that that conduct, which was to them an occasion of speaking against you as evil-doers, may by your good works become to them an occasion of glorifying God.’ And ‘that, in which,’ will be in fact your whole Christian life) they speak against you at evildoers (often the Christians would be compelled to diverge from heathen customs and even to break human laws, and thus would incur the imputation of malefactors), they may, on the ground of your good works, being spectators of them (contrast to the ignorance assumed in the ἀγνωσία τῶν ἀφρόνων ἀνθρώπων below, ver. 15. On the word, see reff.: and cf. ἐπόπτης, an eye-witness, 2Pe 1:16), glorify God in (the) day of visitation (i. e., the day when God visits,—ἐπισκέπτεται, Luk 1:68, Luk 1:78: Act 15:14,—mankind with His offers of mercy and grace: cf. also ref. Luke, where our Lord says of Jerusalem, οὐκ ἔγνως τὸν καιρὸν τῆς ἐπισκοπῆς σου. The word has been variously understood: the Fathers generally (cf. Suicer in voc.), Lyra, Erasm, Beza, De Wette, al. explain it as above: Œc, Wolf., Bengel, al. think that the day of inquisition before earthly magistrates is meant (ἡμέραν δὲ ἐπισκοπῆς τὴν κατὰ κόσμον ἐξέτασιν καλεῖ· ἐξετάσεως γὰρ ὑπʼ αὐτῶν τοῦ βίου ἡμῶν γενομένης, εἶτα πρὸς τὸ ἐναντίον τῆς ὑπολήψεως τῶν πραγμάτων εὑρισκομένων αὐτοί τε πρὸς οἷς αἰσχύνονται ἐπανορθοῦνται, καὶ ὁ θεὸς δοξάζεται. Œc.). , al. understand it of the day of judgment. But the former sense is far preferable on account of usage, and for its fitness in the context).

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Conversation. Rev., behavior. See on ch. 1Pe 1:15.

Whereas [εν ω] . Rev., correctly, wherein; in the matter in which. They speak against (katalalousin). Compare evil - speakings, ver. 1, and Act 28:22.

Which they shall behold [εποπτευοντες] . Rev., beholding. Used by Peter only, here and ch. 3 2. The kindred noun ejpopthv, an eye - witness, occurs only at 2Pe 1:16. It is a technical word, meaning one who was admitted to the highest degree of initiation in the Elensinian mysteries. Here it conveys the idea of personal witness; behold with their own eyes. Evil - doers [κακοποιων] . The word occurs four times in Peter, and nowhere else in the New Testament except Joh 18:30, where it is applied by the priests to Christ himself.

Visitation [επισκοπης] . The radical idea of the word is that of observing or inspecting. Hence ejpiskopov, an overseer or bishop. Visiting grows naturally out of this, as visitare from visere, to look at attentively. See Introduction, on Peter's emphasis upon sight; and compare behold, in this verse. The "day of visitation" is the day of looking upon : "When God shall look upon these wanderers, as a pastor over his flock, and shall become the overlooker or bishop of their souls" (ver. 25, Lumby).

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.