Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - 1 Peter 2:17 - 2:17
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
1Pe_2:17. Four hortatory clauses suggested to Peter by the term ἀγαθοποιοῦντας ; in the last he returns, by way of conclusion, to the principal theme. In the first three there is a climax.[143]
πάντας τιμήσατε ] ΠΆΝΤΑς must not, with Bengel, be limited to those: quibus honos debetur, Rom_13:7,[144] nor to those who belong to the same state (Schott); it expresses totality without any exception.
ΤΙΜᾷΝ is not equivalent to ὙΠΟΤΆΣΣΕΣΘΑΙ (de Wette); but neither is it equal to, civiliter tractare (Bengel); the former is too strong, the latter too weak; it is the opposite, positively stated, of ΚΑΤΑΦΡΟΝΕῖΝ , and means: to recognise the worth ( ΤΙΜΉ ) which any one possesses, and to act on the recognition (Brückner, Weiss, Wiesinger, Schott). This exhortation is all the more important for the Christian, that his consciousness of his own dignity can easily betray him into a depreciation of others. It refers to the ΤΙΜΉ which is due to man as man, and not first in respect of any particular position he may hold (Flacius: unicuique suum locum et debita officia exhibete.)
ΤῊΝ ἈΔΕΛΦΌΤΗΤΑ ἈΓΑΠᾶΤΕ ] ἈΔΕΛΦΌΤΗς , also in chap. 1Pe_5:9, corresponding to our: brotherhood, i.e. the totality of the Christian brethren, cf. ἱεράτευμα 1Pe_2:5; 1Pe_2:9. The apparent contradiction of Mat_5:44, here presented, where love to enemies is also enjoined, is to be explained on the following principle: that the ἈΓΆΠΗ is differently conditioned, according as it has different objects. In perfect harmony with its inmost nature, it can exist only between Christians, for only among them is there community of life in God, cf. chap. 1Pe_1:22. Pott interprets ἈΓΑΠᾷΝ here superficially by “entertain goodwill to.”
ΤῸΝ ΘΕῸΝ ΦΟΒΕῖΣΘΕ ] cf. chap. 1Pe_1:17; a command not only of the Old, but of the New Testament, inasmuch as a lowly awe before the holy God is an essential feature of the filial relation to God.
ΤῸΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΈΑ ΤΙΜᾶΤΕ ] Reiteration of the command (1Pe_2:13) as a conclusion to the whole passage; cf. Pro_24:21, ΦΟΒΟῦ ΤῸΝ ΘΕῸΝ , ΥἹῈ , ΚΑῚ ΒΑΣΙΛΈΑ .
ΤΙΜᾷΤΕ has here the same meaning as previously: “show to the king the respect which pertains to him as king;” what that is the apostle has explained in 1Pe_2:13. Hornejus[145] incorrectly thinks that in the conjunction of the last two commands, he can here discover an indication of the limits by which obedience to the king is bounded.
The difference in the tenses of the imperative, in the first exhortation the imperat. aor., in the three others the imperat. pres., is to be regarded as accidental, rather than as in any way arising from the substance of the command.[146]
[143] To distribute these four exhortations over “the two provinces of life: the natural and civil, and the spiritual and ecclesiastical communities” (Schott), is warranted neither by what precedes nor by anything the clauses themselves contain.—Hofmann, who denies the climax, determines the relation of the four maxims to each other in a highly artificial manner. He holds that the second sentence is in antithesis to the first, and the fourth to the third; that the first is akin to the fourth, and the second to the third; that in the first stress is laid on πάντας , whilst on the second, on the other hand, it lies not on ἀδελφότητα , but on ἀγαπᾶτει , and that in the first antithesis it is the first member that is emphatic, in the second it is the last.
[144] In like manner Hornejus: non de omnibus absolute loquitur, quasi omnes homines etiam pessimi honorandi sint, sed de iis, quibus honor propter potestatem quam habent, competit.
[145] Explicat Petr. quomodo Caesari parendum sit, nempe ut Dei interim timori nihil derogetur.
[146] Hofmann’s view is purely arbitrary: that in the foremost clause the aorist is put because, in the first place, and chiefly, it is required to honour all; and after this, that the Christian should love his brethren in Christ. Nor can it be at all supported by Winer’s remarks, p. 294 [E. T. 394].