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1Pe_3:15. κύριον δὲ τὸν Χριστόν ] κύριον , in Isaiah equivalent to τὸν Θεόν ; a substitution of this kind is frequently found in the N. T., where reference is made to passages in the O. T., and can be easily explained on the principle that a consciousness distinctively Christian was asserting itself; “ κύριον is placed first, as antithesis to αὐτῶν ” (Wiesinger). Schott denies that κύριον stands in apposition to τὸν Χριστόν , holding that κύριον is to be taken rather as a predicate of the object, equivalent to, “as Lord;” for this reason, that κύριος stands here without the article, and that the simple conjunction of κύριος and Χριστός does not occur. But against the first objection the expression κύριος ὁ Θεός may be urged, and against the second the verse Luk_2:11. It is more natural, and at the same time more in harmony with the passage in the O. T., to connect κύριος directly with τὸν Χριστόν : “but … the Lord, the Messiah.”
ἁγιάσατε ] in antithesis to φοβηθῆτε and ταραχθῆτε ; “hold, i.e. honour, fear as holy” (de Wette); the sanctifying comprehends within it the fear of God; cf. Isa_8:18; Isa_29:23; it thus forms the contrast to the fear of man; where the former is, the latter must give way.
ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν ] added by the apostle in order to mark the inward nature of the ἁγιάζειν .
ἕτοιμοι ] Whether δέ be the original reading or not, this clause is undoubtedly intimately connected in thought with that which precedes it. Without δέ this being ready is conceived as a proof of the ἁγιάζειν Χρ .; with δέ the thought is this, that the ἁγιάζειν Χρ . κ . τ . λ ., which banishes all fear of man, should not exclude the ἀπολογία before men (de Wette, Wiesinger). Hofmann takes the particle here as equal to “rather;” but against this is the fact that here κύριον … ὑμῶν would have to be taken as a simple parenthesis, inasmuch as δέ would refer only to what precedes, and a second antithesis would then be added to the already antithetical κύριον δὲ κ . τ . λ .
ἀεὶ πρὸς ἀπολογίαν παντὶ τῷ κ . τ . λ .] ἕτοιμος πρός , cf. Titus 3 :.—“The injunction exempts neither time ( ἀεί ) nor person ( παντί )” (Steiger).
To limit its application to a judicial examination is arbitrary, and militates against παντί .
ἀπολογία not equal to satisfactio (Vulg.), but here rather quaevis responsio, qua ratio fidei (more correctly spei) nostrae redditur (Vorstius; Php_1:7; Php_1:16; Act_26:2).
παντὶ τῷ αἰτοῦντι κ . τ . λ .] The dative depending on ἀπολογίαν , cf. 1Co_9:3; for αἰτέω with double accusative, cf. Winer, p. 212 f. [E. T. 281]. λόγον αἰτεῖν : “to demand account of,” only here, cf. chap. 1Pe_4:5; Rom_14:12.
περὶ τῆς ἐν ὑμῖν ἐλπίδος ] περί : as to its nature and ground.
ἐλπίς , not equivalent to πίστις (Calvin: spes hic per synecdochen pro fide capitur), but the hope of the Christian looking, on the ground of faith, into the future salvation.[190]
ἀλλὰ μετὰ πραΰτητος καὶ φόβου ] If ἀλλά be the true reading, as there can hardly be any doubt it is, it will serve to make more sharply prominent the way and manner, in which the ἀπολογία should be conducted; de Wette: “as it were: but remember.”
μετά , to be connected not with ἕτοιμοι , but with ἀπολογίαν ; πραΰτητος opposed to passionate zeal. φόβου is to be applied directly neither to God (Aretius: reverentia et timor Dei; thus Weiss also, p. 169), nor to men before whom testimony is to be borne (according to some: the civil authorities); but it denotes the being afraid—based, of course, on the fear of God—of every unseemly kind of ἀπολογία , and stands especially opposed to all arrogant self-confidence (Wiesinger).
[190] That this “account” had special reference to the removal of the suspicion that the kingdom of Christ was of this world, is nowhere alluded to in the context (de “Wette, Schott). And Schott is hardly justified in giving the apostle’s exhortations special application “to the divinely ordained ordinances of natural social life.”