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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 Peter 2:16 - 2:16
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
16. ὡς ἐλεύθεροι. The nominative connects the verse with 1Pe 2:13. In submitting yourselves to the institutions of human society you will not be reverting to the old bondage of your heathen life from which you have been ransomed. The service of God is “perfect freedom” (cui servire est regnare), the freedom to do what you ought rather than what you like. Old institutions must be submitted to not as a bondage to men but as ordinances of God.
ἐπικάλυμμα κακίας. Christian liberty affords no pretext for churlish, scornful, contempt towards heathenism and its institutions, rather it requires you to “honour all men.”
ὡς θεοῦ δοῦλοι, cf. Rom 6:22 and 1Co 7:22.