Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Peter 1:14
As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:
14. as obedient children ] Literally, children of obedience. The phrase is more or less a Hebraism, like “children of wrath,” Eph 2:3, or the more closely parallel “children of disobedience” in Eph 5:6. The “cursed children,” literally, children of a curse, of 2Pe 2:14, furnishes another example of the Hebrew feeling which looks on the relation of sonship as a parable symbolizing the inheritance of character or status.
not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts ] The word is the same as that used by St Paul in Rom 12:2, where the English Version gives “conformed.” The words “in your ignorance” are in the Greek more closely connected with “lusts,” the former lusts that were in your ignorance. We trace an echo of the feeling expressed by St Peter in Act 3:17, and again by St Paul in Act 17:30, that the whole life of men, whether Jews or Gentiles, before the revelation of Christ, was a time of ignorance, to be judged as such. The former was at least likely to remember, as he wrote, his Master’s words as to “the servant who knew not his lord’s will” (Luk 12:48), and who was therefore to be “beaten with few stripes.” It does not follow, as some have thought, that he is thinking here, chiefly or exclusively, of those who had been heathens. The words were in their breadth and fulness as true of Jew and Gentile alike as were St Paul’s in Rom 11:32.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
As obedient children – That is, conduct yourselves as becomes the children of God, by obeying his commands; by submitting to His will; and by manifesting unwavering confidence in him as your Father at all times.
Not fashioning yourselves – Not forming or modeling your life. Compare the notes at Rom 12:2. The idea is, that they were to have some model or example, in accordance with which they were to frame their lives, but that they were not to make their own former principles and conduct the model. The Christian is to be as different from what he was himself before conversion as he is from his fellow-men. He is to be governed by new laws, to aim at new objects, and to mould his life in accordance with new principles. Before conversion, he was:
(a)Supremely selfish;
(b)He lived for personal gratification;
(c)He gave free indulgence to his appetites and passions, restrained only by a respect for the decencies of life, and by a reference to his own health, property, or reputation, without regard to the will of God;
(d)He conformed himself to the customs and opinions around him, rather than to the requirements of his Maker;
(e)He lived for worldly aggrandizements, his supreme object being wealth or fame; or,
(f)In many cases, those who are now Christians, gave indulgence to every passion which they wished to gratify, regardless of reputation, health, property, or salvation.
Now they are to be governed by a different rule, and their own former standard of morals and of opinions is no longer their guide, but the will of God.
According to the former lusts in your ignorance – When you were ignorant of the requirements of the gospel, and gave yourselves up to the unrestrained indulgence of your passions.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 14. Not fashioning yourselves] As the offices of certain persons are known by the garb or livery they wear, so are transgressors: where we see the world’s livery we see the world’s servants; they fashion or habit themselves according to their lusts, and we may guess that they have a worldly mind by their conformity to worldly fashions.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
As obedient children; Greek, children of obedience, by a usual Hebraism, for obedient children. So children of disobedience, Eph 2:2; Col 3:6. And this we may understand either absolutely, children of obedience for obedient persons; or with relation to God, obedient children of God; and then the apostle persuades them to their duty by an argument taken from their adoption; being the children of God, he would have them behave themselves obediently, as becomes them in that relation.
Not fashioning yourselves; not accommodating, not conforming yourselves, not shaping or ordering your conversation. See the same word, Rom 12:2.
According to the former lusts; the lusts you formerly indulged yourselves in: see Eph 4:22.
In your ignorance; your ignorance of Christ and the gospel: q.d. Not fashioning yourselves according to those lusts you lived in when you were ignorant of Christ. He distinguisheth between the time of their ignorance, and of their illumination. Another age requires other manners. They formerly lived according to the dictates of their lusts, but now ought to live according to the will of Christ: see 1Pe 1:18; Act 17:30; Eph 4:17,18.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. From sobriety of spiritand endurance of hope Peter passes to obedience, holiness,and reverential fear.
Asmarking theirpresent actual character as “born again” (1Pe 1:3;1Pe 1:22).
obedient childrenGreek,“children of obedience”: children to whom obedienceis their characteristic and ruling nature, as a child is of the samenature as the mother and father. Contrast Eph5:6, “the children of disobedience.” Compare 1Pe1:17, “obeying the Father” whose “children”ye are. Having the obedience of faith (compare 1Pe1:22) and so of practice (compare 1Pe 1:16;1Pe 1:18). “Faith is thehighest obedience, because discharged to the highest command”[LUTHER].
fashioningThe outwardfashion (Greek, “schema“) is fleeting,and merely on the surface. The “form,” or conformationin the New Testament, is something deeper and more perfect andessential.
the former lusts inwhichwere characteristic of your state of ignorance of God: true of bothJews and Gentiles. The sanctification is first described negatively(1Pe 1:14, “not fashioningyourselves,” c. the putting off the old man, even in the outwardfashion, as well as in the inward conformation), thenpositively (1Pe 1:15, puttingon the new man, compare Eph 4:22;Eph 4:24). “Lusts” flowfrom the original birth-sin (inherited from our first parents, who byself-willed desire brought sin into the world), the lustwhich, ever since man has been alienated from God, seeks to fill upwith earthly things the emptiness of his being; the manifold formswhich the mother-lust assumes are called in the plural lusts.In the regenerate, as far as the new man is concerned, whichconstitutes his truest self, “sin” no longer exists; but inthe flesh or old man it does. Hence arises the conflict,uninterruptedly maintained through life, wherein the new man in themain prevails, and at last completely. But the natural man knows onlythe combat of his lusts with one another, or with the law, withoutpower to conquer them.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
As obedient children,…. Or “children of obedience”. This may be connected either with what goes before, that seeing they were children of God, by adopting grace, and in regeneration brought to the obedience of faith, to whom the inheritance belonged, therefore they ought to continue hoping for it; or with what follows, that since they were manifestly the children of God by faith in. Christ Jesus, being begotten again to a lively hope, they ought to be followers of him, and imitate him in holiness and righteousness, and show themselves to be obedient ones to his Gospel and ordinances, as children ought to honour, and obey, and imitate their parents:
not fashioning yourselves to the former lusts in your ignorance. The phrase is much the same with that in Ro 12:2 “be not conformed to this world”; for to be conformed, or fashioned to the world, is to be fashioned to the lusts of it; and to be fashioned to the lusts of it is to indulge them, to make provision for them, to obey them, to live and walk in them; which should not be done by the children of God, and who profess themselves to be obedient ones to the Gospel, which teaches otherwise; and that because they are lusts, foolish, hurtful, and deceitful ones, ungodly ones; the lusts of the devil, as well as of the world, and of the flesh, and which war against the soul; and because they are “former” ones, which they served in a time of unregeneracy, and were now convinced and ashamed of, and therefore should no longer live to them; the time past of life being sufficient to have walked in them: and because they were lusts in ignorance, which they had indulged in a state of ignorance; not of Gentilism, though this might be the case of some, but of Judaism; when they knew not God, especially in Christ, and were ignorant of his righteousness, and of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, as committed against a law that was holy and spiritual; nor did they know Christ, and the way of salvation by him, but thought they ought to do many things contrary to his name; nor the work of the Spirit in regeneration, saying with Nicodemus, how can these things be? nor the true sense of the Scriptures, the sacred oracles, that were committed to them; much less the Gospel, which was hidden from them, and they were enemies to: but now it was otherwise with them; they were made light in the Lord, and had knowledge of all these things; and therefore, as their light increased, and the grace of God, bringing salvation, appeared unto them, and shone out on then, it became them to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and not to walk as they had done before, since they had not so learned Christ.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
As children of obedience ( ). A common Hebraism (descriptive genitive frequent in LXX and N.T., like , children of disobedience, in Eph 2:2) suggested by in verse 2, “children marked by obedience.”
Not fashioning yourselves ( ). Usual negative with the participle (present direct middle of , a rare (Aristotle, Plutarch) compound (, , from from ), in N.T. only here and Ro 12:2 (the outward pattern in contrast with the inward change ). See Php 2:6f. for contrast between (pattern) and (form).
According to your former lusts ( ). Associative instrumental case after and the bad sense of as in 1Pet 4:2; 2Pet 1:4; Jas 1:14.
In the time of your ignorance ( ). “In your ignorance,” but in attributive position before “lusts.” (from , to be ignorant) is old word, in N.T. only here, Acts 3:17; Acts 17:30; Eph 4:18.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Obedient children [ ] . Literally, and more correctly, as Rev., children of obedience. See on Mr 3:17. The Christian is represented as related to the motive principle of his life as a child to a parent.
Fashioning yourselves [] . See on Mt 17:2; and compare Rom 12:2, the only other passage where the word occurs. As schma is the outward, changeable fashion, as contrasted with what is intrinsic, the word really carries a warning against conformity to something changeful, and therefore illusory.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) 11 As obedient children”. As born children (Gk. hupakoes) of obedience – ones who give heed. Children of God, having obeyed His call to obedience in hearing, repenting and believing, should also lead obedient lives of separated service to the Lord and His church. Joh 14:15; Joh 15:14.
2) “Not fashioning yourselves”. Not patterning yourselves- not becoming a pattern. Rom 12:2.
3) “According to your former lusts.” To, toward or according to the former way (of the world) (Gk. epithumiais) longings or sinful cravings.
4) “In your ignorance.” In your ignorant, not knowing or not comprehending state. 1Co 2:14; Eph 4:18. Those saved should no longer live as if they were yet in ignorance of grace.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
14 As obedient children He first intimates that we are called by the Lord to the privilege and honor of adoption through the Gospel; and, secondly, that we are adopted for this end, that he might have us as his obedient children. For though obedience does not make us children, as the gift of adoption is gratuitous, yet it distinguishes children from aliens. How far, indeed, this obedience extends, Peter shews, when he forbids God’s children to conform to or to comply with the desires of this world, and when he exhorts them, on the contrary, to conform to the will of God. The sum of the whole law, and of all that God requires of us, is this, that his image should shine forth in us, so that we should not be degenerate children. But this cannot be except we be renewed and put off the image of old Adam.
Hence we learn what Christians ought to propose to themselves as an object throughout life, that is, to resemble God in holiness and purity. But as all the thoughts and feelings of our flesh are in opposition to God, and the whole bent of our mind is enmity to him, hence Peter begins with the renunciation of the world; and certainly, whenever the Scripture speaks of the renewal of God’s image in us, it begins here, that the old man with his lusts is to be destroyed.
In your ignorance The time of ignorance he calls that before they were called into the faith of Christ. We hence learn that unbelief is the fountain of all evils. For he does not use the word ignorance, as we commonly do; for that Platonic dogma is false, that ignorance alone is the cause of sin. But yet, how much soever conscience may reprove the unbelieving, nevertheless they go astray as the blind in darkness, because they know not the right way, and they are without the true light. According to this meaning, Paul says,
“
Ye henceforth walk not as the Gentiles, in the vanity of their mind, who have the mind darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them.” (Eph 4:17.)
Where the knowledge of God is not, there darkness, error, vanity, destitution of light and life, prevail. These things, however, do not render it impossible that the ungodly should be conscious of doing wrong when they sin, and know that their judge is in heaven, and feel an executioner within them. In short, as the kingdom of God is a kingdom of light, all who are alienated from him must necessarily be blind and go astray in a labyrinth.
We are in the meantime reminded, that we are for this end illuminated as to the knowledge of God, that we may no longer be carried away by roving lusts. Hence, as much progress any one has made in newness of life, so much progress has he made in the knowledge of God.
Here a question arises, — Since he addressed the Jews, who were acquainted with the law, and were brought up in the worship of the only true God, why did he charge them with ignorance and blindness, as though they were heathens? To this I answer, that it hence appears how profitless is all knowledge without Christ. When Paul exposed the vain boasting of those who wished to be wise apart from Christ, he justly said in one short sentence, that they did not hold the head. (Col 2:19.) Such were the Jews; being otherwise imbued with numberless corruptions, they had a veil over the eyes, so that they did not see Christ in the Law. The doctrine in which they had been taught was indeed a true light; but they were blind in the midst of light, as long as the Sun of Righteousness was hid to them. But if Peter declares that the literal disciples even of the Law were in darkness like the heathens, as long as they were ignorant of Christ, the only true wisdom of God, with how much greater care it behoves us to strive for the knowledge of him!
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(14) As obedient children.Literally, as children of obediencechildren, i.e., in the sense of relationship, not of age. It is characteristic of the writer to keep one thought underlying many digressions, and so here, the appeal to them as children is based on the begotten again of 1Pe. 1:3, and inheritance of 1Pe. 1:4; it comes up again in 1Pe. 1:17, the Father; in 1Pe. 1:22, the brethren; and again in 1Pe. 1:23, begotten again. The usual characteristic of Jews in the New Testament is disobedience. (See Note on 2Th. 1:8.) The as means in keeping with your character of, just as we say in common English, Do so like obedient children.
Not fashioning yourselves according to.This rare verb is the same as is translated be not conformed, in Rom. 12:2, from which some think it is borrowed. The expression is a little confused, the lusts themselves being spoken of as a model not to be copied, where we should rather have expected not being conformed to your former selves.
The former lusts in your ignorancei.e., which you indulged before you came to know the gospel truthof course implying also that the ignorance was the mother of the lusts. The same assumption is made here which we shall find again below in 1Pe. 2:9, and still more in 1Pe. 4:3, that the recipients of this Letter had lived in ignorance and in vice up to a certain point of their lives. And it is contended, with much plausibility, that both accusations show the recipients of the letter to be of Gentile and not of Jewish origin. It is true that lusts of the flesh are not usually laid to the charge of the Jews, as they are of the Gentiles. (See, for instance, 1Th. 4:5; Eph. 4:17.) It is also true that the ignorance with which the Jews are charged (for instance, Act. 3:17; Rom. 10:3; 1Ti. 1:13) has quite a different tendency from this. But it may be answered that such details are of little weight in comparison with the direct evidence of the first verse, and the indirect evidence of the whole tone of the Letter; also that, putting out of sight expressions of St. Pauls which have nothing to do with St. Peter, ignorance is surely not an unnatural word to represent the contrast between the state of unregenerate Jews and the same persons when they have attained to knowledge higher than that of prophets or of angels; that even Jews were men of flesh and blood, and therefore not exempt from the temptations of the flesh, from which mere legalism was quite insufficient to protect them (see Rom. 7:8, sin through the commandment wrought in me every lust); that in Heb. 5:2; Heb. 9:7, Jewish people are supposed to have need of a high priest to bear with and atone for their ignorance and ignorances; that the same writer contemplates the possibility of many of his Hebrews being defiled through fleshly sin (Heb. 12:15-16), and deems it necessary to urge strongly the sanctions of marriage (Heb. 13:4).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
b. Exhortation to obedience after the pattern of Christ, 1Pe 1:14-16 .
14. As the preceding verse points to the inward state and action, and this to external conduct, with its own proper ground, it is better, with Tregelles, Alford, and others, to read here as beginning a new paragraph.
Obedient children Literally, children of obedience. See Winer, xxxiv, b. 2. As the child partakes of the nature of the parent, such are they whose moral natures are so imbued with the spirit of obedience that it has become a controlling second nature. See note on Eph 2:2. The condition presupposed is in the “begotten again” of 1Pe 1:3, and the “born again” of 1Pe 1:23. In such this spirit reigns, and the demand of holiness naturally follows.
Not lusts Negatively. The sort of conduct to which they led is described in chapter 1Pe 4:3, and includes whatever is contrary to the holy example of Christ.
Ignorance Before receiving the knowledge of the gospel, or, on the part of the heathen, of the true God.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Calling: The Charge to be Holy We are exhorted to make the decision to live a holy lifestyle in this present time in 1Pe 1:14 to 1Pe 2:10. 1Pe 1:14-16 exhorts us to this life of holiness based upon a charge from Moses to the people in Lev 11:44-45 to sanctify themselves. Therefore, Peter gives us our divine calling to a life of holiness.
1Pe 1:14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:
1Pe 1:14
1Pe 1:14 “in your ignorance” Comments – The phrase “in your ignorance” contrasts our present condition of understand our eternal hope with our former lifestyle of ignorance and darkness which held us in sin.
The phrase “in your ignorance” used in 1Pe 1:14 is contrasted with the believer’s understand and decision to choose holiness, with the emphasis of this Epistle being upon man’s mental realm in his choice to persevere. We see a similar phrase in “the ignorance of foolish men” used in 1Pe 2:15.
1Pe 2:15, “For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:”
1Pe 1:15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
1Pe 1:15
1Pe 1:15 Comments – The reason we sanctify our lives and live holy before God is because of the hope we have in entering into our future glorification (1Pe 1:13). We must choose to lay aside our old lifestyles (1Pe 1:14) and walk in holiness (1Pe 1:15) based upon our new hope.
1Pe 1:16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
1Pe 1:16
Lev 19:2, “Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy .”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
1Pe 1:14. As obedient children, As children of obedience; an usual Hebraism, by which persons are called the children of that, to which they are addicted or devoted. “Obedience (says Dr. Heylin,) is a sure ground of hope: to expect salvation without it, is not hope, but presumption.” What the former lusts were, see ch. 1Pe 4:3. Their conformity to them is here expressed by a very emphatical word; ; which signifies, “Such a conformity as a medal or image has to the mould in which it was formed or cast.” Our translation has well expressed this allusion; not fashioning yourselves. Compare Rom 6:17.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Pe 1:14 . Second exhortation (extending to 1Pe 1:21 ).
] does not belong to what precedes (Hofmann), but serves to introduce the new exhortation. [82]
does not here introduce a comparison (as 1Pe 2:2 ; 1Pe 2:5 , 1Pe 3:7 ), but marks the essential quality of the subject. Lorinus correctly remarks on 1Pe 2:14 : constat hujusmodi particulas saepe nihil minuere, sed rei veritatem magis exprimere; it corresponds to our “as,” i.e. as becomes you who should be .
is used here as absolutely as in 1Pe 1:2 , and has the same signification as there. The spirit which pervades the life of believers is the spirit of obedience, and therefore they should be . According to the analogy of similar compounds in the N. T., as , Eph 5:8 ; its opposite: , 2Pe 2:14 ; , Eph 2:3 ; particularly , Eph 2:2 , the expression may be explained so as that shall denote only the relation in which the persons in question stand to the idea of the accompanying genitive; cf. Winer, p. 223 f. [E. T. 298]; Buttmann, p. 141; Meyer on Eph 2:2 (thus Grotius, Jachmann, etc.; Fronmller too). De Wette, Brckner, Schott, Weiss too most probably, p. 172, take as the “children of God ,” and as the genitive of character (as Luk 16:8 : ; Luk 18:6 : ). But as it is in 1Pe 1:17 that mention is first made of the sonship relation of the Christian, it remains at least doubtful whether the apostle had in this expression that relation in view; at any rate the emphasis here lies not on , but on .
] occurs here on account of the imperative cast of the whole sentence. Neither (Bengel) nor any other similar word is to be supplied to the part., inasmuch as it does not correspond to the but to the (Wiesinger); there is here no “departure from the construction” (de Wette). The word , occurring in the N. T. only here and in Rom 12:2 , and nowhere but in later Greek, means: “ to form his like that of another ;” [83] it has reference not to the outward conduct merely, but to the whole outward and inward conformation of life, as the connection with the following words shows: . The , i.e. the sinful desires (not “the satisfied lusts, or a life of pleasure,” as de Wette understands), which formerly held sway in them, are the , according to which they are not to fashion themselves in their new life. [84] Luther’s translation is inexact: “take not up your former position, when ye in your ignorance lived according to your lusts.” The are more precisely characterized as formerly belonging to them ; specifies not merely the time (Calvin: tempus ignorantiae vocat, antequam in fidem Christi vocati essent), but likewise the origin (Wiesinger). is used here as in Act 17:30 , Eph 4:18 , ignorance in divine things, and is to be understood, if not exactly of idolatry, at least of heathenism, which is far from the knowledge of the living God and of His will. Paul, in Rom 1:18 ff., shows how the obscuring of the consciousness of God is the source of moral corruption.
[82] Hofmann connects not only these words, but the subsequent participial clause also: . . ., with what precedes. This, however, is opposed, on the one hand, by the correspondence which exists between and the subsequent exhortations; and, on the other hand, by , ver. 15, which is in antithesis to , and therefore not to be separated from it, as though it commenced a new paragraph.
[83] When, in objection to this, Hofmann urges that should here be interpreted not according to Rom 12:2 , but on the principle of the expression: . ; “so to conduct oneself as to give adequate expression to the words used,” he does not consider that in this verse the verb has the same force as in Rom 12:2 , for it means: “to conform your to that which your words express.”
[84] Schott terms this interpretation “inexact;” for “it is not the lusts themselves, but the mode of life which is essentially characterized by these lusts, according to which they are not to fashion themselves;” but does then mean “the mode of life”? Besides, Schott himself says that the thought is not altogether correctly expressed.
REMARK.
In answer to Weiss, who can see in this passage no proof that the readers were Gentile-Christians, Wiesinger justly remarks, Schott and Brckner agreeing with him: “the of which the Jews (Act 3:17 ; Rom 10:3 ) are accused, or which Paul attributes to himself, 1Ti 1:13 (the same applies to Luk 23:34 ; Joh 8:19 ), is of quite a different kind; not an of the moral demands of the law, but the misapprehension of the purpose of salvation manifesting itself also through the law.” If Weiss, on the other hand, insists ( Die Petr. Frage , p. 624) that the invectives of Christ most plainly teach how, in the Jewish conception of the law, at that time its deeper moral demands were misapprehended; it must, as opposed to him, be observed that Christ’s attack was specially directed against the Pharisaic conception of it, and can in no way be applied to the people of Israel as such. Paul, in describing them, expressly allows to the Jews, Rom 2:17 ff., the ; and an , in the absolute sense here implied, is nowhere cast up to them.
The O. T. distinction between “sins of weakness ( , LXX.: , ) and insolent sins of disobedience” ( ) (Weiss, p. 175) does not apply here.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:
Ver. 14. Not fashioning yourselves ] . As a player is fashioned to the obscene speeches and carriages of him whom he is impersonateting.
In your ignorance ] Men may remain grossly ignorant amidst abundance of means, as these Jews did. “Who is blind but my servant? or deaf as my messenger?” &c., Isa 42:19-20 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
14 21 .] Second Exhortation to OBEDIENCE, and HOLINESS, and REVERENCE. This exhortation is intimately connected with the former; but not therefore, as Wiesinger, to be regarded as one and the same. Each of these is evolved regularly out of the last (cf. again 1Pe 1:22 ), but each is an advance onward through the cycle of Christian graces and dispositions.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
14 .] As (“ here, as in ch. 1Pe 2:2 ; 1Pe 2:5 ; 1Pe 3:7 , does not serve for comparison, but marks the essential quality of the subject: Lorinus says on ch. 1Pe 2:14 rightly, ‘Constat hujusmodi particulas spe nihil minuere, sed rei veritatem magis exprimere.’ ” Huther) children of obedience (cf. , Eph 2:3 ; , Eph 5:8 ; and esp. , Eph 5:6 ; , 2Pe 2:14 . “This mode of expression,” says Winer, Gram. 34. 3. b , Remark 2, “must be referred to the more vivid way of regarding things prevalent among the Orientals, which treats intimate connexion, derivation and dependence, even in spiritual matters, as the relation of a child or a son. ‘Children of disobedience’ are accordingly those, who belong to as a child to its mother, to whom disobedience is become a nature, a ruling disposition.” Hence the student may learn to rise above all such silly and shallow interpretations as that is a Hebraism for . The depths of the sacred tongue were given us to descend into, not to bridge over) not conforming yourselves (thus only, by expressing a middle sense, can we bring out the present participle as combined with the subjective prohibitory particle: and so E. V., well: “ not fashioning yourselves according to .” [But it would have been better to keep the same English for the word as is given in] ref., where the expression, and tense, are similar. The word belongs to later Greek. The participial construction is variously explained: Wiesinger refers it back to and above; Bengel supplies ; De Wette connects it with following, being inserted in negligence of the strict construction; Huther regards it as belonging not to , but to . . below (?). De Wette’s view is in the closest analogy with the construction in 1Pe 1:22 , . : and perhaps therefore to be preferred: but Wiesinger’s is very obvious and natural) to your lusts ( which were ) formerly in your ignorance ( , as in reff., ignorance of things divine, even to the extent of heathenish alienation from God, which latter is most probably here pointed at. Cf. Rom 1:18 ff. This ignorance marks not only the period, but also the ground and element of these lusts prevailing in fashioning the life. As to the construction in | | , – – – .- , which would more naturally stand as predicate ( .- – – – .), forms an adjectival epithet),
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Pe 1:14 . , inasmuch as you are, cf. 1Pe 2:2 ; 1Pe 2:5 , 1Pe 3:7 , etc. , obedient corresponds to St. Paul’s (Col 3:6 ; Eph 2:2 ; Eph 5:6 ). Both phrases reflect the Hebrew use of , “followed by word of quality characteristic, etc.” (B.D.B., s.v. , 8). For in place of usual in this idiom, cf. Hos 9 , and Eph 2:3 , . Here it suits better with (1Pe 2:1 ). , from Rom 12:2 , . The feminine is peculiar to [146] whose scribe was perhaps influenced by the Alexandrian identification of woman with the flesh (Joh 1:13 ) or regarded such conformity as womanish. The participle has the force of an imperative. The Christians needed to be warned against conformity to the manners and morals of their countrymen, which were incompatible with their new faith (see 1Pe 5:2-4 ). The use of in Isa 3:17 , perhaps assists the use of . in connection with lusts. . It was a Jewish axiom that the Gentiles were ignorant (Act 17:30 ; Eph 4:17 f.). Christian teachers demonstrated the equal ignorance of the Jews (Peter, Act 3:17 ; Paul, in Rom.). So Jesus had pronounced even the teachers of Israel to be blind and promised them knowledge of the truth (Joh 8:32 ff., cf. interview with Nicodemus); whereas speaking to the Samaritan woman He adopted the Jewish standpoint (Joh 4:22 ) cf. 2Ki 17:29-41 with Isa 2:3 ; Bar 4:4 , .
[146] Codex Vaticanus (sc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
obedient children = children (App-108.) of (App-17.) obedience.
fashioning, &c. See Rom 12:2.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
14-21.] Second Exhortation-to OBEDIENCE, and HOLINESS, and REVERENCE. This exhortation is intimately connected with the former; but not therefore, as Wiesinger, to be regarded as one and the same. Each of these is evolved regularly out of the last (cf. again 1Pe 1:22), but each is an advance onward through the cycle of Christian graces and dispositions.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Pe 1:14. , children) See 1Pe 1:17, at the beginning.-, of obedience) Obedience is paid either to the Divine truth, 1Pe 1:22, or to the Divine command. The latter is the fruit of faith; the former is faith itself. Therefore Peter expressly stirs them up to hope in 3d and following verses (making mention of hope itself, 1Pe 1:3; 1Pe 1:13); to faith in the 14th and following verses (using the word faith twice in 1Pe 1:21); to love, 1Pe 1:22, but in such a manner that he attempers faith with hope, in 7th and following verses; and again hope with faith, 1Pe 1:21, and faith with love, 1Pe 1:22, and ch. 1Pe 2:6 and following verse.- [10]) Supply , 1Pe 1:15, be ye not conformed.-, in your ignorance) Their former state, even as Jews, before their calling.
[10] and its compounds are used to denote that which is fleeting and changeable, as 1Co 7:13, , the fashion of this world; Rom 12:2, , be not conformed to this world. The word appears to be contrasted with , as that which is essential, as opposed to that which is outward and accidental.
See an excellent article by Mr Lightfoot in the Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, vol. 3, p. 114.-T.
See note on Rom 12:2. , the form, denotes something deeper and more perfect than , the outward fashion.-E.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
obedient: Eph 2:2, Eph 5:6,*Gr.
not: 1Pe 4:2, 1Pe 4:3, Rom 6:4, Rom 12:2, Eph 4:18-22, Col 3:5-7
in: Act 17:30, 1Th 4:5, Tit 3:3-5
Reciprocal: Lev 10:10 – General Lev 14:14 – General Deu 27:10 – General Isa 35:8 – The way Isa 52:11 – touch Eze 18:31 – Cast Hos 14:8 – What Mat 5:9 – for Luk 1:75 – General Luk 10:6 – the Son Luk 18:17 – General Joh 3:7 – Ye Joh 15:16 – that your Act 26:20 – and do Rom 6:2 – live Rom 6:12 – in the lusts 2Co 5:15 – henceforth 2Co 10:5 – the obedience Gal 5:16 – and Eph 2:3 – in the Phi 2:15 – sons Col 3:6 – children Col 3:10 – after 1Th 4:7 – God Tit 2:12 – live Jam 4:1 – come they 1Jo 2:16 – the lust of the flesh
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
CHRISTIAN OBEDIENCE
As obedient children.
1Pe 1:14
There are three, and only three, motives for obedience: Interest; Fear; Love. There is the obedience of the hireling; of the slave; of the child.
I. The obedience of the hireling.It has often been mistaken for Christian obedience. Here is a man whose life is a subject of wonder. Men say of him, What holiness! But on closer inspection I perceive that there is not in that soul a spark of love. He has reasoned thus: To gain heaven, I must suffer and live meritoriously. Is such a man fit for the kingdom of heaven? No. Heaven is to be purchased neither with money nor with merits. God will not accept an obedience of which the secret and supreme motive is interest. There may still be in your heart a tinge of the mercenary spirit. Have you not murmured when affliction has assailed you? These murmurs, whence did they proceed if not from miscalculation? If the Christian does not obey for the sake of a reward, it does not follow that Christian obedience is left unrewarded. The teaching of Christ may be resumed in these words: Blessed are they that mourn. They that mourn, that is the sacrifice. Blessed, that is the reward.
II. The obedience of the slave.It had been easy for God to obtain servile obedience. He could have bowed under His yoke every rebellious will. He has not done so. He has not wished to do so. An obedience inspired by terror has no value in His sight. The gospel is in reality but a solemn and touching appeal to our liberty. An ancient poet said that the tempests which agitate the depths of the ocean only serve to form the gems that are found beneath the waters. Can we not say likewise that all the designs of Providence, such as they appear to us in Scripture; that all the threatenings of God, His chastisements, the afflictions He sends, have no other purpose than to produce this masterpiece of creation, this triumph of Divine lovesouls that consecrate themselves freely to God? In presence of the Cross servile obedience is derision.
III. The obedience of the child.God will not be served by mercenaries nor by slaves. Who then will serve Him? The Apostle answers, children. This word resumes the whole subject: absolute dependence upon God, holy respect, tender love. It reminds us of the motives we have for obedience. It removes whatever of servility or interest might mingle with Christian obedience.
Illustration
Here is a man who flatters himself he will shake off the yoke. He will be his own master and do his own will. He has no sooner entered upon this course than a passion appears, saying, Follow me, and he follows it; Disgrace thyself, and he disgraces himself. And when it has led him whither he would not go, when it has crushed his energies and paralysed his will, the unhappy victim discovers that he has only exchanged a willing obedience for the most servile degradation. Man created to obey does not avoid this duty by separating himself from God; he only changes masters. There are those who yield obedience to necessity, to force; some to duty, others to charity. The Christian alone directly obeys Him Who is truth and love. What constitutes his greatness is that he freely responds to the design of his Creator. Not fatally, as do the worlds His mighty hand has scattered in space.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
1Pe 1:14. As obedient children. One becomes a child of another by having been begotten by him. Being obedient is another matter which depends on the child’s own conduct. These disciples had formerly lived after the lusts of the flesh. and now they are admonished not to live any longer after that fashion. At that time it was in their ignorance that they followed such a course of life, but now the Gos-pel has shown them the folly of such a life, so that they cannot plead ignorance any more.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Pe 1:14. As children of obedience: a second counsel is thus introduced, dealing with a holiness which is to be not less complete than the hope. The one rises naturally out of the other. Hope is a sanctifying principle, promoting holiness, while it is itself also brightened and strengthened by it. It is in the character of children of obedience that they are charged to aim at a perfect holiness. It is as becomes those with whom obedience (here again in the largest and most inclusive sense) has become a new nature. The familiar Hebrew figure for permanence of quality represents them as drawing the inspiration of their life from obedience, as related to it like children to a mother.
not fashioning yourselves in conformity with your former lusts in your ignorance: in the character of the obedient, and in order to holiness, they must renounce a certain fashion of life. The verb occurs only once elsewhere in the New Testament (Rom 12:2). In the heart of it is the term which is applied to the world in its aspect of transience, the fashion of this world passeth away (1Co 7:31), and which is used of Christ in the great Christological statement in Php 2:7found in fashion as a man. The term refers to the externals of an object, all that wherein an object appears, rather than to what is intrinsic. It carries with it, therefore, the idea of the changeable and illusory. This unstable, deceptive form of life which they are not to assume is the old life of heathen lust, the life in which they ignorantly followed the capricious guidance of the passions. (See Lightfoot on Philippians, p. 128.) Ignorance (in the ethical sense of heathen ignorance of God and the things of God, as also in Eph 4:18; Act 17:30) is represented as the stage of their career (the time of your ignorance) when passion was their life (so the Revised Version, Calvin, etc.), or rather as the element in which the passion was bred which gave the stamp to their life. Probably Peter has in view those grosser immoralities which are invariably associated with idolatry, and which Paul (Rom 1:18, etc.) traces back to ignorance of God. The word used for lusts, however, covers not only sensual passions, but all those unregulated desires which are summarily comprehended under the lust of the eye, as well as the lust of the flesh (1Jn 2:16).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
The next duty he exhorts them to, is to answer the engagements which their adoption laid them under; they were now the children of God, and as such must,
1. Be obedient to their heavenly Father, walking in the path of his commandments, and no longer according to the former lusts, which they were captivated by, and enslaved unto in the time of their ignorance, when they knew not God.
And, 2. They must, imitate their heavenly Father in the love and practice of universal holiness: As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy.
Observe, 1. Christians must make God the pattern of their holiness, and be holy as God is holy, though not as holy as God is; the command obliges to a conformity, not to an equality; as God is really holy, positively holy, strictly and exactly holy, universally holy, unchangeably holy, so must we labour to be holy both towards God and man, which is to be holy in all manner of conversation.
Observe, 2. Christians are here required not only to make God the pattern of their holiness, but the motive of their holiness; Be ye holy, for I am holy. Seeing our God is a holy God, therefore we that are his people must be holy also.
Our apostle here represents the holiness of God both as a rule and as a motive of that holiness which should be acted by us.
And whereas the apostle says, It is written, Be ye holy; it plainly intimates, that God has in all former ages obliged all persons, who pretended any relation to him as his children, to be holy as he is holy; though not as to equality, yet as to imitation; though not in measure and degree, yet in quality and kind. God is the original of all holiness, and the first man he created was after his own likeness; and every one that is renewed, is said to be created after God in righteousness and true holiness. What is godliness, but god- likeness? and what is holiness, but the conformity of our nature to the holy nature of God, and the conformity of our lives to the will of God?
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
ARGUMENT 5
SANCTIFICATION AND DEPRAVITY
14. As children of obedience. This phrase is a Hebraism, and means the highest order of obedience to God. Not being fashioned after your former lusts in ignorance. This recognizes the complete and radical revolution of the entire practical life, which can only result from a total internal transformation of spirit and mind.
15. But according to the Holy One, who calleth you, be ye also holy in all your deportment. Anastrophee (conversation) is a very strong word, meaning not only the conversation but the entire practical life, deportment and even the moral and spiritual character. Hence this commandment is a hundred per cent. stronger in the Greek than in the English.
16. Therefore it has been written, Ye shall be holy because I am holy. The Greek here has the imperative shall, identifying it with the Ten Commandments, and thus giving it all the force of the Decalogue. No created intelligent man or angel can ever go back on Gods shall. Hence you see that holiness is the one indispensable, inevasible sine qua non of the heavenly administration, which the combined ingenuity of theology, popery, prelacy and priestcraft can never contravene.
17. This verse certifies the utter impartiality of that infallible Judge who will accept nothing but spiritual purity when we stand before the great white throne. Hence the combined incentives of earth, heaven, hell, life, death, judgment and eternity all conspire to flood the heart, soul, mind and body with an irrepressible and indefatigable enthusiasm to utilize each fleeting moment of this fugitive probation, focalizing all the powers of triune humanity, co-operated by the omnipotent grace of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and inspired by the heroic example of two hundred millions of sainted martyrs to secure and appropriate entire holiness of heart and life at every conceivable cost, fearlessly of men and devils.
18, 19. Knowing that you have not been redeemed from your depraved character transmitted to you from your fathers, by corruptible things, silver or gold, but by the precious blood of Christ as a lamb, blameless and spotless. In 1611, when the English Bible was translated, conversation, from the Latin conversatio, meant not only our words, but moral character, deportment and living. In the last two hundred years that word has been spoliated of about nine-tenths of its original meaning. Consequently it is no longer an adequate translation of the original. This is really an unanswerable revelation of total hereditary depravity, transmitted from Satan, through Adam the first, to every fallen son and daughter. The value of this and other parallel Scriptures can not be overestimated as impassable break-waters against the fearful tide of slipshod theology, superficial professions and sham religions, which this day flood Christendom. The great Bible doctrines of hereditary depravity and entire sanctification, like Siamese twins, live or die together. All we mean by total depravity is the uniform Bible recognition of the sinner as spiritually dead. A dead man is entirely deprived of life. Hence total depravity does not mean debauchery, sensuality or criminality, but simply destitution of spiritual life. The great salient fact of redemption focalizes in total depravity. Whenever you ignore the utter ruin of humanity by the fall and the perfect redemption of Christ, you are adrift, compassless and chartless, on the boundless ocean of skepticism.
20. Known truly before the foundation of the world. This statement settles forever the absolute and unconditional foreknowledge of God. He foresaw the fall of humanity and provided the remedy before the creation. This fact can not be construed to antagonize most perfect human freedom, as knowledge is not influence, and really determines nothing. But being made manifest at the last of the times. God in His inscrutable wisdom is preparing the world for the glorious coming kingdom by a series of consecutive ages, i.e., the Edenic, the antediluvian, the patriarchal, the Judaic and the Gentile, which began with the destruction of Jerusalem and deportation of the Jews by Nebuchadnezzar, B.C. 587, and repeatedly by Christ and the Apostles certified to be the last dispensation. As all the lights of prophecy converge to reveal the momentous fact that we are rapidly approaching the end of this age, when the Lord will ride down on the throne of His glory, the grandest conceivable conspiracy of incentives inspire us to a holy experience and life.
21. Gods resurrection and glorification of Christ forever swept from the field all possible cavil and controversy as to His Christhood, flooring infidelity with-out the possibility of recuperation, and rendering it a laughing stock for men, angels and devils. So your faith and hope are toward God. The transcendent victory of Christ over death, hell, the grave, mortality, carnality and Satan, disencumbers faith of every doubt and sweeps every cloud from hopes azure sky. With the unsanctified, faith and hope are largely selfward, worldward, moneyward and churchward. The baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire exterminates all these carnal elements, so that faith and hope bound away on untiring wing, enjoying a glorious and perpetual balloon ride with God alone.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 14
Not fashioning yourselves; that is, your conduct and character.–In your ignorance; before you became acquainted with the truth in Christ.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
1:14 {8} As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:
(8) He passes from faith and hope, to the fruits of them both, which are understood in the name of obedience. It consists in two things, in renouncing our lusts, and living godly: which lusts have their beginning in that blindness in which all men are born: but holiness proceeds that the father and the children may be of one disposition.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
A better translation of "obedient children" might be "children whose spirit is obedience." Negatively we should stop letting our sinful passions dominate and control us (cf. Rom 12:2). Self-indulgence is characteristic of those who are ignorant of God. Practically this involves saying no to the flesh.
The fact that Peter said that his readers had lived in "ignorance" identifies them for the first time explicitly as Gentile Christians (cf. Act 17:23; Act 17:30; Eph 4:18). The Jews were not ignorant of the importance of abstaining from fleshly lusts since their Scriptures informed them.