1 Peter 4:15 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

But let none of you suffer as a murderer, &c.— Let not therefore any of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a malefactor; or as one who busily affects the government of other men, or the magistrates office. See ch. 1 Peter 2:20. &c. and the Apostolic Constitutions, b, 5 : 100: 2. Dr. Lardner has well observed, "That the word αλλοτριοεπισκοπος, cannot here signify merely 'a prying into the concerns of private families;' which could not be ranked with such crimes as are here mentioned, nor expose a man to the punishment of the civil magistrate: but it may signify a man who presumes to inspect and direct the affairs of others; perhaps who aspires to public authority;—a temper which shewed itself much among the Jews, particularly at Alexandria and Caesarea, and which would naturally give great offence to the Romans, and make them very dangerous enemies. If therefore any thing of this kind might appear among Christians, it would be of particular bad consequence in those times."