Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
Conversation - `conduct.' In two things 'pilgrims' ought to bear themselves well:
(1) The conduct, as subjects (1 Peter 2:13), servants (1 Peter 2:18), wives
(1 Peter 3:1), husbands (1 Peter 3:7), and under all circumstances (1 Peter 2:8.);
(2) Confession of the faith (1 Peter 3:15-16).
Both derives from the will of God. Our conversation should correspond to our Saviour's condition: this is in heaven, so ought that to be.
Honest - becoming (1 Peter 3:16). Contrast 1 Peter 1:18, end. A good walk does not make us pious: we must first be pious by believing before we can lead a good course. Faith first receives from God, then love gives to our neighhour (Luther).
Whereas they speak against you - now (1 Peter 2:15); they may at some time hereafter glorify God. х En (G1722) hoo (G3739) may be, 'Wherein they speak against you, etc., that (therein) they may, by your good works, which on a closer inspection they shall behold (the strict sense of epopteuontes (G2029): so 1 Peter 3:2: as opposed to their "ignorance" (1 Peter 2:15), of the true character of Christianity by judging on hearsay), glorify God.'] The very works 'which, on careful consideration must move the pagan to praise God, are at first the object of raillery' (Steiger). Evil doers. Because as Christians they could not conform to paganish customs, they were accused of disobedience to legal authority; to rebut this charge, they are told to submit to every ordinance of man (not sinful). 'Others narrowly look at the actions of the righteous' (Bengel). Tertullian contrasts the early Christians and the pagan. These delighted in the bloody gladiatorial spectacles of the amphitheater; whereas a Christian was excommunicated if he went to it at all. No Christian was found in prison for crime, but only for the faith. The pagan excluded slaves from some of their religious services; Christians had some of their presbyters of slaves. Slavery silently and gradually disappeared by the power of the Christian law of love: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." When the Pagans deserted their nearest relatives in a plague, Christians ministered to the sick. When Gentiles left their dead unburied after the battle, and cast their wounded into the streets, the disciples hastened to relieve the suffering. Justin Martyr, 'We formerly rejoiced in fornication, now we welcome chastity alone; then we loved the procuring of goods and money more than anything else, now we bring all we have to a common fund, and share it with everyone who needs. We who hated one another, now pray for our enemies, and try to persuade those who unjustly hate us to become, by living according to Christ, sharers of the hope of obtaining the came blessings with us from God the ruler of all.' Merivale assigns four causes of the conversion of the Roman empire:
(1) Fulfilled prophecies and miracles;
(2) Sense of sin and need on the part of the pagan;
(3) The holy example of primitive Christians;
(4) Its final temporal successes.
Glorify - forming a high estimate of Him whom Christians worship, from the exemplary conduct of Christians themselves. We must do good, not with a view to our own glory, but to that of God.
The day of visitation - when God shall visit them in grace (Luke 19:44).