1 Peter 2:16 Commentary and Bible Study

‘As free’ – here is a significant factor added to this exhortation. The ones who are free are those who have just been commanded to submit, but that command does not imply they are still slaves to human authority. ‘The mind and the conscience of the Christian are emancipated from human authority … we mean, that no human power has any right to dictate to him what he is to believe, and what he is to do in matters of religious and moral duty: and that, in the degree in which he is an enlightened Christian, he acts on the principle, that he ought to “call no man on earth master;” but … endeavour to ascertain what is the mind and will of the “One Master, who is in heaven.”’ (John Brown). We have other liberties also. We are free from condemnation, from the dominion of sin, the controlling power of sin. By God's help, we can defeat temptation and sin. We are free from enslavement of this world, and its fashions, and its ideas and beliefs. Conversion to Christ has set us free. This must not be denied. We are members of the kingdom of heaven, and we place ourselves under the authority of man voluntarily because it is the Lord’s will. We are to be the best of citizens to whatever state we belong.‘But not using your liberty as a cloke of maliciousness [or unworthiness or evil].’ It is possible to misuse this liberty, to hide behind it and use it to justify behaviour which is really nothing other than stubbornness, unwillingness to submit, independency of spirit, uncooperativeness, quarrelsomeness. We don't say, ‘Because I'm a free person, I don't have to obey the laws of the world.’ You do. Not using these tremendous liberties as an excuse for doing as you wish. You are free, but you must voluntarily – because God requires it – obey the laws of the land. Always as representatives, ‘as free, not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness [a cover], but as the servants of God, as those who represent him. and as those who wish to please him, including by submitting to the civil powers which he has put in place in this world. You must never use that freedom as some sort of perverse excuse for law-breaking. ‘I am a child of God. I have liberty. I am not going to be condemned by God, let alone by the state if I can get away with it. As a Christian I am above keeping civil laws.’ Maybe there are laws like speed-limits and things, they are not part of the moral law of God. ‘I am a Christian, I have liberty from condemnation, I can sit light to those things.’ No you can’t, says the word of God here. ‘As free, and [or but] not using your [Christian] liberty for a cloke of [evil and wrong doing], but as the servants of God.’ Just as you are a bondslave of God, purchased by Jesus Christ, when it comes to moral things, so it is with supporting God’s institutions, that he has put into society to keep order and for the good of people generally.