Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Peter 2:13

"Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord`s sake: whether to the king, as supreme;" — 1 Peter 2:13 (ASV)

To every ordinance of man.—This is the second prudential rule: subordination. Literally, it means to every human creation, that is, to every office or authority that humans have established. We are to submit not only to ordinances of directly Divine institution. Note that he does not say we are to submit to every law that humans may pass.

This passage is most directly modeled on Romans 13:1 and following, where the reason given for submission is the same as that in John 19:11, namely, that ultimately the authority proceeds from God Himself. Here, however, the thought is quite different. They are to submit, not because of the original source from which the authority flows, but because of the practical consequences of not submitting. It must be done for the Lord’s sake (that is, Jesus Christ’s sake), that is, in order not to bring discredit upon His teaching and persecution upon His Church.

This difference of treatment, in the midst of so much resemblance, shows that at the time St. Peter’s letter was written, there was a much more immediate cause for emphasizing political subordination. St. Paul, writing to the Roman Church, urges submission to Claudius because the Roman Jews (among whom the Christians were reckoned) were often in trouble and expelled from the city of Rome (Acts 18:2); St. Peter, writing in all probability from the Roman Church, urges submission to Nero and the provincial governors because ignorant and foolish men were beginning to misrepresent the Christian Church as a kind of Internationalist or Socialist conspiracy.

The king, as supreme.—This is the first division of the second prudential rule: political subordination. Of course, this means the emperor. The name “king,” though detested in Latin, was used without scruple by the provincial Greeks to express the sovereignty of the Caesars.

When he is described here as “supreme,” it is not intended (as the English version might suggest) to contrast his supreme power with the inferior power of the “governors.” The word is simply the same one rendered “higher” in Romans 13:1. Huther rightly says, “The emperor was in the Roman Empire not merely the highest, but actually the only ruler; all other magistrates were but the instruments by which he exercised his sway.” Of course, all Asia Minor, to which St. Peter was writing, was in the Roman Empire. The language would have been different had the letter been addressed to, or perhaps had it even been written from, the geographical Babylon.