John Calvin Commentary 1 Peter 2:18

"Servants, [be] in subjection to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward." — 1 Peter 2:18 (ASV)

Servants, be subject. Although this is a particular admonition, it is connected with what has gone before, as well as the other things that follow. For the obedience of servants to masters, and of wives also to their husbands, forms a part of civil or social subjection.

He first would have servants be subject with all fear; by this expression, he means that sincere and willing reverence, which they acknowledge by their office to be due. He then sets this fear in opposition to dissimulation as well as to forced subjection. For an eye-service (ὀφθαλμοδουλεία, Colossians 3:22), as Paul calls it, is the opposite of this fear. Furthermore, if servants clamor against severe treatment, being ready to throw off the yoke if they could, they cannot be said to fear properly.

In short, fear arises from a right knowledge of duty. And although no exception is added here, yet, according to other passages, it is to be understood. For subjection due to men is not to be extended so far as to lessen the authority of God. Therefore, servants are to be subject to their masters only as far as God permits, or "as far as the altars," as they say. But as the word here is not δοῦλοι, slaves, but οἰκέται, domestics, we may understand both free and bond servants to be meant, although this is a difference of little consequence.

Not only to the good. Although regarding the duty of servants to obey their masters, it is entirely a matter of conscience; if, however, they are unjustly treated personally, they should not resist authority. Therefore, whatever masters may be like, there is no excuse for servants for not faithfully obeying them. For when a superior abuses his power, he must indeed render an account to God in the future, yet he does not at present lose his right. For this law is imposed on servants: that they are to serve their masters, even if they may be unworthy. For the froward he sets in opposition to the equitable or humane; and by this word, he refers to the cruel and the perverse, or those who have no humanity and kindness.

It is a wonder what could have induced an interpreter to change one Greek word for another and translate it as “wayward.” I would say nothing of the gross ignorance of the Sorbonne theologians, who commonly understand “wayward” (dyscolos) to mean the dissolute or dissipated, if it were not that they seek by this absurd translation to establish for us an article of faith: that we should obey the Pope and his horned wild beasts, however grievous and intolerable a tyranny they may exercise. This passage, then, shows how boldly they trifle with the Word of God.