SEV Biblia, Chapter 2:12
y tened vuestra conversacin honesta entre los gentiles; para que, en lo que ellos murmuran de vosotros como de malhechores, siendo testigos de sus buenas obras, glorifiquen a Dios en el día de la visitacin, estimndoos.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 Peter 2:12
Verse 12. Having your conversation honest] Living in such a manner among the Gentiles, in whose country ye sojourn, as becomes the Gospel which ye profess. That whereas they speak against you as evil doers] In all the heathen countries, in the first age of the Church, the Christians and the Jews were confounded together; and as the latter mere everywhere exceedingly troublesome and seditious, the Christians shared in their blame, and suffered no small measure of obloquy and persecution on this very account. It was doubly necessary, therefore, that the Christians should be exceedingly cautious; and that their conduct should prove that, although many of them were of the same nation, yet they who had embraced Christianity differed widely in their spirit and conduct from those, whether Jews or Gentiles, who had not received the faith of Christ.
In the day of visitation.] I believe this refers to the time when God should come to execute judgment on the disobedient Jews, in the destruction of their civil polity, and the subversion of their temple and city. God did at that time put a remarkable difference between the Jews and the Christians: all the former were either destroyed or carried into slavery; not one of the latter: nor did they deserve it; for not one of them had joined in the sedition against the Roman government. That the day of visitation means a time in which punishment should be inflicted, is plain from Isaiah x. 3: And what will ye do in the DAY OF VISITATION, and in the desolation which shall come from afar? To whom will ye flee for help? And where will ye leave your glory? Some think that by the phrase in this place is meant the time in which they should be brought before the heathen magistrates, who, after an impartial examination, should find them innocent, and declare them as such; by which God would be glorified, the work appearing to be his own. Others think that it signifies the time in which God should make them the offer of mercy by Jesus Christ. The words, however, may refer to the time in which the Christians should be called to suffer for the testimony of Christ; the heathens, seeing them bear their sufferings with unconquerable patience, were constrained to confess that God was with them; and not a few, from being spectators of their sufferings, became converts to Christianity,
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 12. Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles , etc.] To have the conversation honest, is to provide things honest in the sight of men; to live and walk honestly before all; to do those things which are right and honest in the sight of God, and among men; to order the conversation aright, according to the law of God, which is a rule of walk and conversation, and as becomes the Gospel of Christ; and which was the more, and rather to be attended to, because these converted Jews were among the Gentiles, that knew not God; idolaters, and unbelievers, profane sinners, who were watching for their halting, and that they might take an advantage against them, and the Gospel, and the religion they professed, from their conversations: that whereas they speak against you as evildoers : charging them with the grossest immoralities, as the Heathens did the Christians in the first ages; which appears evidently from the apologies of Tertullian, Jnstin Martyr, and others; though it seems that the Jewish converts are here intended, who were accused by the Gentiles of seditious principles and practices, and of acting contrary to the laws of civil government, refusing to yield subjection to Gentile magistrates, and obedience to Heathen masters; and hence the apostle, in some following verses, enlarges on those duties, and which he exhorts them to attend unto, that they might put to silence the ignorance of such foolish accusers: and that they may, by your good works which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation ; or trial, or examination, as the Syriac version renders it; which may be understood either of human or divine visitation; if of the former, then the sense is, let the saints attend to all the duties of civil life, that when Heathen magistrates come to visit their several districts, and inquire and examine into the conduct of men, and seeing and finding that the Christians behave well and orderly, instead of persecuting them, they will bless God that they are such good subjects; if of divine visitation, which seems most likely, this must either design a visitation by way of judgment, or of mercy; for as the Jews say f56 , there is hdyqp , a visitation, for good, and a visitation for evil: God sometimes visits in a way of punishment for sin, and sometimes in away of grace, for the good and welfare of men; and then the sense is, that when wicked men take notice of and observe the good works of the saints, their civil, honest, and orderly conversation, they shall glorify God on that account, who has enabled them to perform them; and acknowledge the goodness of them, and the wrong judgment they have passed upon them, and the ill measure they have measured out to them; and this will be, either when God visits them in a way of wrath, as at the day of judgment, or at the time of some temporal calamity before, or when he visits them in a way of mercy, calls them by his grace, and effectually works upon them by his Spirit: the same argument for the performance of good works is used by Christ, in ( Matthew 5:16).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 11, 12 - Even the best of men, the chosen generation, the people of God, need to be exhorted to keep from the worst sins. And fleshly lusts are mos destructive to man's soul. It is a sore judgment to be given up to them. There is a day of visitation coming, wherein God may call to repentance by his word and his grace; then many will glorify God, an the holy lives of his people will have promoted the happy change.
Greek Textus Receptus
την 3588 αναστροφην 391 υμων 5216 εν 1722 τοις 3588 εθνεσιν 1484 εχοντες 2192 5723 καλην 2570 ινα 2443 εν 1722 ω 3739 καταλαλουσιν 2635 5719 υμων 5216 ως 5613 κακοποιων 2555 εκ 1537 των 3588 καλων 2570 εργων 2041 εποπτευσαντες 2029 5660 δοξασωσιν 1392 5661 τον 3588 θεον 2316 εν 1722 ημερα 2250 επισκοπης 1984
Vincent's NT Word Studies
12. Conversation. Rev., behavior. See on ch. i. 15.Whereas (en w). Rev., correctly, wherein; in the matter in which. They speak against (katalalousin). Compare evil-speakings, ver. 1, and Acts xxviii. 22.
Which they shall behold (epopteuontev). Rev., beholding. Used by Peter only, here and ch. iii. 2. The kindred noun ejpopthv, an eye-witness, occurs only at 2 Pet. i. 16. It is a technical word, meaning one who was admitted to the highest degree of initiation in the Elensinian mysteries. Here it conveys the idea of personal witness; behold with their own eyes. Evil-doers (kakopoiwn). The word occurs four times in Peter, and nowhere else in the New Testament except John xviii. 30, where it is applied by the priests to Christ himself.
Visitation (episkophv). The radical idea of the word is that of observing or inspecting. Hence ejpiskopov, an overseer or bishop. Visiting grows naturally out of this, as visitare from visere, to look at attentively. See Introduction, on Peter's emphasis upon sight; and compare behold, in this verse. The "day of visitation" is the day of looking upon: "When God shall look upon these wanderers, as a pastor over his flock, and shall become the overlooker or bishop of their souls" (ver. 25, Lumby).
