1 Peter 2:12

Peace in the inner man is necessary for excellent behavior before others. Part of the suffering Peter’s original readers were experiencing was due evidently to slander from unbelieving Gentile pagans. They appear to have been accusing them unjustly of doing evil. This has led some commentators to conclude that Peter wrote this epistle after A.D. 64 when Nero began an official persecution of Christians allegedly for burning Rome. I think this conclusion is reasonable.

Peter urged his readers to give their critics no cause for justifiable slander. If they obeyed, their accusers would have to glorify God by giving a good testimony concerning the lives of the believers when they stood before God. The "day of visitation" is probably a reference to the day God will visit unbelievers and judge them (i.e., the great white throne judgment). This seems more likely than that it is the day when God will visit Christians (i.e., the Rapture). The writers of Scripture do not refer to Christians’ departure from this world as an occasion when unbelievers will glorify God. However when unbelievers bow before God they will glorify Him (e.g., Philippians 2:10-11). For the original readers this would have applied to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. [Note: J. Dwight Pentecost, "The Apostles’ Use of Jesus’ Predictions of Judgment on Jerusalem in A.D. 70," in Integrity of Heart, Skillfulness of Hands, p. 141.]

"This brief section sketches Peter’s ’battle plan’ for the inevitable confrontation between Christians and Roman society. . . .

"The conflict in society is won not by aggressive behavior but by ’good conduct’ or ’good works’ yet to be defined. Peter’s vision is that the exemplary behavior of Christians will change the minds of their accusers and in effect ’overcome evil with good,’ . . ." [Note: Michaels, p. 120.]