Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
Be subject to (upotaghte). Second aorist passive imperative second person plural of upotassw, to subject to, as in 1 Peter 3:22.
Every ordinance of man (pash anqrwpinh ktisei). Dative case of old and common word ktisiv (from ktizw, to create, to found), act of creation (Romans 1:20), a creature or creation (Romans 1:25), all creation (Colossians 1:15), an institution as here (in Pindar so). For anqrwpinov (human) see James 3:7. Peter here approves no special kind of government, but he supports law and order as Paul does (Romans 13:1-8) unless it steps in between God and man (Acts 4:20).
For the Lord's sake (dia ton kurion). For Jesus' sake. That is reason enough for the Christian not to be an anarchist (Matthew 22:21). The heathen were keen to charge the Christians with any crime after Nero set the fashion. "It should not be forgotten that, in spite of the fine language of the philosophers, the really popular religions in Greece and Rome were forms of devil-worship, intimately blended with magic in all its grades" (Bigg).
As supreme (wv uperexonti). Dative singular of present active participle of uperexw, old verb (intransitive), to stand out above (to have it over), as in Romans 13:1. It is not the divine right of kings, but the fact of the king as the outstanding ruler.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Romans 13:1
1 Peter 2:16
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