For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
25 For ye were as sheep This also has Peter borrowed from Isaiah, except that the Prophet makes it a universal statement, “All we like sheep have gone astray.” (Isaiah 53:6.) But on the word sheep there is no particular stress; he indeed compares us to sheep, but the emphasis is on what the Prophet adds, when he says that every one had turned to his own way.
Christians were slandered as seditionists, so the apostle settles Christian duty to magistrates clearly: submit to every human institution, whether king or provincial governor, because God ordained magistracy for the good of mankind. Obey not from fear of the rod but from conscience toward the Lord who requires it and whose honor depends on our subjection.
AI summary
Commenting on 1 Peter 2:13-25
Verse 25. For ye were as sheep going astray. Here also is an allusion to , "All we like sheep have gone astray." See Notes on that verse. The figure is plain. We were like a flock without a shepherd. We had wandered far away from the true fold, and were following our own paths. We were without a protector, and were exposed to every kind of danger.