The term Peter uses here is found elsewhere in Scripture to describe the offices of Pontius Pilate, Festus, and Felix. These rulers were all underlings of a higher authority, mandated by virtue of their appointment by a superior to ensure the day-to-day governing of the provinces entrusted to them, including punishing wrongdoers and complimenting doers of good. As they were the face of distant overlords, their antipathy toward their foreign master was predictably directed at the local governor. So the apostle is specific in mentioning that the posture of “sojourners and exiles” (1 Peter 2:11) needs to be one of submission not just to a distant master but also to his local representative. Note: whereas the “king” (see earlier note) was commonly a local, say, from one's own tribe, the governor was frequently a foreigner parachuted in to represent Rome. Clearly, one's feelings for the “governor” were then typically more hostile than one's feelings for the “king.”
14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.