“Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world.”
Peter is wrapping up his letter now. After he tells his readers to cast off all their cares on God, he follows with this warning. He writes, “Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.”
I want to start with the phrase sober-minded. This is the third time Peter uses this phrase. We saw it in chapter one. “Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded…” (1:13). Then again in chapter four. “The end of all things is near; therefore be alert and sober-minded for prayer” (4:7). Now let’s look at the word alert. In 1 Corinthians 16:13, Paul writes, “Be alert, stand firm in the faith, be courageous and strong. In his letter to Ephesus he writes, “Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints” (6:18). And in Colossians 4:2, “Devote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving.” We can see from these verses that we are to be sober, self-controlled, and prepared.
Next, we are going to look at the devil. Peter compares him to a lion. Wayne Grudem writes, “The metaphor is apt, for a prowling lion attacks suddenly, viciously, and often when it’s unsuspecting victim is engaged in routine activities.” That is why Peter says to be sober-minded and alert! It is important to know who we are up against. But we also need to be careful not to give him too much attention.
Let’s first look at who we are fighting. Arichea and Nida write in their commentary, “Both enemy and Devil are translations of the same Hebrew word Satan, which literally means ‘adversary’ or ‘opponent,’ that is, of God and his people.” He is a created being. Isaiah 14: 12-15 describes him. “Shining morning star, how you have fallen from the heavens! You destroyer of nations, you have been cut down to the ground. You said to yourself, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will set up my throne above the stars of God.
I will sit on the mount of the gods’ assembly, in the remotest parts of the North. I will ascend above the highest clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” But you will be brought down to Sheol into the deepest regions of the Pit.” He was called Lucifer, which means ‘light-bearer.’ This is the only place he was called this. After this he is called Satan, devil, deceiver, destroyer, Beelzebub (lord of dung), Belial (worthless), liar, accuser, evil one, tempter, murderer, and enemy. He was cast down from heaven and his time here is limited.
What do we know about him? The Bible tells us he is one of many fallen angels and he’s their leader. In Revelation 12, John writes about Satan and his angels being conquered. In Isaiah 14 we read that pride caused his fall from heaven. He disguises himself as an angel of light, according to Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:14. I think we often are misled into thinking that the devil is always going to appear as pure evil. No, he is going to mislead us by appearing as an angel of light, as close to God as he can get, so as to deceive us into following him. Charles Spurgeon said this:
“He can never be content till he sees the believer utterly devoured. He would rend him in pieces, and break his bones and utterly destroy him if he could. Do not, therefore, indulge the thought, that the main purpose of Satan is to make you miserable. He is pleased with that but that is not his ultimate end. Sometimes he may even make you happy, for he hath dainty poisons sweet to the taste which he administers to God’s people. If he feels that our destruction can be more readily achieved by sweets than by bitters, he certainly would prefer that which would best affect his end.”
What can he do? Peter says he is prowling about. In Job, it describes Satan roaming the earth. In Zechariah 3, we read about his vision of Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord with Satan standing to accuse him. Satan is an accuser. But for those who are in Christ, we are cleansed of our sins. We read in Hebrews 10:16-17, “This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, the Lord says, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds,and I will never again remember their sins and their lawless acts.” We read in 2 Timothy 2:26 that he can control the unsaved. This is evident if we just look at the world around us. He can send false signs and wonders. “The coming of the lawless one is based on Satan’s working, with every kind of miracle, both signs and wonders serving the lie, and with every wicked deception among those who are perishing. They perish because they did not accept the love of the truth and so be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2: 9). He can harass with physical or spiritual assaults as we see with Paul and his thorn in the flesh. He can send his demons to possess non-Christians. There is a false teaching in the church today that Christians can be possessed by demons and I will devote an entire post to deliverance ministries. Christians can be harassed and tempted by Satan, but they cannot be possessed. We have been sealed by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13) and if we have the Holy Spirit in us, there is no room for Satan or demons. He can create false religions and doctrines. 1 Timothy 4:1-2 says, “Now the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons,through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared.” There have been and there will continue to be many false religions in the world. There are many false doctrines within Christianity that twist the Word of God to say something that it does not really say. There is enough truth mixed in with the lies to deceive people. This is so prevalent today! Paul warns us in two Corinthians 11:3-4, “But I fear that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your minds may be seduced from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if a person comes and preaches another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or you receive a different spirit, which you had not received, or a different gospel, which you had not accepted, you put up with it splendidly!” And we do put up with it! We excuse it! We say that we need to be united. We should not judge. Instead of calling out false doctrine, we have let it infect the church.
So what should we do? Peter says, “Resist him, firm in the faith…” James writes, “Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Arichea and Nida write this. “Because of the constant activity of the devil, the believers are exhorted to resist him. This does not mean that they should stand up and fight their persecutors which would be contrary to 1:18, 19, 3:9, 10, 4:13, 14. Rather they should resist them by standing firm in their faith, that is, by not being led into apostasy despite all the persecutions against them.” Paul writes about the armor of God in Ephesians 6. Interestingly, he says that we are to put on the full armor of God so that we can stand against the schemes of the devil (v.11). Again, in verse 13, he says we are to take up the full armor so that we can take our stand. You can read about the full armor in my blog post on Ephesians 6. Notice that we have only one offensive weapon, the Word of God. We are to take our stand, be alert, know the Word of God, submit to God, resist the devil; this is how we are to protect ourselves.
In the last part of our passage for today, Peter writes that we can stand firm in our faith knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by fellow believers throughout the world. We can take comfort knowing that throughout history, throughout the world, others have gone through what we go through. Indeed there are so many who have gone through so much worse. Suffering is a part of our faith. Our faith is purified through our suffering. We have fellowship with Christ through it. Paul writes, “For it has been granted to you on Christ’s behalf not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him…” (Philippians 1:29).
There is so much in these two verses. Stand firm! Read and study your Bible. It is your best weapon against the schemes of the devil. Submit to God and resist the devil. Know that when you suffer, other believers have also experienced what you are going through. God is using this time to grow you and refine you.
Grace be with you!
Abundant Joy 