Be vigilant, watch. Your adversary [the] devil as a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour.
Peter has just told his readers to hand their anxieties to God. In the next breath he warns them that someone is hunting them — so what does a lion's roar picture, and how does a Christian stay alert without living in fear?
Peter writes to people out in the desert, not to people safe at home. The picture he chooses matches where they are.
Notice how clearly Peter shows the enemy as the power of evil we have to face. He shows just as clearly that our God and the Lord Jesus care for us. The letter to the Hebrews views us in the light of the sanctuary. Here Peter views us as people also out in the open, under the special pressure of the desert. So he rightly pictures our adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion prowling around, looking for someone to devour.
The roar is a specific weapon. It is noise designed to break nerve, and that is different from quiet deception.
Being sober is not being gloomy. It is using good sense. And being vigilant means staying watchful. These things matter greatly. The devil is a determined enemy, always on the move and ready to attack anyone off guard. He comes as a roaring lion to frighten people into helpless paralysis. Let us not be caught. What we see here is Satan's devouring character, not his subtlety as a serpent. He was using persecution to frighten souls, and they needed the courage of firm faith to guard themselves against it.
Commentators add that the roar is not his only method. Several think the quieter one is worse.
If Satan cannot do anything by persecution, he tries to unsettle souls about the truth in Christ. He is a roaring lion, prowling around and seeking someone to devour; that is persecution. But he is not always a roaring lion. When he comes in as a serpent — that is, when he creeps along and does not roar at all — it is far more dangerous. His violence and rage put a person to the test. It is far more serious when we have to stand against the schemes of the devil.
Being sober here is not a mood. It is the ordinary posture of anyone who knows an attack is possible.
Soldiers guarding a camp expect an attack at any hour. They do not sit down laughing, joking and amusing themselves. Every sense is on the alert, and they are completely sober, so as to detect the slightest movement of the enemy. As Christians we should be in the same state. Our enemy is more subtle than a human one. We know less about his methods than we would about the methods of an enemy of flesh and blood... The sobriety Scripture calls for does not allow light, frivolous behaviour. But it does allow true joy and rejoicing.
Peter knew this danger from his own past.
Three times he had denied the Lord. He had not been sober then, and he did not watch and pray. So the devil found him easy prey. He would have devoured and destroyed him, if the Lord had not prayed for him and restored him by His grace.
The comfort of the previous verse and the alarm of this one belong together.
But because He is caring for you, that does not mean you are to be unwatchful. No, no — remember that your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour. Here Satan comes as a roaring lion, and so these Hebrew believers were going through persecution. In the second letter he comes as a snake in the grass, introducing moral corruption.
The response Peter calls for is defensive, and its outcome is not in doubt.
We are to be sober and watchful. Satan is wide awake. He does great damage now by his serpent-like schemes, as then he sought to destroy like a lion roaring over its prey. Resist him, firm in your faith. This means we do not have to attack him or fight him. We only have to resist him. The outcome is as certain as it is quick: "he will flee from you."
What the lion aims at is the faith itself, which is why the quality of that faith decides the outcome.
In the persecution of the saints the devil moves about as a roaring lion, aiming by it to break down our faith. If faith is only mental — head-knowledge and not heart-trust — it fails, and he devours us.
The hunt has a limit, and God sets it.
Despite Satan's malice, God uses him to discipline His saints, as He did with Job. But God lets the evil one go only as far as He pleases... Remember that Satan is already a defeated foe, because he stands exposed. He cannot touch a Christian unless God the Father permits it and controls it. When He does, it is discipline for that Christian's good.
- Adversary — the devil is a real, personal enemy, the danger of the desert road, not a figure of speech.
- Roar — as a lion, Satan attacks openly to frighten and paralyse. As a serpent, he works by deception, and several writers judge that form more dangerous.
- Sober — watchfulness is the alertness of a guarded camp, not gloom; it still leaves full room for joy.
- Resist — you are not told to attack him, only to stand firm. Faith that is heart-trust, not head-knowledge, holds, and he flees.
- Chained — God fixes how far he can go. A defeated foe cannot touch a believer unless God permits it, and then it is for the believer's good.
Whom resist, stedfast in faith, knowing that the selfsame sufferings are accomplished in your brotherhood which [is] in [the] world.
Peter has just described the enemy: he prowls like a roaring lion. Now comes the response — stand firm and resist. But what does it mean to resist a spiritual enemy? And why should it help to know that other believers suffer the same things?
The command is defensive, not aggressive. One writer draws out how limited — and how effective — the action is:
We are to be sober and watchful, because Satan is frighteningly alert. He does much harm now by his snake-like schemes, just as then he sought to destroy like a lion roaring over its prey. Resist him, steadfast in the faith. This means we do not have to attack him, or meet him in combat; we simply resist him, and the outcome is as certain as it is quick — "he will flee from you."
Peter has already told his readers to humble themselves before God. Toward the devil, the posture is the opposite. One writer insists we must not confuse the two hands:
"Casting all your anxieties on Him" (1 Peter 5:7). What comfort there is here! It tells us that while the hand is dealing roughly outside, the heart is feeling inside. And as to the devil's temptation — resist him. Do not "humble yourselves" under that hand — "resist" him, just as Jesus did long ago: "Get behind me, Satan."
The words "firm in your faith" show where the real battle line runs. The lion has a target:
The parable of the sower mentions the devil: "then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved" (Luke 8:12). The aim of the devil here is to prevent faith in God's word... In 1 Timothy 4:1 the Apostle Paul predicts that in later times some will pay attention to "deceitful spirits and teachings of demons." The result will be that they "depart from the faith."... So Peter warns the saints about Satan's activity as a roaring lion, and tells them to resist him, "steadfast in the faith" (1 Peter 5:8-9). Hold the faith, and his terror disappears.
Peter is not writing theory here. He had been the lion's target himself:
His aim, as always, is to destroy. With God's people his efforts take the form of trying to destroy their faith in God. Peter can speak from experience, for there was a time when Satan wanted to have Peter. He was indeed allowed to sift Peter like wheat. But he could not touch Peter's faith, because the Lord said, "I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail." Now Peter can tell others the secret of resisting Satan: staying "steadfast in faith."
Commentators differ on whether Peter means "the faith" as a body of truth held, or personal trust in the Lord. One writer argues for the second, and points to where our strength comes from:
We are entitled to resist him, as the letter of James also urges, however loudly he may roar and threaten destruction. He is a conquered foe, as faith knows, and the name of the One we confess is enough to terrify him. But confidence in our own wisdom or righteousness exposes us to certain defeat. Our strength is in Christ, whose grace is enough, and whose power is perfected in weakness. So we are told to resist, steadfast in faith. Some understand it as "in the faith" — the body of truth we believe. In a struggle like this, I doubt the strength of faith held only as truth. It seems instead to be encouragement for our own personal faith in the Lord.
Why does the same suffering fall on believers everywhere? One writer points to what they all have in common:
It is no strange thing to be attacked like this. So Peter reminds us that we know the same sufferings are being completed in the brotherhood that is in the world. They have the same relationships to God, and those relationships expose them to persecution through Satan's spite against Christ, even more than against themselves.
And the comfort of the clause lies in cutting down a very common thought:
Everyone thinks no one ever had a life like his — such a troubled path. Peter says, Nothing of the kind; everyone else has the same. You are not the only person who is suffering. But he commends us to the God of all grace. What can keep us going? Grace — only grace.
- Resist — the order is not to hunt the enemy down but to refuse him ground. The outcome is certain and quick: he flees.
- Not humble — you bow under God's mighty hand; you never bow under the devil's. Confusing the two hands is where believers lose.
- Faith held — the lion's target is your trust in God's word. Hold the faith, and his terror disappears. Satan sifted Peter and still could not touch his faith.
- Strength borrowed — he is already a beaten enemy, and Christ's name terrifies him. Trusting our own wisdom or goodness guarantees defeat; our strength is in Christ.
- Not alone — everyone thinks no one has suffered as he has. Peter says the whole family shares the same suffering, because they share the same relationship to God. Grace — only grace — carries them through.