1 Peter 5:9

Peter is writing to the “strangers scattered” through Asia Minor (1 Peter 1:1), believers who were suffering for their faith. Near the end of his letter he has told the elders to shepherd the flock, told the younger to submit, and called everyone to humility (1 Peter 5:1–7). The last of those words is a tender one: “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Peter then turns from life inside the church to the enemy outside it. Trusting God with our cares and keeping watch belong together, because much of what troubled these believers came from the devil’s schemes.

“Be sober” translates nḗphō. It reaches beyond keeping free of drink to a mind that is clear, self-controlled and disciplined, able to think rightly, make sound judgments and tell truth from error. A sober mind is kept clear of the worldly desires, anxieties and false teaching that leave people spiritually careless. Peter uses this word three times in his short letter. The other two places are “gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end” (1 Peter 1:13) and “be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer” (1 Peter 4:7).

“Be vigilant” translates grēgoreúō, which comes from the idea of keeping awake. It is the watchfulness of a sentry on guard, awake to danger and ready to respond. The two commands go together, a clear mind and eyes that stay open, and both are urgent. The word “because”, hóti, then gives the reason for them, and the reason is a person.

Peter calls him “your adversary the devil.” The word for adversary, antídikos, literally means an opponent in a lawsuit, the one who stands on the other side in court. The word devil, diábolos, means a slanderer or false accuser, and as a title it names the Devil himself. Together the two words show an enemy who speaks against God’s people and brings charges against them. Revelation calls him “the accuser of our brethren”, who “accused them before our God day and night” (Revelation 12:10).

He is “your” adversary, an enemy of each believer. Peter’s readers faced slander, rejection and pressure from their neighbours, and he wants them to see the spiritual side of that struggle. The devil is a personal being with a mind and a purpose, and he sets himself against God and God’s people. Paul says the same: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).

Peter likens the devil to a lion, léōn, a picture of power, ferocity and hunger for prey. It was vivid to people who knew wild animals, and perhaps also the lions of the arena. This lion is roaring, ōrýomai, and a roar announces the lion’s presence and fills its prey with fear. The psalmist used the same picture for the enemies around him: “They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion” (Psalm 22:13). The devil means to terrify as well as to destroy.

He “walketh about”. The verb peripatéō means to walk or walk about, and figuratively it can mean to live or behave. Here it pictures the devil moving about and looking for an opening to attack. When the LORD asked Satan where he had come from, he answered, “From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it” (Job 2:2).

He is “seeking whom he may devour”. Seeking, zētéō, is a deliberate search, and “whom”, tís, is anyone he is able to overcome. To devour, katapínō, is to gulp down whole, to swallow up and so destroy completely. What the devil wants is the ruin of a believer’s faith and separation from God.

Verse 9 answers the lion: “Whom resist stedfast in the faith.” “Whom” is the adversary of verse 8. Resist translates anthístēmi, made from antí, “against”, and hístēmi, “to stand”, and it means to stand against or oppose. James uses the same word: “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). So does Paul, when he tells believers to take the whole armour of God “that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” (Ephesians 6:13), so that they may “stand against the wiles of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11). Resisting is an active, firm stand. The believer holds his ground against the devil’s schemes and refuses to give way or to run.

Stedfast, stereós, comes from the same root hístēmi and means solid, firm or stable. We stand “stedfast in the faith”, and the strength of the stand comes from the faith itself: trust in God, a firm hold on the truth of the gospel, and confidence in his power and promises. The devil hopes to bring doubt, fear and compromise, and a solid faith stands up to all three, since it rests on God’s strength. This is the faith whose trial Peter has already called “much more precious than of gold that perisheth” (1 Peter 1:7).

Peter gives a reason to hold firm: “knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.” Afflictions, páthēma, means something undergone, hardship or suffering of every kind. For Peter’s first readers it covered social stigma, slander, economic hardship and even physical violence. The Roman world expected people to honour the traditional gods and the emperor, so Christians, who worshipped Christ alone, were viewed with suspicion, accused of atheism and treated as a threat to public order. Their trouble was mostly local harassment and social pressure, before the wider persecutions under Nero and Domitian.

The word “accomplished”, epiteléō, means to complete or fulfil, so these sufferings are being carried through in believers everywhere as the common lot of God’s people. “In the world” (kósmos) widens the view from the provinces of Asia Minor to the whole world. The word Peter uses for “brethren” is adelphótēs, “brotherhood”, which is found only here and in “Love the brotherhood” (1 Peter 2:17).

Suffering easily makes a person feel singled out, and Peter answers that feeling with the whole family of God. Knowing that others bear the same trials eases the loneliness, gives courage to keep going, and turns our hearts toward others who suffer. Suffering for Christ is the ordinary road of his people, as Peter has already said: “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you” (1 Peter 4:12–19). Jesus told his disciples, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33), and Paul wrote, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). Trials are the common path of God’s people, and they lead to maturity and a deeper reliance on his grace. Those who suffer with Christ are heirs with him, “if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Romans 8:17).

We can be sober and vigilant without being ruled by fear, because our Lord has already triumphed over the devil. By his death and resurrection Christ broke Satan’s power: “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15). He has bruised the serpent’s head, as God foretold in the garden (Genesis 3:15), and God promises his people, “And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly” (Romans 16:20).

Christ also shows us what sobriety and vigilance look like. He resisted every temptation of the devil in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1–11). In Gethsemane he watched in prayer while his disciples slept, and he woke them with “Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation” (Luke 22:46). That same night he had warned Peter by name: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat” (Luke 22:31). The man who writes “Be sober, be vigilant” heard that warning from the Lord himself.

Jesus is also the perfect example of stedfast faith, for he trusted the Father all the way to the cross, “the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). He endured the same afflictions we face and far greater, and so he is our high priest who is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Hebrews 4:15). We resist the devil in his strength, as Paul says: “be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might” (Ephesians 6:10). The victory is already won, and Christ lives in us and enables us to stand firm until he returns, so that we can say with Paul, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13).

These two verses stand between two promises. Before them, God cares for you and you may cast all your care on him (1 Peter 5:7). After them comes the promise that “the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you” (1 Peter 5:10). The lion is real and strong, and he is also on a leash held by the sovereign hand of God, who limits his power to destroy.

So we answer his roar with calm, steady watchfulness and a deeper commitment to prayer, to Scripture and to the fellowship of other believers. Keep a clear head about your faith, your temptations and your God. Stay awake to the quiet attacks of discouragement, doubt and division as well as to open temptation, and when they come, stand your ground in faith. And when your own trial feels lonely, remember the brotherhood. Believers across the world are bearing the same afflictions, and you can pray for them as they stand firm alongside you.