Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 1 Peter 5:8

"Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour," — 1 Peter 5:8 (ASV)

Belief in the sovereignty of God and in his fatherly concern for us (vv.6–7) does not permit us to sit back and do nothing. We are to “work out [our] salvation” because “it is God who works in [us]” . So here Peter warns his flock of the danger of making the fact of God’s sovereign care an excuse for inactivity. “Be sober, be watchful” perhaps reflects Peter’s own experience in which Satan had “sifted” him and he had failed to “watch” (Matthew 26:38; Mark 14:34). God’s sovereignty does not preclude peril to the Christian life.

Peter calls Satan “your enemy the devil” and likens him to a lion in search of prey. The word “enemy” (GK 508) meant an opponent in a lawsuit (cf. Job l:6ff.; Zechariah 3:1; Revelation 12:10). “Devil” (GK 1333) is the Greek translation of the Hebrew “Satan” (1 Chronicles 21:1; Job 2:1; GK 8477), which means “slanderer.” According to Scripture, he has great power on earth, “being the prince of this world” and “the ruler of the kingdom of the air” (Ephesians 2:2). But God has limited his activity. Through his captive subjects (Ephesians 2:2; 2 Timothy 2:25–26), the devil attempted to destroy the infant church by persecution.

The Christian response to satanic opposition is not panic or flight but firm resistance in faith (v.9). “Resist” (GK 468) is the same word as that found in Eph 6:11–13 and Jas 4:7 in contexts of struggle against hostile spiritual forces. This implies a common “resist-the-devil” formula in the early church. “In the faith” is not so much “the Christian faith” or “your faithfulness” but rather “your positive faith and trust in God.” Support in the struggle also comes from realizing that the sufferings of the Asian Christians were not unique (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:13). The same kinds of sufferings are afflicting “your brothers,” whereby Peter stresses the solidarity of the Christian body. All who are in union with Christ may expect suffering (16:33), and the whole body is joined together in suffering (1 Corinthians 12:26). The “world” (GK 3180) is that orderly system under Satan that is opposed to God and his Messiah (cf. Psalms 2).