1 Peter 5:8-9
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

Peter wrote this passage around the time the Roman emperor, Nero, was persecuting Christians. Many followers of Jesus were led to the Roman Colosseum to be mauled and torn apart by lions. Peter used that relevant picture to remind Christians that Satan, our adversary, the one called the devil, the slanderer, seeks to defeat and destroy us.

In Scripture, a lion is a powerful enemy. In the Psalms, lions are likened to enemies who “tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces” (Psalm 7:2) and to evil people who are “like a lion eager to tear, as a young lion lurking in ambush” (Psalm 17:12). Enemies “open wide their mouths…like a ravening and roaring lion” (Psalm 22:13). According to one early church commentator, lions roar most violently when they are hungry. “Elsewhere Satan is compared with a serpent, on account of his cunning (2 Corinthians 11:3; Revelation 12:9; 20:2) here, with a lion on account of his cruelty and boldness, his power and strength, and his lust of injury.”[1]

The enemy is out to get us. His ultimate purpose is “destruction and death. He is an enemy of all that is good, godly, and true.”[2] So, Peter instructs us to do three things. First, we are to be “sober-minded” or, better, “self-controlled” (1 Peter 1:13; 4:7). This is not the time to binge-watch cable news and incessantly read internet conspiracy theories. Second, we are to be “watchful.” This is the picture of a soldier standing guard, alert and attentive. Jesus gives us this same instruction as the end of time approaches. He said, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour” (Matthew 25:13; see also Matthew 24:42-43; 26:38-41). Third, we are to “resist him, firm in [our] faith.” Our resistance does not come through our own strength. We can only stand firm and continue to stand firm when our strength comes from Jesus. Why? Because “he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

Father,
Thank you for living in us and giving us all we need to be sober-minded and watchful. Thank you that we can resist the roaring lion through your power and continue to stand firm in our faith. We depend on you today and every day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

[1] John Peter Lange et al., A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: 1 Peter (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2008), 90–91.

[2] Robert James Dr. Utley, The Gospel according to Peter: Mark and I & II Peter, Volume 2, Study Guide Commentary Series (Marshall, Texas: Bible Lessons International, 2000), 265.