KEEP ALERT! BE STEADFAST!

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on March 27, 2019 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: March 27, 2019 from 1 Peter 5:8-9

Theme: We’re to be alert and steadfast in our Christian faith; because our enemy is on the prowl.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

Peter had been writing to his brothers and sisters in Christ to remain faithful while undergoing opposition to the faith. And near the end of his instructions to them, he added this warning. It has to do with the one from whom that opposition was ultimately originating:

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world (1 Peter 5:8-9).

The devil—as powerful as he is—is a limited enemy. Praise God! He is a created being; and the Bible makes it clear in several places that he can only do what God permits him to do. And we can also be thankful that, as the Bible teaches us, He who is in us is greater than he that is in the world! (1 John 4:4). But we need to remember that the devil is, nevertheless, very active in this world; and that we, as followers of Jesus must take his presence very seriously.

We can boil down what Peter has to tell us into two main appeals: “Keep alert”—which is the appeal of verse 8; and “Be steadfast”—which is the appeal of verse 9. Verse 8 speaks to our inward attitude with regard to the devil, and verse 9 speaks to our outward actions toward him. Verse 8 speaks of a defensive frame of mind, and verse 9 speaks of an offensive call to action.

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Our defensive and inward attitude of heart toward the devil then, as he roams about in this world, is that we are to …

1. KEEP ALERT! (v. 8).

Peter writes; “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

Imagine how it would be if we heard on the news that a fully mature lion had escaped Washington Park Zoo and was now prowling somewhere in the Forest Park area of greater Portland. Wouldn’t there be minute-by-minute reports on the news?—and several surveillance helicopters flying overhead?—and calls for us to stay in our homes, and to notify the authorities immediately if we saw or heard anything? Wouldn’t the local-area schools be on lock-down?—and wouldn’t we check to make sure the kids were all safe and accounted for? Wouldn’t we make our homes secure?—and do our best to make certain that no one was wandering around alone or in a state of vulnerability? Wouldn’t we be careful to stay close together and look out for each other? We would be in a very heightened state of alert if such a lion was actually on the loose.

Well; to some degree, Peter is calling us to the same sort of a state of alert in the household of faith. There is someone roaming this earth that is immeasurably more dangerous than any lion could ever be. He is, currently, the most powerful created being in God’s universe; and yet he is a malicious murderer who also has several millennia of experience in the art of deceit. He is a spiritual gangster who has a host of fallen angelic ‘hit-men’ under his authority. He has been active on the earth since mankind’s creation—and is directly responsible for mankind’s fall. He is ‘hell-bent’ (quite literally) on our destruction. We’re told that the devil “walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour”. How foolish and dangerous it would be to behave as if he really wasn’t there or to ignore his presence!

Notice how Peter speaks of him:

– He refers to the devil as “your adversary”. This word is one that originated in the language of the courtroom; and it refers to an opponent who is in the fight to win. And that’s what the devil is. His own eternal destiny in the lake of fire is what’s at stake for him. He is desperate and determined to make himself a winner in this cosmic battle—and to make all of us who are in Christ the losers. Take it personal. He is “your adversary”.

– Peter also calls him “the devil”. The word “devil” basically means “accuser” or “slanderer”. And that’s what the devil is. He is the accuser of God’s people who speaks evil of them. He was the one who slandered the righteous man Job— telling God, “Does Job fear God for nothing? … stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to your face!” (Job 1:10). In Revelation 12:10, we’re told that he is “the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night …” Whenever we hear unbelieving people slandering us as believers, their slander originates from the devil himself.

– He tells us that the devil “walks about”. In the book of Job, we’re told that God asked Satan “From where do you come? And Satan answered, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it” (Job 1:7). We can take this literally. He truly ‘prowls around’ on this earth. The fact that he ‘walks about’ suggests that he is not ‘everywhere-present’, of course. But he is, nevertheless, ‘walking about’ and very much involved in the events that happen in various places on planet earth.

– Peter says that our adversary is walking about “like a roaring lion”. One of the reasons a lion on the prowl roars is in order to strike terror in the heart of his prey. They sneak up on their intended victim; and at just the right moment, let out a deafening roar that puts their victim into utter confusion—paralyzing it with fear. And we can be very sure that that’s what the devil does—capitalizing on fear and confusion in order to cause us to turn our eyes away from Christ so that he can make us his victims.

– And finally, Peter tells us why he walks around—’roaring’ as he goes. He is “seeking whom he may devour”. People often deceive themselves when they think that the devil simply wants ‘devoted followers’. No! Literally, the devil is seeking whom he may swallow up. His aim is our complete destruction.

And so; with all of that in mind, we need to pay careful attention to what Peter says at the beginning of verse 8. When it comes to the threats of the devil, our ‘defensive response’ is to be twofold:

– Peter says that we are to “be sober”—that is, ‘self-controlled’. That word “sober” makes us think of not being ‘intoxicated’. But in this case, it means more than simply not being ‘drunk’ with alcohol. It means that, as an inner state of being, we are not to let anything fog-up our thinking; that we are to be ‘clear-headed’ and sound of mind. We’re to think of things as they really are. An awareness that the devil is roaming about as a dangerous adversary—roaring like a lion that is seeking to throw us into panic and confusion and devour us—means that we ourselves need to be walking on this earth in a state of clear-headedness; keeping our wits about us in a sanctified and Christ-like way.

– And second, he says that we should “be vigilant”. The word that Peter uses— grēgoreō (a favorite word of mine!)—is one that means, “to be awake” or “to be watchful”. We have to have an attitude of heart that is constantly on guard against the subtle ways that the devil attacks God’s people. His attacks won’t come in obvious ways—but in deceitful ways that we aren’t necessarily anticipating. The apostle Paul once wrote to the Corinthian believers and urged them to forgive a particular sinner within the church family; “lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices” (2 Corinthians 2:11). Paul also urged that potential leaders “must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil” (1 Timothy 3:7). Someone once said that the devil knows how to spring a trap on a faithful believer forty-years after that believer thinks he or she is safe. Pride, bitterness, a condemning spirit, discouragement, lust, divisiveness, greed, laziness—these are just some of the many devices that the enemy will use to catch God’s people by surprise and ensnare them.

You might say that these two commands—“be sober, be vigilant”—join together to emphasize the fullness of what it means to be inwardly alert. Because our enemy is on the prowl—and because he is very powerful, and very dangerous, and very present—we’re to keep ourselves clear-headed and constantly on the guard. We don’t need to hide in fear of him; but we do need to keep on the alert against him—always sober, always watchful for his subtle attacks.

So then; that’s what we would call our ‘defensive response’ to the threats of the devil. And then, in verse 9, Peter goes on to tell us what our ‘offensive response’ should be. Having told us to ‘keep alert’, Peter goes on to tell us to hold our ground and …

2. BE STEADFAST (v. 9).

“Resist him,” Peter says; “steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.”

When Peter tells us to “resist” the devil, he doesn’t necessarily mean for us to “resist” the people who the devil inspires to persecute us. In this, Jesus Himself is our example; who, as Peter told us earlier, “when He was reviled, did into revile in return; when He suffered, did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously …” (1 Peter 2:23). Jesus Himself taught us, “But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also” (Matthew 5:39). We must remember that our warfare is not with flesh and blood. Very often, when we forget this important fact, and turn on our ‘flesh and blood’ persecutors in resistance, we actually end up playing right into the devil’s hands. Rather, Peter makes it clear to us that it is the devil himself—the one who inspires the persecution we experience—that we are to resist. As James put it, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

But note very carefully how Peter says we are to resist the devil. Peter says, “Resist him, steadfast in the faith …” In the original language, Peter does not speak merely of “faith” (as an action on our part), but rather “the faith” (which is the objective content of the gospel as given to us in the word of God). In other words, we resist the devil by not giving any ground to his threats, but remaining steadfast and unmoved in our confidence in God’s word and in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to be like our Lord was in the wilderness. The devil sought three times to sway Jesus from His faithfulness to the Father’s will. And each time, our Lord pulled out the ‘sword’ of the word, and thrust it forward with the phrase, “It is written …!” He quoted back to the devil what God had said, and refused to be moved from it. And that’s how we are to resist the devil. We are to be “steadfast in the faith”.

This is extremely important in times of cultural hostility to our faith. The great temptation at such times is to compromise in our profession of faith, deny the authority of God’s word, and just go along with the flow of this world. And that’s exactly what the devil is seeking to make us do. We therefore resist him by refusing to compromise our profession of faith. The Bible tells us in the book of Revelation, that during the most intense times of persecution, the saints will have overcome the devil “by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death” (Revelation 12:11). The devil has everything at stake in making Christians ‘give in’ during a time of persecution. But we must not give in! We must “resist him, steadfast in the faith …” That is how we defeat him.

And note carefully that Peter says we’re to remain steadfast in the faith through a deep union and solidarity with each other in the body of Christ. He writes that we’re to be steadfast, “knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world”. Our awareness that others of our brothers and sisters in Christ are experiencing the same sorts of attacks from the enemy and the challenges to deny their Lord (that is, that they too suffer; but are, nevertheless, standing faithful and strong; and who are resisting the devil, “steadfast in the faith”) is something that is to encourage us also to stand strong with them. Perhaps this is why the writer of Hebrews tells us, “Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also” (Hebrews 13:3). Knowing about their sufferings, and remembering them in prayer regularly, helps to encourage and embolden us in our steadfastness against the enemy of our souls.

As an implication of this, we should never think that, as a believer in Jesus Christ, we can stand against the devil’s attacks on our own. When a roaring lion is walking about—seeking who it may devour—the most vulnerable condition to be in would be to be on your own. Let’s never abandon regular fellowship with our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ—no matter how great the cultural pressure to do so! Key to resisting the devil is our union together in Christ!

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This warning about the devil is the last exhortation that the apostle Peter gives about being faithful to our Lord in a time of persecution. And in a way, it’s perhaps the most important exhortation of all. If we try to stay true to the faith in every other way, but end up forgetting to watch out for the great enemy of our souls, we may easily become his victim, and lose much of what our Savior wants us to gain.

We don’t have to fear the devil in an ultimate sense. He is a conquered enemy. Jesus has defeated him for us once and for all. His destiny is now certain. He’s doomed to the lake of fire. But until the time when he is finally cast into the lake of fire, he’s still dangerous; and we need to watch out for him so long as we are in this world.

So; let’s remember these two great exhortations from the apostle Peter when it comes to the threats of our already-defeated enemy, the devil: “keep alert”; and “be steadfast”.

EA