Hello dear friends,
Today, let’s learn about the role of being sober in resisting the devil:
Be of sober spirit, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
— 1 Peter 5:8
We find this instruction on sober living and watchfulness towards the end of Peter’s letter. Having already given instructions on how the Christian life ought to look for wives, husbands, church members, and church elders, Peter now turns his attention to speak on the inner attitude that the Christian should have.
He begins by addressing anxiety, assuring the Christians scattered in exile that God cares for them and that because of this, they ought to remain humble:
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
— 1 Peter 5:6-7
The passage that we’re looking at today comes immediately after this exhortation to cast all their anxiety upon God.
Following Peter’s train of thought, we see him starting with humility, reminding them that in the proper time they’ll be exalted. After this, he shifts to their anxiety since if one was to focus on exaltation, one would be prone to worry and be anxious if they felt that the exaltation was not coming fast enough. To this, Peter says God will exalt them in His proper time. With this comes the reminder that God cares for them and they ought to cast all their anxieties onto God.
This is a fascinating series of touchpoints. This then becomes even more interesting as Peter positions his warning about being sober immediately following this reminder on anxiety.
In our passage, Peter is telling them that they need to be of sober spirit. This has to do with clarity in focus. His readers need to have a singular focus in life. They should not get consumed by the cares of the world, which is why concerning the worries of this world, he tells them to cast them onto God.
This passage also mentions that the Christian exiles should be watchful. This speaks to living a life of awareness, a life that understands that there’s impending danger just around the corner.
As seen from the few verses before this, Peter’s readers were told not to worry about when they’ll be exalted. As they lived lives where they were being chased down by Roman soldiers, they would be constantly looking for when this kind of life would end, when they would be able to reap the rewards of their decision to follow Christ.
Peter recognizes the danger in wanting to rush the process. The danger is losing sensitivity to the tricks and schemes of the devil. This is why Peter tells them to be watchful.
Peter describes this enemy and what he’s doing that demands that the believer has a sober spirit and watchfulness:
Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
— 1 Peter 5:8
This paints a picture of a predator on a hunt. The devil is roaring here and there. The roar is meant to intimidate. It is meant to strike fear in the hearts of its prey. This is the kind of fear that Peter tells the Christians to cast onto the Lord.
The devil is also seeking and searching whom to devour, which suggests that the devil knows that not everyone is susceptible to devouring. The devil moves carefully and maps his victims, and he’s very much aware that there are certain believers that he cannot easily devour.
The kind of believer that the devil is hunting for are ones that are not of sober spirit, meaning that their focus in life is divided, finding themselves serving more than one master, and ones who are not watchful, meaning that they are careless and unaware of this predator in their midst. They live their lives unaware that one single mistake could land them on the devil’s lunch menu.
Peter’s instruction to the believer is meant to strengthen them so as not to fall into this category of the devil’s victims. Peter exhorts the exiles to solely focus on Christ and to be aware of the dangers in this world.
Here are questions to ask ourselves:
- Are we of sober spirit: are we solely focused on Christ, and are we living every part of our lives to the glory of Christ? (Galatians 2:20)
- Are we watchful in our walk: have we succumbed to the numbing down of our senses to the reality of our enemy the devil? Do we find ourselves justifying our sin and the sin of this world in the name of blending with culture and becoming desensitized to the roaring lion?
- Have we allowed the cares of this world to wear us down? Have we let our guard down just so we can have a bit of immediate gratification instead of waiting to be exalted in the proper time?
I pray this warning wakes us up and realigns our priorities in life.
Love, Paul.
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