THE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER - Chapter 5 - Verse 8

Verse 8. Be sober. While you cast your cares upon God, and have no anxiety on that score, let your solicitude be directed to another point. Do not doubt that he is able and willing to support and befriend you, but be watchful against your foes. See the word used here fully explained in See Barnes "1 Th 5:6".

Be vigilant. This word (grhgorew) is everywhere else in the New Testament rendered watch. See Mt 24:42,43; 25:13; 26:38,40,41.

It means that we should exercise careful circumspection, as one does when he is in danger, tn reference to the matter here referred to, it means that we are to be on our guard against the wiles and the power of the evil one.

Your adversary the devil. Your enemy; he who is opposed to you. Satan opposes man in his best interests. He resists his efforts to do good; his purposes to return to God; his attempts to secure his own salvation. There is no more appropriate appellation that can be given to him than to say that he resists all our efforts to obey God and to secure the salvation of our own souls.

As a roaring lion. Comp. Re 12:12. Sometimes Satan is represented as transforming himself into an angel of light, (See Barnes "2 Co 11:14";) and sometimes, as here, as a roaring lion: denoting the efforts which he makes to alarm and overpower us. The lion here is not the crouching lion-the lion stealthfully creeping towards his foe—but it is the raging monarch of the woods, who by his terrible roar would intimidate all so that they might become an easy prey. The particular thing referred to here, doubtless, is persecution, resembling in its terrors a roaring lion. When error comes in; when seductive arts abound; when the world allures and charms, the representation of the character of the foe is not of the roaring lion, but of the silent influence of an enemy that has clothed himself in the garb of an angel of light, 2 Co 11:14.

Walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. "Naturalists have observed that a lion roars when he is roused with hunger, for then he is most fierce, and most eagerly seeks his prey. See Jud 14:5; Ps 22:13; Jer 2:15; Eze 22:25; Hos 11:10; Zep 3:3; Zec 11:3.

"—Benson.

{*} "vigilant" "watchful" {b} "as a roaring lion" Re 12:12