The Devil in Your Scope or You in His Jaws
“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.”
1 Peter 5:8-9
What the Puritan divine John Owen said about sin is true about Satan as well. Owen said to “be killing sin or it will be killing you.”1 So it is about the devil. This passage assumes that all of life and history is one ultimate war. From the serpent’s intrusion into Eden to the descent of the New Jerusalem, there has never been anything outside of this war, or other than this war. Consequently, this is an example of the Spirit-inspired Art of War.
Doctrine. Since Satan lives to devour all souls at all times, we must proactively resist him.
In this art of the Christian’s warfare, our general Peter gives us five things to know:
(i.) Know You Are at War
(ii.) Know Your Enemy
(iii.) Know Your Action
(iv.) Know Your Advantage
(v.) Know the Whole War
Know You Are at War
The first words ‘Be sober-minded; be watchful’ (v. 8a) are reminiscent of Jesus’s words to those disciples with him in the Garden of Gethsemane. They left their watch for sleep. The opposite of sobriety is drunkenness. The intoxication in view here goes well beyond literal drunkenness, which, as Calvin says, “produces sloth and sleep, even so they who indulge in earthly cares and pleasures, think of nothing else, being under the power of spiritual lethargy.”2 What Calvin is getting at is that most intoxicating kind of drunkenness, which is to be drunk on spiritual peacetime—a pure illusion that has never been in this fallen world!
Know Your Enemy
This was a foundational rule in Sun-Tzu’s Art of War. Everyone knows it by words, but few know it in reality: Know your enemy. Peter starts with his identity: ‘Your adversary the devil’ (v. 8b). Two words for identification are used here: ἀντίδικος and διάβολος. The idea of ADVERSARY here is of “an opponent in a lawsuit,” whereas DEVIL means “a slanderer, or false accuser.” The word SATAN is the Hebrew equivalent. It is used in those two places in Job 1 and 2, where this Satan came into the courts of God, and at the root of his speech was accusation against Job. Likewise with the high priest named Joshua, that “Satan [was] standing at his right hand to accuse him” (Zech. 3:2). So it is in this devil’s stance toward all Christians,
for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God (Rev. 12:10).
As to how this arch-demon can move around the world today, there are several difficulties that people will bring up. I have answered these in an article on my site entitled “The Dragon’s Pursuit and the Binding of Satan.” I will include that as the article for our church’s newsletter this week because I don’t want to take up valuable time here away from Peter’s Art of War with things that have been answered already and that will keep you from engaging in these words and this real war. Suffice it to say, what follows for Peter tracks perfectly with John’s language in Revelation—that, after Christ’s defeat of Satan by His death, resurrection, and ascension, we are told:
And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him … Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring (Rev. 12:9, 17).
So, from his identity, Peter then moves to his basic warfare, both at the levels of strategy and tactics.
His strategy is compared to the movements of the king of the jungle. He ‘prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour’ (v. 8c). As the lion stalks, moves in packs, and lies in wait, so the devil is always looking for a foothold (cf. Eph. 4:27). Even a lion could not survive on raw strength alone. Larger animals like elephants, hippos, rhinos, and the like, would overpower them. Faster animals like antelope would always escape. So the lion must gain position. What is obvious is that this is a metaphor. Satan is not a literal lion.
What is less obvious—if we are ignorant or forgetful of what the rest of the Bible teaches on the subject—is that the enemy travels in packs. What is true about Satan, as the head demon or devil, is equally true of all his minions, the number of which we are never told and could hardly imagine. Prowling here is a gradual thing, a stealth thing, a strategic thing, such as the military siege around a city.
When the strategy has gained the devil position, its end gives us a window into the tactic. At first this may seem nothing more than a picturesque way of warning us. But unlike with an unreasoning predator like a lion and an unreasoning prey like a gazelle, the devouring in view is a devouring of souls.
To be devoured by the devil is to be cut off from the spiritually alive and alert. To have one’s soul devoured and still be alive physically is be transported in an instant to the other side of a great chasm where that soul can no longer converse in a reasonable manner about the good, the true, and the beautiful; can no longer live peaceably in the company of God’s people. It is truly a death before death. Therefore, after knowing you are in a war and knowing your enemy, one must turn more immediately to that sphere of war nearest.
Know Your Action
The action item at the heart of the passage is this: ‘Resist him’ (v. 9a). This must be a distinct idea with a clear meaning in Scripture, as it is repeated elsewhere by James: “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (Jas. 4:7). If we put Peter’s words and James’s words together, we conclude that there is a way to defeat Satan every time if and only if we employ Peter’s art of war here. What then is this resistance? Let us look at four measures.
First, in the words of the text itself is a sober-minded WATCH. So Jesus commended to the disciples in Gethsemane, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Mat. 26:41). Prayer is joined to watchfulness, as there are no better set of eyes through which to watch, then through the eyes of God as you commune with Him. It is explicitly made the engine of spiritual warfare by Paul: “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication” (Eph. 6:18).
Second, DEVELOP HATE FOR THE FLESH, which refers to the sinful nature: “hating even the garment stained by the flesh” (Jude 23). Owen wrote that, “He does not truly hate the fruit who delights in the root.”3 In other words, one cannot finally shun murder if he entertains bitterness, or adultery if he entertains lust.
Third, CUT OFF SIN’S SUPPLY LINES. Paul uses military strategy language when he said, “make no provision for the flesh” (Rom. 13:14). As a surrounding army would block off supply lines to a sieged city, cutting off all provision, so Paul is commanding our armies to lay siege over our heart before the devil’s troops can, sealing off his profane provisions. Starve out even the desire for sin.
Fourth, CROWD OUT SIN’S PLACE BY MEANS OF GRACE. This is the pro-active part where those words ring true, which are often attributed to Vince Lombardi, but are actually military words much older: The best defense is a good offense. But how does that work in the soul in the devil’s scope? The nineteenth century pastor Thomas Chalmers spoke of what he called “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.” What that means is to so fill one’s mind and heart and time with obtaining spiritual goods that the promises of sin shrink in their liveliness. They are seen to be the pathetic and comparatively dull thing that they are in fact. Countless analogies can be made for this, but since we lack time, at least hear the words of Paul: “walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16). That WILL NOT is the strong sense of saying that this works. Those spiritual fruit that follow are divine desires or dispositions that know their proper objects.
Know Your Advantage
He adds this clause: ‘firm in your faith’ (v. 9b). In other spiritual war passages, firmness is linked to one’s stand, or one’s footing, or the place of one’s footing, as in their position in a physical conflict, which can be a more advantageous or less advantageous ground. It is clear, then, what Satan’s primary strategy will be. It will be to steal away this advantage.
There are obvious ways, involving one’s basest passions, to take the soldier out of the action altogether. Thus David was tempted with Bathsheba “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle” (1 Kings 11:1). A man who is taken out by anger or lust is not poised on the city walls to repel the enemy. He has abandoned that nearer fortress of himself:
A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls (Prov. 25:28)
But there are subtler means. By instigation he will try to draw you off sides. As the ancient military strategy of drawing a defensive force off of the high ground, so the devil commands his demonic forces to lure you down into the mud of what Paul calls a mere “quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions” (1 Tim. 6:4). Why? Because in that mud, Jesus tells us, are spiritual pigs and dogs:
Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you (Mat. 7:6)
There are verbal engagements that have no other design but to sling mud, so as to cause your hearers to confuse your otherwise sound words with a cacophony of course words: backbiting, name-calling, profanity, or constant frivolous talk. Satan knows that if you have kept Christ’s sound words front and center—up high above the mud—you currently have the air-war advantage; but the devil knows that you barely know it, or can easily be made to forget it. So he provokes you to answer for things you have no need to answer for. He pokes at your pride through the insults of your inferiors. He promises you an instant following by verbal and visual explosions that appeal to the base passions. But Peter says to stand firm.
That brings us to why he would call this firmness our faith.4 If the temptation to be lured down is a kind of promise, then belief in the promises of the devil are a kind of false faith—they are a belief that something of the world’s ways will pay off. But true faith is commended to us as spiritual armor by Paul in Ephesians 6; and elsewhere, “this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 Jn. 5:4).
Know the Whole War
This last point is for perspective, but what kind? He adds, ‘knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world’ (v. 9c). This broad category of suffering that the devil would inflict is still call the SAME KINDS OF SUFFERING. So there is a unity of Christian suffering everywhere. He says this as a clause of that firm footing and resistance, as if these would be strengthened by this perspective. KNOWING this—SEEING this world-wide-angle lens—like fuel or energy or encouragement to stand stronger. How so? Let me just mention two implications of this unity in suffering everywhere.
First, this unity of suffering everywhere, across time and space, tells us that there is no other war but this war—all other wars being more local and more temporary theaters of this war.
Second, this unity of suffering everywhere makes the losses of our brothers and sisters species of the larger category of wartime casualties. And that is a rebuke to our prideful judgment of our brothers and sisters for what they have lost. We will not have much of an army left if we devour each other as Paul warned the Galatians (5:15)—if we purity spiral out over who has been most faithful versus who must be thrown off the field of battle because of their past performance. None can advance onto this field by human pride. Paul warns, “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12).
Both of those implications, by themselves, strengthen our resolve.
Practical Use of the Doctrine
Use 1. Correction. Do not be like the devil in this respect either: always ‘seeking someone to devour’ (v. 8). There is a whole new class of people employed by the liberal church and its institutions, who are always prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. It is a mistake to think that they only prowl on social media, so that as long as you do not engage in edgy talk you have no need to think of such things. In that case, why is the Bible so often setting a guard on our speech? The reason of God’s holiness is certainly the primary reason; but it is not the only one.
The devil sends his minions to seek and destroy you by your own words—whether those words be actually wrong or not. These are wresters on the prowl. They prowl onto YouTube and they prowl onto SermonAudio.com. They prowl onto your church’s website and they prowl onto your blog. And lest you think this is just about ministry and seminary, think again. In the course of the next decade, most work that is not overtaken by AI will involve the same screens and distant relations. Most no longer work in factories and warehouses and storefront offices, or even boardrooms and cubicles. Most will now have to live most of their lives in the digital trenches where every thought is monitored and every whisper heard.
The enemy has innumerable servants, in human form, who do his devouring by slandering, cancelling, and doxxing. The kids have a saying for this: Don’t feed the trolls. My grandfather who served in the Navy in World War II also had a saying for it: “A slip of the lip can sink the ship.” Sometimes resistance is simply elevating your thinking and your language, so that we communicate by a sanctified code. Think also of this: One is never more like the devil than when we slanders, than when he accused the brethren. Do not be a tool of the devil in this way either.
Use 2. Consolation. If the devil is Christ’s adversary and the devil is our adversary, then we are with Christ. If Satan is the price of the kingdom of darkness, then Christ, as the Prince of the kingdom of light is our King. The Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 26, asks: “How doth Christ execute the office of a king?”
Answer. Christ executeth the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.
It is a good thing, and a gospel good, to look to Christ our King as our Defender against all enemies, spiritual and physical, person and impersonal, whether individual or group—He will defend us where and when we need it most. He Himself prayed, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one” (Jn. 17:15).
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1. John Owen, The Mortification of Sin (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2004), 62.
2. Calvin, Commentaries, XXII.3.150.
3. Owen, Temptation (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2009), 62.
4. Sproul takes the reasonable position that Peter means “faith” in the objective sense: “I think Peter meant that the way we resist him is by having ourselves deeply rooted in the content of the Christian faith or doctrine.” — 1-2 Peter, 166. That is certainly one legitimate use of the expression, as in the “one faith” (Eph. 4:5) that we “contend for” (Jude 3). That is not irrelevant to warfare, as one most sure of reality is least susceptible to wander from the camp.
