1Pe 5:8-11 | Barnes | STEP | 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 . Be vigilant . This word (γρηγορεω) is everywhere else in the New Testament rendered watch . See . 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. . Sometimes Satan is represented as transforming himself into an angel of light, ( ;) 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, . 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 ; ."-- Benson . (*) "vigilant" "watchful" (b) "as a roaring lion"

1 Peter 5:8-11

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 1Thes 5:6.

Be vigilant. This word (γρηγορεω) 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. Rev 12:12. Sometimes Satan is represented as transforming himself into an angel of light, (2Cor 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, 2Cor 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, Hoss 11:10, Zeph 3:3, Zech 11:3."--Benson.

(*) "vigilant" "watchful" (b) "as a roaring lion" Rev 12:12 Verse 9. Whom resist. Jas 4:7. You are in no instance to yield to him, but are in all forms to stand up and oppose him. Feeble in yourselves, you are to confide in the arm of God. No matter in what form of terror he approaches, you are to fight manfully the fight of faith. Comp. Eph 6:10, seq.

Stedfast in the faith. Confiding in God. You are to rely on him alone, and the means of successful resistance are to be found in the resources of faith. Eph 6:16.

Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. Comp. for a similar sentiment, 1Cor 10:13. The meaning is, that you should be encouraged to endure your trials by the fact that your fellow-Christians suffer the same things. This consideration might furnish consolation to them in their trials in the following ways:

(1.) They would feel that they were suffering only the common lot of Christians. There was no evidence that God was peculiarly angry with them, or that he had in a peculiar manner forsaken them.

(2.) The fact that others were enabled to bear their trials should be an argument to prove to them that they would also be able. If they looked abroad, and saw that others were sustained, and were brought off triumphant, they might be assured that this would be the case with them.

(3.) There would be the support derived from the fact that they were not alone in suffering. We can bear pain more easily if we feel that we are not alone--that it is the common lot--that we are in circumstances where we may have sympathy from others. This remark may be of great practical value to us in view of persecutions, trials, and death. The consideration suggested here by Peter to sustain those whom he addressed, in the trials of persecution, may be applied now to sustain and comfort us in every form of apprehended or real calamity. We are all liable to suffering. We are exposed to sickness, bereavement, death. We often feel as if we could not bear up under the sufferings that may be before us, and especially do we dread the great trial--DEATH. It may furnish us some support and consolation to remember,

(1.) that this is the common lot of men. There is nothing peculiar in our case. It proves nothing as to the question whether we are accepted of God, and are beloved by him, that we suffer; for those whom he has loved most have been often among the greatest sufferers. We often think that our sufferings are peculiar; that there have been none like them. Yet, if we knew all, we should find that thousands--and among them the most wise, and pure, and good--have endured sufferings of the same kind as ours, and perhaps far more intense in degree.

(2.) Others have been conveyed triumphantly through their trials. We have reason to hope and to believe that we shall also, for

(a.) our trials have been no greater than theirs have been; and

(b.) their natural strength was no greater than ours. Many of them were timid, and shrinking, and trembling, and felt that they had no strength, and that they should fail under the trial.

(3.) The grace which sustained them can sustain us. The hand of God is not shortened that it cannot save; his ear is not heavy that it cannot hear. His power is as great, and his grace is as fresh, as it was when the first sufferer was supported by him; and that Divine strength which supported David and Job in their afflictions, and the apostles and martyrs in theirs, is just as powerful as it was when they applied to God to be upheld in their sorrows.

(4.) We are especially fearful of death--fearful that our faith will fail, and that we shall be left to die without support or consolation. Yet let us remember that death is the common lot of man. Let us remember who have died--tender females; children; the timid and the fearful; those, in immense multitudes, who had no more strength by nature than we have. Let us think of our own kindred who have died. A wife has died, and shall a husband be afraid to die? A child, and shall a father? A sister, and shall a brother? It does much to take away the dread of death, to remember that a mother has gone through the dark valley; that that gloomy vale has been trod by delicate, and timid, and beloved sisters. Shall I be afraid to go where they have gone? Shall I apprehend that I shall find no grace that is able to sustain me where they have found it? Must the valley of the shadow of death be dark and gloomy to me, when they found it to be illuminated with the opening light of heaven? Above all, it takes away the fear of death when I remember that my Saviour has experienced all the horrors which can ever be in death; that he has slept in the tomb, and made it a hallowed resting-place.

(c) "resist, stedfast" Jas 4:7 Verse 10. But the God of all grace. The God who imparts all needful grace. It was proper in their anticipated trials to direct them to God, and to breathe forth in their behalf an earnest and affectionate prayer that they might be supported. A prayer of this kind by an apostle would also be to them a sort of pledge or assurance that the needed grace would be granted them.

Who hath called us unto his eternal glory. And who means, therefore, that we shall be saved. As he has called us to his glory, we need not apprehend that he will leave or forsake us. On the meaning of the word called, Eph 4:1.

After that ye have suffered a while. After you have suffered as long as he shall appoint. The Greek is, "having suffered a little," and may refer either to time or degree. In both respects the declaration concerning afflictions is true. They are short, compared with eternity; they are light, compared with the exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 2Cor 4:16, seq.

Make you perfect. By means of your trials. The tendency of affliction is to make us perfect.

Stablish. The Greek word means to set fast; to fix firmly; to render immovable, Lk 16:26, 9:61, 22:32, Rom 1:11, 16:25 1Thes 3:2,13, et al.

Strengthen Give you strength to bear all this.

Settle you. Literally, found you, or establish you on a firm foundation--θεμελιωσει. The allusion is to a house which is so firmly fixed on a foundation that it will not be moved by winds or floods. Comp, Mt 7:24, seq.

(a) "a while" 2Cor 4:16 (b) "perfect" Heb 13:21 (c) "stablish" 2Thes 3:3 (d) "strengthen" Zech 10:6,10 (e) "settle" Ps 138:7,8 Verse 11. To him be glory, etc. 1Pet 4:11.

(f) "glory" 1Pet 4:11