In 1 Peter 5:8, Peter issues two incisive imperatives: “Be sober-minded; be watchful.” We have a duty of personal vigilance, since, as Peter goes on to explain, “your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” There can be no passive defense in the Christian life. The moment we let our minds wander, the moment we get lazy, unguarded, or slothful, we are immediately in a spiritual danger zone.
The Necessity of Action
The British evangelist Alan Redpath used to ask young people, “Do you have blanket victory?” He wasn’t using “blanket” in the sense of “total” or “all-covering.” He simply meant the blankets on their bed! Were they, he was asking, resisting the urge to be lazy with the God-given gift of their daily lives?
In the book of Proverbs we find a clarifying picture of the cost of the lazy life:
I passed by the field of a sluggard,
by the vineyard of a man lacking sense,
and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns;
the ground was covered with nettles,
and its stone wall was broken down.
Then I saw and considered it;
I looked and received instruction.
A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man. (Prov. 24:30–34)
The world reassures us, “There’s nothing wrong with a little bit of laziness.” But the Bible responds, “Yes, there really is!” And this is all the more true and pressing when, as Peter reminds us, predatory spiritual forces are hot on our heels. In such circumstances, we have to stay awake and alert—and we’ve got to act.
The story is told of a chaplain on the South Coast of England. The sailors to whom he ministered said to him once, “Chaplain, if you were in the real world like the rest of us, you would know that it’s not so easy. When we sin, we are just swept along by the wind.” In response, the chaplain pointed out over the bay at the sailing ships crossing this way and that, and he said,
One ship drives East, one ship drives West
By the self-same wind that blows;
It’s the set of the sails, and not the gales,
That determines the way it goes.1
Nothing could be more obvious in life than that the winds and currents push us where God says not to go. But just as the skillful sailor sets sail to beat windward, we may choose to move against the currents of the world, the flesh, and the devil, hard going as it may be.
The Path of Resistance
The reason that we must be alert, the reason that we must be awake, is in order to mount this resistance movement. The Bible warns us to flee all kinds of things—sexual immorality (1 Cor. 6:18), idolatry (1 Cor. 10:14), false doctrine (Rom. 16:17), greed (1 Tim. 6:10–11), and so on. But we are never, ever told to run away from the devil; instead, we’re told to resist him (1 Peter 5:9; James 4:7), and to do so in the assurance that God’s Word will actually take care of all things necessary in relation to his malignant designs.
How are we to do this? We may “stand against” his schemes by taking up the armor of God (Eph. 6:11), being “firm in the faith” (1 Peter 5:9 NIV). The definite article there, “the faith,” tells us we’re talking about the truth of the Gospel, not the strength of our own belief. It means that we need to have a theological underpinning for dealing with our sinful desires, as in the hymn:
When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.2
In other words, we stand firm in the doctrine of the atonement and in our union with Christ.
We are never, ever told to run away from the devil; instead, we’re told to resist him.
We might easily imagine the Evil One coming to us and asking, “Have you been reading your Bible the way you should?”
If we’re honest, most of us would likely reply, “No, no—but I’m going to do a better job soon, I promise. Perhaps starting Monday.”
“And what about the matter of Christian love?” he might then ask. “Are you loving people the way that Jesus said to love?”
“Well, no,” we’d perhaps reply, “I’m not. I haven’t been doing real good on that either. I’ll get it sorted out, though. I’m going to redress the balance.”
And so on it would go, with the devil targeting our failings each in turn, until eventually we feel ourselves being crushed under the weight of all the endeavor necessary to measure up to God’s perfect standard.
There’s only one answer that we can give that offers freedom and hope, and that is to look to Jesus. Jesus is all our righteousness.
That answer, the Bible affirms, only leads to despair. There’s only one answer that we can give that offers freedom and hope, and that is to look to Jesus. Jesus is all our righteousness. We set Him before the Evil One, and then we can say, “You can go back to hell where you belong, because it’s checkmate. I am in Christ. ‘There is therefore now no condemnation’” (Rom. 8:1). Then our resistance will be grounded on something firm and final.
The Source of Our Help
If we stand amidst this battle distracted, disengaged, disinterested, what will become of us? We will be easy prey. Our vigilance is necessary so that when the hour of trial comes, we may be ready to look away to the cross, to set our minds on things above, where Christ is, seated in victory at God’s right hand (Col. 3:1–2). Then we can remember the promise that Peter, after he has issued his imperatives, goes on to declare: “The God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Peter 5:10).
This article was adapted from the sermon “Security” by Alistair Begg.
