To Encourage You

1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

Matthew 16:21-23 “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.’”

In the verse above from 1 Peter 5, Peter tells us to be sober-minded and watchful regarding our adversary the devil, who prowls around seeking to devour us.  So, how do we do this in that the devil is invisible to us? How can we watch for something that we can’t see? 

Well, in the next passage from Matthew 16 we see that Peter was speaking from personal experience, for, although Peter was very unwitting, Satan had certainly worked through him.  But Jesus was watchful.  If anyone was ever opposed by the devil at every turn, it was the Son of God.  Satan hounded Him to the end, but he did it in many different ways.  Although we know of one occasion where he tempted Jesus personally in the wilderness, most of the time he did his work through others whom he influenced and even possessed.  He influenced Herod to kill all the babies in Bethlehem and the surrounding area with the primary target of murdering the infant Jesus.  He influenced the Pharisees as they opposed Jesus time after time.  Jesus was ever aware of this and called them out on it with these words: “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him” (John 8:44).  He worked through the traitor Judas. In very sobering words we are told “Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve” (Luke 22:3).  No wonder that he worked through such evil people, and no wonder Jesus saw right through it all. 

But what about Peter, the leader of the Twelve.  Although Judas was a traitor, Peter was a sincere disciple who loved the Lord.  Yet, in the incident above, we see that even he was influenced by the adversary. Even he became a mouthpiece for the enemy of our souls.  But Jesus saw through this as well, for He was the ever watchful One.  He knew when someone was being influenced by and had their minds centered on the things of God, and he knew when that was not the case, i.e., when someone was being influenced by the things of man.  Interestingly, the “things of man” are shown by Jesus to be a synonym for the things of Satan.  It is as men follow their natural course in life that they follow, however unwittingly, the ways of the one who so subtly is at work to steal from them, kill them, and destroy them. 

In Ephesians 2:1-3  there is this very sobering message for each and every one of us: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”  Yes, that’s how everyone once lived and how many still live right now. We have all followed a very wicked prince.   Though we might not have known it, that’s exactly what we did.  And as we followed him, our words and actions served to do his bidding. 

So, when we are told to be watchful for Satan, we need to be aware that the way we do this is to be watchful regarding those who do his bidding.  We need to be filled with God’s truth to know when what we are hearing or seeing runs contrary to that truth. It is only as we know the truth that we can be sensitive to that which comes from the Father of Lies.  And those lies can even come from Christians, such as Peter, who are sometimes not very watchful themselves. 

So, are you sober-minded and watchful for the one who would like nothing more than to devour you?  Are you looking in the right places? Can you recognize his subtle attacks when they come? And are your words consistent with the Truth of God’s Word, or are they being influenced by the lies of the enemy? May God help us to follow the example Jesus laid down for us. May we have our minds set on the things of God rather than the things of man.