1 Peter 5:9

Contextual Overview

⁸Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁸ Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁸ Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. ⁸Keep your head on a swivel and pay attention. The outlaw, the devil, stalks you every minute of every day like a hungry lion. ⁸ Be serious and keep watch; the Evil One, who is against you, goes about like a lion with open mouth in search of food; ⁸ Be vigilant, watch. Your adversary [the] devil as a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour. ⁸ Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. ⁸ for your adversary the devil, walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour: ⁸ Curb every passion, and be on the alert. Your great accuser, the Devil, is going about like a roaring lion to see whom he can devour. ⁸ Be sober, be vigilant: because your aduersary the deuill, as a roaring Lion walketh about, seeking whom he may deuoure.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

resist: Luke 4:3-12, Ephesians 4:27, Ephesians 6:11-13, James 4:7

stedfast: Luke 22:32, Ephesians 6:16, 1 Timothy 6:12, 2 Timothy 4:7, Hebrews 11:33

the same: 1 Peter 1:6, 1 Peter 2:21, 1 Peter 3:14, 1 Peter 4:13, John 16:33, Acts 14:22, 1 Corinthians 10:13, 1 Thessalonians 2:15, 1 Thessalonians 2:16, 1 Thessalonians 3:3, 2 Timothy 3:12, Revelation 1:9, Revelation 6:11, Revelation 7:14

Reciprocal: Matthew 4:10 - Get Luke 4:8 - Get Luke 22:38 - It Luke 22:40 - Pray Romans 11:20 - and 2 Corinthians 1:24 - for 2 Corinthians 5:7 - General 2 Corinthians 13:5 - in the faith Colossians 2:5 - and the Hebrews 12:8 - General 1 Peter 4:12 - as 2 Peter 3:17 - from 1 John 2:13 - because

Cross-References

1 Chronicles 1:2
Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared,

1 Chronicles 1:2
Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared,

1 Chronicles 1:2
Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared,

1 Chronicles 1:2
Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared,

1 Chronicles 1:2
Kenan, Mahalchel, Iared.

1 Chronicles 1:2
Cainan, [fn] Mahalalel, Jared,

1 Chronicles 1:2
Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared,

1 Chronicles 1:2
Kenan, Ma-hal'alel, Jared;

1 Chronicles 1:2
Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared,

1 Chronicles 1:2
Kenan, Mahalaleel, Iered,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Whom resist,.... By no means give way to him, by indulging any sin, or yielding to any temptation, but oppose him, and stand against his wiles, his cunning and his power:

steadfast in the faith; both in the doctrine of faith, which Satan endeavours to remove from, or cause to stagger in; and in the grace of faith, exercising it on the promises of God, and his perfections, particularly his power and faithfulness concerned in them, and in the blood, righteousness, sacrifice, and person of Christ, which faith is capable of making use of, as a shield, to good purpose, against all the fiery darts of Satan; as also in a profession of faith, which, as it should be held fast without wavering, and which the devil is very busy to keep persons from making, or to cause them to drop it when they have made it, by violent suggestions, strong temptations, and a flood of reproaches and persecutions; all which should be disregarded:

knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world; and therefore should not be surprised and staggered by them, nor think them strange, but endure them without murmuring, and with patience and cheerfulness; since they are the "same afflictions" and trials which others have been exercised with in all ages: the same which the fraternity, or "brotherhood", as the word signifies, see 1 Peter 2:17 who stand in the same relation to God and Christ as they do, endure; yea, the same which Christ himself, who stands in this relation to them, has endured: and which must be expected while they are "in the world"; but this is the great mercy, that they are only endured in this world; there will be none in the world to come; they will be "accomplished" and finished here; and every believer has his measure, which must be filled up; and so has the whole of Christ, his church, and when they are fulfil they will be no more.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Whom resist - See the notes at James 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. Compare the notes at Ephesians 6:10-17.

Steadfast 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. See the notes at Ephesians 6:16.

Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world - Compare for a similar sentiment, 1 Corinthians 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 especially angry with them, or that he had in a special 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 feet 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 people. There is nothing special 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 unique; 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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 9. Whom resist — Stand against him, αντιστητε. Though invulnerable, he is not unconquerable: the weakest follower of God can confound and overpower him, if he continue steadfast in the faith-believing on the Son of God, and walking uprightly before him. To a soul thus engaged he can do no damage.

The same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren — It is the lot of all the disciples of Christ to suffer persecution. The brotherhood, αδελφοτης, the Christian Church, everywhere is exposed to the assaults of men and devils; you are persecuted by the heathen among whom ye live, and from among whom ye are gathered into the fold of Christ: but even those who profess the same faith with you, and who are resident among the Jews, (for so I think ενκοσμω, in the world, is here to be understood,) are also persecuted, both heathens and Jews being equally opposed to the pure and holy doctrines of the Gospel. Any man who has read the Greek Testament with any attention must have observed a vast number of places in which the word κοσμος, which we translate world, means the Jewish people and the Jewish state, and nothing else.