1 Peter 5:8-14

1 Peter 5:8-14 … Having just told his readers to “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand,” and to “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:6-7), Peter now turns to a caution. The warning is an important one, because practically none of us give any thought at all to spiritual warfare, but the fact is that we live in a fallen world where Satan has a foothold. The caution is to resist the devil, knowing that other believers experience the same kinds of temptations.

This kind of warning is given a number of times in the Scriptures. The first occurrence is in Genesis 4:7 where God speaks to Cain and tells him that “… sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” Another occurrence is in 1 Corinthians 10:13 which tells the believer that we can overcome temptation and that we need to flee from it. Spiritual threats are real. We need to be alert for them (1 Peter 5:8).

There are also words of great comfort in these closing verses of 1 Peter, advising that Christ Himself will confirm, strengthen, and establish us by His grace. Certainly we all need that! As is typical for first century correspondence, there is mention of the messenger who will carry the letter; here it is Sylvanus. The 13th verse mentions, “She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son, Mark.” Scholars glean two things from this: First, the likely possibility that Peter took his missionary work into Babylon; Second, that Mark was led to Christ by Peter, who mentored him and probably gave him a firsthand knowledge of the ministry of Jesus that Mark was later able to transcribe into the Gospel of Mark.