Bible Strands
1 Peter 5:8
Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Peter writes to scattered believers under persecution, placing this verse between the command to cast anxiety on God (5:7) and the command to resist the devil (5:9).
The words — nēpsate (νήψατε) is the aorist imperative for sobriety, the word used of a drunkard snapping back to clear-headedness. Antidikos (ἀντίδικος) carries a legal sense: an opponent in a lawsuit, an accuser who stands against you in a court of law.
The thread — The same posture of active resistance appears in Ephesians 6:11 (make your stand against the devil's schemes) and James 4:7 (resist the devil, and he will flee); Ephesians 4:27 adds the warning not to give him a foothold.
Why it lands — The verse demands a posture of clear-headed vigilance, not passive piety, because a named adversary is actively hunting for a victim.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Cross-references
- Ephesians 6:11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can make your stand against the devil’s schemes.
- James 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
- Ephesians 4:27 and do not give the devil a foothold.
- Job 2:2 “Where have you come from?” said the LORD to Satan. “From roaming through the earth,” he replied, “and walking back and forth in it.”
- 1 Peter 1:13 Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober-minded. Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
- 1 Peter 4:7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear-minded and sober, so that you can pray.
- 1 John 3:8 The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the very start. This is why the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:6 So then, let us not sleep as the others do, but let us remain awake and sober.
- Luke 21:36 So keep watch at all times, and pray that you may have the strength to escape all that is about to happen and to stand before the Son of Man.”
- Luke 22:31 Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you like wheat.