The Happy Reversal: A Field Guide to the Lion Text: 1 Peter 5:6-11
Introduction: The Logic of the Kingdom
We live in a world that is profoundly upside down. Our culture pursues exaltation through self-promotion, peace through anxious striving, and freedom through slavery to impulse. It is a world that has rejected the very grammar of reality, and as a result, it can no longer form coherent sentences. The Christian life, as presented in the Scriptures, is a direct inversion of this worldly logic. It is a great and happy reversal. If you want to go up, you must first go down. If you want to have everything, you must first surrender everything. If you want to live, you must first die.
The apostle Peter, writing to scattered and suffering believers, brings this kingdom logic to a fine point in this closing section of his letter. He is not offering them a series of disconnected platitudes or self-help tips for a better life. He is providing them with a battle plan, a field guide for spiritual warfare. And the central strategy is this: true strength is found in acknowledged weakness, true safety is found in radical dependence, and true victory is found in a faith that holds fast to the promises of God, even when a lion is at the door.
We are in a war, whether we feel like it or not. There is an adversary, a genuine foe, who is not playing games. He is a predator, and his aim is to devour. In our therapeutic age, we are tempted to psychologize this reality away. We speak of internal struggles, of anxieties and insecurities, and these are real enough. But Peter tells us that behind our very real anxieties, there is a very real accuser. Behind our struggles with pride, there is a spiritual adversary who fell because of pride. To ignore this is to walk onto the battlefield unarmed and blissfully unaware of the incoming artillery. Peter's exhortation is therefore intensely practical. It is a call to humility, sobriety, and vigilance, all grounded in the unshakable reality of God's sovereign care and ultimate purpose.
The Text
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. Be of sober spirit, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished among your brethren who are in the world. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, strengthen, confirm, and ground you. To Him be might forever and ever. Amen.
(1 Peter 5:6-11 LSB)
The Great Exchange: Humility for Exaltation (v. 6-7)
The foundation of our entire posture in this spiritual war is laid out in the first two verses.
"Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you." (1 Peter 5:6-7)
Notice the connection. The command to humble ourselves is immediately followed by the invitation to cast our anxieties upon God. These are not two separate thoughts; they are two sides of the same coin. Pride is the native refusal to cast our anxieties on God. Pride says, "I've got this." Pride is the grim determination to carry our own burdens, to solve our own problems, to be the master of our own fate. And the result of this is a soul riddled with anxiety. Anxiety is the smoke that rises from the fires of self-reliance.
To humble ourselves "under the mighty hand of God" is to acknowledge reality. It is to recognize that He is God and we are not. His hand is mighty; ours is weak. His wisdom is infinite; ours is laughably finite. To humble ourselves is to submit to His providence, to accept His dealings with us, to trust His timing. It is to stop kicking against the goads. We are not in charge of the universe. He is. And this is not bad news; it is the best news possible.
And there is a glorious promise attached. God does not demand humility in order to crush us. He demands humility in order to exalt us. This is the happy reversal. The world says, "Claw your way to the top." God says, "Bow your way to the top." But notice the crucial qualifier: "at the proper time." We want exaltation now. We want the victory now. We want the relief now. But God is a master of timing. He knows the precise moment when exaltation will serve His glory and our good, and not a moment sooner. To humble ourselves is to trust His timetable.
And how do we do this, practically? By "casting all your anxiety on Him." The word "casting" means to throw something decisively. It is not a gentle placement; it is a heave. It is the conscious act of taking the heavy sack of our worries, our fears about the future, our financial pressures, our relational strife, and hurling it onto the strong shoulders of God. And why can we do this? "Because He cares for you." This is not a sentimental platitude. It is the bedrock of our sanity. The sovereign God who holds the universe together by the word of His power cares for you, personally and particularly. Your anxieties are not an annoyance to Him. He invites them. He demands them. To hold onto them is an act of prideful defiance. To cast them upon Him is the fundamental act of humility.
The Prowling Adversary and Our Firm Resistance (v. 8-9)
Having established our posture of humble dependence, Peter now reveals the immediate context for this posture. We are in a war zone.
"Be of sober spirit, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished among your brethren who are in the world." (1 Peter 5:8-9 LSB)
Because we have an adversary, we must be sober and watchful. A soldier on watch duty cannot afford to be drunk or distracted. Sobriety here means to be clear-headed, not intoxicated by the world's foolishness or panicked by its threats. Watchfulness means to be alert. The devil's primary tactic is deception. He is a liar and the father of lies. He attacks when we are spiritually drowsy, when our guard is down.
Peter describes him as a "roaring lion." This is not to say that he is all-powerful. The roar of a lion is designed to do one thing: induce terror. Terror paralyzes the prey, making it an easy target. The devil's accusations, his temptations, his manufactured crises, are all part of his roar. He wants to frighten you out of your humble confidence in God. He wants you to believe that God does not care, that your suffering is meaningless, and that you are all alone. He prowls, looking for the weak, the isolated, the straggler from the herd. He is "seeking someone to devour." His intent is not to wound, but to consume. This is not a game.
So what is our response? It is not to cower in fear. It is not to enter into a dialogue with the lion. The command is simple and direct: "Resist him." How? "Firm in the faith." Our resistance is not in our own strength, our own willpower, or our own clever arguments. Our resistance is rooted in our faith. This means we stand on the objective truth of the gospel. When the devil accuses, we point to the blood of Christ that cleanses us. When he tempts, we point to the Word of God that defines reality. When he roars with threats of suffering, we stand firm on the promise that God works all things together for our good.
And we are not alone in this fight. Peter encourages us by reminding us that "the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished among your brethren who are in the world." The devil wants to isolate you, to make you think your trial is unique and unbearable. But this is a lie. Your brothers and sisters across the globe and throughout history are engaged in the very same conflict. You are part of a vast army, and your small skirmish is part of a great war that has already been won at the cross.
The Divine Guarantee: Suffering and Glory (v. 10-11)
The battle is real, and the suffering is real. But it is not the last word. Peter concludes with one of the most glorious promises in all of Scripture.
"And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, strengthen, confirm, and ground you. To Him be might forever and ever. Amen." (1 Peter 5:10-11 LSB)
Notice the glorious sequence. "After you have suffered for a little while." From our perspective, in the midst of the trial, it does not feel like a little while. But from the vantage point of eternity, it is but a light and momentary affliction. This is not to minimize the pain, but to contextualize it. This present suffering is not ultimate. It has a divinely appointed expiration date.
And look who is waiting for us at the end of it: "the God of all grace." Not some grace, but all of it. He is the fountainhead of every unmerited favor. And this God has "called you to His eternal glory in Christ." Your suffering is not a detour from His plan; it is the very path He has ordained to bring you to that glory. He did not call you to a life of ease, but to a share in the glory of His Son, a glory that was reached through suffering.
And the promise is not that we will pick ourselves up by our bootstraps. No, God "will Himself" do the work. The same God who called you is the one who will complete the work in you. And what will He do? He will perform a fourfold work of divine construction. He will "restore" what was broken. He will "strengthen" what was weak. He will "confirm" what was wavering. And He will "ground" you, setting you on a firm and unshakeable foundation. This is not damage control; this is glorification. God uses the very attacks of the enemy, the very suffering of this life, as His tools to build us into something more glorious and resilient than we were before.
This magnificent promise leads Peter to only one possible conclusion: a doxology. "To Him be might forever and ever. Amen." The reality of our suffering and the reality of our enemy should not lead us to despair, but rather should drive us to a deeper adoration of the God whose power is ultimate, whose grace is sufficient, and whose promises are certain. He is the one with the might, and that might is deployed for the eternal good of His people.
Conclusion: The Happy Warrior
So, what is the Christian's posture in this world? It is the posture of a happy warrior. We do not deny the reality of the battle or the pain of the wounds. We are sober and watchful. But we are not anxious. We have humbled ourselves under the mighty hand of a God who is both sovereign and good. We have cast the crushing weight of our anxieties onto Him, because He genuinely cares for us.
When the lion roars, we do not panic. We resist, standing firm in the faith, knowing that our standing is not in ourselves, but in the finished work of Christ. And we look beyond the present skirmish to the promised glory. We know that the God of all grace is using this very conflict to restore, strengthen, confirm, and ground us. The devil means it for evil, but God means it for good. The enemy intends to devour, but God intends to build. And because God's intention is the one that will ultimately prevail, we can face the battle not with grim resignation, but with a deep and abiding joy. For our suffering is for a little while, but His might, and the glory He has called us to, is forever and ever. Amen.