Each of us face a very dangerous, clever, and powerful foe. He is the smartest, most powerful, and highest of all the angelic creatures God ever made. He is fallen, and wants only to damage anything that is attached to God.
Peter here warns us that Satan can devour us. Like a lion he pounces and swallows us up. Peter knew that from personal experience. Jesus had warned Peter to watch (be vigilant) and pray in the Garden of Gethsemane using this very same word (gregoreo, “vigilant”) three times (Matthew 26:38, 40, 41). Peter heard, did not obey, and ended up denying Christ three times.
Peter got devoured. If Satan can’t devour us, he also tries to attack us like he did Eve when she listened to the serpent whispering lies, that Paul describes in 2 Cor. 11:3, 13-14 as the “angel of light”.
Satan’s Playbook Are you aware that Satan wants to poison your thoughts and emotions away from the purity of God’s truth? His attack centers on our mind and emotions. As the Father of lies wants to snatch the Word of God from us, so we think that sin is not so bad. As the Devil wants us to learn laugh at sin on television or at the movies, to dull our conscience, so it will no longer warn us of God’s displeasure with sin. As Satan he wants to entertain us with sin so that we become very tolerant of it. Then he wants fill our mind with doubts, lies, and false doctrine to debilitate our will, confuse our emotions, corrupt our desires, and drawing our affections to the wrong things.
Understanding Satan’s Strategy: So Peter taught the churches to be on constant guard for Satan’s attacks. What exactly can Satan do? Paul warned in 2 Timothy 2:23-26 that Satan could “snare” believers.