Soberly Dealing With The Devil

1 Peter 5:8 NKJV — Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

This is the New Testament doctrine on the correct heart attitude towards the devil.

The devil is not your main adversary. Your main adversary is you.  The devil is a liar, a thief, and a murderer, but he has very little agency outside of what we give him.

The devil needs permission to touch the world around us. He obtains that from God directly.

Job 1:8-12 NKJV — Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” So Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? “Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. “But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

Without permission from God, Job's hedge was intact.

The devil also needs permission to touch the interior of our heart. He gets that craftily from us.  We open the doors to the devil with sin, including the source of most sin, pride/shame.

We need to be sober, vigilant, and self controlled when dealing with Satan and his angels.  

We want to not give in to fearing, but also not go into reviling, the devil. Everything in the Christian walk is a narrow road.  False bravado when it comes to dealing with the devil is really pride.  We should not fear the devil, but we should fear the Lord.  The Lord allows the adversary to sift US.  

What this means is that we should be sober about  our own pride and the way that opens doors to the devil.

Pride comes before a fall... Often the devil is the axe God uses to cut down our pride.

2 Peter 2:9-13 NKJV — then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord. But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you,