How do you finish off a letter? I often write “all the best” or something like that at the end of an email or letter. Peter, in his closing remarks, has something far bigger to tell us. It’s about the fact that the Christian life is a battle between good and evil. It explains why living out the Christian life is never a very easy thing to do . . there’s temptation . . . and evil . . . and behind all this, the Devil. So, we need to be properly armed if we’re to do battle with the forces against us. These forces are likened to a lion, and the word “devour” really means to eat up with one gulp!  So – how do we resist him? Well, not by ourselves as would be fairly obvious! Rather, it’s by standing firm in what has been given to us by God – as Peter puts it here: “standing firm in the faith”. The words “the faith” remind us of all that we have been learning in 1 Peter. It’s knowing that we are completely forgiven: “Set your hope fully on the grace to be revealed” (1v13), and it’s having a “living hope” (1v3) that because Jesus has risen again, he is able to give us now, and promise for the future, a new life in God.  And standing firm in these things will protect us – even from the spiritual equivalent of a lion!