{10} And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may {l} sift you as wheat:

(10) We must always think about the ambush that Satan lays for us.

(l) To toss you and scatter you, and also to cast you out.

People's New Testament

22:31-34 Simon, Simon. For the warning to Peter of his Denial of the Lord, see Mt 26:31-35. Compare Mr 14:27-31.

Wesley's Notes

22:31 Satan hath desired to have you - My apostles, that he might sift you as wheat - Try you to the uttermost.

Scofield Reference Notes

Margin wheat

Peter was the wheat, his self-confidence the chaff. Cf. Mt 13:30 Jn 5:24 10:23 Rom 6:1,2 1Jn 1:8 2:1.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

31-34. Simon, Simon-(See on [1725]Lu 10:41).

desired to have-rather, "hath obtained you," properly "asked and obtained"; alluding to Job (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6), whom he solicited and obtained that he might sift him as wheat, insinuating as "the accuser of the brethren" (Re 12:10), that he would find chaff enough in his religion, if indeed there was any wheat at all.

you-not Peter only, but them all.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

22:21-38 How unbecoming is the worldly ambition of being the greatest, to the character of a follower of Jesus, who took upon him the form of a servant, and humbled himself to the death of the cross! In the way to eternal happiness, we must expect to be assaulted and sifted by Satan. If he cannot destroy, he will try to disgrace or distress us. Nothing more certainly forebodes a fall, in a professed follower of Christ, than self-confidence, with disregard to warnings, and contempt of danger. Unless we watch and pray always, we may be drawn in the course of the day into those sins which we were in the morning most resolved against. If believers were left to themselves, they would fall; but they are kept by the power of God, and the prayer of Christ. Our Lord gave notice of a very great change of circumstances now approaching. The disciples must not expect that their friends would be kind to them as they had been. Therefore, he that has a purse, let him take it, for he may need it. They must now expect that their enemies would be more fierce than they had been, and they would need weapons. At the time the apostles understood Christ to mean real weapons, but he spake only of the weapons of the spiritual warfare. The sword of the Spirit is the sword with which the disciples of Christ must furnish themselves.