Jesus said “on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it (Matthew 16:18).” He meant that the power of the Devil strongly slanders churches.
When I appoint leadership positions in our church, I find that not many appointees are believed to be faithful to the Lord's work overcoming the slanders from the Devil. It’s because nobody is perfect. We can be easily deceived by the Devil. Nevertheless, in our faith life in the church, we shouldn’t be deceived by the Devil not slandering others, and not being slandered by others.
Let’s imagine that a ship is sailing in the middle of an ocean. When a violent gust of wind suddenly blows and the wave reaches 5 meters high, ships of 50 meters in height can sail without any impacts from the wave. However, small boats will turn over by the same waves. Our faith must grow to the whole measure of the fullness of Jesus Christ so that we won't turn over no matter what kind of waves of difficulties and trials may happen. If not, we could fall away from the faith when waves of persecution and trials suddenly blow.
We should keep our faith life unshakable and don't fall away by any kind of false accusals or slanders from anyone else. Large trees measuring more than both arms' span around never move by strong waves from typhoons. However, trees that were planted a few years ago are uprooted by typhoons. We should spread the deep root of faith in Jesus not to be shaken in trials and persecutions. Then we can overcome the Devil’s work in the last days. We should grow our faith so that we can overcome slanders from many directions. We have to put on the full armor of God to let our faith not be shaken and to stand firm in overcoming any slanders and accusations. (Ephesians 6:13)
Pastor Seok-Jeon Yoon
Extracted from Yonsei Newspaper #717
