Slander is the act of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person’s reputation. While slander is a daily occurrence on social media, human beings have been cruel from the beginning of time on earth. In the past few years, slander has resulted in lawsuits against cable news networks and newspapers. Yet, for a Christian church labeled as a synagogue of Satan, they turned the other cheek, Matthew 5:39.
I know your affliction and distress and pressing trouble and your poverty—but you are rich! and how you are abused and reviled and slandered by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan, Revelation 2:9.
To any Jewish adult steeped in religious traditions in the first century, Jesus was seen as a threat to the Jewish faith. Perhaps, this explains why Jewish elders, Pharisees and the high priest influenced the crowd on that first Good Friday nearly 2000 years ago. Meanwhile, other ancient writings refer to Jesus as the great magician, claiming the miracles Jesus performed relied on Black magic made possible by Satan.
[And see to it that] your conscience is entirely clear ([e]unimpaired), so that, when you are falsely accused as evildoers, those who threaten you abusively and revile your right behavior in Christ may come to be ashamed [of slandering your good lives]. 17 For [it is] better to suffer [unjustly] for doing right, if that should be God’s will, than to suffer [justly] for doing wrong, 1 Peter 3:16-17.
Since slander will never go away, one of Jesus’ disciples provides advice when you are on the wrong end of abusive words. According to Peter, it is better to suffer for doing what is right. Subsequently, if you are slandered for being a faithful follower of Jesus, embrace criticism in the name of spiritual maturity. If a former church can survive being labeled as a synagogue of Satan, you too can overcome slander today.
by Jay Mankus
ExpressYourself4Him 