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Our text word is one of the beautiful pieces of prose from the Bible which rings like poetry in our ears. If we have something very important to say and we can manage to say it in a beautiful and forceful manner it is more likely to be remembered by those to whom we speak. The Apostle Paul was writing to the congregation in Rome; A congregation greatly persecuted, meeting secretly in catacombs and in constant danger of being arrested and put to death.

Although we may not be threatened physically to the same extent as were the early Christians, the same steadfastness which the Apostle Paul sought to inspire is still required of us in our time, when the threats to our faith are of a more subtle and sophisticated nature. The threat of death continues to hang over all of us, for nobody is immortal. Death marks the end of the period allocated by God to each individual to work out his soul’s salvation. Life poses a greater threat to separate us from our faith, because in life we meet all the temptations and tests which we have to overcome, and which are listed in our text word. Angels. Can Angels separate us from the love of God? Usually, we think of Angels as godly beings who will help us in faith. This is indeed so but let us not forget that a third of all the Angels in Heaven are said to have fallen and the leader of them all was Lucifer, the Angel of Light, whom Jesus referred to as the Prince of Darkness. The Angels were ruled by the Prince of Darkness, and this constitutes a principality. Powers, i.e., influential persons, organizations or even nations can present a threat to our faith.

Height. How can height threaten us?  Promotion, influential and powerful heights which constitute a real threat in swelling the ego and destroying humbleness before God. The Devil took Jesus up to the highest pinnacle of the temple and bade Him behold all the kingdoms of the earth which should be His if only He would fall down and worship him. Jesus did not succumb to the temptation, height.

Next came the temptation of Depth. The Devil told Jesus to throw Himself off the highest pinnacle into the depth, saying God would send His Angles to carry Him so that He would not be injured, but Jesus did not fall for this very subtle temptation, because had He done this it would have been like showing off. What an important person I am, I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God. God specially sends Angels for me so that I will not get hurt. It would be a bolstering of the ego. The Lord Jesus saw straight through this cunning temptation and replied, “Do not tempt the Lord God.” The Depth can frighten us to weaken our faith. We can become fearful if we consider all the things that might or could go wrong. Don’t look down, is the answer. Look up heavenwards and be inspired instead. Any other Creature. The early Christians were threatened with being thrown to the lions. Surely, this was the most severe test of their faith. We don’t get thrown to the lions in this sense any more, but quite often the pursuit of our faith may cause us to be exposed to spirits just as savage as lions.

Nothing whatsoever must be allowed to separate us from the Love of God which is given us through Christ Jesus our Lord.