Daily Reading for Monday, September 2, 2024
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 3:12
"And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you."
Meditation:
Reference(s):
1 Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists, p. 120.
"Those who are engaged in the great and solemn work of warning the world, should not only have an individual experience in the things of God, but they should cultivate love for one another, and should labor to be of one mind, of one judgment, to see eye to eye. The absence of this love greatly pleases our wily foe. He is the author of envy, jealousy, hatred, and dissension; and he rejoices to see these vile weeds choke out love, that tender plant of heavenly growth.
"It does not please God to have his servants censure, criticize, and condemn one another. He has given them a special work, that of standing in defense of truth. They are his workmen; all should respect them, and they should respect one another. In the army, officers are required to respect their fellow-officers, and the privates soon learn the lesson. When the leaders of the people in the Christian warfare are kind and forbearing, and manifest a special love and regard for their colaborers, they teach others to do the same.
"The reputation of a fellow-laborer is to be sacredly guarded. If one sees faults in another, he is not to magnify them before others, and make them grievous sins. They may be errors of judgment, that God will give divine grace to overcome."1