Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 3-145 (Devotional)

IF YOU COULD DO IT YOURSELF…

Generous love makes him hold others innocent in his heart; even when he sees infirmity or fault in his neighbour, he reflects that very likely all is not as it seems on the outside, but the act may have been done with a good intention; or else he thinks that God may have permitted it to take place for an admonition and lesson to himself; or again, as an opportunity for him to exercise self- control, and to learn to die unto himself by the patient endurance of and forbearance towards the faults of his neighbours, even as God has often borne many wrongs from him and had patience with his sins.

And this would often tend more to his neighbour’s improvement than all the efforts he could make for it in the way of reproofs or chastisements, even if they were done in love, (though indeed we often imagine that our reproofs are given in love, when it is in truth far otherwise).

For I tell thee, if thou couldst conquer thyself by long-suffering and gentleness and the pureness of thy heart, thou wouldst have vanquished all thine enemies.

– John Tauler (ca. 1300-1361), Sermons, Sermon XII: “Reprove, entreat, rebuke, in all patience and doctrine.”

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By way of Christian Quotation of the Day

CQOD Compilation Copyright 2003, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator CQOD subscription info: http://www.gospelcom.net/cqod/cqodlist.htm