Give and to Take Offense
"The Lord has constituted us as a people for a special mission. As he told Enoch in ancient times, the day in which we live would be one of darkness, but it would also be a time when righteousness would come down from heaven, and truth would be sent forth out of the earth to bear, once more, testimony of Christ and His atoning mission. As with a flood, that message would sweep the world, and the Lord's elect would be gathered out from the four quarters of the earth (see Moses 7:62). Wherever we live in the world, we have been molded as a people to be the instruments of the Lord's peace. In the words of Peter, we have been claimed by God for His own, to proclaim the triumph of Him 'who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God' (1 Peter 2:9-10). We cannot afford to be caught up in a world prone to give and to take offense. Rather, as the Lord revealed to both Paul and Mormon, we must neither envy nor be puffed up in pride. We are not easily provoked, nor do we behave unseemly. We rejoice not in iniquity but in the truth. Surely this is the pure love of Christ which we represent (see 1 Corinthians 13:4-6; Moroni 7:45-47)."
-- Robert S. Wood, "Instruments of the Lord's Peace," Ensign, May 2006, 95