The Day of God is a Day of Joy, but also a Day of Judgement.
Every man is guided both by the Love of God and by the Fear of God. In their
relationships with one another individual believers should be loving and
forgiving, overlooking one another's faults for the sake of God, but the
Spiritual Assemblies are the upholders of the Law of God. They are embryonic
Houses of Justice. The education of a child requires both love and discipline;
so also does the education of believers and the education of a community. One
of the failings of Bahá'ís, however, is to confuse these two roles, individuals
behaving like little Spiritual Assemblies, and Spiritual Assemblies forgetting
that they must exercise justice.
- The Universal House of Justice (From a letter dated 22 July 1981 written on
behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer;
compilation: ‘Removal of Administrative Rights’, prepared by the Research
Department of the Universal House of Justice, 1993)
