When it comes to the work of allocating the various material items of God’s house, false leaders aren’t just unable to do this according to the principles required by God’s house, they also let lots of their personal feelings, preferences, and desires, as well as their personal understandings, get mixed up in this. They make a jumble and a confused mess of this work, with no principles to speak of at all. So, when a false leader is managing the various items of God’s house, it often happens, in circumstances where no one knows what’s going on, that things are damaged, wasted for no reason, or that things go missing and the numbers don’t add up. Other items are taken by individuals for their personal use, without them registering or reporting this. False leaders can’t even manage such a simple piece of general affairs work well. They make a mess of this work, yet they still feel at ease, thinking that they’ve done a lot of work. False leaders never carry out the regular inspection, maintenance, and upkeep of the various material items of God’s house; at heart, they don’t care a bit about these items. Suppose that you ask them, “Is there anyone taking care of the maintenance and upkeep of these pieces of equipment? Have there been any cases of wastefulness in the acquisition of spare parts when repairing them? Or of anyone overspending or getting ripped off? Was anyone held accountable after those incidents? Was anyone fined or given a warning?” False leaders won’t know or care about any of this. Whether money was illegitimately spent when buying things for God’s house, whether anyone has been assigned to manage those things after they were bought, whether the things bought are suitable and whether they can be put to effective use, and, if not, whether they were returned or exchanged within the designated timeframe—they know about none of this. They’re such idiots—they don’t know anything. The only thing false leaders think about is how to preach doctrines at gatherings to make people esteem them; they have no work capability when it comes to the specific matter of the management of items, nor do they have any attitude toward this matter. They don’t know that this is work they should be doing, nor do they know how to do it. The view that false leaders take on the items of God’s house is that they belong to everyone, so whoever would like to use something may do so, and whoever needs something may take it or apply for it from the higher-ups—that this is everyone’s right, and that the items of God’s house shouldn’t be under any individual’s management or control. So, if someone should break or lose a machine, they don’t care, and if someone should apply to buy something, they don’t care if it’s expensive or cheap, either. The fact is that God’s house has rules for these things. So long as leaders and workers fulfill their responsibilities and carry out proper checks according to the principles of God’s house, all such losses and waste can be avoided. Yet false leaders don’t even do this simplest work that may prevent losses. Aren’t they just eating the food of God’s house for free? Aren’t they freeloading? Is this not a specific manifestation of the “falseness” of false leaders? How would you handle such a leader, if you encountered one? (By dismissing them.) Just dismiss them, and that’s it? Don’t you need to teach them a thing or two? “That machine was put there, and it got damp, and no one checked up on it for days. It’s not clear if the power still works, or if mice have chewed the cables. Why don’t you concern yourself with these things? The computer I use is broken and needs to be repaired. It’ll delay the work if it goes unrepaired. Yet I’ve applied for it so many times from you—why haven’t you paid attention? What are you blindly busying yourself with all day, like a chicken with its head cut off? When a leader like you is counted on to do work, you delay all of the work, and all machines and material items get destroyed by your hand. You don’t look after or manage the various items of God’s house. You’re unfit to be a leader—hurry up and step down!” Is it alright to lecture them like this? (Yes.) What is possessed by a person who dares to lecture leaders and workers? They must first be brave, and they must have a sense of justice. Some may say, “I wouldn’t dare lecture the leaders and workers. They’re officers, and I’m just a soldier, my rank is so much lower than theirs. They have the truth and they can preach sermons. I’m no good at anything, and in no position to lecture them.” Isn’t this the logic of a scoundrel? (It is.) So, how would you lecture this kind of leader, then? “If you can do this work, then try your best to do it, and do it in accordance with the principles of God’s house. Whatever you arrange for us to do, we’ll obey it. But if you don’t try your best to do this work, if you don’t do it according to the principles of God’s house, you’ll never get us to listen to you! Furthermore, if you don’t do any real work, we have the right to remove you from your post and clear you out! Harm yourself, if you want to harm someone—you must not try to harm all of us.” Would you dare lecture them like this? (Yes.) You say so now; would you really, when the time comes to do it? Generally, with things that touch on the truth principles and important matters, you don’t dare to speak casually, for fear that a lack of insight, and clarity in speaking, may mean that you are just passing judgment on the leaders and workers and causing a disturbance. But you should be capable of having insight into the matter of managing material items; you should learn discernment in this matter and get a grasp on its principles.

There was a man who was in charge of clothing in a film production team. He was unruly in his actions, and always sneakily misappropriating the items of God’s house. When he left the film production team, he took some things with him, and a later check of the accounts showed that a lot of the money he’d received didn’t square up. Moreover, although he wasn’t working, he had money, and he’d also bought a lot of high-end items. A lot of people had flattered him while he was in the film production team, and they all wanted to get on good terms with him, so that when they needed clothes, they’d just have to ask, and he’d give them some. If a person was on bad terms with him, he wouldn’t even give them the clothes they were supposed to get. What problem is this? It’s a problem with management personnel. Part of it was that he was misappropriating these things himself; the other part was that he did not allocate the items of God’s house in line with the principles, but instead went by his feelings, his own will, and his relationships. According to the principles, this person should have been cleansed away. This was an obvious problem. The false leader not only didn’t do so, but took him to be a good person and arranged for him to go to another place to do his duty. Was this not compounding the mistake? What do you think of how this work was done? Was it in line with the principles? Did this leader fulfill the responsibilities that a leader ought to? (No.) Putting aside for the moment what benefits the leader could reap by handling that person in this way—just judging by how they handled the matter, what was the nature of this? It was that of harboring an evil person based on feelings, and not handling him according to the principles of God’s house. So, to link that up with item ten of the responsibilities of leaders and workers, what mistake does this sort of leader and worker make in their treatment of the various material items of God’s house? Did this leader fulfill their responsibilities? Was their handling of the matter based on protecting the items of God’s house? It certainly was not. They didn’t take the items of God’s house seriously, even turning a blind eye as they allowed these items to be ruined or taken at whim by the evil person. Is that how they’d handle it if their own things were damaged or misappropriated by others? No—then they’d be thinking about revenge and compensation. So, why didn’t they handle the items of God’s house in that way? They even said, “He can take a few items, if he likes—he’s not taking that much. He can misappropriate these things a bit, if he likes—who doesn’t have a slight desire to do that? What does the little amount he misappropriates matter? It’s not as if others are getting less.” What kind of attitude is this? Is this the attitude leaders and workers should have toward the items of God’s house? (No.) Are they not biting the hand that feeds them? And what logic did they offer in the end? “Let him misappropriate those things—there’s no need for us to settle these accounts with him. What do those petty funds and items amount to? Antichrists misappropriate so much more than that. His misappropriation of those items is between him and God—it’s his business how he’ll account for himself before God, when the time comes. It has nothing to do with us.” What thoughts and feelings do you experience after you hear a leader say such a thing? Anyone with any sense of justice, with a bit of the awareness of conscience, would weep inside to hear these words, and they’d feel heartbroken and disappointed, even if they were just an ordinary follower, let alone if they were a leader or a worker! This type of false leader enjoys so much of God’s grace and protection, and so many of His truths, but they still have this sort of cold-blooded attitude toward the items of His house. Do they possess humanity? Are they fit to be a leader or a worker? (No.) Once such a person has been dismissed, are they qualified to be a leader or a worker in the future? (No—their humanity is poor.) How does their poor humanity manifest? (In them not upholding the interests of God’s house.) What is the specific action in which they don’t uphold the interests of God’s house? What is the essence of this specific manifestation? People like this don’t have their hearts in the right place and they are of lowly character; they speak quite nicely, but they don’t do anything real. Such people absolutely must not be leaders and workers. Those whose hearts aren’t in the right place aren’t lovers of the truth, but are out for their own gain; those whose hearts aren’t in the right place give absolutely no thought to God’s chosen people, and they absolutely do not uphold the work of the church or the interests of God’s house.

The first fundamental thing that leaders and workers must do is to keep a proper watch over the various material items of God’s house, to properly carry out checks and keep guard for God’s house, not letting any items get damaged, wasted, or misappropriated by evil people. This is the minimum they should do. As soon as you’re chosen as a leader or a worker, God’s house regards you as its steward: You’re of the managerial class, and the task that you shoulder is heavier than that of others. You bear a great responsibility. That’s why your every attitude, your every action, your every plan for handling issues, and your every method for resolving problems, all involve the interests of God’s house. If you don’t even consider the interests of God’s house or take them to heart, you’re unfit to be a steward of His house. What sort of person is this? Why aren’t they fit to be a steward of God’s house? Among false leaders, there are some who aren’t just poor of caliber—their key problem is that they bear no burden; they don’t know how to work, but they don’t seek the truth, and they’re incapable of fulfilling even the minimal responsibilities that a steward should. They have no conscience or reason. This is because their hearts aren’t in the right place, they are of lowly character, and they’re selfish and base; they don’t uphold the church’s work at all, but often damage and sell out the church’s interests, currying people’s favor and upholding their relationships with other people at the expense of doing harm to the church’s interests. They allow the material items of God’s house to be damaged, wasted, lost, or even misappropriated by the evil people, and they don’t care about this at all, or feel the least bit of indebtedness or guilt about this. So, when it comes to selecting leaders and workers, looking at this from the perspective of humanity, what’s the most basic thing that they should possess? They must have a conscience and a sense of justice, and their motives should be proper. Their humanity must first pass the bar. No matter how much work capability they possess, or what level of caliber they possess, people of that sort will be up-to-standard stewards if they serve as supervisors. At the very least, they’ll be able to uphold the interests of God’s house and the common interests of the brothers and sisters. They absolutely won’t sell out the brothers’ and sisters’ interests, nor those of God’s house. When the interests of God’s house and the brothers and sisters are about to come to harm or injury, they’ll have thought of it beforehand, and they’ll be the first to step forward and safeguard them, even if doing so will affect their own safety, or require them to pay a price or suffer. These are all things that people with a conscience and reason can do. Some false leaders and workers rush to find a safe place to hide themselves away in when they’re faced with dangerous circumstances, yet with the important items of God’s house—books of God’s words, cell phones, computers, and so on—they neither care about them nor ask after them. If they were worried about how them being arrested would affect the bigger picture of the church’s work, they could send others to handle these things—yet these false leaders hide only for their own safety’s sake. They’re scared to death, and in order to ensure their own safety, they don’t do what they can. There are therefore many instances where false leaders’ negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility cause various items of God’s house and offerings to God to be plundered and taken by the great red dragon when dangerous situations arise, which leads to serious losses. When those situations have just arisen in the church, the first thought of leaders and workers should be to put the equipment and material items of God’s house in suitable places, to hand them off to suitable people for management; the great red dragon absolutely must not be allowed to take them. But false leaders never have such things in mind; they never put the interests of God’s house first, instead they put their own safety first. False leaders’ failure to do real work often causes various important items of God’s house to suffer losses or damages. Is this not a serious dereliction of duty on the part of false leaders? (It is.)

Regarding item ten of the responsibilities of leaders and workers, what is the main manifestation of false leaders that we are exposing? The attitude of false leaders toward the material items of God’s house is one of indifference and disregard; they don’t go by the principles, but allocate those things haphazardly, based on their own imaginings and preferences. While they’re managing things, the items of God’s house are often subjected to greater or lesser degrees of damage and waste, which causes losses to the work of God’s house. This is the main manifestation of false leaders. False leaders can’t even handle this simplest, single piece of general affairs work; they can’t even do that or do it well—what can they do, then? So, when you see such people acting as leaders, you may inspect and supervise their work. If they make a mess of this single piece of general affairs work, not doing even what they can, and not finding other suitable people to do it when they don’t have the time, then such leaders are to be dismissed and removed from their posts at once. God’s house will never use them. Is this fitting? (It is.) Why? A person whose heart isn’t in the right place, whose comprehension is distorted, and who acts only according to their feelings and their selfish, base ambitions and desires, is not trustworthy. What work can an untrustworthy person do well? What duty can they do well? Are they capable of doing a duty with loyalty? (No.)

Through today’s fellowship on item ten of the responsibilities of leaders and workers, haven’t I clearly laid out another of the principles and standards that are required of leaders and workers? What’s involved here isn’t a question of caliber, nor is it a question of work capability, but a question of humanity. Observe people who are serving as leaders and workers, or those whom the church is cultivating, and see if there are any among them who are of poor humanity and whose hearts aren’t in the right place, whose humanity is the same as that of the false leaders dissected in item ten. If you truly do find such leaders and workers, you should dismiss them, and you must remember never to elect such people as leaders, and never to cultivate such people to be leaders and workers. If some people don’t understand the character of those people and elect them, report them right away. Don’t give them the chance to be leaders and workers. Those people don’t become leaders and workers to do real work, but to destroy the work of the church. If they become leaders, the various material items of God’s house will only go to ruin in the wake of this. Are you willing to see such a consequence? (No.) So, how should you treat such people, then? If they’re currently serving as leaders, report them and remove them from their posts. If they’re not, if they haven’t yet been elected, then tell everyone: “This person’s no good. Don’t elect them, whatever you do; it would be detrimental to the church.” And if people have been hoodwinked and misguided into electing them, you must inform everyone at once: “We did something wrong today. We elected someone of poor humanity, whose heart is in the wrong place, as our leader. Now that we have done this, the interests of God’s house are going to be subjected to losses and harm. We have to remove them from their post at once, in order to keep the interests and various items of God’s house from being damaged. We must not let them succeed with their scheme.” Is this a fitting thing to do? (It is.)

Those chosen as leaders and workers are required to have caliber and work capability; now there are also requirements for their character. What do you say, is it the case that most people do not fulfill the criteria for being leaders and workers? Which of these three is most crucial? (Humanity.) And second? (Work capability.) After that? (Whether or not they have caliber.) That order is pretty accurate. When you elect leaders in the future, measure them according to this order. Some people say, “There’s a problem with this order. Suppose that humanity comes first, and there are some people who are of good humanity but fairly bad caliber, and if they are selected as leaders, they won’t be able to do any real work—is it still OK to only consider people’s humanity then?” People’s humanity is of chief importance, and it’s the first thing that you should look at, but it is not the only thing to consider when electing leaders and workers. If a person’s humanity is up to standard, next look at their work capability. If they lack work capability, and cannot do any real work, you can ask them to undertake work that is not overly taxing of their abilities. If they are of good humanity, and they are able to shoulder the work and try their best to do it well, and they are someone trustworthy, and the house of God need have no qualms about making use of them, and they are edifying, helpful, and beneficial to most of the brothers and sisters, then they are up to standard. If their caliber is poor and they lack work capability, or if they are just average in terms of their work capability, get them to perform some simple work or a single job. If they have good caliber and strong work capability, they can perform some important work or several different jobs. Can you not even manage to make these kinds of arrangements? If they are of poor humanity and their heart is not in the right place, then no matter how great their work capability is, will they be able to do the work well? (No.) If they managed a company or a few staff, it might not be a problem—but what issues would arise if they were asked to manage the various material items of the house of God? First of all, they absolutely would not manage those items or handle things according to the principles required by the house of God. Their heart is not in the right place, they do not love the truth, and there is nothing but scheming in their heart, nothing but wicked ideas and thoughts, so whenever they act, they do so according to their own preferences, and based on their own interests, not based on the truth principles, nor on fairness. They consider only what they have to lose or gain, and give no thought to the principles required by the house of God—and thus they are destined to fail in the work of leaders and workers. What is this determined by? By their character; it is not determined by their work capability. And so, when weighing up whether someone is noble or lowly, and whether they meet the house of God’s standards for the selection of leaders and workers, first look at their humanity: If they are of dependable and qualified humanity, next consider whether they possess work capability and have a burden; then consider the other aspects.

This is item ten of the responsibilities of leaders and workers. This is more or less what’s dissected in item ten of the various behaviors of false leaders. One can see in the attitudes and behaviors with which false leaders treat the material items of God’s house, that most of them lack a conscience and reason, that they’re too poor of humanity and take no responsibility—you could say their hearts are in the wrong place. Do we not now have one more piece of evidence with which to characterize false leaders? Some false leaders can’t do work because their caliber’s poor, and because they’re blind and have no insight into things. Some don’t do actual work because their hearts aren’t in the right place, and they’re out exclusively for their own benefits—they don’t uphold the interests of God’s house, and they don’t care if God’s chosen people live or die. Every sort of false leader must be dismissed and eliminated as quickly as possible, to prevent delays to the work of God’s house and harm to His chosen people.

May 1, 2021