B. People’s Stewardship of Their Personal Surroundings

The second item: people’s stewardship of their personal surroundings in everyday life. Which area of normal humanity does this item entail? (That of one’s living environment.) And what does that consist of? It mainly consists of two broad areas: the environment one lives in that extends only so far as their personal life, and the public environments they frequently come into contact with. And what do these two broad areas consist of, specifically? One’s lifestyle, as well as their management of hygiene and their environment. To break it down further, what does one’s lifestyle consist of? Work and rest, diet, and things like the preservation of one’s health on a day-to-day basis, and common knowledge about daily life. We’ll begin with the first one, work and rest. Those should just be done in a regular, scheduled way. Outside of special circumstances, like when one’s work requires them to stay up late or do overtime, work and rest are most often to be regular and scheduled. That’s the right way. There are some who prefer to be up at night. They don’t sleep in the evenings, but busy themselves with all sorts of things. They don’t go to sleep until others get up and start their work, early in the morning, and when others go to bed at night, that’s when they rise and get to work. Aren’t there people like that? Always out of sync with others, always being special—such people aren’t very sound of reason. Everyone’s rhythms should be basically in sync under normal circumstances, special cases notwithstanding. What is the next one? (Diet.) The dietary requirements of normal humanity are easy to achieve, aren’t they? (Yes.) This one’s easy. However, don’t people have a few fallacious views on diet? Some say, “We believe in God, and everything is in His hands. There’s no way of eating that could harm one’s stomach. We’ll eat whatever we like, at our liberty, freely. It’s not an issue, with God protecting us.” Aren’t there people with such an understanding? Isn’t there something a bit distorted in this? An understanding like that is abnormal; those who have it aren’t normal in their thinking. There are others who get normal, commonsense knowledge for living mixed up with showing consideration for the flesh. They believe that to pay attention to commonsense knowledge for living is to show consideration for the flesh. Aren’t there people who believe that? (Yes.) For instance, some people have stomach troubles and don’t eat spicy, stimulating things. There are some who say to them, “That’s a dietary preference of yours; you’re showing consideration for the flesh. You need to rebel against it. There are places you’ll go where that’s the food, and you’ll need to eat it. How could you not?” Aren’t there people with that sort of understanding? (Yes.) Some people can’t eat a certain thing yet insist on eating it, to their discomfiture, in order to rebel against the flesh. I say, “You’re allowed not to eat it if you don’t want to. No one will condemn you if you don’t.” They say, “No, I have to!” In that case, their discomfort is deserved. They’ve brought it on themselves. They set regulations for themselves, so it’s they who have to keep them. Would it be wrong not to eat the thing, then? (No.) It wouldn’t. Others with particular health conditions are allergic to some foods. They need to avoid those things and not eat them. Some are allergic to chili peppers, and so shouldn’t eat them, yet insist on it. They go on eating them, believing that that’s what it means to rebel against the flesh. Is that not a distorted understanding? That it is. If they’re not fit to eat something, they shouldn’t eat it. What are they fighting against their body for? Isn’t that reckless of them? (It is.) There’s no need to keep to that regulation, nor to rebel against their flesh in that way. Everyone has their own physical condition: Some have bad stomachs; some have weak hearts; some are poorer of vision; some are prone to sweat; some never sweat. Everyone’s condition is different; you must make adjustments based on your own. A single sentence can stand for these cases: Learn a bit of common sense in life. What does “common sense” mean here? It means that you need to know what’s harmful for you to eat and what’s good for you to eat. If something doesn’t taste good but is good for your health, then you have to eat it, for the sake of your health; if something’s tasty, but you get sick when you eat it, then don’t eat it. That’s common sense. Beyond that, people must also know a few commonsense ways to stay healthy. In the four seasons of the year, let the time, the climate, and the season dictate the things you eat—this is a major principle. Don’t fight your body—this is a thought and understanding that people with normal humanity should have. Some people have enteritis and suffer from diarrhea when they eat stimulating foods. So, don’t eat those. Yet some say, “I’m not afraid. God’s protecting me,” and suffer through diarrhea after their meals as a result. They even say that it’s God putting them through a trial and refining them. Aren’t they absurd people? If they’re not absurd, they’re terrible gluttons who eat without regard for the consequences. Such people have a lot of issues. They can’t control their appetite, but say, “I’m not afraid. God’s protecting me!” How’s their understanding of the issue? It’s distorted; they don’t understand the truth, yet blindly try to apply it. They have enteritis yet eat indiscriminately, and when they get diarrhea as a result, for them to say it’s God putting them through a trial and refining them—isn’t that a blind application of the regulations? For such an absurd person to say something such rubbish—isn’t that blasphemy against God? Would the Holy Spirit do work in such a ridiculous person? (No.) If you don’t understand the truth, you mustn’t blindly go apply regulations to things. Would God indiscriminately subject anyone to trials? Certainly not. You’re not even qualified for that; your stature isn’t there—and so, God won’t put you through trials. Someone who doesn’t know what foods will make them sick is an idiot with an unsound intellect. Can people who are unsound of rationality and intellect understand God’s intentions? Can they understand the truth? (No.) Would God put such a person through trials, then? No, He wouldn’t. That’s what it is to lack reason and speak nonsense. There are principles to God’s trying of people; they’re directed at people who love the truth and pursue it, at people whom God would use and who could bear witness for Him. He puts people of true faith who can follow Him and testify to Him through trials. No one who seeks only comfort and enjoyment and doesn’t pursue the truth at all, and certainly no one with a distorted apprehension of things, has the work of the Holy Spirit. That being so, would God put them through trials? It’s a total impossibility.

Some people have access to Chinese herbal medicines or health foods, which they frivolously partake of. Some women will often slather on their face things that protect the skin, that whiten and tauten it. They’ll spend two hours every day applying makeup and three hours removing it, and ultimately ruining their skin beyond recognition. They’ll even say, “No one can overcome the natural law of beauty fading with age—just look at this aging skin of mine!” The fact is that they wouldn’t look so old if they hadn’t kept messing with their faces—it was slathering on those very products that aged them. What do you make of that? (They brought it on themselves.) Serves them right! There’s some commonsense knowledge for living in normal humanity, and one needs to get a grasp on it, such as common knowledge about preserving one’s health and preventing illness: that cold feet are liable to cause back pain, for instance, or how one should treat early-onset farsightedness, or what the harms are of sitting too long at the computer. One should understand a bit about such commonsense care for their health. Some may say, “To believe in God, you’re only supposed to read His words. What’s the use of learning all that commonsense healthcare stuff? A man’s lifespan is determined by God; no amount of healthcare knowledge will do any good. When it’s time for you to die, no one can save you.” This seems right on the face of it, but in fact, it’s a bit absurd. It’s something someone without spiritual understanding would say. They learn to rattle off well-worn words and doctrines and seem spiritual, when in fact, they don’t have any pure comprehension at all. They blindly attempt to apply regulations when things happen to them, speaking as nicely as they can, without practicing any truth. Some people may tell them cornmeal porridge is nourishing, for instance, that it’s good for the health. That won’t get through to them. Yet as soon as they hear someone say braised pork is healthful, they’ll eat their fill of it the next time they see it, saying even as they chew, “What can I do? I need to eat this; it’s for my health!” Isn’t that a deceitful thing to say? (It is.) It’s deceit. To possess what people with normal humanity should possess, to know what people should know, to know what there is to know at the stage of life that corresponds to your age—that’s what it is to have normal humanity. Some people in their twenties eat indiscriminately. They’ll eat ice cubes on a freezing day. Their elders get scared to see that, and urge them to stop, telling them they’ll get a stomachache. “A stomachache? I’ll be fine” they say, “Look at me: I’m in peak physical condition!” They don’t know about such things at their age. Wait until they’re forty; give them an ice cube to eat then. Would they do it? (No.) And when they’re sixty, forget about eating ice—they’ll be afraid to come near it. Its chill will be too much for their body to bear. That’s called experience—learning life lessons. If someone at sixty still doesn’t know that their stomach can’t handle too many ice cubes, that their body can’t take them, that they’ll make them ill, what’s that called? Are they deficient in normal humanity? They’re deficient in lived experience. If someone who’s sixty-odd years old still doesn’t know that cold is bad for the back, that cold feet cause a sore back, then how must they have lived for those sixty-odd years? They must have just muddled through them. Some people understand a lot of commonsense things about life by the time they’re in their forties: commonsense health knowledge, for instance; and they have a few correct views regarding material things, money, and work, and regarding their relatives, and the affairs of the world, and life, and so on. They have a pure understanding of these things, and even if they don’t believe in God, they still understand these things a bit better than their juniors. These are people with a sense of right and wrong, whose thinking is normal. In the two decades they’ve lived since their twenties, they’ve understood many things, some of which come near the truth. This shows them to be people with comprehension ability, people of fine caliber. And if they’re someone who pursues the truth, their entry into the truth reality will come much faster, because they’ll have experienced much in those twenty years, and gained a few positive things. Their experiences will be consistent with the truth reality God speaks of. However, if much is lacking in that person’s humanity, and they don’t have correct views, or the thinking of normal humanity, much less the intelligence of normal humanity regarding life, and regarding the people, events, and things that come up in those twenty years, then they will have lived those years in vain. In several places I’ve been, I’ve found that some of the older sisters don’t know how to cook. They can’t even plan a balanced meal. They make soup of what should be fried, and fry what should go in a soup. Produce changes with the seasons, yet it’s always the same few dishes on their tables. What’s happening there? That’s a real lack of intelligence, no? They’re lacking the caliber of normal humanity. They can’t even cook the various foodstuffs they come across in their daily lives, things like cabbage and potato. They’re not up to the simplest tasks and can’t accomplish them. How did they muddle through the last fifty or sixty years? Could it really be that their hearts made no demands of their lives? If someone can’t derive experience from anything they do, then what duty could a person like that do well? The fact is that people can learn to do things, if they just apply themselves and train for a while. If someone still can’t do a thing after several years of study, their intellect and caliber must be awful!

Let’s now talk a bit about the management of hygiene. I recently went to two places where the surroundings of the houses were a total mess. Everything had originally been quite orderly there, so how did those places wind up becoming such “pigsties”? The reason is that the people there don’t know how to stay on top of things. They don’t have normal humanity’s consciousness of and requirements for hygiene. It’s not merely that they’re lazy; beyond that, they’ve gotten accustomed to living in such conditions. They strew trash on the ground and put things down anywhere, without rule or restriction. When they’ve cleaned a place up, they can keep it clean for just a day or two; a few days later, it’s so messy and dirty that it’s hard to look at. Tell Me, what’s an environment like that called? And the people there can eat heartily and fall asleep in such conditions—what people are those? They’re like pigs, aren’t they? They have no awareness and understand nothing of hygiene, of their environment, of structure, of management. They don’t notice it, no matter how dirty or messy it gets. It doesn’t bother them; they’re unworried and unruffled about it. They go on living as they have, unparticular and without requirements. Some places take fine care of their hygiene and environment, and you’d think the people there cared about cleanliness, that they knew to manage their surroundings—but no one knows until a surprise inspection that they’d been sending people in advance of inspections to clean the place up. If you tell them you’re coming ahead of time, the place is guaranteed to be clean; if you go without warning them, you’ll find a different environment, one that’s sure to be dirty and messy. The rooms of some of the girls have clothes and shoes strewn about, and outside, tools of trade like hoes and pickaxes are piled together with clothing. Some there may say they’ve been so busy that they haven’t had time to clean. That’s how busy they’ve been? Have they not even had time to breathe? If they haven’t, then that’s busy, alright—but surely they haven’t been that busy? What’s so hard about managing their space? What’s so taxing about maintaining a clean, tidy environment? Does this have something to do with humanity? Why would people like living in a “pigsty” so much? Why would they be at such ease in such an environment? How could they be entirely unresponsive to such surroundings? What’s going on there? What’s the cause of poorly managed environments? If I go someplace on occasion and tell them in advance, they’ll make it spick and span, but they’ll stop cleaning if I go there often. They say, “You’re here often, so we’ll dispense with the formalities. This is just how we are. It’s exhausting to be cleaning all the time! Who has the energy? We’re so busy with work all day long, we don’t even have time to brush our hair!” They give justifications like this. And what others do they give? “This is all temporary. We don’t need to get it in perfect order. It’ll do as is.” Indeed, everything is temporary—but even if you were living in a tent, you’d still have to take care of it, wouldn’t you? That’s normal humanity. If you don’t even have that bit of normal humanity, how different are you from beasts?

There’s one church in God’s house that’s quite well situated, near mountains and water. A road has been built there, and trees line the nearby river. It even has a gazebo, with ornamental rocks next to it. Really, it’s quite pretty. One day, I saw from far off some little, yellow thing there on that clean road. Coming closer, I saw that it was an orange peel. Who knows who would casually toss their garbage there. And in the gazebo, which had also been clean, someone had been eating sunflower seeds and discarding the shells all over the floor. Tell Me, was that person someone who knows rules? In normal humanity, are there required standards for one’s hygiene and environment, or are there not? Some may say, “In what way don’t I have standards? I wash my feet every evening. Some people don’t. Some people don’t even wash their face when they get up in the morning.” Your feet may be clean, alright, but why’s your work environment like a pigsty? What does that cleanliness of yours amount to? At best, it shows that you’re terribly selfish. You’d like to manage all things—how could you be master of all things, if you can’t even manage a compound? That is shameless, truly! It’s not just their environment that these people can’t manage—they can’t even manage their own hygiene, and toss litter on the ground. How did they develop this habit? They may justify tossing fruit peels on the ground by calling it compost. Why not put them in a compost heap or trash bin, then? Why toss them on the road or in that gazebo? Is a gazebo a place to keep compost? Is that not a disregard for rules? (It is.) It’s a terrible paucity of humanity, reason, and morals—they’re base people! Tell Me, is there a way to resolve this issue? How can it be stopped? Will supervision do the trick? Who could keep such an eye on things? What’s to be done? (Fine them.) Yes, that’s the last resort. A proper system must be put in place. No more impunity. These people are just so scummy—they’re incorrigible! In some places, there are rotten cardboard boxes, rotten boards, and shreds of paper strewn all over, and the people there say they’re keeping them to use later. Given that they’re useful things, why not sort them by type, in neat stacks? Wouldn’t that look nicer and take up less space? Most people don’t know about upkeep. Things are stacked and scattered haphazardly in their spaces, such that there’s no free space. The piles get messier as they grow, and with messiness comes dirt, until the place becomes a dump, repellent to all who see it. Do people who live in such environments have normal humanity? Are they people of caliber, if they can’t even stay on top of the environment they live in? What difference remains between such people and beasts? Part of the reason most people don’t know how to manage the spaces they live in is that no one has an awareness of hygiene, nor does anyone know how to manage their environment. These things don’t occur to them, and they’re unaware of what people’s living environment should be like. They’re like animals, unconscious of the sort of environment they should be living in. The other part has to do with managers not knowing how to manage these things. The managers don’t know how to manage these things, and those being managed aren’t proactive or aware of these things. In the end, with everyone’s “cooperation,” the place turns into a “pigsty.” When these people have been around a place for a while, I come away from it with a certain feeling: “Why isn’t this place ever clean? Why doesn’t it ever seem like a home?” Tell Me, could seeing a place like that lift a person’s mood? (No.) Would going there put you in a good mood? (We wouldn’t have much of a feeling about it.) That would be your true response—not much of a feeling. I laid out plans for a few of those places, and when the work was done and things had been reordered, everyone enjoyed the sight. Yet a few days later, things were a mess again. I had to find someone suitable to manage the task, if hygiene was to be maintained. That’s because most people are so unclean, making a mess in whatever job they’re doing. Some people pick vegetables and don’t know the right place to wash them. They insist on seeking out a clean place to do it, which makes that place dirty as a result. How would you feel to see that? Are these people not a herd of beasts? They’ve got no humanity! To look at these people, who care nothing for hygiene and don’t know how to manage their environment—it’d rouse you to anger! These people are given a nice environment to live in, with everything fixed up nicely. All sorts of flowers and grasses pop up in the spring; they’ve got mountains, water, a gazebo; they’ve got places to work, and places to live, and all sorts of amenities. How nice! But how did it wind up? They took it for granted; they didn’t appreciate the kindness. They thought, “This is a nicer place to be than most, but it’s more or less countryside. The ground is nothing but grasses and mud.” With that mindset, they mindlessly trashed the place. They didn’t think to manage their environment. How many things are absent from such humanity! It doesn’t possess those things that humanity should; those people can’t even keep on top of the various aspects of their living environment in the most basic ways. Tell Me, how could people not think to treasure such a nice environment that they live in? How could they not think to take care of it? Why? Is it that they are so busy with their duties that they lack the time? Or what else is going on with them? Is anyone not busy with their duties? There are some who live in worse environments than you, yet they take quite good care of their space. People see it and give them the thumbs-up, with admiration and esteem for them. And then, there’s your living environment—others don’t even need to go inside; they’d scorn you with just a look at the exterior. Is this not your own doing? Your actions and behaviors have brought about this deplorably shabby environment you live in. When people see the environment you live in, it is the same for them as seeing your essence. Can you blame them, then, for scorning you? Whether a person is high or lowly, noble or base, isn’t decided by others’ assessments, but by what they themselves live out. If you possess the things of normal humanity, you’re able to live out true human likeness. You’ll be able to demonstrate your noble quality, and others will naturally value and esteem you. If you don’t possess those things, and you don’t understand commonsense hygiene, and you don’t know how to take care of your environment, living all your days in a “pigsty” and feeling quite pleased about it, that reveals your beastly quality. It means you’re base and lowly. Such a base and lowly person, with such base and lowly humanity, without a shred of the thinking, views, requirements, and pursuit that normal humanity ought to have—without any of those, can such a person understand the truth? Can they enter the truth reality? (No.) You also think they can’t? Why not? Some will say, “We’ve long since rid ourselves of all those worldly things in our years of believing in God. We don’t care about that stuff! ‘Living a life of quality’—that’s a worldly thing!” Are there not those who say this? Is the air you breathe a worldly thing, then? The clothes you wear, all the material things you use—are those worldly things? Why don’t you find any old place out in the open to gather in? Why gather in a room? Aren’t people who say this absurd? I’ll tell you a fact: If such a person wants to enter the truth reality, that will be hard for them. If a person wishes to enter the truth reality, they must first possess normal humanity; beyond that, they must cast off those bad habits in their life, to pursue something of a style and aim in life that has quality, manners, and morality. Is this an apt way to put it? Well then, are these problems easy to put right? How long does it take to change one’s lifestyle and shed a poor habit in one’s life? What method must be used to enter this as quickly as possible? What methods are there, outside of punishment? (Mutual supervision.) Mutual supervision is one method; it comes down to whether people accept it. As I see it, levying fines is a powerful move, and truly an effective one. As soon as you touch on cash fines, you’re touching on people’s interests. They have no choice but to comply, for fear that their interests might suffer. That’s what’s achieved by levying fines. But why isn’t anything achieved by fellowshipping on the truth with those people? Because they don’t have normal humanity or the requisite conditions for accepting the truth. That’s why fellowshipping the truth is an ineffective method with them. In any work environment at all, learn first to sort things by type, second to maintain tidiness, third to maintain hygiene and cleanliness, and then, on top of that, to cultivate the habit of cleaning out trash. That is what normal humanity should possess.

There are some women who comb their hair and go out, without first sweeping up the fallen strands. They do this every day. Can such a habit be changed? When you’re done combing your hair, you must clean and tidy up at once. Don’t leave others to clean it up—manage your own environment well yourself. If you wish to manage your environment well, you must begin with yourself. Clean up your own space first. Apart from that, one must be civic-minded about the public environments they inhabit. Responsibility should fall to everyone to manage the spaces where people live and rest, for instance. If you see a few shreds of an orange peel on the ground, just pick them up and toss them in the trash. In some worksites, there are wood chips, wood shavings, iron bars, and nails all over the place when the work is done. Go there, and you could easily step on a nail if you’re not careful. It’s terribly unsafe. Why wouldn’t they clean up and make things hygienic once they’ve done their job? What sort of nasty habit is that? By doing this are they able to explain themselves? What would people think, to see such a messy, dirty workplace? Is that not the way beasts do their jobs? People with humanity must clean things up nicely when they’re done with a job, and others will know at a glance that the job was done by humans. Beasts don’t clean up after they’ve done a job, as if cleaning up didn’t fall to them and had nothing to do with them. What sort of logic is that? I’ve seen more than a few people who don’t clean up after they do a job. They all have this bad habit. I’ve told them that every day, when their jobs are done, they must arrange for someone to clean up all the trash. Clean up every day. That way, the site will be clean. They must cultivate a habit like that. To cultivate a life habit, one must begin by maintaining an environment, then wait to grow accustomed to it. Then one day, when that environment changes, they themselves will feel ill at ease to see that something is unclean. It’s just as with some people who’ve lived abroad for three or five years, who think everything’s better over there. The day comes when they return to their hometown, and they feel that they’ve suddenly become fancy. They look with scorn on others who aren’t concerned with hygiene, on people whose houses are unclean. They can’t even stand going a few days without a shower. Wasn’t it their environment that dictated this? That’s how it works. So, you must begin by managing your personal hygiene and your environment. That’s the way to feel comfortable doing your duty; it’s also what people with normal humanity should possess. In several places I’ve been, I’ve seen girls’ rooms that are total messes, in disarray. Some may say, “You want us to be tidy; should it be like in a boot camp?” There’s no need for all that. Make your bed and clean your room every day. Maintain cleanliness. Make a habit of it. If you do these things every day, and they become a habit, a norm, and as automatic as eating, then you’ll have cultivated this sort of daily life habit, and your requirements for your surroundings will have gone up a notch. And when they’ve gone up that notch, your whole bearing, your mental outlook, your taste, your humanity, and your dignity will all be raised. But if you live in a “pigsty,” a place that’s not for humans, but is more like the lair of a beast, you don’t possess human likeness. On entering a room, for instance, some people, seeing that the room and its floor are clean, will scuff the dirt off their shoes for a while outside. They’ll still feel unclean, so they’ll go on to take their shoes off before entering the room. When the owner of the room sees how clean and respectful they are of him, he’ll respect them, too. Other people will go ahead in, with mud-caked shoes, and think nothing of it to get mud on the floor. They’re completely insensate to it. The owner of the room sees that they’re inherently heedless of rules. He views them badly, and so, he scorns them, and won’t let them into the room in the future. He’ll make them wait outside, and here’s what that will imply: “You don’t deserve to come inside—you’d spoil the place if you did, and what a long time I’d have to spend cleaning it up!” He won’t respect them. When he sees that they do not possess human likeness, he won’t even respect them. If someone gets to this point in their life, are they even still human? A pet animal is a better thing than them. So, people must live out human likeness in order to be called human, and they must possess normal humanity in order to live out human likeness. Wherever someone lives, whatever duty they do, they must abide by the rules. They must take care of their space and hygiene, and have a sense of responsibility, and have good life habits. They must be attentive and serious in all they do, and keep it up until they’ve done the thing well and up to standard. In this way, people will see in your performance of your duty and the way you deal with people and things that you’re upright and decent, a good person. They’ll feel admiration for you, and they’ll naturally come to respect you. They’ll esteem and value you, too, and so they won’t fool you or bully you. They’ll speak to you in a serious manner, without any mockery or contempt. I don’t know how people perceive My appearance, but I do have a feeling: When I encounter most people, they don’t make jokes or speak frivolously. I don’t know why that is. It may be that people get a feeling: “You’re just such a serious person, and You’re serious in Your speech and Your actions, too. You’re an upright person; I wouldn’t dare crack a joke when interacting with You. It’s clear at first sight that You’re not that sort of person.” If, when you go to a place and talk with people, chat with people, interact with people, they feel that there’s something there in your humanity and morality—they may not be able to say clearly what it is, but you’ll know what it is you think of each day, and you’ll always have principles and standards for how you view things and engage with people—if that’s how you engage and interact with others, then they’ll say you’re so prudent, so serious and prudent in all you do, meaning that you’re so principled. What feeling will this ultimately inspire in them? Mull that over slowly. If you’re equipped in your comportment with the things those with normal humanity ought to have, it doesn’t matter how people may assess you behind your back. If they feel, in the pit of their heart, that you’re an upright, prudent person, someone with a serious, responsible attitude toward all things, who’s noble of virtue, then after engaging and interacting with you for a while, they’ll come to approve of you and esteem you. And then, you’ll be worth something as a person. If, after engaging with you for a while, they see that you don’t do anything well, that you’re lazy and greedy, unwilling to learn anything, that your standards exceed your capabilities, that you’re quite avaricious and selfish—and more, that you’re unconcerned with hygiene, and don’t think to take care of your environment; if they see that you don’t know the ropes in anything you do, that you’re of quite a poor caliber, and that you’re unworthy of credit, unable to do any task you’re given well—then you’ll be of no account at all to people, and invalidated as a person. To be of no account at all to others is no big deal, all told—what matters is that if you’re likewise base, low, and worthless in God’s heart, like a beast, without heart or spirit, then you’re in trouble. You’re still so far from being saved! For any person whose character isn’t up to standard, whose speech and actions are entirely unregulated, who’s like a beast, is there hope of being saved? They’re in danger, as I see it. Sooner or later, they’ll be eliminated.