We said just now that the saying “Execution does nothing but make heads roll; be lenient wherever possible” is a requirement placed on humankind’s moral conduct. We have also dissected some of the problems with this saying and some of the effects it has had on humankind. It has introduced some unhealthy ideas and views to humankind, and has had some negative effects on people’s pursuits and survival, which people should be aware of. So, how should believers understand problems to do with magnanimity and broad-mindedness in humanity? How can one understand them from the viewpoint of God in a correct and positive way? Shouldn’t this also be understood? (Yes.) It’s actually not difficult to understand these things. You don’t need to guess, nor to research any information. Simply by learning from the things God has said and the work He has done among people, and from God’s disposition as shown in the different ways that He treats all kinds of people, we can know exactly what God’s opinion is on these sayings and views of traditional culture, and what exactly His intentions are. By looking at God’s intentions and views, people should have a path upon which to pursue the truth. The saying “Execution does nothing but make heads roll” which people adhere to means that when a person’s head is chopped off and falls to the ground, that is the end of the matter and it should not be pursued further. Is this not a viewpoint of sorts? Is this not a viewpoint commonly held among people? It means that once a person comes to the end of their physical life, that life is over and finished with. All the bad things that person has done in their life, and all the love, hatred, passion and enmity they have experienced, are declared finished right then, and that life is considered over. People believe this, but from looking at God’s words and all the various signs of God’s actions, is this the principle of God’s actions? (No.) So, what is the principle of God’s actions? On what basis does God do such things? Some people say that God does such things based on His administrative decrees, which is correct, but it is not the complete picture. On the one hand, it is according to His administrative decrees, but on the other hand, He treats people of all kinds based on His disposition and essence—this is the complete picture. In God’s eyes, if a person is killed and their head falls to the ground, does this person’s life come to an end? (No.) So, in what way does God end a person’s life? Is this the way that God deals with a person? (No.) God’s way of dealing with any person is not just to kill them by chopping off their head and have done with it. There is a beginning and an end, a coherency and a steadfastness to how God deals with humankind. From the time when a soul is reincarnated as a human being, to when the soul returns to the spiritual world after the end of the person’s physical life, whatever course it follows, whether in the spiritual world or in the material world, it must be subject to God’s handling. In the end, whether it is rewarded or punished depends on God’s administrative decrees, and there are heavenly rules. This means that how God treats a person depends on the whole life’s destiny that He has ordained for each person. After a person’s destiny ends, they are subject to handling based on God’s ordained law and heavenly rules of punishing evil and rewarding good. If this person has done substantial evil in the world, then they must undergo substantial punishment; if this person has not done much evil and has even done some good deeds, then they should be rewarded. Whether they can continue being reincarnated and whether they are reborn as a human or an animal depends on their performance in this life. Why am I fellowshiping about these things? Because appended to the saying “Execution does nothing but make heads roll,” there is another phrase, “be lenient wherever possible.” God has no such ways of speaking or doing things that make an unprincipled attempt to smooth things over. God’s actions are revealed in the way He deals with any created being from beginning to end, all of which enables people to plainly see that it is God who holds sovereignty over the destiny of humans, orchestrating and arranging it, and then punishing evil and rewarding good according to a person’s behavior, inflicting punishment where it is due. According to what God has stipulated, a person should be punished for however many years and however many reincarnations, depending on however many evils they have committed, and the spiritual world implements this according to established rules, without the slightest deviation. No one can change it, and anyone who does so violates the heavenly rules ordained by God, and will be punished without exception. In God’s eyes, these heavenly rules cannot be violated. What does this mean? It means that any person, no matter what evil they have done or which heavenly rules and regulations they have violated, will ultimately be handled without compromise. Unlike the laws of the world—where there are suspended sentences, or someone can intercede, or the judge can follow their own inclinations and exercise kindness by being lenient wherever possible, so that the person will not be convicted of the crime and will not be punished accordingly—this is not the way things work in the spiritual world. God will treat the past and present lives of every created being strictly according to the laws He established, that is to say, the rules of heaven. It doesn’t matter how serious or insignificant a person’s transgressions are, or how great or insignificant their good deeds are, nor does it matter how long the person’s transgressions or good deeds have been going on for, or how long ago they happened. None of this changes the way that the Lord of creation treats the humans He has created. That is to say, the heavenly rules made by God will never change. This is the principle behind God’s actions and the way that He does things. Ever since human beings came into existence and God began to work among them, the administrative decrees made by Him, that is, the rules of heaven, have not changed. Therefore, God will ultimately have ways of dealing with humankind’s transgressions, good deeds, and all kinds of evil deeds. Any and all created beings must pay the due price for their actions and behavior. However, each created being is punished by God because of their disobedience to God, the evil deeds they have done, and the transgressions they have left behind, rather than because God has become hateful toward people. God is not a member of the human race. God is God, the Lord of creation. Any and all created beings are punished not because the Lord of creation hates people, but because they have violated the heavenly rules, regulations, laws, and commandments established by God, and this fact cannot be changed by anyone. From this point of view, in God’s eyes there is never any such thing as “being lenient wherever possible.” You may not quite fully understand what I am saying, but in any case, the ultimate aim is to let you know that God has no hatred, but only the rules of heaven, administrative decrees, laws, His disposition, and His wrath and majesty which tolerate no offense. Therefore, in God’s eyes there is no such thing as “being lenient wherever possible.” You should not measure God by the requirement to be lenient wherever possible, nor hold God up for scrutiny against this requirement. What does “hold God up for scrutiny” mean? It means that sometimes when God shows people mercy and tolerance, some will say, “Look, God is good, God loves people, He is lenient wherever possible, He is truly tolerant of human beings, God has the broadest mind, it is much broader than the minds of human beings, and even bigger than that of prime ministers!” Is it right to say that? (No.) If you praise God in this way, is it an appropriate thing to say? (No, it’s inappropriate.) This manner of speaking is wrong and cannot be applied to God. Humans endeavor to be lenient wherever possible in order to show their generosity and tolerance, and to flaunt that they are a tolerant and magnanimous person, and a person of noble virtue. As for God, there is mercy and tolerance in God’s essence. Mercy and tolerance are God’s essence. But God’s essence is not the same as the magnanimity and tolerance that human beings show by being lenient wherever possible. These are two different things. In being lenient wherever possible, the aim of humans is to get people to say nice things about them, that they have generosity and grace, and that they are a good person. In addition, it is also due to social pressures, for survival. People only show a little generosity and a little broad-mindedness toward others in order to achieve an aim, not to adhere to or abide by criteria of conscience, but to make people look up to and worship them, or because it is part of some ulterior motive or trickery. There is no purity in their actions. So, does God do things such as being lenient wherever possible? God doesn’t do such things. Some people say, “Doesn’t God also show leniency to people? So when He does that, is He not being lenient wherever possible?” No, there is a difference here that people should understand. What is it that people should understand? It is that when people apply the saying “be lenient wherever possible,” they do it without principles. They do it because they are succumbing to social pressures and public opinion, and to pretend that they are good people. With these impure aims and while wearing a mask of hypocrisy to flaunt themselves as good people, people do this reluctantly. Or perhaps they are compelled by circumstances, and want to take revenge but cannot, and in this situation where there is no other choice, they reluctantly abide by this tenet. It does not come from an outpouring of their inner essence. The people who can do this are not truly good people, or people who truly love positive things. So what is the difference between God being tolerant and merciful to people, and people who put the saying “be lenient wherever possible” into practice? Tell Me what differences there are. (There are principles to what God does. For example, the people of Nineveh received God’s tolerance after they truly repented. From this, we can see that there are principles to God’s actions, and we can also see that in God’s essence there are mercy and tolerance toward people.) Well said. There are two main differences here. The point you mentioned just now is crucial, which is that there are principles to what God does. There is a clear boundary and scope for everything that God does, and this boundary and scope are things that people can understand. The fact is that there are certain principles to everything God does. For example, God showed leniency to the people of Nineveh for their transgressions. When the people of Nineveh let go of their evil and truly repented, God forgave them and promised not to further destroy the city. This was the principle behind God’s actions. What can this principle be understood as here? It was the bottom line. According to humans’ understanding and way of speaking, it can be said that this was God’s bottom line. As long as the people of Nineveh relinquished the evil in their hands and stopped living in sin and renouncing God as they once did, and were able to truly repent to God, this true repentance was the bottom line that God gave to them. If they could achieve true repentance, then God would be lenient with them. If, on the contrary, they failed to achieve true repentance, would God have reconsidered? Would God’s previous decision and plan to destroy this city have changed? (No.) God gave them two choices: The first was to continue with their evil ways and face destruction, in which case the whole city would be obliterated; the second was to let go of their evil, truly repent to Him in sackcloth and ashes, and confess their sins to Him from the bottom of their hearts, in which case He would be lenient with them, and regardless of what evil they had done before, or how severe the extent of their evildoing, He would make up His mind not to destroy the city because of their repentance. God gave them two choices, and instead of going with the first, they chose the second—to truly repent to God in sackcloth and ashes. What was the final result? They managed to get God to change His mind, that is, to reconsider, change His plans, show them leniency, and refrain from destroying the city. Isn’t this the principle by which God works? (Yes.) This is the principle by which God works. In addition, there is another crucial point, which is that in God’s essence there is love and mercy, but of course there is also intolerance of man’s offenses, and wrath. In the case of the destruction of Nineveh, both these aspects of God’s essence were revealed. When God saw the evil deeds of these people, the essence of God’s wrath manifested itself and was revealed. Is there a principle to God’s anger? (Yes.) Put simply, this principle is that there is a basis for God’s anger. It is not getting angry or enraged indiscriminately, much less is it a kind of feeling. Rather, it is a disposition that arises and is naturally revealed within a certain context. God’s wrath and majesty tolerate no offense. In human language, this means that God became angry and enraged when He saw the evil deeds of the Ninevites. To be precise, God was angry because He has a side that is intolerant of people’s offenses, so having seen people’s evil deeds and the occurrence and emergence of negative things, God will naturally reveal His wrath. So, if God’s wrath was revealed, would He immediately destroy the city? (No.) This is how you can see that there are principles to what God does. It is not the case that once God is angry, He will say, “I have the authority, I will destroy you! No matter what your predicament, I won’t give you a chance!” That’s not how it is. What things did God do? God did a series of things. How should people interpret them? The series of things that God did are all based on God’s disposition. They did not arise purely on the basis of His wrath. That is to say, God’s wrath is not impetuousness. It is not like the impetuousness of humans, who impulsively say, “I have the power, I will kill you, I will fix you,” or as the great red dragon says, “If I catch you, I will do you in, and beat you to death without consequence.” This is the way that Satan and devils do things. Impetuousness comes from Satan and devils. There is no impetuousness in the wrath of God. In what way does His lack of impetuousness manifest itself? When God saw how corrupted the Ninevites were, He became angry and enraged. But after getting angry, He did not destroy them without saying a word due to the existence of the essence of His wrath. Instead, He sent Jonah to inform the people of Nineveh what He was about to do next, telling them what He was going to do and why, so that they would be clear and to give them a glimmer of hope. This fact tells humankind that God’s wrath is revealed due to the appearance of negative and evil things, but that God’s wrath is different from the impetuousness of humankind, and different from human feelings. Some people say, “God’s wrath is different from human impetuousness and feelings. Is God’s wrath controllable?” No, controllable isn’t the right word to use here, it’s not appropriate to say this. To be precise, there are principles to God’s wrath. In His wrath, God did a series of things which further proves that there are truths and principles to His actions, and at the same time also informs humankind that besides His wrath, God also has mercy and love. When God’s mercy and love are invested in humankind, what benefits does humankind receive? That is to say, if people confess their sins and repent in the manner taught by God, they can gain a chance of life from God, and the hope and possibility of survival. This means that people can continue to live with God’s permission, on the proviso that they have truly confessed and truly repented, then they will be able to receive the promise that God gives them. Are there not principles to this whole series of statements? You see, behind everything and every kind of work that God does there is, using human language, a rationale and a fastidiousness, or, using God’s words, there are truths and principles. It is different from humankind’s way of doing things, and less still is it adulterated with the impetuousness of humankind. Some people say, “God’s disposition is calm and not impulsive!” Is this the case? No, it cannot be said that God’s disposition is calm, composed, and not impulsive—this is humankind’s way of measuring and describing it. There are truths and principles to what God does. No matter what He does, there is a basis to it, and this basis is the truth and is God’s disposition.

In dealing with the people of Nineveh, God did a series of things. First, He sent Jonah to tell the people of Nineveh, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4). Is forty days a long time? It is exactly one month and ten days, which is a pretty long time, enough for people to think and reflect for a while and achieve true repentance. If it had been four hours, or four days, that wouldn’t have been enough time to repent. But God gave forty days, which was a mighty long time and more than enough. How big can a city be? Jonah circulated through the city from one end to the other and informed everyone within just a few days, so that every citizen and every household got the message. Those forty days were more than ample to prepare sackcloth or ashes, and make any other preparations that were necessary. What do you see from these things? God gave the people of Nineveh sufficient time to let them know that He was about to destroy their city, and to let them prepare, reflect, and examine themselves. In human language, God did all that He could and ought to have done. That forty-day period was enough, insofar as it gave everyone—from the king down to the ordinary people—enough time to reflect and prepare. On the one hand, from this it can be seen that what God does for people is to show tolerance, and on the other hand, it can be seen that God cares about people in His heart and has true love for them. God’s mercy and love do indeed exist, without any pretense, and His heart is faithful, without any pretense. In order to give people the opportunity to repent, He gave them forty days. Those forty days encapsulated God’s tolerance and love. Those forty days were long enough to prove and fully enable people to see that God has genuine concern and love for people, and that God’s mercy and love do indeed exist, without any pretense. Some will say, “Didn’t You previously say that God doesn’t love people, that He hates people? Isn’t that a contradiction with what You said just now?” Is it a contradiction? (No, it isn’t.) God cares about people in His heart, He has the essence of love. Is this different to saying that God loves people? (Yes.) How is it different? Does God actually love people or hate people? (He loves people.) Why then does God still curse and chastise and judge people? If something so important is not clear to you, you must have misunderstood it. Is this a contradiction between you and God? If this is something you are not clear about, isn’t a gulf likely to arise between you and God? Tell Me, if God loves people, does God also hate people? Does God’s love for people have a bearing on His hatred for people? Does God’s hatred of people have a bearing on His love for people? (No, it doesn’t.) So why is it that God loves people? God became flesh to save people—is this not His greatest love? How pitiful it is if you do not know that! If you don’t even know why it is that God loves people, then that is ridiculous. Tell Me, where does a mother’s love for her child come from? (Instinct.) That’s right. Maternal love comes from instinct. So is this love based on whether the child is good or wicked? (No, it isn’t.) For example, even if the child is very naughty and sometimes drives his mother up the wall, she still loves him at the end of the day. Why is that? This way in which she treats her child comes from the instinct of her role as a mother. Because of this instinctive maternal love that she has, her love for the child is not based on whether the child is good or wicked. Some people say, “Since a mother instinctively loves her child, why does she still smack him? Why does she still hate him? Why does she still sometimes get angry and scold him? And why does she sometimes get so mad that she wants to have nothing more to do with him? Did You not say that a mother has love, and that she loves her child? So how could she be so heartless?” Is this a contradiction? No, it is not a contradiction. How a mother treats her child depends on the child’s attitude toward the mother and on the child’s behavior. But no matter how she treats her child, even if she smacks him and hates him, this has no bearing on the existence of her maternal love. Likewise, what does God’s love for people come from? (God has the essence of love.) That’s right. You’ve finally made it clear. The crux here is that God has the essence of love. The reason why God loves and cares about people is that on the one hand, God has the essence of love. Within this love there is mercy, lovingkindness, tolerance, and patience. Of course, there are also manifestations of concern, and sometimes worry and sadness, and so on. All this is determined by the essence of God. This is looking at it from a subjective point of view. From an objective point of view, human beings are created by God, just like a child is born of his mother, and the mother naturally cares about him and there are inseverable blood ties between them. Although human beings and God do not have these blood ties, as humans put it, human beings are nevertheless created by God, and He cares about them and feels affection for them. God wants human beings to be good and to walk the right path, but seeing them corrupted by Satan, walking the path of evil, and suffering makes God sad and anguished. This is normal, is it not? God has these reactions, feelings, and manifestations, all of which arise because of God’s essence, and which are inseparable from the relationship formed by God’s creation of man. These are all objective facts. Some people say: “Since God’s essence has love, why does God still hate people? Doesn’t God care about people? How come He still hates them?” There is also an objective fact here, which is that people’s disposition, essence, and other aspects are incompatible with God and the truth, so that what people manifest and reveal before God disgusts Him and is detestable to Him. As time goes on, people’s corrupt dispositions become more and more serious, their sins become more and more serious, and they are also extremely intransigent, steadfastly unrepentant, and do not accept the slightest bit of truth. They are entirely at odds with God, hence His hatred is stirred. So, where does God’s hatred come from? Why does it come about? It comes about because God’s disposition is righteous and holy, and God’s loathing is stirred by His essence. God abhors evil, detests negative things, and loathes evil forces and evil things. Therefore, God loathes this corrupt human race. So, the love and hatred that God reveals for created beings are normal and determined by His essence. There is no contradiction at all. Some people ask, “So does God actually love or hate people?” How would you answer that? (It depends on people’s attitude toward God, or whether people have truly repented.) This is basically true, but not quite accurate. Why isn’t it accurate? Do you think that God must necessarily love people? (No.) God’s words to humankind and all the work He does in people are the natural manifestations of God’s disposition and essence. God has His principles, He doesn’t necessarily have to love people, but He doesn’t necessarily have to hate people either. What God asks of people is to pursue the truth, follow His way, and comport themselves and act according to His words. God doesn’t necessarily have to love people, but He doesn’t necessarily have to hate people either. This is a fact, and people have to understand it. Just now you said that God loves or hates people based on their behavior. Why is it inaccurate to say this? God doesn’t necessarily have to love you, nor does He absolutely have to hate you. God may even ignore you. Whether you pursue the truth and comport yourself and act according to God’s words, or whether you do not accept the truth and even disobey and resist God, in the end He will recompense every person according to what they have done. Those who do good will be rewarded, whereas those who do evil will be punished. This is called dealing with matters fairly and equitably. That is to say, as a created being, you have no grounds to demand how God should treat you. When you treat God and the truth with longing, and pursue the truth, you think that He must love you, but if God ignores you and does not love you, you feel that He is not God. Or when you disobey God, and you think that He must hate you and punish you, but if He ignores you, you feel that He is not God. Is it right to think this way? (No, it is not right.) Relationships between people, such as the relationship between parents and their children, can be evaluated this way—that is to say, the love or hatred of parents for their children is sometimes based on the children’s behavior—but the relationship between human beings and God cannot be evaluated this way. The relationship between human beings and God is that between creature and Creator, and there are no blood ties whatsoever. It is solely a relationship between creature and Creator. Therefore, human beings cannot demand that God loves them, or declares where He stands with them. These are unreasonable demands. This kind of view is wrong and incorrect; people cannot make such demands. So looking at it now, do humans actually have an accurate understanding of God’s love? Their previous understanding was inaccurate, was it not? (Yes.) There are principles to whether God loves or hates people. If humans’ behavior or pursuit accords with the truth and is to God’s liking, then He approves of it. However, people have corrupt essences and can reveal corrupt dispositions and pursue ideals and desires that they think are right or that they like. That is something that God hates and does not approve of. But contrary to what people think—which is that God will shower people with rewards whenever He approves of them, or discipline and punish people whenever He doesn’t approve—this is not the case. There are principles to God’s actions. This speaks of the essence of God, and people must understand it in this way.

I raised a question just now and fellowshiped on the principles of God’s actions and on God’s essence. What was the question I just asked? (God just asked about the difference between His tolerance and mercy for people and the human practice of being lenient wherever possible. Afterward, You fellowshiped that God does not act according to this philosophy for living. God deals with people’s transgressions mainly based on two aspects: On the one hand, there are principles to what God does, and on the other hand, in God’s essence there is both mercy and wrath.) That is indeed the correct way to understand it. God’s principles for doing things this way are based on His essence and His disposition, and have nothing whatsoever to do with being lenient wherever possible, which is a philosophy for living that humankind follows. People’s actions are based on satanic philosophies, and are governed by satanic dispositions. God’s actions are the manifestation of His disposition and essence. In God’s essence, there is love, mercy, and of course hatred. So now do you understand what God’s attitude is toward humans’ evil deeds and their various forms of disobedience and betrayal? What is the basis of God’s attitude? Is it produced by His essence? (Yes.) In God’s essence there is mercy, love, and wrath. God’s essence is righteousness, and it’s from this essence that the principles of God’s actions come about. So what exactly are the principles of God’s actions? Bestow mercy abundantly and vent wrath deeply. This has absolutely nothing to do with being lenient wherever possible, which is practiced among human beings and has the appearance of being a very noble tenet, but in God’s eyes it is not worth mentioning. As a believer, on the one hand, you cannot judge God’s essence, deeds, and the principles of His actions based on this tenet. In addition, from their own perspective, people should not adhere to this philosophy for living; they should have a principle for how to make choices when things befall them and how to deal with these things. What is this principle? People do not possess the essence of God, and of course they cannot do everything with clear principles like God does, or stand on high and dole out opportunities and be lenient with all and sundry. People cannot do this. What then should you do when you encounter things that disturb you, hurt you, or insult your dignity, character, or even hurt your heart and soul? If you adhere to the saying about moral conduct, “be lenient wherever possible,” then you try to smooth things over without regard to principles, and be a people-pleaser, and you feel that it’s not easy to get by in this world, and that you can’t make enemies and must try to offend people less or not at all, and be lenient wherever possible, sit on the fence at every opportunity, take the middle road, not put yourself in any dangerous situations, and learn to protect yourself. Is this not a philosophy for living? (Yes.) This is a philosophy for living, rather than a principle that God teaches to humankind. So, what is the principle that God teaches people? How is the pursuit of truth defined? To view people and things, and to comport oneself and act, wholly according to God’s words, with the truth as one’s criterion. If something happened that aroused your hatred, how would you view it? On what basis would you view it? (Based on God’s words.) That’s right. If you don’t know how to view these things according to God’s words, then you can only be lenient wherever possible, suppress your indignation, make concessions and bide your time while seeking opportunities to retaliate—this is the path you would take. If you want to pursue the truth, you must view people and things according to God’s words, asking yourself: “Why is this person treating me like this? How can this happen to me? Why can there be such an outcome?” Such things should be viewed according to God’s words. The first thing to do is to be able to accept this matter from God, and actively accept that it comes from God, and that it is something helpful and beneficial to you. To accept this matter from God, you must first regard it as being orchestrated and governed by God. Everything that happens under the sun, all that you can feel, all that you can see, all that you can hear—everything happens with God’s permission. After you accept this matter from God, measure it against God’s words, and find out what kind of person whoever did this thing is and what the essence of the matter is, irrespective of whether what they said or did hurt you, whether your feelings have been dealt a blow or whether your character has been trampled on. First look at whether the person is a wicked person or an ordinary corrupt person, first discerning them for what they are according to God’s words, and then discerning and treating this matter according to God’s words. Are these not the right steps to take? (Yes.) First accept this matter from God, and view the people involved in this matter according to His words, to determine whether they are ordinary brothers and sisters, wicked people, antichrists, nonbelievers, evil spirits, filthy demons, or spies from the great red dragon, and whether what they did was a general display of corruption, or an evil deed that was deliberately intended to disturb and disrupt. All of this should be determined by comparing it against God’s words. Measuring things by God’s words is the most accurate and objective way. People should be differentiated and matters dealt with according to God’s words. You should ponder: “This incident has greatly hurt my feelings and left a shadow over me. But what has the occurrence of this incident done to edify me for my life entry? What is God’s will?” This leads you to the crux of the matter, which you should figure out and understand—this is following the right path. You must seek God’s will, by thinking: “This incident has traumatized my heart and soul. I feel anguish and pain, but I cannot be negative and reproachful. The most important thing is to discern, differentiate, and decide whether this incident is actually beneficial to me or not, according to God’s words. If it comes from God’s disciplining, and is beneficial for my life entry and my self-understanding, then I should accept and submit to it; if it is temptation from Satan, then I should pray to God and treat it wisely.” Is seeking and thinking like this positive entry? Is this viewing people and things according to God’s words? (Yes.) Next, whatever matter you are dealing with, or whatever problems arise in your associations with people, you should look for the relevant words of God in order to solve them. What is the purpose of this whole series of actions? The purpose is to view people and things according to God’s words, so that your perspective and standpoint with regard to people and things will be completely different. The purpose is not to gain a good reputation and save face to be highly regarded, or to bring about harmony in the country and society and thereby satisfy the ruling class, but to live by God’s words and the truth, so as to satisfy God and glorify the Creator. Only by practicing in this way can you be entirely in accordance with God’s will. Therefore, you don’t need to follow the sayings about moral conduct in traditional culture. You don’t need to ponder, “When such a matter befalls me, shouldn’t I be putting into practice the saying, ‘Execution does nothing but make heads roll; be lenient wherever possible’? If I can’t do that, what will public opinion think of me?” You don’t need to use these moral tenets to constrain and control yourself. Instead, you should adopt the perspective of someone who pursues the truth, and treat people and things according to the way that God tells you to pursue the truth. Is this not an entirely new mode of existence? Is this not a wholly new life view and life goal? (Yes.) When you adopt this way of viewing people and things, you don’t need to deliberately tell yourself, “I must do this-or-that if I want to be magnanimous and gain a footing among people,” you needn’t be so hard on yourself, you needn’t live contrary to your own will, and your humanity needn’t be so distorted. Instead, you will accept these environments, people, matters and things that come from God naturally and willingly. Not only that, but you can also reap unforeseen gains from them. In dealing with such things that arouse your hate, you will have learned to discern people for what they really are according to God’s words, and to discern and deal with such things according to God’s words. After undergoing a period of experience, encounters, and struggle, you will have found the truth principles for dealing with such things, and learned what kind of truth principles to use when dealing with such people, matters and things. Is this not following the right path? In this way, your humanity will have been improved because you follow the path of pursuing the truth, that is, you no longer simply live by your human conscience and reason, and when things happen, you don’t view them solely with thinking and viewpoints based on conscience and reason, but rather, because you have read many of God’s words and actually experienced God’s work, you have understood some truths, and gained some real understanding of God—the Creator. This is certainly a bountiful harvest, from which you will have gained both truth and life. Based on your conscience and reason, you will have learned to use God’s words and the truth to confront and resolve all the problems you encounter, and gradually come to live by God’s words. What are such human beings like? Are they in accordance with God’s will? Such human beings are increasingly closer to becoming the qualified created beings required by God, and in doing so are gradually able to achieve the expected results of God’s work of salvation. When people can accept the truth and live by God’s words, how easy it is to live like this, without the slightest anguish whatsoever. But as for people who have received a traditional cultural education, everything they do is so contrary to their will, so hypocritical, and the things revealed by their humanity are so distorted and abnormal. Why is this? Because they don’t say what they are thinking. Their lips say, “Be lenient wherever possible,” but their heart says, “I’m not done with you. It is never too late for a gentleman to take his revenge”—is this not contrary to their own will? (Yes.) What does “distorted” mean? It means that outwardly they talk of nothing but benevolence and morality, but behind others’ backs they do all manner of bad things, such as fornication and looting. All this outward talk of benevolence and morality is just a mask and their heart is full of all kinds of evil, all manner of odious ideas and viewpoints; it is incomparably filthy, exceedingly despicable, low-minded, and shameful. This is what distorted means. In modern language, distortion is called perversion. They are all so perverted, but still pretend to be utterly decent, sophisticated, gentlemanly, and honorable in front of others. They really have no shame, they are so evil! The path that God has pointed out to people is not to make you live like this, but to enable you to follow the correct principles and path of practice that God has pointed out to people in whatever you do, whether before God or other people. Even if you encounter things that harm your interests or that are not to your liking, or that even have a lifelong impact on you, you must have principles in dealing with these matters. For example, you must treat real brothers and sisters with love, and learn to be tolerant, helpful, and supportive toward them. So, what should you do with enemies of God, antichrists, wicked people and nonbelievers, or agents and spies who infiltrate the church? You should reject them once and for all. The process is one of identifying and exposing, feeling hatred, and finally rejecting. God’s house has administrative decrees and regulations. When it comes to antichrists, wicked people, nonbelievers and those who are of the same ilk as devils, Satan, and evil spirits, they are not willing to render service, so cut them off from God’s house forever. How then should God’s chosen people treat them? (Reject them.) That’s right, you should reject them, reject them forever. Some people say: “Rejection is just a word. Assuming you theoretically reject them, how do you then actually go about doing it in real life?” Is it okay to be irreconcilably opposed to them? There is no need to tire yourself unnecessarily like that. You don’t need to be irreconcilably opposed to them, you don’t need to fight them to the death, and you don’t need to curse them behind their back. You don’t need to do any of these things. Just disassociate yourself from them deep in your heart, and don’t have dealings with them under normal circumstances. In special circumstances and when you have no alternative, you can talk normally with them, but then steer clear of them at the first opportunity, and don’t get involved in any of their affairs. It means rejecting them from the bottom of your heart, not treating them as brothers and sisters or God’s family members, and not treating them as believers. For those who hate God and the truth, who intentionally disturb and disrupt God’s work, or who try to destroy God’s work, you must not only pray to God to curse them, but also bind and restrain them forever, and reject them once and for all. Is doing this in accordance with God’s will? It is completely in accordance with God’s will. To deal with these people, it is necessary to take a stand and have principles. What does taking a stand and having principles mean? It means seeing their essence clearly, never regarding them as believers, and absolutely not regarding them as brothers or sisters. They are devils, they are Satan. It is not a question of forgiving them or not forgiving them, but of disassociating yourself and rejecting them once and for all. This is completely justified and in accordance with the truth. Some people say, “Isn’t it so ruthless for people who believe in God to do things like this?” (No.) This is what taking a stand and having principles means. We do whatever God tells us to do. We are lenient with whomever God tells us to be lenient with, and we despise whatever God tells us to despise. In the Age of Law, those who violated the laws and commandments were stoned to death by God’s chosen people, but today, in the Age of Kingdom, God has administrative decrees, and He only clears out and expels people who are of the same ilk as devils and Satan. God’s chosen people must put into practice and obey God’s words and the administrative decrees He issues, without violating them, without being governed or influenced by human notions, and without being afraid of being judged and condemned by religious people. Acting according to God’s words is something that is perfectly natural and justified. At all times, only believe that God’s words are the truth, and that the words of man are not the truth, no matter how nice they sound. People must have this faith. People should have this faith in God, and they should also have this attitude of obedience. This is a question of attitude.

We have said more or less enough on the saying about moral conduct “Execution does nothing but make heads roll; be lenient wherever possible” and on the principles of God’s actions. When it comes to matters such as those that harm people, do you now understand the principle for handling them, which God teaches to people? (Yes.) It is that God does not permit people to be impetuous in dealing with the matters that befall them, let alone to use human moral codes to deal with any matter. What is the principle that God tells people about? What principle should people follow? (View people and things and comport oneself and act according to God’s words.) That’s right, view people and things and comport oneself and act according to God’s words and the truth. Whatever happens, it must be dealt with according to God’s words, because in all matters and all things there is a root cause behind everything that happens and any person or matter that emerges, all of which God arranges and has sovereignty over. Everything that happens may have a positive or a negative final outcome, and the difference between them depends on people’s pursuits and the path they walk. If you choose to treat matters according to God’s words, then the final outcome will be positive; if you choose to treat them by the ways of the flesh and impetuousness, and all the various sayings, ideas and views that come from people, then the final result will definitely be one of impetuousness and negativity. Those things of impetuousness and negativity, if they involve harming people’s dignity, body, soul, interests, and so on, will ultimately leave only hatred and a shadow on people that they can never get rid of. Only by following God’s words is it possible to find the causes of the various people, matters and things that one encounters, and only by following God’s words is it possible to see clearly the essence of such people, matters and things. Of course, only by following God’s words can people correctly handle and resolve problems to do with all the various people, matters and things that they encounter in reality. In the end, this will enable people to benefit from all the environments that God creates, their lives will gradually grow, their corrupt dispositions will be changed, and at the same time, they will find therein the correct direction in life, the correct outlook on life, the correct mode of existence, and the correct goal and path to pursue. We have basically completed our fellowshiping on the saying about moral conduct, “Execution does nothing but make heads roll; be lenient wherever possible.” This saying is somewhat superficial, but when dissected according to the truth, its essence is not so simple. As for what people should do in this regard and how to deal with such situations, it is even less simple. This relates to whether people can seek and pursue the truth, and of course it also relates even more to the change in people’s disposition and to people’s salvation. Therefore, no matter whether these problems are simple or complex, superficial or profound, they should be treated correctly and seriously. Nothing that relates to changes in people’s disposition or that involves people’s salvation is a trivial matter, everything is critical and important. I hope that henceforth, in your daily life, you will dig out all the various sayings and views on morality in traditional culture from your own thoughts and consciousness, and dissect them and discern them for what they really are according to God’s words, so that you can gradually understand and resolve them, adopt a totally new direction and goal in life, and completely change your mode of existence. Okay, let us end today’s fellowship here. Goodbye!

April 23, 2022