1 Some people become passive after being pruned and dealt with; they lose all energy to perform their duties, and end up losing their loyalty as well. Why is this? It is partly due to their lack of awareness of the essence of their actions, and this leads to their not being able to submit to being pruned and dealt with. It is also partly due to their still not understanding what the significance of being pruned and dealt with is. People all believe that being pruned and dealt with means that their outcomes have been determined. As a result, they mistakenly believe that if they possess some loyalty to God, then they should not be dealt with and pruned; and, if they are dealt with, then this is not indicative of God’s love and righteousness. Such misunderstanding causes many people to dare not be “loyal” to God. Actually, when all is said and done, it is because they are overly deceitful; they do not want to suffer hardship. They just want to obtain blessings the easy way.

2 People are not aware of God’s righteousness. It is not that He has not done anything righteous or that He is not doing anything righteous; it is simply that people never believe that what God does is righteous. In human eyes, if God’s work does not conform to their human desires, or if it is not in line with what they expected, then He must not be righteous. However, people never know that their actions do not conform to the truth, nor do they ever realize that their actions resist God. If God never dealt with or pruned people for their transgressions, or reproached them for their mistakes, but instead was calm and gentle with them, never offending them or exposing their scars, and if He allowed them to dine and enjoy their time with Him, then people would never complain about God or judge Him to be unrighteous; rather, they would hypocritically claim that He was very righteous.

3 Do such people know God? Can their thoughts be completely attuned to His? How can such people cause Him to stop worrying? People have no inkling that when God judges, prunes, and deals with humans, He is trying to purify and transform their life dispositions so that they can succeed in submitting to Him and loving Him; they simply do not believe that God is righteous. As soon as He becomes slightly reproachful or deals with people a little bit, they grow negative and weak, and start to complain about Him. They refuse to believe that God looks at how people express themselves after they have transformed; they simply have no interest in changing. If you continue in this state, you will be deceived by your notions, and will be unable to be purified or perfected.

Adapted from The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Part Three