In the last days, where does God’s love for mankind manifest in His appearance and work? You can see it by experiencing each step of this work. God in every step of His work speaks with certain methods, gives certain prophecies, and expresses certain truths and dispositions of His, and people respond to them all. What responses do people have? None of them are submissive to God, and none of them involve actively pursuing the truth or willingly accepting His work. They are all negative and resistant, hostile, rejecting, and unaccepting. However, God has always continued to do His work, and His love for people does not change. Whatever people’s attitudes, whether they refuse or reluctantly accept or change slightly, God’s love does not change, the steps of His work are never disrupted. This is a manifestation of His love for people. Also, each time God completes a step of work, no matter how people behave, His love for them does not change; He is still continuing to do His work and continuing to save people. In every step of work in the future, God’s words that judge and expose people will be deeper and more penetrating, and more specific to their current state. He will say things that allow people to better comprehend Him and know Him, to better understand and grasp His will, and people will be able to see that He still loves humankind. Even though people have always responded negatively or with resistance, even though they have reacted like this at every step of the work, God has always continued to speak and to work, and His love for people has not changed even today. Therefore, all of God’s work for humankind is love, and that is for certain. Some people say, “If it is all love, why does God judge and chastise people as if He has hate for them? How can He let people go through the trial of death?” That’s right, all that God has for humankind is love! God’s chastisement and judgment of people’s rebelliousness are to make people understand the truth, make them repent and reform, and allow them to know His disposition so that they can fear and submit to Him. Although some people still harbor some resistance, God has not relaxed His efforts to save people in the slightest, nor has He given up on them. This is what constitutes God’s great love.

During the trial of service-doers, many people became so negative and anguished that they cried out to the heavens and the earth, and even cried out in protest, thinking, “How can I have become a service-doer after I believed in God for so many years and suffered so much? This isn’t what I wanted!” People were unsatisfied and didn’t understand, but God understood them, and was this not love? God’s love includes an understanding of people, a penetrating insight into their essence, and a thorough understanding of them. He loves without confusion, pretentiousness, or falsity. His love is genuine and true. Wherever you have shortcomings and lack knowledge or understanding, He has pity on you, He loves you, and He always moves you. However unwilling or unsatisfied people felt as service-doers, God never gave up on people because of their corruption and rebelliousness. He always spoke, provided for people, supported them, and through a few months of refinement, revealed their corruption and made them aware of their ugly state. Did God have love for people during these three months? If He had not, He would never have paid attention to you. Some people were cast out in the trial of the service-doers, and those people were truly nonbelievers. They became negative as soon as they heard that they were service-doers, and they could not take it after a few months. You were unwilling to be a service-doer, and you were unwilling to suffer in following God, but when you were told there were blessings to be had, you became happy, even ecstatic. If God had no love but only hate and saw such corruption revealed in people, then they should have been cast out. Three months of refinement isn’t very long at all. Why do I say it isn’t long at all? Because this is only the amount of time that people can bear. If it were even a little longer, people would not be able to bear it. Though people were always singing hymns, attending gatherings, and fellowshipping, they would certainly not be able to stand firm only by enjoying those things. That is why God made people into His people early on, and this also includes His love. God uses His heart and love to influence and hold people, and this is also a manifestation of love. We can also see God’s love in this timing. He doesn’t delay even for a day, He speaks immediately when it is time for Him to speak. If He delayed for a few months, some people would gradually withdraw. This is Him working according to people’s actual state, without any delay or deferment. God pays special attention to everyone, and as He is saving people, God is responsible for them to the end. But some people lacked resolve or determination and withdrew on their own. Before they left, the Holy Spirit moved some people especially and urged them to stay, only giving up when they couldn’t be kept. God loved people so much, but people were unworthy of His love. For some people who had withdrawn that He could no longer love, God’s love for them turned to hate and He no longer had anything to do with people like them. As for the steps and time of God’s work, how long each step takes, how many words are spoken at each step, what tone and method are used at each step, and what truths are used to make people understand, all of these things include God’s good intentions and painstaking efforts, and they are all His precise arrangements and plans. God has always been expressing the truth, using His wisdom to guide and lead humankind, to supply and serve people, to feed people little by little, and to lead them hand in hand to this day. Anyone who has had this experience has some knowledge of it by now and can give some experiential testimony. This step-by-step process is still fresh in their memory, and the love in it cannot be expressed in words. God’s love for people is so deep that people will never be able to fully comprehend or express it clearly in words. We can see from the timing of God’s work how deep His love for people is. He is meticulous in every little thing, not allowing refinement to take any longer, fearing that people would withdraw and leave Him because of its taking so long. His love holds people tightly and never relaxes in the slightest. Also, God had precise control over the steps of the work of chastisement and judgment. If He had added one more method, people would have felt that He was deceiving and playing tricks on them, and they would be likely to withdraw when their stature was not enough. So after three months of refinement, God spoke again to turn service-doers into His people, and all the people became happy. They were so excited that tears streamed down their faces as they saw how wise and good God was. After several months of refinement, people really believed that they were service-doers. They thought, “We have no good destination. God doesn’t want us anymore. We’re completely hopeless.” In that atmosphere at the time, if I had said I would not let people die, no one would have believed Me. They thought that if God had already said it, it must be a fact. However, after three months I expressed another chapter of words and ended their trials as service-doers. Although human nature has been corrupted by Satan, people are sometimes especially innocent, like children. Why is it said that people are always as babies before God? The way people see it, it seems like people are all corrupt and decadent, but the way God sees it, people have always been babies, and they are all especially naive and innocent. Therefore, God does not treat people as if they were enemies but as the targets of His salvation and His love.

God’s love for people is not just to keep on bestowing grace on them or to say words of blessing or things people want to hear like they imagine. It is to express the truth and purify people of their corruption, saving them from the influence of Satan, and making them qualified to receive His blessings and His promise. That is God’s true love. God exposes people’s corruption, judges, and condemns them with words that are indeed not spoken in consideration of their feelings. These words even pierce their hearts and bring them pain. Some words of judgment seem to condemn people or curse them as if God really hates them, but it all has a real context. It is completely in line with fact, and it is not exaggerated. God speaks based on people’s corrupt essence, and people have but to experience this for a time to know it. God’s aim in saying these things is to change people and to save them. Only by God speaking like this can He get the best results. You should see that the painstaking efforts of God are to save people and they all embody His love. Whether you look at the wisdom of God’s work or the work’s steps and methods, its length of time, or His precise arrangements and plans, it all contains His love. Here is an example. All parents have love for their children, and they all put in a lot of work to see them walking the right path. When they find flaws in their children, they worry that they won’t listen and won’t change if they speak too gently, but they also worry that they will hurt their self-esteem if they speak too sternly and they won’t be able to take it. That they can consider this from their children’s perspective is all governed by love, and they put a lot of work into it. All those who are children may have experienced the love of their parents. Love isn’t just gentleness and consideration but also strict chastening. God’s saving of humanity is even more governed by love and under the premise of love, that is why He does His utmost to save a corrupt humanity. He doesn’t just do things to get them done but makes precise plans, speaking and working step by step. In the time and place, in the tone and the way He speaks, and the work He puts in…, you can say that each of these reveals His love and every one abundantly shows that His love for humanity is infinite and immeasurable. Many people in the trial of the service-doers spoke rebellious words or gave some complaints, but God did not hold this against people, much less punish any one of them for this. Because He loves people, He is tolerant in everything. If God had no love and only hate, then He would have condemned everyone long ago. Because He has love, God does not dwell on things, He is tolerant of people, He can understand their difficulties, and all that He does is governed by love. Only God understands people, and not even you understand yourself. Think back carefully, isn’t that true? Some people complain about this and that when they face trials. People get upset over nothing, and they live in blessings but do not even know it. No one can know how much God needed to suffer coming from heaven down to earth. God is so great; for Him to become a human being, to become such an insignificant, humble human being, such a humiliated person, how much He would have to suffer! Here’s an example from the world. A good emperor loves his subjects like he loves his own children. To alleviate the suffering of the common people, he goes among them in plain clothes as an ordinary person to inspect and understand their hardships. Given his status, being humbled to the status of a commoner is a humiliating thing in itself. He has to live like an ordinary person, and people who don’t know he is the emperor will treat him like an ordinary person. There are many dangers among the people, no one knows how many are looking to kill the emperor or take power, so he needs to be extra cautious as he goes among the people to understand their situation. Since he really shouldn’t be suffering like this according to his status and position, how is he able to do it? He simply wants to be a good emperor and really get something done for the common people. God wants to completely save humanity in the last days, and His exposing and judging of humanity in this way today is the extent that His management plan has reached. God saves humanity because He loves humanity. It is because He loves humanity and He is driven and motivated by love that He becomes flesh and personally ventures into the lion’s den to save humanity. God is able to do this because He loves humanity. That God suffers immense humiliation in becoming flesh to save this corrupt humanity is full proof that His love is so great. Between the lines of God’s words, there is exhortation, comfort, encouragement, tolerance, patience, but also more judgment, chastisement, cursing, public exposure, and wonderful promises. Whatever the method, it is governed by love, and this is the essence of His work. All of you have some knowledge of His love today, but it is not very deep. Human imagination is mixed into this knowledge, and what you can experience of His love is limited. Later when you have been through a few more years, you will sense how profound and great this love is, how it is indescribable in human language. When people come to know of God’s love, they come to have a God-loving heart. If people don’t have a God-loving heart, how can they repay His love? Even if you offered your life, you would still not be able to repay God’s love. Going through another few years, you will know what God’s love is. Then when you look back on the states and manifestations in you now, you will feel the utmost regret, and you will fall down before God. Why do most people today follow God so closely and so eagerly? It is because they know of God’s love and they see that God’s work is to save humanity. Think about it, God’s work is incredibly precise in its timing, going from one step to the next, without any delay. Why does He not delay? It is to save humanity. He saves people to the greatest extent possible, and He is not willing to lose a person who can be saved, while people themselves do not care about their fate. So then, people do not even know who in the world loves them the most. You do not love yourself and you do not know to cherish or treasure your own life, and only God loves people the most. Only a few people are able to experience God’s love, but most still have yet to. They believe that loving themselves is more reliable, but they ought to have a clearer understanding of the kind of love they have for themselves. Can people save themselves by loving themselves? Only God’s love can save people, that is the only true love, and you will gradually come to experience what true love is later on. If God had not become flesh to work and guide people face-to-face, interacting with them day and night and living together with them, it would be no easy thing for them to truly come to know God’s love. If God had not become flesh and expressed so much truth, then people would never be able to know Him, and no one would know of His love.

God and man are not of the same kind and live in two different realms. Humans are unable to understand the language of God, much less know His thoughts. Only God understands humans, and they are unable to understand Him. Only by becoming flesh and becoming the same as humans in kind (appearing the same) and enduring tremendous humiliation and pain to save people can God make them understand and come to know His work. Why does God never give up saving people? Is it not because He has love for people? He sees humanity being corrupted by Satan and cannot bear to let them go or give them up. This is why He has a management plan. If God were to destroy humankind as soon as He became angry like people imagine, then He would not need to endure such suffering to save them as He does today. It is also precisely God’s suffering after becoming flesh that reveals His love. Only then has His love been discovered little by little by humanity and become known by all people. If this kind of work did not exist today, people would only know that there is a God in heaven and that He has love for humanity. It would be only doctrine, and people would never be able to experience God’s true love. Only through the work God does in the flesh can people have a true understanding of Him. This understanding is not vague or empty or simply a doctrine of words but is solid and actual, because the love God gives to humans is beneficial. This work can only be done by Him in the flesh, and it cannot be done by the Spirit. How great was the love that Jesus gave people? He was nailed to the cross to save humanity, serving as an eternal sin offering for them. He came to do the work of redemption for humanity until the point He was crucified. This love is so great. God’s work means so much. There are many people who always have certain notions about God becoming flesh, and this is their mistake. Why do you always have these notions? Without God becoming flesh, people’s belief in God would just be empty words, hollow and unrealistic, and they would still be destroyed in the end despite their faith! God’s love for humankind is mainly manifested in the work He does in the flesh, in personally saving people, speaking face-to-face with people, and living face-to-face with them. There isn’t the slightest distance, and there is no pretense; it is real. That His salvation of humanity was such that He was able to become flesh and spend painful years with humans in the world is all because of His love and mercy for humanity. God’s love for humanity is unconditional and makes no demands. What can He receive from them in return? People are cold toward God. Who can treat God as God? People do not even give God the slightest bit of comfort, and He has still not received true love from humanity to this day. God keeps selflessly giving and selflessly providing, yet people are still not content and persistently ask Him for grace and blessings. How difficult and troublesome people are! However, sooner or later the day will come when God’s work will yield results and the majority of God’s chosen will give genuine thanks from their hearts. Those who have experienced this for a long time can feel this. People may be numb, but they are still people and not lifeless things. Those who have not experienced God’s work might not be able to comprehend these things. They only acknowledge that these truths God has expressed are right, but they do not have a very deep understanding because they have no experience.

God has worked for several years in the flesh and has said countless things. God began by giving people the trial of service-doers and then gave prophecies and began the work of judgment and chastisement, then using the trial of death to refine people. Then He led people onto the right track of faith in Him. God speaks and provides people with all the truth, fighting back against all kinds of human notions. Then He gives people a little hope to allow them to see that there is hope ahead, which is God and man entering a beautiful destination together. Even though this work is all carried out according to God’s plan, it is all done according to the needs of humanity. It is not done casually; God uses His wisdom to do all of this work. It is because God has love that He can use wisdom to treat these corrupt people earnestly like this. By no means does He ever play with people like toys. From God’s tone and wording, sometimes He judges and chastises people or tests people, sometimes a particular wording makes people suffer trials and torment, and sometimes He gives people a particular choice of words that sets them free and puts them at ease. He truly puts in a lot of thought and consideration for people. Even though people are created beings, and have all experienced corruption from Satan, and even though people are worthless, nothing but trash, and that is how their natures are, He doesn’t treat people according to their essence and does not treat people according to the retribution they should receive. His speech may be stern, but He always treats people with patience, tolerance, and mercy. People should slowly and carefully ponder this! If God did not treat people with tolerance, mercy, and grace, could He say all these things to save them? Why wouldn’t He simply condemn them? People still do not know God’s love even so. They are so foolish and ignorant! There is no love in the essence of people. They don’t know what love is, and they don’t know why God does this. When people haven’t experienced God’s love, they merely feel this work of God’s is pretty good, that it is beneficial to people, and that it can change people, but not one person thinks that “God’s work is so good, His work means so much! God’s love for people is so deep. He really hasn’t treated people like they are filthy!” People haven’t treated God as God, but God has treated people as people. Isn’t that so? God says you are a beast, but He hasn’t treated you like a beast at all. If God treated you like a beast, could He still provide you with the truth? Would He still suffer so much to save you? Some people are extremely aggrieved, saying, “God says I am worthless. I am too ashamed to go on living.” People do not actually understand God’s will. It can be said that you may not experience the wisdom and painstaking effort of God’s work very deeply your whole life. But no matter how deep or shallow your experience, as long as you finally understand it and gain a little knowledge, that will be enough. God still asks people to understand the truth, focus on changing their disposition, and just to gradually deepen their understanding of the truth about the loyalty, submission, and love for God in their hearts. If people expend or suffer just a little bit, they may feel they have contributed a great deal and now have high qualifications before God, and if they contribute a little more, they will show off their qualifications, and without mentioning that, they feel insecure and resentful inside. How do people have love? What love is it that people have? Has God gained true love from humanity? Is He not worthy of humanity’s love?

Winter, 1999