Relevant Words of God:

The truth comes from the world of man, yet the truth among man is passed on by Christ. It originates from Christ, that is, from God Himself, and this is not something man is capable of.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Success or Failure Depends on the Path One Walks

The truth is the most practical life maxim, and the highest life maxim for mankind. Because it is the requirement that God makes of man, and is the work personally done by God, it is called a “life maxim.” It is not a maxim summed up from something, nor is it a famous quote from a great figure. Instead, it is the utterance to mankind from the Sovereign of the heavens and earth and all things; it is not some words summed up by man, but the inherent life of God. And so it is called “the highest life maxim.”

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only Those Who Know God and His Work Are the Ones Who Satisfy God

Whether the words spoken by God be plain or profound in outward appearance, they are all truths indispensable to man’s life entry; they are the fountain of living waters that enables man to survive in both spirit and flesh. They provide what man needs to stay alive; the rules and creed for his self-conduct in his daily life; the path he must take to salvation, as well as the goals and direction for attaining salvation; every truth that he should possess as a created being before God; and every truth about how man should submit to and worship God. They are the guarantee that ensures man’s survival, they are man’s daily bread, and they are also the sturdy support that enables man to be strong and stand firm. They are rich in the truth reality by which created mankind lives out normal humanity, rich in the truth by which mankind breaks free from corruption and emerges from Satan’s snare, rich in the earnest and patient teaching, exhortation, encouragement, and solace that the Creator gives to created humanity. They are the beacon that guides and enlightens men to understand all positive things, the guarantee which ensures that men will live out and come into possession of all that is just, beautiful, and good, the criterion by which all people, events, and things are measured, and also the navigation marker that leads men toward salvation and the path of light.

—The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. Preface

The word of God cannot be made out to be the word of man, and still less can one make the word of man out to be the word of God. A person used by God is not the incarnate God, and the incarnate God is not a person used by God. In this, there is an essential difference. Perhaps, after reading these words, you do not acknowledge them to be the words of God, but only as the enlightenment that a person has received. In that case, you are too ignorant. How can the words of God be the same as the enlightenment that man has received? The words of God incarnate open up a new age, guide all of mankind, unveil mysteries, and show man the direction he is to take in the new age. The enlightenment received by man is nothing but some simple practices or knowledge. It cannot guide all of mankind into a new age or unveil God’s mysteries. When all is said and done, God is God, and man is man. God has the essence of God, and man has the essence of man. If man views the words spoken by God as simple enlightenment by the Holy Spirit, and takes the words of the apostles and prophets as words personally spoken by God, that would be man’s mistake. No matter what, you should never invert black and white, or make high out to be low, or describe the profound as shallow; no matter what, you should never deliberately refute what you clearly know to be the truth. Everyone who believes there is a God should inquire into things from the correct standpoint, and accept God’s new work and His new words from the position of a created being; otherwise, they will be eliminated by God.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Preface

Man’s ways of practice and his knowledge of the truth are all applicable to a particular scope. You cannot say that the path man treads is completely the intention of the Holy Spirit, because man can only be enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and cannot be completely filled with the Holy Spirit. The things man can experience are all within the scope of normal humanity and cannot exceed the range of thoughts in the normal human mind. All those who can live out the truth reality experience within this range. When they experience the truth, it is always an experience of normal human life under the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit; it is not a way of experiencing that goes beyond the bounds of normal human life. They experience the truth enlightened by the Holy Spirit on the foundation of living their human lives. Moreover, this truth varies from person to person, and its depth is related to the state of the person. One can only say that the path they walk is the normal human life of someone pursuing the truth, and it may be called the path walked by a normal person enlightened by the Holy Spirit. One cannot say that the path they walk is the path the Holy Spirit takes. In normal human experience, because people who pursue are not the same, the work of the Holy Spirit is also not the same. In addition, because the environments people experience and the ranges of their experience are not the same, and because of the admixture of their mind and thoughts, their experience is mixed to different degrees. Each person understands a truth according to their different, individual conditions. Their understanding of the real meaning of the truth is not complete and is only one or several aspects of it. The scope of the truth man experiences differs from person to person in line with each person’s conditions. In this way, the knowledge of the same truth, as expressed by different people, is not the same. This is to say, man’s experience is always limited—it cannot completely represent the intentions of the Holy Spirit. The work of man cannot be regarded as the work of God, even if what is expressed by man accords very closely with God’s intentions, and even if the experience of man is very close to the perfecting work that the Holy Spirit intends to do. Man can only be God’s servant, doing the work that God entrusts to him. Man can only express knowledge enlightened by the Holy Spirit and truths gained from his personal experiences. Man does not have the qualifications or meet the conditions for being the outlet of the Holy Spirit. He is not entitled to say that his work is the work of God.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. God’s Work and Man’s Work

Only what God expresses directly is the truth. The enlightenment of the Holy Spirit is only in adherence with the truth, because the Holy Spirit enlightens people according to their stature. He does not speak the truth directly to people. Instead, He gives them a light they are able to attain. You must understand this. If a person has some insight into God’s words and has some experiential knowledge, does this count as truth? No. At most, they have some understanding of the truth. The words of the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment do not represent God’s words, do not represent the truth, and are not the truth. It can only be said that such a person has some understanding of the truth, and has received some enlightenment from the Holy Spirit. If a person gains some understanding of the truth and then supplies it to others, all they are doing is supplying their experiential understanding to others. You cannot say they are supplying the truth to others. It is alright if you say they are fellowshipping on the truth; this is an appropriate description. Why do I say this? Because what you are fellowshipping on is your understanding of the truth; it does not amount to the truth itself. Therefore, you can only say that you are fellowshipping on some experiential understanding; how can you say you are supplying the truth? Supplying the truth is not a simple matter. Who is worthy of speaking this sentence? Only God is capable of supplying the truth to people. Are people capable? Therefore, you must see this matter clearly. This is not just an issue of using the wrong words, the crux is that you are violating and twisting the facts. What you claim is an overstatement. People may have some experiential understanding of God’s words, but you cannot say they have the truth, or that they are of the truth. You absolutely cannot say this. No matter how much understanding people gain from the truth, you cannot say that they possess the life of truth, let alone that they are of the truth. You absolutely cannot say this. People only understand a bit of the truth and have a bit of light and some ways of practice. They only have some reality of submission, and some true change. But you cannot say that they have gained the truth. God provides life to people by expressing the truth. God also demands that people understand the truth and gain the truth in order to serve and satisfy Him. Even if there comes a day when people experience God’s work to the point that they have truly gained the truth, you still cannot say that people are of the truth, let alone say that people possess the truth. This is because even if people have many years of experience, there is a limit to the amount of truth they will gain, and it is a very shallow amount. The truth is the most deep and mysterious thing; it is what God has and is. Even if people experience the truth for a lifetime, what they gain of it will be very limited. People will never be able to gain the truth completely, understand it completely, or live it out completely. That is what God means when He says that people will always be babies in His presence.

… Everyone experiences the truth, but the state each person experiences is different, as is what each person gains from the truth. Even if everyone’s experiential understanding were combined, it still would not completely measure up to the essence of the truth. That is how profound the truth is! Why do I say that what you have gained and your understanding cannot replace the truth? After others have heard you fellowship that bit of experiential understanding you have, they have an understanding of it, and they don’t need a long period of experience to completely understand and gain it. Even if it is something a bit more profound, they will not need several years of experience. But as for the truth, people cannot thoroughly experience it even after a lifetime. Even if you added everyone together, they would not be able to. As you can see, the truth is too profound. Words are incapable of explaining the truth thoroughly. To put it in human language, the truth is the verity to humans. Humans will never be able to experience it thoroughly, and will never be able to completely live out the truth. This is because even if people spend thousands of years, they will not have completely experienced a single truth. No matter how many years people experience, the truth they understand and gain will still be limited.

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

The truth is the life of God Himself; it represents His disposition, His essence, and what He has and is. If you say that by having some experiential understanding, you thereby have the truth, then have you become sanctified? Why do you still reveal corruption? Why can’t you discern different types of people? Why can’t you bear witness to God? Even if you understand some truths, can you represent God? Can you live out God’s disposition? You may have some experiential understanding regarding a certain aspect of a truth, and you may be able to share some light, but what you can provide to people is extremely limited and absolutely not something that can endure. This is because what you have understood and the light you have gained do not represent the essence of the truth, and they do not represent the entirety of the truth. They are just one side, one small aspect of the truth, they are only the level that humans can reach, and they are still far from the essence of the truth. This little bit of light, enlightenment, and experiential understanding can never replace the truth. Even if all people achieved some results in experiencing this truth, and all their experiential understanding was put together, it would still fall short of the entirety and essence of even a single sentence of the truth. I’ve said before, “I sum this up with an aphorism for the human world: Among men, there is no one who loves Me.” This sentence is the truth, the verity of people’s lives; it is the most profound thing, and what God Himself expresses. You experience this sentence of truth, and after three years of experience, you may have a little superficial understanding; after seven or eight years, you may have a little more—but this understanding can never replace this one sentence of truth. After two years of experience, someone else may have a little understanding. After ten years, they may have some more. And after a lifetime, their understanding could be relatively profound. But even if both of your understandings were combined, it could not replace this sentence of truth. No matter how much insight, light, and experiential understanding the two of you may collectively have, it could never replace this sentence of truth. That is to say, human life will forever be human life. No matter how much your understanding conforms to the truth, God’s intentions, and God’s requirements, it can never replace the truth. To say that someone has the truth means they genuinely understand the truth, live out some of the reality of God’s word, truly have some understanding of God, and can exalt and bear witness to God. However, it cannot be said that they already possess the truth, because the truth is too profound. Just one sentence of God’s word is enough for a lifetime of experience; even with several lifetimes of experience, or thousands of years, a single sentence of God’s word could not be thoroughly experienced. It is clear that understanding the truth and knowing God is indeed an endless process, and that there is a limit to the truth people can understand in a lifetime of experience.

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