The 11 Standards for Evaluating a Person’s Caliber

In the last gathering, we fellowshipped on a major topic concerning the pursuit of the truth, “letting go of the barriers between oneself and God and one’s hostility toward God.” Within this major topic, we spoke about letting go of human notions and imaginings regarding God’s work, involving topics about people’s innate conditions, humanity, and corrupt dispositions, and within these topics, issues related to caliber were mentioned. We fellowshipped a bit about the issues related to caliber last time, resolving a portion of people’s notions. Having heard this, do you have an accurate definition of what caliber is? What exactly is caliber? How should caliber be understood? How can one judge whether a person’s caliber is good, average, or poor? Based on what aspects should it be judged? Have you sought on and contemplated these questions? (I have contemplated them a bit. In the last gathering, God fellowshipped that to evaluate a person’s caliber we have to look at their efficiency and effectiveness in doing things. Previously, I did not have much understanding in this regard and would even confuse strengths with caliber. For example, when I see someone achieve particularly good academic results or be proficient in several languages, I would think this indicates that they have good caliber. Only through listening to God’s fellowship did I gain a clear judgment on what truly good caliber is and what merely constitutes some strengths. If a person outwardly seems quite shrewd but has very low efficiency in doing duty and is always unable to comprehend the truth principles, their caliber is relatively poor.) Evaluating a person’s caliber by their efficiency and effectiveness in doing things—this is a general way of putting it. Beyond looking at their efficiency and effectiveness in doing things, there are specific standards for evaluating a person’s caliber: First, their learning ability. Second, their ability to understand things. Third, their comprehension ability. Fourth, their ability to accept things. Fifth, their cognitive ability. Sixth, their ability to make judgments. Seventh, their ability to identify things. Eighth, their ability to respond to things. Ninth, their decision-making ability, which can also be referred to as their ability to execute. Tenth, their ability to evaluate and appreciate things. Eleventh, their innovative ability. Have you kept them in mind? (Yes.) How many are there in total? (Eleven.) Read them out loud. (One, learning ability. Two, the ability to understand things. Three, comprehension ability. Four, the ability to accept things. Five, cognitive ability. Six, the ability to make judgments. Seven, the ability to identify things. Eight, the ability to respond to things. Nine, decision-making ability. Ten, the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. Eleven, innovative ability.) To judge a person’s caliber, generally speaking, you have to look at these two aspects: their efficiency and effectiveness in doing things. Specifically, to assess their efficiency and effectiveness in doing things, you have to make a comprehensive determination based on these eleven standards. In this way, you will be able to accurately judge what a person’s caliber is truly like. Of course, to assess a person’s caliber, the first step is to look at their overall abilities in various aspects, and then at their efficiency and effectiveness in doing things. If they possess caliber and ability in various aspects, then they will certainly do things with both efficiency and effectiveness. If a person’s efficiency in doing things is high and their effectiveness is good, then when you evaluate their abilities in each area according to the eleven standards, they will certainly also be good. Any one of these eleven abilities, taken individually, cannot fully determine whether a person’s caliber is good or not—it must be judged comprehensively. Of course, among these eleven abilities, which are the most important? The most important are the ability to make judgments, the ability to identify things, the ability to respond to things, and decision-making ability—these involve a person’s ability to act after understanding a certain theory. The remaining abilities pertain to comprehension and learning, which involves the human mind. Next, we will fellowship on these eleven abilities one by one.

Number 1: Learning Ability

The first is learning ability. Learning ability does not refer solely to learning an area of knowledge; it also includes learning a language, a specific technical skill, learning and accepting a new thing, and so on—these all fall within the scope of learning ability. For example, when learning a technical skill, under normal circumstances, a person can basically master it within six months and then engage in it independently. If you also can master it and engage in it independently after six months of learning, this counts as having learning ability. If it takes you twice as long as the average person to learn—if after six months you still haven’t mastered it and need another six months to learn—this indicates poor caliber. That is, regarding learning ability, if you can master the technical skill or knowledge within the normal timeframe, this means your caliber is average or above average. However, if you exceed this timeframe and require twice or even three times as long as others to learn the technical skill or knowledge, then your caliber is poor. If you spend two or three times longer than the average person and you still cannot learn it, and you lack learning ability, what does this say about your caliber? Without learning ability, you do not meet even the general standard for having normal human caliber. You are worse than having poor caliber—you have no caliber at all. What category does having no caliber fall under? Having no caliber means one falls under the category of people who are mentally deficient and idiots, with no learning ability whatsoever. This is what’s involved in learning ability.

Number 2: The Ability to Understand Things

The second is the ability to understand things. The ability to understand things refers to a person’s capacity to figure out the principles and the knack within something they see or often encounter. For example, when learning a professional skill, if you listen to theoretical instruction and observe practical demonstrations, and within a normal timeframe you can work out the knack and the principles involved with this skill, this counts as having good caliber and a certain ability to understand things. If you cannot immediately understand it, and even if someone fellowships with you again, you still cannot understand; and even when they give you repeated hints, you still cannot understand what the knack for doing this thing is and what the principles involved are—then your ability to understand things is poor. Perhaps after some time, you may learn a little by groping along slowly through actual practice, but it is limited to that. If, regardless of how much time you spend—whether three years or five years—what you can understand remains confined to a limited scope and, when doing things, you only adhere to certain regulations and certain rules, without being able to understand the fundamentals involved and apply them to actual practice, this means your ability to understand things is poor; people like this have poor caliber. For example, some people perform church work and, after you fellowship with them about the truth principles, they feel that everything you said is correct and have no doubts about what you fellowshipped. However, they just cannot understand why things must be done this way and are unable to comprehend the principles involved. Especially when faced with various problems or special situations in real life or while doing their duty, they do not know how to apply principles or how to approach and handle the problems they encounter according to the principles. This indicates a lack of ability to understand things. People who lack the ability to understand things do not understand after hearing fellowship about the truth and always make requests like “Can you give another example?” or “Can you explain it in more detail?” Only after you give an example and explain in detail can they understand a little. But if you fellowship something deeper, they once again cannot understand and will ask you to give another example. Why do they repeatedly ask you to give examples? It is for you to explain similar situations in real life through examples, so that they can just remember a certain approach or regulation. Why do they do this? It is because their ability to understand things is very poor—you might also say they have no ability to understand things; they do not know how to apply principles in real life or while doing their duty. No matter how you fellowship with them, no matter how many specific examples you give and how many principles you clearly explain, even addressing the principles for handling special situations, they can listen all day long and still not get it. They feel that what you are saying is just theory and still do not know how to handle the various problems they face in real life. This indicates a lack of ability to understand things. Regardless of how others explain things to them, people who lack the ability to understand things cannot get it—this is having poor caliber. Do people with poor caliber also have poor efficiency and effectiveness in doing things? (Yes.) If a person’s ability to understand things is poor, then their efficiency and effectiveness in doing things will certainly be poor; they will not know which principles are involved when they are faced with something, and they will not know how to apply principles in real life. This indicates poor caliber. There is another type of person who becomes more muddled the more detailed and specific others’ fellowship is, being unable to understand it. For example, when God’s house fellowships about discerning false leaders and antichrists, after listening they say, “Why aren’t I getting this? There’s fellowship on principles, examples being given, and special situations being listed, but it all sounds so jumbled to me. What exactly is being said here? Which kind of people are we meant to be handling? Are we to handle false leaders, or antichrists? Is our church leader an antichrist? That person seems a bit evil—are their manifestations due to a corrupt disposition or to bad humanity? Just which are they, a false leader or an antichrist? I still don’t understand.” They do not even understand what the truth principles you fellowship about are; the more they listen, the more muddled they become. Not only do they fail to connect these truth principles to actual situations, but they also become so muddled that they do not even know what the theme of what you are saying is. Doesn’t this show a lack of ability to understand things? (Yes.) For example, imagine a situation in which everyone has gathered to fellowship on a single theme, with each person contributing their thoughts. You fellowship about your understanding, I express my grasp of it; one person raises a question, another person raises a different question—all centered on this theme. Those without caliber listen to this kind of discussion and cannot wrap their heads around it. In their hearts, they think, “What are you all talking about? Why can’t I understand it?” They become muddled. They cannot make out the underlying logic behind the reasonable questions raised by others or why those questions are being raised—they cannot figure out the reasons behind this; they’re even worse than a bystander. Those with caliber, even just observing from the sidelines, can tell who is correct and who is wrong, the reason why someone asks a certain question, whether the questions are deep or shallow, how the questions are being answered—but those without caliber cannot understand any of this and cannot understand the underlying logic behind it. This shows they don’t have the ability to understand things. When others fellowship about something, they cannot discern after listening. They do not know whether what was said is truthful and objective, nor can they see through to the background and essence of the matter—they are completely at a loss. As for why this theme is being discussed, why the principles involved in this theme need to be repeatedly emphasized, as well as whose questions pertain to these principles and whose do not, they cannot understand or make sense of any of these. As they continue listening, they become drowsy; they start taking themselves to be mere bystanders in this fellowship, and their hearts become clouded. With other people, the more the truth principles are fellowshipped, the clearer and more lucid their minds grow. But for those without caliber, the more they listen, the more muddled they become, and the more clouded their thoughts become. This indicates a lack of ability to understand things. Doesn’t this indicate extremely poor caliber? Such people can also be called people with no caliber. What kind of people are those with no caliber? (Mentally deficient people.) The mentally deficient, idiots, fools—this is the category of people with the poorest caliber. This is the second aspect: the ability to understand things.

Number 3: Comprehension Ability

The third aspect is comprehension ability. Comprehension ability is similar to the ability to understand things but goes a step further. What is the difference between them? Comprehension ability focuses more on how to align the principles of the truth and paths of practice with the various issues in real life and then implement them in real work, after one has understood and mastered these principles and paths. This is where the distinction lies. People with comprehension ability, after understanding the fundamentals and principles of something, have a path of practice in their hearts, and an accurate scope, a direction, and a goal. They know how to apply these fundamentals and principles and also know the principles of practice involved in certain special situations. Suppose that, after hearing fellowship on some truth principles, a person can recognize the essence of some problems and then use the truth to resolve some actual problems in real life. That is, after they hear these principles, they immediately understand how they should have practiced in response to a previous situation, and when situations arise again, they also know how to apply the principles to approach them, and immediately have a path of practice in their hearts; their comprehension of principles and fundamentals acts like a guiding light, quickly enabling them to know how to handle various issues in life or work, and enabling them to have a path, direction, and principles of practice. In that case, such a person has comprehension ability, which, of course, is a manifestation of good caliber. Say that a person, after hearing some fellowship on the truth principles, knows how they should practice and handle those things from their actual lives which are common and universal or which they’ve experienced. However, they do not know how to apply these truth principles to special, complex situations, unexpected situations, or uncommon problems and phenomena they haven’t experienced, and still need to seek and make inquiries to obtain an accurate answer or a specific plan of practice before knowing how to handle and resolve them. Otherwise, even after hearing the truth principles, they still do not know how to handle such matters or problems. This indicates they have average comprehension ability; or, it can also be said that such a person is of average caliber. Some people have worked for ten or twenty years, and with some work experience combined with the clear fellowship of truth principles from God’s house, they know how to handle common situations, and have received confirmation that handling them this way is correct. However, when faced with certain complex, special, uncommon problems which they’ve never experienced in their work, they do not know how to handle them and must obtain a clear answer by making inquiries before they can begin handling them. If the situation changes and becomes more complex than they imagined or than the circumstances they know about, they become confused, not knowing how they should face it, and knowing even less how they should practice and handle it in a way that aligns with the principles. When they don’t know how to practice, whether they act based on their imaginings, their own ambitions and desires, or simply set it aside and ignore it—regardless of how they act—the fact that when faced with such a situation they become confused and do not know how to apply principles to handle it proves that their caliber is very average. If one can handle general situations but does not know how to handle special situations, this indicates average caliber. If encountering some special situations causes them to become so confused that they cannot even handle issues they would normally be able to handle, this indicates poor caliber. A person with poor caliber also has poor comprehension ability. Is there a distinction between someone with poor comprehension ability and someone who has adequate comprehension ability? (Yes.)

Some people, no matter how others fellowship, cannot grasp the principles. They only understand doctrines and regulations, and can shout a few slogans, but they do not know how to do real work and resolve problems. You see, after listening to the fellowship, they speak with great clarity and structure, as if they truly understand. But in actuality, they have not understood what was said at all. When it comes to doing concrete work, they become confused, not knowing where to start. When encountering problems, they do not know how to resolve them. They still cannot do concrete work. In treating and handling various people and matters, they still lack principles. In their hearts, they think, “I understood the truth principles when listening to sermons—why can’t I apply them in real-life environments? Why is it that what I understand and often talk about doesn’t work?” They become perplexed again. People with poor caliber only know how to talk about doctrines and adhere to regulations, but when faced with situations, they cannot see them clearly, the doctrines they can speak are completely useless, they cannot even adhere to the regulations, and they cannot solve any problems. They do not know how to practice when difficulties arise. For example, when someone disrupts and disturbs the church’s work, saying some preposterous things, they cannot discern what the nature of this matter is. They do not know which things count as disruptions and disturbances or what their nature is; even less, then, do they know how the problem should be resolved. Someone asks them, “Don’t you know how to discern evil people? Why do you lack principles when it comes to handling evil people?” They reply, “I understand these doctrines, but I don’t know which problems they’re suitable for resolving or which people they’re suitable for being applied to.” This indicates a lack of comprehension ability, doesn’t it? (Yes.) You see, after hearing the principles, they were able to summarize them point by point according to their literal meaning very well, remembering them quite accurately and even reciting them fluently, not missing a single word. Unfortunately, however, in real life, when it comes to viewing people and things and conducting themselves and acting, they have no path of practice whatsoever, only knowing how to shout slogans, talk about doctrines, and adhere to regulations. Whether in real life or in doing their duty, no matter what they encounter, they do not know how to seek the truth or practice according to principles. This indicates a lack of comprehension ability. People who lack comprehension ability may often read God’s words, but they cannot understand what the truth in God’s words is or what the principles are. Therefore, when something happens, they cannot find the relevant words of God to discern and resolve it and must have others find the relevant words of God for them. What do they always focus on when reading God’s words? They look for whether there are specific examples to explain the matter. If there are no examples, they cannot understand the meaning of God’s words. For example, regarding God’s words that expose the nature essence of people, if no examples are provided, they cannot understand them. They cannot practice discernment by comparing their own states with God’s words. Only if someone fellowships the truth and discerns and dissects them according to their actual states can they understand. Without such fellowship, they cannot understand God’s words. Such people always complain when reading God’s words, saying, “Why aren’t there specific examples? How am I supposed to correlate this with myself? These words are too difficult to understand; no matter how I read them, I can’t match them up with myself!” This shows that they cannot understand God’s words, let alone understand the truth or bring God’s words into real life. What they understand is merely simple doctrines and regulations, but these doctrines and regulations are useless in real life. When things happen, they still have no path of practice. This indicates that they don’t have comprehension ability. Are people without comprehension ability of poor caliber? (Yes.) The people with the poorest caliber are those without any caliber at all; such people cannot make sense of the various principles they hear; they do not know why such-and-such examples are given, why particular things are said, or why people have certain manifestations—they cannot understand such things, these things are beyond them. Even if you give them a few examples, they feel as though you’re just telling stories or jokes, as if they’re children listening to a story, finding it interesting and amusing. If someone asks them whether they understand what they heard, they say they do, and they can even mimic the humor of others’ words or imitate how they upbraided people. If you ask them, “Do you know the relevant principles that people should adhere to?” they reply, “Huh? There are principles? I didn’t catch that.” Do such people have comprehension ability? (No.) They lack comprehension ability and cannot understand God’s words. People who lack comprehension ability eat and drink a few passages or chapters of God’s words every day, in a routine manner and to schedule, and they learn hymns and attend gatherings at scheduled times as well. But once they close their books or turn off their hymn recordings, all they retain from what they ate and drank are a few spiritual phrases and some dead words, such as those phrases people often say—“God is sovereign over everything,” and “Submit to God in all things”; or, “Man’s fate is ordained by God,” and “Just practice loving God.” In actual situations of suffering, they can only utter pseudo-spiritual phrases, such as “I’m suffering because of feelings” or “I’m suffering because of the flesh.” As for any principles related to self-conduct, daily life, work, and various other principles of the truth, they neither know nor understand any of them. These things are absent from their hearts and cannot be accommodated within them. Why can’t these things be accommodated? Because, in terms of their caliber, such people simply cannot understand these truth principles, and these truth principles are beyond them; and so, these things cannot take root in their hearts. What a person possesses internally and what they are able to accept attests to what they can understand and what isn’t beyond them. If a person possesses no caliber at all, lacks comprehension ability, and cannot understand the precise meaning of God’s words, even if they were placed in heaven or the third heaven, could they understand God’s words? Could they put the truth into practice? Could they submit to God? (No.) They would remain exactly what they are. Their caliber would stay the same as it has always been. People with poor caliber can only comprehend a very limited range of things. Those with good caliber can comprehend more, with greater depth and at a higher level. People with average caliber comprehend far less than those with good caliber; that which they can comprehend is confined to an average scope, and it cannot go beyond this scope because their caliber limits them. The worst are those with no caliber at all. Such people, just in terms of their caliber, have no comprehension ability whatsoever. Therefore, their manifestation in real life and in doing their duty is that they understand nothing; whether they have believed in God for ten years, twenty years, or even into old age, the doctrines concerning belief in God and spiritual phrases which they talk about are still the same old things they understood when they first began believing. No matter how many years they believe, they do not make any progress. Why do they not make progress? Because they have no comprehension ability, and no matter how many years they believe in God, the things they can take in are only those dead words. Even after many years of believing, their learning ability, ability to understand things, comprehension ability, and other abilities do not improve. What kind of people are they? They are people with extremely poor caliber. Because their caliber is poor and their various abilities do not improve, even if such people live to be forty, fifty, sixty, or seventy years old, their ability to take care of themselves will still be very weak. By observing their survival ability and ability to take care of themselves, you can tell what the caliber of such people is like. This kind of person is mentally deficient, idiotic, and foolish, and their ability to take care of themselves is very poor. Why do I say that their ability to take care of themselves is poor? Because their learning ability, ability to understand things, and comprehension ability are all poor, the experience, common sense, patterns, and knack for doing things which they acquire in life are very limited. Even at sixty or seventy years old, they remain the same. People with good caliber, by the time they are in their thirties, have already developed some knowledge of the various problems they face in life and along their path of life, having gained some understanding, insight, and experience of these things. Through this experience, they know what to do when encountering various problems so that they can live better and protect themselves more effectively. However, for people with poor caliber, because their abilities in all aspects are weak, no matter how old they get, their survival ability remains very poor. How poor is it? It’s so poor that they lack the ability to live independently. Some might say, “Look, they eat heartily, sleep soundly, and are in good physical health—how can You say they lack the ability to live independently?” The survival ability we’re talking about does not refer to whether someone can eat or sleep. If a person doesn’t even know to eat when it’s time to eat, that’s not a normal person but someone who’s mentally disabled—there’s even less need to consider the caliber of such people. The scope of our evaluation of people’s caliber consists primarily of those who outwardly are considered to be normal. It does not include people with physical disabilities, mental disability, mental illness, or those who lack the ability to take care of themselves. We often see some people who cannot even find any patterns, principles, or knack for doing things in managing their food, clothing, housing, and transportation. No matter how old they get, they do not know how to handle these aspects of living in a way that aligns with principles and with humanity. For example, they don’t know which clothes are most suitable for different seasons and simply follow what others do. When it’s cold outside, they wear clothing that is too thin and catch a cold, yet they don’t understand why; or, they fall ill from eating unhygienic food, but don’t know what caused it. They cannot draw any conclusions from these experiences. Aren’t they mentally deficient? Don’t they lack the ability to live independently? (Yes.) No matter how old they are, they don’t know how to live and just muddle through life in confusion. For a normal person, when they have their first child, they may lack experience, but by the time they have a second child, they will have gained some experience in how to care for and feed their child. Some people, however, even after having two or three children, still have no experience. When asked how they take care of their children, they say, “I don’t know, I just muddled through. Anyway, when the children are hungry, I feed them, and once they’re full, that’s it.” Any child placed in their hands would be lucky to survive. With their level of survival ability, not a single child would be left alive under their care. Some people do not understand how to handle the various problems that arise in life or in survival. Such people lack survival ability. For example, when two issues arise at the same time, they become confused and don’t know what to do or which issue to handle first. They become flustered, nervous, and fearful, and complain, saying, “Why did these two issues happen at the same time? What should I do now?” They become so anxious they cannot eat or sleep. They are like this in their thirties, and even in their sixties, their stature remains the same. When situations arise and they can’t find a solution, they start crying. Others say, “Why are you crying? This isn’t a big deal—these are some of the most common issues. You just need to prioritize them and handle them based on importance.” If someone can’t handle these matters, and skips meals and loses sleep over them, or even considers ending their life, aren’t they extremely spineless? They even complain, “Why didn’t this happen to someone else? Why did it happen to me?” It has happened to you, so handle it. If you can’t handle it, ask someone around you who understands. Once you’ve clarified the issue, wouldn’t you then know how to handle it? When nothing is happening, such people are quite good at talking, presenting one set of doctrines after another. But when something happens, they panic, become confused, start sniveling, their minds go blank, and their thoughts get all jumbled—they don’t know what to do. If someone is young, hasn’t gone through much in life and lacks experience, it’s normal for them to get nervous and scared when things happen. However, by the time they’re in their thirties or forties, after having gone through many things in the world and gaining experience, they become relatively mature and seasoned, handling matters with greater steadiness and confidence. Young people who see this feel impressed, and think they can rely on such people. If a person lacks caliber and survival ability, they also lack the ability to take care of themselves. Without adults or experienced people around to assist and oversee things for them, everything they handle turns into a complete mess. Such people have extremely poor caliber. Just how poor is the caliber of some people? Take some housewives, for example, who don’t know how much rice or how many dishes are needed for a meal for a family of several people—some have been cooking for twenty or thirty years and still don’t know how much to prepare for each meal or what the saltiness of dishes should be, and sometimes can’t even accurately grasp whether the food is properly cooked. Their caliber is this poor. Don’t such people lack functioning brains? They have the brains of pigs! Such people lack the ability to live independently. They have no path for doing anything and easily make mistakes. When something happens, if there is no one to oversee things for them, everything they do turns into complete chaos, with everything totally messed up. They are idiotic and mentally deficient. For this kind of person, who has the worst comprehension ability, no matter how much fellowship they hear about the truth principles, they only understand doctrines. In real life, they still do not know how to apply these principles. In other words, the doctrines they understand cannot provide them with any goals, direction, or path in real life. These are the people with the poorest comprehension ability. That concludes our fellowship on comprehension ability, the third ability.