The words of the song “It’s Such a Joy to Be an Honest Person” are all quite practical, and I’ve chosen a few lines to fellowship on. Let’s fellowship first on the line, “I uphold my duty with all my heart and mind, and I have no concerns for the flesh.” What state is this? What kind of person is someone who can uphold their duty with all their heart and mind? Do they have a conscience? Have they fulfilled their responsibility as a created being? Have they repaid God in any way? (Yes.) The fact that they can uphold their duty with all their heart and mind means that they do it seriously, responsibly, without being perfunctory, without being sly and slacking off, and without shirking responsibility. They have a proper attitude and their state and mentality are normal. They have reason and a conscience, they are considerate of God, and they are loyal and devoted to their duty. What does it mean to have “no concerns for the flesh”? There are some states here, too. It primarily means they are not concerned for the future of their flesh, and do not make plans for what is to come for them. It means they do not consider what they will do later on when they are old, who will care for them, or how they will live then. They do not consider these things, and instead submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements in all things. Fulfilling their duty well is their first and foremost task—upholding their duty, and upholding God’s commission are the most important things. When people can perform their duties well as created beings, do they not have some human likeness? This is having human likeness. People must at least fulfill their duty well, be loyal, and put all their heart and mind into it. What does it mean to “uphold one’s duty”? It means that whatever difficulties people encounter, they do not throw up their hands, become deserters, or shirk their responsibility. They do all they can. That is what it means to uphold one’s duty. Say, for instance, it has been arranged for you to do something, and no one is there to watch you, supervise you or urge you on. What would upholding your duty look like? (Accepting God’s scrutiny and living in His presence.) Accepting God’s scrutiny is the first step; that is one part of it. The other part is to do your duty with all your heart and mind. What must you do in order to be able to do it with all your heart and mind? You must accept the truth and put it into practice; that is, you must accept and submit to whatever God demands; you must handle your duty as you would handle your own personal affairs, requiring no one else to watch you, supervise you, check to make sure you are doing it right, keep on you, oversee what you are doing, or even prune you. You must think to yourself, “Performing this duty is my responsibility. It’s my part, and since it’s been given to me to do, and I’ve been told the principles and grasped them, I’ll keep doing it single-mindedly. I’ll do all I can to see it done well.” You must persevere in doing this duty, and not be constrained by any person, event, or thing. This is what it means to uphold your duty with all your heart and mind, and this is the likeness people should have. So, what must people be equipped with in order to uphold their duty with all their heart and mind? They must first have the conscience that created beings ought to have. That is the minimum. Beyond that, they must also be loyal. As a human, to accept God’s commission, one must be loyal. One must be completely loyal to God alone, and cannot be half-hearted, or fail to take responsibility; to act based on one’s own interests or moods is wrong—it is not being loyal. What does being loyal mean? It means that you perform your duties, and are not influenced or constrained by your mood, environment, or other people, events, and things. You must think to yourself, “I have accepted this commission from God; He has given it to me. This is what I’m supposed to do, so I will do it the same way I would my own affairs, in whichever way yields good results, with importance laid on satisfying God.” When you are in this state, not only is your conscience in control, but loyalty is also present within you. If you are satisfied with just getting the task done, do not aspire to be efficient or achieve results, and feel it is enough to simply put all your effort into it, then this is merely fulfilling the standard of people’s conscience, and cannot be counted as loyalty. Being loyal to God is a higher requirement and standard than the standard of conscience. It is not just a matter of putting all your effort into it; you also must put your entire heart into it. In your heart, you must always regard your duty as your job to do, take burdens for this task, suffer reproach if you make the slightest mistake or are in a state where you are slipshod, and you must feel you cannot comport yourself this way because it makes you owe God so much. People who genuinely have a conscience and reason perform their duty as though it is their own job to do, regardless of whether anyone is watching or supervising them. Whether God is happy with them and no matter how God treats them, they always strictly demand themselves to perform their duties well and complete the commission God entrusted to them. This is called loyalty. Is this not a higher standard than the standard of conscience? When acting by the standard of conscience, people are often influenced by external things, or think it is enough to just put all their effort into their duty; the level of purity is not that high. However, when speaking of loyalty and being able to loyally uphold one’s duty, the level of purity is higher. It is not about just exerting effort; it requires you to throw your entire heart, mind and body into your duty. To perform your duty well, you must sometimes endure a little physical hardship. You must pay a price, and devote all your thoughts to performing your duty. No matter what circumstances you face, they do not affect your duty or delay you from performing your duty, and you are able to satisfy God. To do this, you must be able to pay a price. You must abandon your family of the flesh, personal matters, and self-interest. Your vanity, pride, feelings, physical pleasures, and even things like the best years of your youth, your marriage, your future, and your destiny must all be let go of and abandoned, and you must willingly perform your duty well. Then, you will have achieved loyalty, and will have human likeness by living like this. Not only do people like this have a conscience, but they use the standard of conscience as a foundation from which to demand of themselves the loyalty God demands of man, and to use this loyalty as a means by which to evaluate themselves. They diligently strive toward this goal. People like this are rare on earth. In every thousand or ten thousand of God’s chosen, there is only one. Do people like this live lives of value? Are they people whom God treasures? Of course they live lives of value and are people God treasures.

The next line of the song says, “Though my caliber is low, I have an honest heart.” These words sound very real, and speak of a requirement God makes of people. What requirement? That if people are lacking in caliber, it is not the end of the world, but they must possess an honest heart, and if they do, they will be able to receive God’s approval. No matter your situation or background, you must be an honest person, speak honestly, act honestly, be able to perform your duty with all your heart and mind, be loyal to your duty, not look to cut corners, not be a slippery or deceitful person, not lie or deceive, and not talk in circles. You must act according to the truth and be someone who pursues the truth. Many people think they are of poor caliber, and that they never fulfill their duty well or up to standard. They give their very best in what they do, but they can never grasp the principles, and still cannot produce very good results. Ultimately, all they can do is complain that they are too poor in caliber, and they become negative. So, is there no way forward when a person is of poor caliber? Being of poor caliber is not a fatal disease, and God never said He does not save people who are of poor caliber. As God said before, He is grieved by those who are honest but ignorant. What does it mean to be ignorant? Ignorance in many cases comes from being of poor caliber. When people are of poor caliber they have a shallow understanding of the truth. It is not specific or practical enough, and is often limited to a surface-level or literal understanding—it is limited to doctrine and regulations. That is why they cannot make sense of many problems, and can never grasp the principles while performing their duty, or do their duty well. Does God not want people of poor caliber then? (He does.) What path and direction does God point people toward? (That of being an honest person.) Can you be an honest person just by saying so? (No, you must have the manifestations of an honest person.) What are the manifestations of an honest person? Firstly, having no doubts about God’s words. That is one of the manifestations of an honest person. Apart from this, the most important manifestation is seeking and practicing the truth in all matters—this is most crucial. You say that you are honest, but you always push God’s words to the back of your mind and just do whatever you want. Is that the manifestation of an honest person? You say, “Although my caliber is poor, I have an honest heart.” And yet when a duty falls to you, you are afraid of suffering and bearing responsibility if you do not do it well, so you make excuses to shirk your duty or suggest that someone else do it. Is this the manifestation of an honest person? Clearly, it is not. How, then, should an honest person behave? They should submit to God’s arrangements, be loyal to the duty they are supposed to perform, and strive to satisfy God’s intentions. This manifests itself in several ways: One is accepting your duty with an honest heart, not considering your fleshly interests, not being half-hearted about it, and not plotting for your own benefit. Those are manifestations of honesty. Another is putting all your heart and strength into performing your duty well, doing things properly, and putting your heart and love into your duty to satisfy God. These are the manifestations an honest person should have while performing their duty. If you do not carry out what you know and understand, and if you only put in 50 or 60 percent of your effort, then you are not putting all your heart and strength into it. Rather, you are sly and slacking off. Are people who perform their duties in this way honest? Absolutely not. God has no use for such slippery and deceitful people; they must be eliminated. God only uses honest people to perform duties. Even loyal laborers must be honest. People who are perennially perfunctory and sly and looking for ways to slack off are all deceitful, and are all demons. None of them truly believe in God, and they shall all be eliminated. Some people think, “Being an honest person is just about telling the truth and not telling lies. It’s easy to be an honest person, really.” What do you think of this sentiment? Is being an honest person so limited in scope? Absolutely not. You must reveal your heart and give it to God; this is the attitude an honest person ought to have. That is why an honest heart is very precious. What does this imply? That an honest heart can control your behavior and change your state. It can lead you to make the right choices, and to submit to God and gain His approval. A heart like this is truly precious. If you have an honest heart like this, then that is the state you should live in, that is how you should behave, and that is how you should give of yourself. You should contemplate these lyrics thoroughly. No sentence is as simple as its literal meaning, and you will have gained something if you really understand it after contemplating it.

Let’s look at another line of the lyrics: “In all things satisfy God’s intentions with all your loyalty.” There is a path to practice in these words. Some people become negative when they face difficulties in the course of doing their duty, and it makes them unwilling to do their duty. There is something wrong with these people. Are they even sincerely expending themselves for God? They should reflect on why they become negative when they face difficulties, and why they cannot seek the truth to resolve problems. If they can reflect on themselves and seek the truth, then they will be able to see the problems they have. Actually, the biggest difficulty for people is mainly the problem of a corrupt disposition. If you can seek the truth, then your corrupt disposition will be easy to fix. As soon as you fix your corrupt disposition, you will be able to give all your loyalty in all things to satisfy God’s intentions. “All things” means that whatever it is, whether it is something God gave you, something a leader or worker arranged for you, or something you encountered by accident, so long as it is what you are meant to do and you can fulfill your responsibility, you give it all your loyalty, and fulfill the responsibilities and the duty you should, and make satisfying God’s intentions your principle. This principle sounds a little grand and a little hard for people to live up to. Speaking in more practical terms, it means fulfilling your duty well. Upholding your duty and fulfilling it well are not easy things to do. Whether it is being a leader or worker, or some other duty, you must understand some truths. Can you fulfill your duty well without understanding the truth? Can you do it well without upholding the truth principles? If you understand all aspects of the truth and you can practice according to the truth principles, then you will have done your duty well, upheld your duty, entered into the truth reality, and can satisfy God’s intentions. This is the path to practice. Is this easy to do? If the duty that you perform is something you are good at and like, then you feel it is your responsibility and your obligation, and that doing it is something perfectly natural and justified. You feel joyful, happy, and at ease. It is something you are willing to do, and to which you can give all your loyalty, and you feel that you are satisfying God. But when you one day face a duty that you do not like or have never performed before, will you be able to give it all your loyalty? This will test whether you are practicing the truth. For example, if your duty is in the hymn group, and you can sing and it is something you enjoy doing, then you are willing to perform this duty. If you were given another duty where you were told to spread the gospel, and the job was a bit difficult, would you be able to obey? You contemplate it and say, “I like singing.” What does this mean? It means that you do not want to spread the gospel. This is clearly what it means. You just keep on saying “I like singing.” If a leader or worker reasons with you, “Why don’t you train at spreading the gospel and equip yourself with more truths? It will be more beneficial for your growth in life,” you still insist and say, “I like singing, and I like dancing.” You do not want to go spread the gospel no matter what they say. Why don’t you want to go? (Because of a lack of interest.) You lack interest so you don’t want to go—what is the problem here? It is that you choose your duty according to your preferences and personal tastes, and you do not submit. You have no submission, and that is the problem. If you do not seek the truth to resolve this problem, then you are not really showing much true submission. What should you do in this situation to show true submission? What can you do to satisfy God’s intentions? This is when you need to contemplate and fellowship on this aspect of the truth. If you wish to give all your loyalty in all things to satisfy God’s intentions, you cannot do it by just performing one duty; you must accept any commission God bestows upon you. Whether it is to your tastes and matches your interests, or is something you do not enjoy, have never done before, or is difficult, you should still accept it and submit. Not only must you accept it, but you must also proactively cooperate, and learn about it, while experiencing and entering. Even if you suffer hardship, are tired, humiliated, or are ostracized, you must still give it all your loyalty. Only by practicing in this way will you be able to give all your loyalty in all things and satisfy God’s intentions. You must regard it as your duty to perform, not as personal business. How should you understand duties? As something that the Creator—God—gives someone to do; this is how people’s duties come about. The commission that God gives you is your duty, and it is perfectly natural and justified that you perform your duty as God demands. If it is clear to you that this duty is God’s commission, and that this is God’s love and God’s blessing coming upon you, then you will be able to accept your duty with a God-loving heart, and you will be able to be considerate of God’s intentions as you perform your duty, and you will be able to overcome all difficulties to satisfy God. Those who truly expend themselves for God could never refuse God’s commission; they could never refuse any duty. No matter what duty God entrusts you with, regardless of what difficulties it entails, you should not refuse it, but accept it. This is the path of practice, which is to practice the truth and give all your loyalty in all things, in order to satisfy God. What is the focus here? It is on the words “in all things.” “All things” does not necessarily mean things that you like or are good at, much less things with which you are familiar. Sometimes they will be things you are not good at, things you need to learn, things which are difficult, or things where you must suffer. However, regardless of what thing it is, as long as God has entrusted you with it, you must accept it from Him; you must accept it and perform the duty well, giving it all your loyalty and satisfying God’s intentions. This is the path of practice. No matter what happens, you must always seek the truth, and once you are certain what sort of practice is in line with God’s intentions, that is how you should practice. Only by doing this are you practicing the truth, and only in this way can you enter the truth reality.

There is one more line from the song, which goes, “I’m open and upright, without deceit, living in the light.” Who gives this path to man? (God.) If someone is open and upright, they are an honest person. They have opened up their heart and spirit completely to God, and have nothing to hide, and nothing to hide from. They have handed their heart over to God, and shown it to Him, which means they have given their whole self to Him. So, can they still be estranged from God? No, they cannot, and therefore, it is easy for them to submit to God. If God says they are deceitful, they admit it. If God says they are arrogant and self-righteous, they admit that too, and they don’t just admit these things and leave it at that—they are able to repent, to strive toward the truth principles, to rectify it when they realize they are wrong, and fix their mistakes. Before they know it, they will have corrected many of their erroneous ways, and they will become less and less deceitful, deceptive, and perfunctory. The longer they live this way, the more open and honorable they will become, and the closer they will be to the goal of becoming an honest person. That is what it means to live in the light. All of this glory goes to God! When people live in the light it is God’s doing—it is not something for them to boast about. When people live in the light, they understand every truth, they have a God-fearing heart, they know to seek and practice the truth in every issue they encounter, and they live with conscience and reason. Although they cannot be called righteous people, in God’s eyes they have some human likeness, and at the very least, their words and deeds do not vie with God, they can seek the truth when things befall them, and they have a heart of submission to God. Therefore, they are relatively safe and secure, and could not possibly betray God. Though they do not have a very deep understanding of the truth, they are able to obey and submit, they have a God-fearing heart, and they can shun evil. When they are given a task or a duty, they are able to do it with all their heart and mind, and to the best of their ability. This kind of person is worthy of trust, and God has confidence in them—people like this live in the light. Are those who live in the light able to accept God’s scrutiny? Might they still hide their hearts from God? Do they still have secrets they cannot tell God? Do they still have any shady tricks up their sleeves? They do not. They have completely opened up their hearts to God, and there is nothing they are still hiding or have tucked away out of sight. They can confide candidly in God, fellowship with Him about anything, and let Him know everything. There is nothing they will not tell God and nothing they will not show Him. When people are able to attain this standard, their lives become easy, free and liberated.