Next is the cycle of life and death of the service-doers. We just talked about the service-doers; what are their origins? (Some were unbelievers, some were animals.) These service-doers were reincarnated from unbelievers and animals. With the arrival of the last stage of work, God has selected from the unbelievers a group of such people, and it is a group that is special. God’s aim in choosing such people is for them to serve His work. “Service” is not a very elegant-sounding word, nor is it something that anyone would be disposed to, but we should look at whom it is aimed at. There is a special significance to the existence of God’s service-doers. No one else could play their role, for they were chosen by God, and this is where the significance of their existence lies. And what is the role of these service-doers? To serve God’s chosen people. In the main, their role is to serve God’s work, to cooperate with God’s work, and to cooperate with God’s completion of His chosen people. Regardless of whether they are laboring, carrying out some work, or undertaking certain tasks, what is God’s requirement of these people? Is He very demanding in His requirements of them? (He asks that they be loyal.) Service-doers also have to be loyal. Regardless of your origins, or why God chose you, you must be loyal: You must be loyal to God, to what God commissions of you, as well as to the work you are responsible for and the duty you perform. If service-doers are capable of being loyal, and satisfying God, then what will their end be? They will be able to remain. Is it a blessing to be a service-doer who remains? What does it mean to remain? What does this blessing mean? In status, they seem unlike God’s chosen people, they seem different. In fact, however, is what they enjoy in this life not the same as God’s chosen people? At the very least, in this life it is the same. You don’t deny this, yes? God’s utterances, God’s grace, God’s provision, God’s blessings—who does not enjoy these things? Everyone enjoys such abundance. The identity of a service-doer is service-doer, but to God, they are one among all the things that He created—it’s simply that their role is that of service-doer. So what say you, as one of God’s creatures, is there a difference between a service-doer and God’s chosen people? In effect, there is not. Nominally speaking, there is a difference, in substance there is a difference, in terms of the role they play there is a difference, but God does not discriminate against these people. So why are these people defined as service-doers? You should understand this. The service-doers come from among the unbelievers. The mention of the unbelievers tells us that their past is bad: They are all atheists, in their past they were atheists, they did not believe in God, and they were hostile to God, the truth, and positive things. They did not believe in God and did not believe there is a God, so are they capable of understanding God’s words? It is fair to say that, to a large extent, they are not. Just as animals are incapable of understanding human words, the service-doers don’t understand what God is saying, what He requires, why He makes such requirements—these things are incomprehensible to them, they remain unenlightened. And for this reason, these people are not possessed of the life that we talked of. Without life, can people understand the truth? Are they equipped with the truth? Are they equipped with the experience and knowledge of God’s words? Certainly not. Such are the origins of the service-doers. But since God makes these people service-doers, there are still standards to His requirements of them; He does not look down upon them, and He is not perfunctory toward them. Even though they don’t understand His words, and are without life, God is still kind to them, and there are still standards to His requirements of them. You just spoke of these standards: Being loyal to God, and doing what He says. In your service you must serve where needed, and must serve to the very end. If you can serve to the very end, if you can be a loyal service-doer, are able to serve right up to the very end, and are able to perfectly complete the commission given to you by God, then you will live a life of value, and so you will be able to remain. If you put in a bit more effort, if you try harder, are able to double your endeavors to know God, can speak a little of the knowledge of God, can bear testimony to God, and moreover, if you can understand something of God’s will, can cooperate in God’s work, and be somewhat mindful of God’s will, then you, this service-doer, will have a change in fortune. And what will this change in fortune be? You will no longer simply be able to remain. Based on your conduct and your personal aspirations and pursuit, God will make you one of the chosen ones. This will be your change in fortune. For service-doers, what is the best thing about this? It is that they can become one of God’s chosen people. And what does it mean if they become one of God’s chosen people? It means they are no longer reincarnated as an animal like an unbeliever. Is that good? It is, and it’s good news. Which is to say, service-doers can be molded. It is not that case that for a service-doer, when God destines you to serve, you will do so forever; that is not necessarily so. Based on your individual conduct, God will handle you differently, and reply to you differently.

But there are service-doers who are unable to serve until the very end; during their service, there are those who give up halfway and forsake God, there are those who do many bad things, and even those who cause tremendous harm and do tremendous damage to God’s work, there are even service-doers who curse God, and so on—and what do these irremediable consequences mean? Any such evil acts will mean the termination of their service. Which is to say, because your conduct during your service has been too poor, because you have overstepped yourself, when God sees that your service is not up to snuff He will strip you of your eligibility to serve, He will not let you serve, He will remove you from before His eyes, and from the house of God. Is it not that you don’t want to serve? Do you not always wish to do evil? Are you not always unfaithful? Well then, there’s an easy solution: You’ll be stripped of your eligibility to serve. To God, stripping a service-doer of their eligibility to serve means that this service-doer’s end has been proclaimed, and so, they will no longer be eligible to serve God, God has no further need of their service, and no matter what nice things they say these words will be in vain. When things have gotten to this point, this situation will have become irremediable; service-doers such as this will have no way back. And how does God deal with service-doers such as this? Does He merely stop them from serving? No. Does He merely prevent them from remaining? Or does He put them to one side, and wait for them to turn around? He does not. God is not so loving of the service-doers, truly. And so if a person has this kind of attitude in their service to God, God will, as a result of this attitude, strip them of their eligibility to serve, and will once more throw them back among the unbelievers. And what is the fate of a service-doer who has been thrown back among the unbelievers? It is the same as that of the unbelievers: being reincarnated as an animal and receiving the unbelievers’ punishment in the spiritual world. And God won’t take a personal interest in their punishment, for they no longer have any relevance to God’s work. This is not only the end of their life of faith in God, but also the end of their own fate, the proclamation of their fate, and so if service-doers serve poorly, they will have to bear the consequences themselves. If a service-doer is incapable of serving to the very end, or is stripped of their eligibility to serve midway, then they will be thrown among the unbelievers—and if they are thrown among the unbelievers they will be dealt with in the same way as livestock, in the same way as people without intellect or rationality. When I put it like that, you understand, yes?

Such is God’s handling of the cycle of life and death of His chosen people and the service-doers. How do you feel after having heard this? Have I ever spoken of the topic that I just talked about, the topic of God’s chosen people and the service-doers? I actually have, but you don’t remember. God is righteous toward His chosen people and the service-doers. In all regards He is righteous, of this there is no doubt. Perhaps, there are people who will say: “Well then why is God so tolerant toward the chosen ones? And why is He only a little forbearing toward the service-doers?” Does anyone wish to stand up for the service-doers? “Can God give the service-doers more time, and be more forbearing and tolerant toward them?” Are these words right? (No, they’re not.) And why aren’t they right? (Because we’ve actually been shown favor just by being made service-doers.) Service-doers have actually been shown favor just by being allowed to serve! Without the term “service-doers,” and without the work of service-doers, where would these service-doers be? Among the unbelievers, living and dying with the livestock. What great graces they enjoy today, being allowed to come before God, and come to the house of God! This is a tremendous grace! If God did not give you the opportunity to serve, you would never have the chance to come before God. To say the least, even if you are someone who is a Buddhist and has attained fruition, at most, you are but a gofer in the spiritual world; you will never meet God, hear His voice or His words, or feel His love and blessings, nor could you ever possibly come face-to-face with Him. The only thing before Buddhists are simple tasks. They can’t possibly know God, and merely blindly comply and obey, whereas the service-doers gain so much during this stage of work! Firstly, they are able to come face-to-face with God, to hear His voice, to hear His words, and to experience the graces and blessings that He gives people. Moreover, they are able to enjoy the words and truths given by God. They really gain so much! So much! So if, as a service-doer, you can’t even make the right effort, would God still keep you? He doesn’t even ask much of you! God cannot keep you; you do nothing that He asks properly, you haven’t adhered to your duty—and so, without doubt, God cannot keep you. Such is God’s righteous disposition. God doesn’t mollycoddle you, but neither does He discriminate against you. Such are the principles by which God acts. God acts like this toward all people and creatures.

—The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique X