I

People understand their own nature very superficially, and there’s a huge discrepancy between this and God’s words that judge and expose them. This is not a mistake in what God exposes, but rather that humans lack an adequately profound understanding of their own nature. People do not have a fundamental or essential understanding of themselves; instead, they focus on and devote their energy to coming to know their actions and outward revelations. Even if some people are occasionally able to say a bit about their self-knowledge, it won’t be very profound. No one has ever thought they are a certain type of person or that they have a certain type of nature because they did a certain type of thing or revealed a certain thing. God has exposed the nature and essence of man, but what people understand is that their ways of doing things and of speaking are flawed and defective; thus, it’s a relatively strenuous task for them to practice the truth.

II

People think their mistakes are merely momentary manifestations that are revealed carelessly, rather than revelations of their nature. When people think in this way, it’s very hard for them to truly know themselves, and very difficult for them to understand and practice the truth. Because they do not know the truth and do not thirst after it, when putting the truth into practice, they merely follow regulations in a perfunctory way. People don’t view their own nature as being very bad, and believe they’re not bad to the extent that they should be destroyed or punished. Yet according to God’s standards, people are too deeply corrupted, they are still far from the standards for salvation, because they merely possess some approaches that do not outwardly appear to violate the truth, and in fact, they don’t practice the truth and are not submissive to God.

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