I

Ever since God created man, He has always guided mankind’s life, whether it be by bestowing blessings on mankind, establishing laws and commandments for mankind, or stipulating various ordinances for life—all these things that God does are for the good of mankind, and are leading and guiding man toward living a normal life. Whether man abides by regulations or keeps the laws, God’s aim is for man to not fall into worshiping Satan and being harmed by Satan—this is His most fundamental aim, and it is His initial aim. Although He has plans and intentions regarding man, this is not for His own sake. All of these things that He does are done purely for mankind; all of these things that He does are done to protect mankind, to keep mankind from going astray.

II

When you do not understand the truth, God enlightens and illuminates you, telling you clearly that what you’re doing is not in keeping with the truth, and what you should do. When God guides you, when He provides for you, helps you and supports you, you feel God’s amiability and respectability, you feel His loveliness and His warmth. But when God reproaches you for your corruption, or when He judges and disciplines you for your rebelliousness, He reproaches you with words, and He disciplines you through environments and through people, events, and things. God works in a gentle, delicate, loving and caring way, a way that is extraordinarily measured and appropriate, and that will not provoke in you intense feelings. God will never give you that kind of intense realization or intense feeling which your heart cannot bear.

III

God uses His words, the truth, and His life to continuously provide for man, to support man. His love for man, His treasuring and cherishing of man cannot be expressed clearly by man in just one or two sentences. These are not things that are brought about by man’s boasting but things that God Himself brings forth in actual action; they are the revelation of God’s essence. All the things that God gives to man, including God’s words, what God works on man through various means, what God tells man, what God reminds and exhorts man of, originate from one essence: the holiness of God.

from The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique IV