The Principles and Baseline Standards of Being a Person
On the principles of being a person one must remember: While in church, no matter your duty or what has befallen you, you must stand on the side of truth, which is to stand on the side of God. Do not ever stand on the side of some person or some leader. Whoever’s words conform with the truth, whoever’s words mean to protect the interests of God’s house, you should stand with them, and that is to stand on the side of truth and justice. Isn’t this the principle behind being a person? If you are first and foremost a correct person who stands on the side of truth and who stands with God as an upholder of His work, then you are the type of person who brings joy to God, who shall receive His salvation and who is in accordance with God’s intentions. Your ability to put this into practice indicates that your heart is upstanding, your loving heart for God is true, and your heart upholds the truth, and so God’s blessings will be upon you, the Holy Spirit will follow you and you will be enlightened and made perfect. You will then be guided to understand and enter all truths. However, if all you do is stand on the side of people and thus in opposition to God and in opposition to truth, then you are muddleheaded and you are the devil, and a follower of Satan. You are then standing on the side of evil powers. If you want to see who in church is able to achieve salvation, you should pay attention to who are standing on the side of truth, justice. Those who stand with truth are guaranteed salvation. If you see that a person stands with power and position and always works to uphold power and influence no matter whether the leader is right or wrong, this is someone who sides with those who have power and they are following Satan. This is a very typical representative of Satan’s influence. Those who stand with the wrong group are not correct people, but those who stand with the correct group are correct people and this is a principle of being a person. If you first resolve the issue where you have stood with the wrong group and wrong people and if you are then able to stand on the side of truth and on the side of the correct people and justice, then later you will surely receive God’s salvation. Do you believe what I am saying? When I go to a church and hear people speaking, I will see where they stand, and if anyone is suppressed for upholding the truth, I will see who stands with them and I will say that such people are good ones. There is a saying in China: “One who lies with dogs will rise with fleas.” If you are always standing with Satan, can you avoid being tainted by it? Perhaps in your church you have someone who upholds truth, who sincerely expends themselves to God, who is honest and is often suppressed and who is looked down upon by others who say he is foolish. However, this person believes in God with a true heart and sincerely expends himself for God, so whoever stands with a person like this is a good person and they possess a sense of justice, they have integrity, and they are walking the right path. What situation are most people in now? They go wherever the wind blows, no matter who the leader is they stand with them with persistence. Are there many people like this? What are they doing? They are choosing to stand with power and position! You will see that there are always a few good people standing in opposition to those who stand on the side of power and position; they have honest thoughts and feelings and they speak the truth. These people are often rejected by the church and are treated with indifference. They are often the focus of jealousy and suppression by the leaders. Yet these people will be guaranteed to be liked by God and they will be saved by God. God will not save those who stand with power and position, He does not save those who are easily swayed, because these people can betray the truth and they can be disloyal and stand with those who are against the truth; they can betray and deny God. There are many people who will passionately defend the false leaders and workers and antichrists, so whose side are they on? They stand on the side of Satan and not with truth; they are devils whose faith is in vain. They are blind indeed! If you believe in God but don’t stand with truth, don’t stand with God, and don’t uphold God’s work, isn’t your faith confused? You are choosing to stand with power and position! …
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If you are truly willing to become a person who pursues truth and is submissive to God, how should you practice in the future? What are the principles of being a person? In all situations you should stand on the side of truth and stand with God, never side with some person nor protect that person’s influence. You should remember this. You should respect the truth, and truth should receive the greatest respect in your heart. You should betray the influence of Satan and neither worship nor follow Satan’s influence. The principle and baseline standard of being a person is, “I will listen to whomever is in accordance with the truth and I will support those who act in accordance with truth, and I shall stand with God.” Do not stand on the side of influence. Whoever he is, whether a leader or a worker, if what he does or says is not in accordance with the truth, do not submit to them. Do not speak in their favor or encourage them. If you really have stature, you would say, “What you are saying is not in accordance with the truth and I disapprove of it and do not support it. I do not stand with you and I do not agree with your point of view.” You should declare your position in this manner. Thereafter, your principles should include living your life based on God’s word. Interpersonal relationships and conversations between people should be based on God’s word. You might say, “The words you said do not conform with the truth, so I do not support you on this issue. This is very clear cut. When it comes to the truth and God’s word, we should absolutely insist on the truth. We should not agree to things that betray the truth, so I do not stand with you and I do not support you. You have power and status, so you might persist in doing this, but I have told you that I don’t agree with your methods and I want nothing to do with your methods. When the time comes and something bad happens, you have only yourself to blame.” People should take a clear stand when cooperating in service. Is it good to take a clear stand? If a leader says to another leader, “This person has no truth and does not pursue truth. He attacks leaders and I regard him as an antichrist. We should deal with him. What do you say?” What would you say if you encountered this situation? Would you just say “Amen” in the name of maintaining “harmony”? Isn’t this an offense to God? You must not do things that go against the truth. This is the baseline standard of being a person! You cannot do evil! If he persists in doing so, you should say, “I disapprove of this. I cannot tell if he is an antichrist and I don’t agree with condemning him and I don’t agree with your saying so. If you must persist in doing this, you are on your own. Do not do so on my behalf. Your accusing him of this does not represent the church and is unacceptable.” No leader or worker has the right to represent the church; what they do and say can only represent themselves. These are the rules of God’s house and I want to reiterate this. Therefore, anyone who upholds a leader is not upholding the church. And furthermore, they are not upholding God’s work. Instead, they are merely worshiping power and upholding an individual’s power and status. One can only stand on the side of truth, be faithfully devoted to God’s work, work for God, and do his duty for God’s chosen people, for this is the way to carry out truth and this is the only way to submit to God. Now, a leader or worker who lacks the truth will not stand firm. Do not be mistaken and think that people become leaders in the church the same way they do in the world, because anyone can be a boss there, they don’t even need to study to do so. If one follows Satan’s nature and their own ideas, anyone can come up with a methodology to lead, but this does not work in the house of God. One should not bring the methods of the leaders in the world into the church; it doesn’t work. God’s chosen people will loathe you and be disgusted with you. The church needs servants, workers, and those who do their duties. It does not need leaders or officials. Some people are not very good at working or fellowshiping about the truth, but are good at leveraging the leadership methods to great effect. What kind of nonsense is that? They are really shameless! Aren’t those methods that leaders employ just the stuff of the great red dragon? Can that stuff give you enjoyment? I like the ways of honest people. When honest people do their duty, they just act how they are. So don’t act like a leader or official and do not be infected by their ways. If you put on the airs of a leader, quite frankly you are being devilish. So, what is the principle of being a person? To stand on the side of truth, to stand with God, and not stand on the side of power and influence. To stand with whoever holds power is the wrong thing to do. One should be like this: “No matter if they hold power and influence, what they say must be in accordance with the truth before I stand with them or say ‘Amen’ or submit to them. If what they say or do lacks the truth, I will not stand with them and I will expose them. I will set a clear boundary between them and myself and declare to them, ‘What you say is not in accordance with the truth and I have told you this. If you still persist in this erroneous way, I will have no part in this evil behavior.’” This is just like what is said in Psalm 1:1, “Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners.” What is the principle of being a person? One aspect of it is being honest, another is standing on the side of truth. Do not be swayed by emotion or rely on satanic philosophies. If you can make progress in being more like a person and can put truth into practice and make being submissive to God a reality, you are the type of person who shall receive God’s salvation. If you are a person who acts without principle or who relies on satanic philosophies, yet you say that you submit to God, it isn’t real and you are lacking a foundation. When it comes to being a person, you must first practice being an honest person, be able to stand on the side of truth, not rely on emotions or satanic philosophies to live, and only this kind of person can make progress toward true submission to God. Do you think it is tiring for people to always dwell on emotion and rely on satanic philosophies to live? On one hand, it is tiring and on the other you can see that their disposition has not changed. Even if you haven’t done anything evil, your disposition has not undergone any change at all. Whether or not one maintains the principles in their personal relationships and contacts between people is crucial. If one wants to cast away the influence of Satan to arrive at true submission to God, then what exactly should people do in their personal relationships? Shouldn’t the truth be their principle? Or should they have satanic philosophies as their guiding principle and their life to support them? If you rely on truth and God’s word to live, and if you stand on the side of truth, then you cannot rely on satanic philosophies to guide your life. Could this be the principle of being a person? You must have a principle to be a person, and that principle is to be honest and stand with truth, with no emotion and no satanic philosophies. Only by entering into this reality can one live out the likeness of a real man. If you are unable to enter into this reality, then you won’t be changed even if you believe for a whole life. On the outside you might say, “I believe in God.” To which people might say, “You believe in God, but why cannot we see that you are any different from us? Isn’t your life principle still satanic philosophies? Everything you say is trickery and deceit, and you don’t seem at all like an honest person. You don’t stand on the side of truth when it comes to matters involving the principles of the truth and moreover, you don’t practice the truth. Where is the reality of your faith? Is your faith nothing more than talk?” Isn’t this a crucial issue? When it’s time for a spiritual war, can you not rely on emotion to live? Can you do it? For example, perhaps there is a brother or sister with whom you get along well that is a false leader or an antichrist; would you turn against them? Can you draw a line between them and you? Can you do that? If not, can you call yourself obedient? You have no reality of obeying God. When things happen, you act the same as unbelievers. You still rely on satanic philosophies and personal connections and you’re still trying to please everybody. If that’s the case, then there is no truth in you. If you are asked to know a person’s circumstances, and they are a relative or friend of yours, would you be able to report their true situation back to the church? What if your mother, sister, or brother happened to be a false leader or an antichrist, where would you stand? Would you uphold God’s work or uphold the interests of your relative? Isn’t this a problem on the principle of being a person? You have believed in God, but do you actually live by any principles? If you have no principles then your faith in God is not real, not genuine, and you are no different than unbelievers. Tell me, isn’t it a practical problem that people need principles to be a person? Isn’t it a problem involving entering into life? Can someone who is without principles truly submit to God? If a leader or worker in your church does no practical work and has no work of the Holy Spirit, would you dare report such a problem? Would you stand with that leader or worker or would you stand on the side of truth? If you fail to report the leader or worker in order to curry favor with them, are you standing with God? If you don’t consider God’s intentions and don’t uphold God’s work, how can you say you stand with God? If you were to say, “I don’t stand with the leaders and I don’t stand with God; I just won’t report the problem.” In this situation, where do you stand? You are still standing with Satan because you are not upholding the principle of truth and you are not upholding God’s work. If when it comes to this type of things, things related to a spiritual war and you stand with Satan, are you a person submitting to God? Are you a person of true faith? Aren’t you just betraying God? You say that you believe in God but your heart does not belong to God. Aren’t you just resisting God? When it comes to an issue which might cause you to offend others, you stand on the side of Satan, yet on an issue that does not involve offending anyone you outwardly stand with God. Is someone like that showing the principles of being a person? A person without principles cannot stand on the side of truth and cannot be an honest person. Isn’t this person under Satan’s influence? Does this person possess any reality of the truth? Can they be saved? Such believers in God haven’t gained the truth, and they haven’t been gained by God. And actually, there are some people who are acutely aware of the truth but they do not practice it. What type of people are they? They do not love the truth; they prefer evil and they prefer satanic philosophies, being slick and sly, not offending people and they like currying favor; isn’t this a person who prefers unrighteousness? Someone who prefers unrighteousness cannot stand on the side of God no matter what, so are they someone who is experiencing God’s work? Are they a pursuer of truth? Will they achieve salvation in the end? What do you think, does God like those who try to stay on everyone’s good side? God does not like those people; He likes honest people and He likes people who practice truth and care for His heart. Therefore, people who try to never offend anyone will never receive God’s blessing no matter how long they have had faith.
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