To Be an Honest Person Is Truly Great!

One day in 2004 a friend said to me: “Every day you get up early and are busy all day cutting cloth, you exhaust yourself, yet you still don’t make money. Today’s society relies on the tongue to make money, like the popular saying goes: ‘It is better to have a slick tongue than to have strong arms and legs.’ You know that I’m now engaging in the direct sales business selling makeup products, not only does it make me beautiful, I also don’t need to exert too much effort each day, I just need to speak a few words with my customers and sell my products in order to make a lot of money.

A Christian Child’s Testimony: How Great It Is to Be Honest

By Bao’ai, South Korea

The words “It’s so hard to be a good person who speaks the truth” give voice to the thoughts of many of us, and views like “Nothing great can be accomplished without lies,” “Think before you speak and then talk with reservation,” and “As swift legs make a good horse, a slick tongue makes a good man” have become our codes of conduct, and we’ve gradually forgotten how to be honest.

Only Those Who Truly Submit to God Shall Receive His Salvation

In words and in doctrine, we all acknowledge that God is faithful and whatever he says will be fulfilled, but many times we do not truly believe God’s word from the bottom of our heart and even often deny it in our practical experience. For example, God says: “Nothing is too difficult for me.” However, when we encounter some difficulties or when we achieve no results in the gospel work, we no longer believe this word but think that the practical difficulties are there and that even if we rely on God, we will not be able to resolve the problems or achieve the results. God says: “God perfects people according to their different functions.” But some of the brothers and sisters who preach the gospel, handle general affairs, or do hosting cannot believe this word. They always consider that only the leaders and those who water the churches are the ones to be perfected by God, while they are the serving ones, not the ones to be perfected by God. God says: “I do not care whether you have done laborious service and made great contribution, whether you have much seniority…; as long as you do not act according to my requirements, you can never receive my approval.” But some brothers and sisters cannot believe this word. And they always consider that as they have followed God for so many years, they have done hard work if not good work and God will not be so heartless as to eliminate them in the end. God says: “God’s will is to save man to the utmost.” However, some brothers and sisters do not believe this word but think that they are through and God will never forgive them, because they have brought great losses to God’s family in performing their duties or have once committed a grievous transgression. God says: “All God’s words are directed at everyone who acknowledges God and at everyone who follows God.” But we say that some of God’s words are directed at us and some not, for in us there are not those kinds of states God speaks about. Again, some people see that God always says such words as “My day has been laid before your eyes,” “my day will not be delayed,” and “my day is truly not very distant,” but so far God’s day still has not come; so they think that God’s words are without accuracy.

Only Being an Honest Person Is a True Human Likeness

We have had a lot of fellowship on how to be an honest person, and the significance of being an honest person. Now do you have an understanding that only by being an honest person can one have proper humanity, and that only an honest person can be in line with God’s will? This is a crucial issue in changing your life disposition. We’ve communicated in the past that only being an honest person is true repentance. What do you think of this understanding? Why is that said? Do you have an understanding of what that means? How can we measure whether a person has had a change in their life disposition? To put it correctly, it’s to measure it according to whether or not you’re an honest person: If you are an honest person, then there will be a change in your life disposition. If you are not an honest person, there will be no change. Some people say: “I’m not really qualified to be an honest person, but I can obey God and devotedly expend myself for Him. This means that I’ve had a change in my life disposition.” Would you say that this holds water? If someone has believed in God for many years, can expend himself for Him and really engage in pursuit, but is not an honest person, does he really have love for, obedience of, and devotion toward God? He says that he’s devoted and obedient to God. Does that hold water? How about saying that he has been saved, or that he understands the truth, and has entered into reality? If he is not an honest person, then he doesn’t have even a drop of reality. First, he is not someone who is obedient to God. Second, there are certainly a lot of other things mixed in to how he expends himself for God and performs his duty, because he himself is not honest. And if he’s not an honest person, then can he possess proper humanity? (No.) So only being an honest person is genuine repentance, and only a genuinely honest person can have a change in their life disposition. Now can you understand this? (Yes.) Now reflect on this: How many years you’ve believed in God, and if you actually are an honest person.

To Pursue to Be an Honest Person We Must First Know Our Crafty Nature

After reading the two fellowships from the above “The Four Indices One Has to Grasp in Pursuing the Truth to Attain the Transformation of His Disposition” and “Only Being an Honest Person Is True Repentance,” most brothers and sisters feel that they have become much clearer about the truth concerning being an honest person, and they also feel that they have had ways to practice and enter into it. So they all begin to practice being an honest person. However, while pursuing to be an honest person, we neglect an important matter, that is, we do not have true knowledge of our crafty nature. Thus, we often give up practicing being an honest person after doing it for a period of time, never being able to practice it with eagerness or perseverance. In the fellowship from the above, it says: “Men, after being corrupted by satan, have all become ones full of lies. Corrupt human beings lie about everything, and even none of their words is not mixed with a lie. They have all become experts in telling lies and master-hands in making up lies. As for the words spoken by corrupt human beings, it is very difficult to tell which of them is true and which is false. None of corrupt human beings is trustworthy.” “What is most unbelievable to them is that people lie not under compulsion but unconsciously and involuntarily, and those who lie seriously lie even to such a terrible extent that they lie everywhere, lie about everything, and lie the minute they open their mouth.” Most of us cannot relate these words to ourselves. Some think, “I only tell lies or cheat occasionally; how could I be said to be an expert in telling lies or to lie to the extent of lying everywhere and lying about everything? Perhaps what the above says is somewhat exaggerated.” And some, only out of their “sense,” admit that what the above says is definitely right, but they do not think these words are directed at them. As we have such understanding and knowledge, we have failed all along to achieve results in exercising to speak honest words and do honest things.

How to Pursue to Be an Honest Person

In the past, when reading in God’s word that we were required to be an honest person, many brothers and sisters thought that it was not hard to be an honest person and that as long as one told the truth without cheating others in everything, he was an honest person. Most people did not meditate or seek whether they had lived up to the standards of an honest person, and even less did they pay attention to entering into being an honest person. Thus, the matter of practicing being an honest person was shelved. Recently, through the man’s fellowship “The Four Indices People Have to Grasp in Pursuing the Truth to Gain the Transformation of Their Disposition,” we have clearly realized the importance and crucialness of being an honest person, knowing that being an honest person is the prerequisite and the foundation for the transformation of our disposition and is the start of pursuing the transformation of our disposition. Because God likes honest people and loathes crafty people, only if we begin by practicing and entering into being an honest person will we be able to establish a normal relationship with God, and will we easily communicate with God and receive the working of the Holy Spirit. If we have no entering in in being an honest person, we cannot have transformation of our disposition, even less can we be saved and perfected by God.

Why Does God Do the Work of Saving Mankind?

Why must the person that God perfects be one who loves Him? This is because man has a spirit, and there is a substantial difference between whether the spirit is that of a man or the devil. The spirit that is of man has love and he is able to love God. If a man loved God, he would obey God in all that he does and would care for God’s will. He would be able to bear with hardship and forsake everything in order to satisfy God. Such true love is very important to God. You see, when a woman chooses her partner, she would ask of the partner’s true love and a sincere heart. She would never choose the man if he did not have true love. Why is it so? This is because he would surely have hate if he did not have love. If he had hate in him, disputes would easily arise between them and they two would always be at daggers drawn. He would betray her readily. Such love and hate is thus too important. In the course of experiencing God’s work, as man is not able to penetrate the spiritual world directly, he is not able to understand God’s will. However, he would not begrudge God when he has love; he is able to understand God when he has love, and he would be able to treat all that God does in the right way. When he understands God’s love and that all that God does is the truth, his love for God would become stronger. Therefore, the man who loves God can be perfected more easily, and he would not betray God easily. It is very dangerous if he does not have love. He who does not have love would surely have hate, and he would begrudge easily. A man with hate makes enemies and betrays easily. We see that if a husband and a wife did not have true love betwen them, they would not understand each other easily. They will always doubt, suspect and complain about each other. They cannot get along with each other, and their conflicts deepen in the end. When the conflicts come to a boil, they would go their separate ways. Therefore, if a person has a heart that truly loves God, no matter what God does and no matter how much pain he goes through, he would not begrudge God. He believes firmly in one thing, that all that God does is love. He believes firmly that God is the truth. He believes firmly that all that God does is for the salvation of man and to perfect man. You can see that his heart is pure and that he would not have any conceptions on any matters. He has no misunderstandings about God, and is able to submit to God instead. He would conversely comfort God when he sees that God is suffering. He would spare no effort in satisfying God when He needs him. Such a person has a heart that truly loves God. He can be perfected by God easily because he understands God. He is a man with the greatest conscience and the most rationality before God. A person without conscience and rationality has no true love for God. If he does indeed show a little love for God, what do you think his love is built on? He would only show a little love for God when he really sees that God has benefited and blessed him in some ways, when he really sees that he has gained something from God and achieved his objectives. Such love is totally built on the basis of a transaction and can exist completely with the purpose of satisfying oneself. Such love is therefore neither pure nor true. The more conscience and rationality a person has, the truer his love is. A person without conscience and rationality has no love. God is thus willing to perfect the person who loves Him. … Why doesn’t He perfect those who do not love Him? Why is a person who does not love God not perfected by Him? Because such a person is inhuman and is without conscience and rationality. A person without conscience and rationality would not have a heart that loves God, and a person without a heart that loves God is one who does not have conscience and rationality. Such a person is not fit to be human. A person who does not have a heart of love for God has hatred for God. A person who has hatred for God is an enemy of God and is one whom He punishes. Can God perfect His enemy? A person who has a heart of hatred of God is an evil person. An evil person is an object of God’s punishment and destruction. A person who truly loves God is one who has conscience and is rational. He is one who is truly a human. Therefore, only a person who truly loves God can be perfected by Him. Those who do not love God are the evil ones, God’s enemies, people without conscience and rationality, and people who are inhuman. God thus does not perfect them. People without conscience and rationality have no love in them. They know only to seek their own interest and selfish gains and have never known what love is. Don’t you see that some people only seek their own selfish gains? They operate on the principle of doing something only if it benefits them in some ways. Can such people have love? Who can they love? They love whoever benefits them, and the love they show is not true at all. You benefit them today and they love you today. They will kick you aside tomorrow when you no longer benefit them. They love you for a day today when you are of use to them and kick you aside tomorrow when you are no longer of use to him. Such are mercenary people. Can such people have love? What is your basis for making friends? You have to base it on whether the person has conscience and rationality and whether he has humanity. This is key. Do not be acquainted with an inhuman person without conscience and rationality because he seeks only his own interest and selfish gains. He goes with whoever benefits him. Do any of you have such friends? Can you be friends with such people? It is of no use to be friends with such people as they cannot be a close friend. He has a transactional motive in making friends with people. He makes friends with you when you are of use to him and walks out on you when you are no longer of use to him and kicks you aside. He cares nothing about conscience and friendship and has even less credibility to speak of. All that he seeks is selfish gains. There are too many of such people around! Very few people care about conscience and rationality, and thus very few are perfected by God even though there are many who believe in Him. Why is this so? It is because very few have conscience, rationality and humanity. Most of the people who believe in God want to make use of Him and seek to gain something from Him. They seek to use God to achieve their objectives. Such a person leaves and forsakes God when he sees that God no longer blesses or perfects him. See, does such a person have a heart that truly loves God? God reveals this kind of person in His work and the person’s ugliness would be exposed. “So, he is such a person.” Therefore, a person who loves God is a man after His heart. God is pleased with him because he has humanity and has conscience and rationality. Those who cannot love God are inhuman because they have no conscience and rationality. A person who is inhuman is an evil person. An evil person is an object of God’s punishment rather than one of God’s salvation, much less an object of His perfection. This is the most crucial point.

Christian Movie Trailer "The People of the Heavenly Kingdom" | How to Enter the Kingdom of Heaven

2019 Christian Movie Trailer "The People of the Heavenly Kingdom" | How to Enter the Kingdom of Heaven

The Lord Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). The Lord Jesus told us that only honest people can enter the kingdom of heaven; only honest people can be people of the kingdom. This movie tells the story of the Christian Cheng Nuo's experience of God's work and the course of her pursuit to become an honest person in life.

Cheng Nuo used to be a doctor. Even after believing in God, when she encounters things that impinge on her own interest and face in her day-to-day life, she still can't help but lie and deceive. In the face of trials and tribulations she even develops misunderstandings and gripes about God, but through seeking the truth time after time and undergoing the judgment and chastisement of God's words, she gains an understanding of the root of her dishonesty and her selfish, slippery satanic nature. She begins to focus on pursuing the truth to resolve her tendency to lie and the dishonesty in her heart. Later when she is arrested by the Chinese Communist Party government while performing her duty and suffers devastating torture, she is ready to die before telling a lie and refuses to deny God. She bears a beautiful, resounding witness for God. Cheng Nuo is able to gradually become an honest person, and truly love and obey God. So what really is her story?