In the last gathering, we fellowshipped about what caliber is, as well as how to measure a person’s caliber. How many standards for measuring a person’s caliber did we list altogether? (Eleven.) Repeat these eleven standards once again. (Learning ability, the ability to understand things, comprehension ability, the ability to accept things, cognitive ability, the ability to make judgments, the ability to identify things, the ability to respond to things, decision-making ability, the ability to evaluate and appreciate things, and innovative ability.) These eleven abilities are each one part of the measure of a person’s comprehensive caliber. Last time, we fellowshipped about ten of them, fellowshipping up to the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. For each ability, we fellowshipped about the manifestations of good caliber, average caliber, poor caliber, and having no caliber. People without caliber basically have no strengths, no genuine hobbies or interests. When encountering anything, they have no opinions and no ability to make judgments. They have no ability to identify people, events, and things; they also have no ability to accept anything, and of course they can even less be said to have the ability to respond to things or decision-making ability. Because such people have no strengths, they are even less connected with the ability to evaluate and appreciate things.

Regarding the ability to evaluate and appreciate things, in the last gathering, we fellowshipped about part of its content. What does the ability to evaluate and appreciate things mainly refer to? Evaluation refers to what people call discrimination, in the sense of an ability to identify the thoughts, viewpoints, stances, and the advocated themes of people, events, and things. The ability to evaluate and appreciate things mainly involves one’s thoughts and viewpoints with regard to certain issues; that is, things related to the realm of thought. If you have the ability to identify and appreciate these things, then you are a person with the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. If you do not know how to see and fundamentally cannot perceive these issues related to thoughts and viewpoints, then you cannot be considered to have the ability to evaluate and appreciate things—this ability has nothing to do with you. However, when you encounter something, if you can identify the origin of this thing and the purpose behind it, and can identify whether the thoughts and viewpoints it conveys and advocates are correct or not, and can also identify whether these thoughts and viewpoints can hold up, whether they are positive things or negative things, and whether they conform to the developmental laws of things or are close to phenomena within the laws governing all things created by God—if you have this kind of ability to evaluate and appreciate things, then it proves that your caliber is quite good. If the thoughts and viewpoints advocated by this thing, or the direction and goals it promotes, contain errors, distortions, things that do not conform to humanity or to thinking logic, or things that fundamentally do not align with the objective laws governing all things created by God—if you can detect all of this, and you can detect both what is correct and what is incorrect, this is sufficient to prove that you have the ability to evaluate and appreciate things and that your ability to evaluate and appreciate things is high; the fact that you have this ability means that your caliber is very good. For example, when you read an article written by a brother or sister of the church, you can detect whether their understanding of things, their understanding of people’s nature essence, and their understanding of God’s words align with the truth principles, whether the viewpoints expressed in the article are distorted, and whether the perspective and stance they take are correct or incorrect—you can detect all these things. If you can agree with the thoughts and viewpoints within the article that are correct; and if you can also identify and correct the fallacious thoughts and viewpoints within the article, and you know why such thoughts and viewpoints are incorrect, and which aspects of thinking logic or which objective laws of positive things they violate, and, on a deeper level, you can see which aspect of the truth principles they violate that God has admonished humankind about—this proves that your caliber is good. For one thing, if you can see what positive things there are in this article that are worth learning, and you can also assess what positive direction it provides to people, as well as what positive provision, help, and support it brings—and, furthermore, if you can know which adverse, negative, and distorted things the article contains; what fallacious thoughts and viewpoints it contains that may lead people’s thinking in a bad direction, and what negative impacts they might have on people; how these fallacious things should be corrected; and how certain deficiencies should be offset so it can bring greater benefit to people—then this is one manifestation of having the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. For example, in learning dance, when you observe a dance performance, you can detect which movements are very humanized, expressing the thoughts and wishes within humanity, and originate from the perspective of humanity, and are grounded in humanity, and very much conform to the needs of normal humanity’s conscience and reason; and you can detect which movements, facial expressions, and expressive methods of body language, as well as the thoughts advocated within them, are positive and can enrich a person’s spiritual world—you are able to see all these things. You are not merely able to dance or perform some simple movements—rather, you can see the thoughts advocated in a dance performance; you can apprehend the meaning of the thoughts within it, as well as the dance forms employed under the guidance of these thoughts. If the dance’s forms and body language are beneficial to people, and are something you should learn, accept, and draw from—you are able to see and learn these things, and you can accept its positive elements—then this is a manifestation of having the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. Of course, if the dance presents some distorted thoughts that don’t align with humanity, and you can also perceive them, and you can identify where the errors lie, and you also know what is wrong with this form of presentation, and what the guiding thoughts behind it are—if you can see and identify all this, then this is also a manifestation of having the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. After giving these two examples, do you now understand what the ability to evaluate and appreciate things is? Has this standard for measuring whether someone has good caliber and the ability to evaluate and appreciate things been established? (Yes.)

If you see something and know the thoughts and viewpoints it advocates or the perspective and stance it takes, but do not know whether these thoughts and viewpoints are correct or incorrect, then you do not have much ability to identify things. You might only feel, “This dance is pretty good; this article is pretty good; this film is pretty good; it has artistic value, and its expressive techniques are great,” merely observing and learning about this thing from the perspective of the industry or from the perspective of knowledge, but not being able to determine whether the thoughts and viewpoints advocated by this thing are correct or incorrect, right or wrong, positive or negative; and you might ask such questions as, “Do these thoughts and viewpoints conform to the truth? Does this act align with humanity? Does it conform to the developmental laws of things? Do such people exist? Have such events occurred? Is this a positive thing?” If every sentence you utter ends with a question mark, then you lack the ability to identify things. If you only know the technical, professional, or knowledge-based aspects involved, but when it comes to things on the level of thought, you lack the ability to judge whether they are correct or incorrect, right or wrong, what does this say about your caliber? This indicates you have average caliber. Although you have some ability to evaluate and appreciate things, your ability is limited to appreciating the author’s thoughts from a technical, professional perspective. You can only apprehend or understand why the author did what they did, but you cannot evaluate whether the thoughts and viewpoints they advocate are correct or not, and whether they are positive things, or how big an impact these thoughts and viewpoints have on people once presented, or whether it is a positive impact or a negative impact, or what consequences they bring to people—you don’t know any of this. Based on this level, the caliber of such people is merely average. They can only appreciate but cannot evaluate, and therefore cannot reach the caliber of having the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. Some people, no matter what duty they do, have very poor ability to identify things. They think doing things any way is acceptable. Their viewpoints and attitudes are very murky and completely unclear. No matter what anyone else says, they can accept it, not having accurate viewpoints or principles of practice. As a result, they do not do any duty well. Regardless of what work they undertake, they are especially murky and unclear when it comes to defining and drawing boundaries regarding the positivity or negativity, and the rightness or wrongness, of various thoughts and viewpoints that arise in the course of their work. When people ask them, “This kind of thought or viewpoint has arisen—is it correct?” they say, “People’s minds are free. They should not be confined. There must be diversity—any kind of thought should be allowed to be presented and expressed.” This is their viewpoint regarding the existence of various thoughts. That is, no matter what thoughts or viewpoints arise—whether they are right or wrong, correct or incorrect—they believe they should all be allowed to exist, and that they should be presented freely. They think that, as long as someone thinks some way, as long as someone has some need, as long as there is an audience for some thought or people who endorse it, then there is value in its existence. This thought and viewpoint of theirs is very murky. In the words of nonbelievers, it often exists in a “gray area” without boundaries. These people do not have strict standards or criteria for judging whether things are correct or incorrect. It can also be said that such people have no stance, no real thoughts or viewpoints. Of course, it can also be said that these people have no positive advocacy regarding anything. So then, can such people accept the truth? Can they understand the truth? It really is hard to say. Having poor caliber is problematic. When people with poor caliber encounter the appearance of two thoughts or viewpoints at the same time, they have no opinion of their own; they do not know which is correct and which is incorrect. Whichever side is more forceful, they follow that side. This is called having no stance. Such people are muddled individuals. We won’t discuss how the pursuit of their humanity is or how their character is—just speaking in terms of their ability to evaluate and appreciate things, for people like this, their caliber is just average. Why do I say this? Because although their caliber enables them to appreciate certain things on the level of thought, they lack the ability to evaluate the authenticity of things and to identify whether things are right or wrong, correct or incorrect. Therefore, their caliber is classified as average. Because when it comes to evaluating things, their thoughts, viewpoints, and stances are very murky, and they don’t have positive things as a basis or criterion, they can do some good things but also some bad things. They can do some relatively correct things that benefit others and assist humanity, but at the same time, they can do things that harm others and have an adverse influence on them. Therefore, the caliber of such people is just average. For example, suppose there is a film in which the thoughts advocated by the director are relatively positive and relatively humane, and are things that relatively align with humanity’s needs—needs that are justified in today’s society, such as democracy, freedom, human rights, and other positive things—and through the film, the director brings out these things deep within human thoughts to help people come to know them. If a person of average caliber watches this film, they can recognize that those thoughts are good and correct. They can see that those thoughts are relatively popular and revered in today’s society; they can perceive the correctness of the thoughts advocated by the director. But if, in this film, the director also advocates some relatively niche thoughts—things that most adults and people with comprehension ability would not think of, which are very extreme and, it can even be said, things that are rarely seen or almost impossible to happen according to the normal developmental laws of things—then people with an average ability to evaluate and appreciate things would not be able to discern them when watching the film. They would think, “These particular thoughts advocated by the director are not wrong. Even if these are things liked and embraced by only a small number of people, these thoughts should still be revered in today’s society; they should be made public so everyone can know and accept them.” You see, regardless of whether the things advocated by the director in the same film are positive, or have a negative influence on people, they will accept them and even particularly appreciate them. For them, there is no clear or definite distinction between correct and incorrect. Therefore, they can accept the positive things in this film, and they can also accept the negative things. Since they can accept these things, they will also apply them. They will incorporate these things into works that express their own thoughts and viewpoints, or instill them into others in daily life, influencing others. Of course, the positive things will have a good effect on people, while the negative things will definitely have a negative effect on people. Therefore, such people will also do some bad things while doing good things. That is, when you are hungry, they will, for example, give you a bowl of porridge, but it will not be clean and will be mixed with some sand, and eating it for a long time will be detrimental to your health. Or they will give you a bowl of food, but it will be mixed with things like flies and mosquitoes. You may find it tasty, but it contains some bacteria that are harmful to the body. Though such people will have resolved your hunger and filled your stomach, they will also have brought some adverse effects to your body. In the same way, if you lack discernment, then when you watch a work, you are very likely to accept some incorrect thoughts and viewpoints from it, being misled and poisoned by it. Therefore, possessing the ability to identify things is also very important. These are the manifestations of people with average caliber, in terms of their ability to evaluate and appreciate things.

The next level is people with poor caliber. People with poor caliber have no ability to evaluate and appreciate things. That is, when they see anything, they do not know which thoughts and viewpoints are correct to have, nor do they know what angle or stance is correct to assume. They even do not know what kinds of incorrect thoughts and viewpoints people hold in this matter, or what thoughts people used to be governed by when facing such matters—this involves thinking logic, and people with poor caliber simply fall short of this, so it is out of the question that they are able to appreciate things. Only after one is able to appreciate things can it then be said how their appreciation of things is or whether they have the ability to evaluate things. If they cannot even appreciate things, it doesn’t even make sense to discuss whether they have the ability to evaluate things. For example, after reading an article, some people say: “This article uses flowery language, is expressed very smoothly, and is quite humorous. The article is wonderfully written!” Someone asks: “What thoughts and viewpoints did the author aim to express in this article? What is their attitude toward people, events, and things of this type?” “Oh, there’s an attitude? It also involves thoughts and viewpoints? I didn’t notice that. Anyway, I think their article is well written, and I enjoyed reading it.” The other party asks: “Then which thoughts and viewpoints that they expressed did you enjoy? Do you know which paragraph or story expresses what kind of thoughts and viewpoints of the author, and what the central idea of the article is?” They say: “I haven’t figured that out yet.” They read it two or three more times and still only feel that the article is well-written and eloquent. As for what thoughts and viewpoints it expresses, they cannot perceive this. This exposes how their caliber is, doesn’t it? If they read this article and cannot perceive what thoughts and viewpoints the article explains, it can only be said that they lack the ability to evaluate and appreciate things and are a person with poor caliber. If the article contains clear language that already explains the correct thoughts and viewpoints and they still cannot perceive this, this proves that their caliber is extremely poor. They can only say, “The article is well written, the language is smooth, and the writing style is good,” but they do not know or understand whether the facts discussed in the article are objective, what it makes readers feel, or what readers can learn and draw from it—they would still need to ask the author. This completely proves that such people have poor caliber. How is their poor caliber exhibited? Their poor caliber is exhibited in their not understanding what thoughts and viewpoints are, and not understanding how to appreciate things, and of course, even more so in their being wholly unable to evaluate things. Collectively, this is referred to as lacking the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. The way people who lack the ability to evaluate and appreciate things are worse than those with average caliber is that they not only lack the ability to evaluate things but even lack the ability to appreciate things. Therefore, when it comes to things at the level of thoughts and viewpoints, thinking logic, or whether something aligns with humanity or the objective laws of things, they cannot see through them and do not know how to appreciate them. They cannot even perceive whether this article explains any thoughts or viewpoints, let alone identify whether the thoughts and viewpoints are correct or incorrect. It is only because they have been to school that they can read things related to words, knowledge, technical skills, and professions, but they remain at the level of being able to read, watch, and listen to things without being able to appreciate them. Such people are those with poor caliber. People with poor caliber can talk about things related to the level of technical skills and professions or knowledge, such as which famous person’s work something is, which famous person’s famous quote is cited, which style of expression has been referenced, or which technical skill or profession was utilized to achieve it—they can perceive these things. However, they do not understand the concepts being advocated and expressed on the basis of the level of these professions and technical skills or knowledge, as well as what the concepts, bases, or fundamentals behind the design and presentation of these things are. This is what it means to have poor caliber. Such people have one characteristic: They do not know how to ponder or think about issues. They do not know how to identify, judge, or come to know the root cause and essence of the phenomena caused by something, or the future direction of the development of these phenomena and the impact they will have on people, events, and things. Such people do not have normal thinking. The things they can understand and the life experience they can grasp are extremely limited. No matter what complex matters they encounter, they cannot understand them or see through them. That is, they can only think about the words they hear and the text they see on the surface concerning something, as well as the outward forms and methods involved, reaching only this level. As for deeper aspects, such as the relationships, logic, and mutual influences between various things, they neither think about them nor are they capable of thinking about them. Some people even think about something to the point of losing their appetite, losing sleep, or becoming depressed, and they still cannot see through it. This is what it means to have poor caliber. The measure of whether a person has the ability to evaluate and appreciate things depends on whether, when encountering a matter, they can make judgments to come up with several possibilities regarding the complex relationships, connections, or mutual influences among various things, as well as the subsequent effects they might achieve. If a person can only say what someone said or did, merely recounting what they heard or saw without any discernment and without being able to perceive any issues, this indicates that they do not have normal thinking. People who lack the ability to think lack the ability to appreciate things, and, of course, they also lack the ability to evaluate and appreciate things, and they do not know how to think. So why do we need to discuss this ability? If people lack the various abilities to appreciate the material world, these people’s caliber is poor. They do not know how to think and their thinking lacks logic, so such people lack the ability to comprehend the truth. This is because the truth, in one respect, involves various aspects of issues in people’s real lives; at the same time, it also involves the various principles that people should practice to cast off their corrupt dispositions. Of course, it even more so involves the various types of single-faceted or complex, multifaceted problems that people encounter in real life and the relationships between them. Whether it is about a single truth or multiple, interconnected truths, no truth is a regulation; rather, they are principles or criteria for measuring a category of things. Speaking of principles and criteria, they are not regulations or formulae like one plus one equals two. Since they are not formulae, when encountering matters in real life, people must be able to ponder and seek which problems of humanity are involved, whether the revelations of humanity in this aspect contain elements of a corrupt disposition, and what states and revelations exist for the same type of corrupt disposition, as well as which aspects of the truth people should practice and adhere to in order to transform it—this all needs to be understood by people. If you only know the words of the truth but do not know what the principles spoken of in this aspect of the truth are, then you will not know how to correlate it with real-life things, nor will you know how to practice the truth. If you do not have the ability to comprehend the truth, you will not be able to correlate it with the problems that exist in yourself or with the problems you encounter in real life. You will not know how many aspects of the truth are involved, what the path of practice and entry is, or what problems you should resolve. Of course, it is out of the question that you will be able to view people and things or conduct yourself and act based on God’s words, or that you will be able to adhere to the truth principles or practice according to the truth principles. If you lack the ability to appreciate certain people, events, and things related to human life, have no thoughts or viewpoints about them, and fundamentally cannot grasp things related to the level of thought, having no ability to appreciate them and even more so having no ability to evaluate them, it can be said that you do not have the ability to comprehend the truth. If you do not have the ability to comprehend the truth and are unable to understand the truth, what will you use to change the defects in your humanity and to cast off your corrupt dispositions? If you do not have the ability to comprehend the truth, you will not know which truth principles are involved in the matter before you. Of course, you will not know what truth principles you should adhere to either. In that case, you will act blindly—either following regulations, or acting based on notions and imaginings, or otherwise recklessly committing misdeeds. Not understanding the truth leads to these consequences, these manifestations.

When it comes to the topic of the ability to evaluate and appreciate things, even if it does not involve the issue of pursuing the truth to cast off corrupt dispositions, in terms of human life itself, if you do not possess the ability to appreciate things, you have no viewpoints on anything you see, nor any opinions at the level of thought—looking at everything as though there were a layer of gauze covering your eyes, being unable to see that there is a problem there—and you only know the process of the unfolding of the entire event or the people, events, and things involved, but you do not know what the essence of the problem is, or what the related thoughts and viewpoints of people are, then this indicates you are a person with poor caliber. This is because you have no thoughts whatsoever regarding all the problems in your life. You do not know how to consider, think, or define the problems at the level of thought. You do not know how to consider, based on your own age, the maturity of your humanity, or your past experiences, what kind of problem something actually is, what you should learn and draw from it, what impact it has on you, what lesson it brings to you, from what perspective you should view and handle this kind of problem, or how you should act and what you should avoid if you encounter this kind of matter again. You lack all of these reflections. No matter what happens to you, you are as simple-minded as an animal and have no viewpoints. No matter how old you live to be or how much you have experienced, you still do not know how to think about problems. You do not know how to use your own past experiences, your knowledge, and what you have learned to reflect on problems in various aspects. People like this are those with poor caliber. For people with poor caliber, never mind having entry into the truth—even in trivial matters of daily life, they cannot summarize any patterns. Even if they live to be forty or fifty, or seventy or eighty years old, they are still muddleheaded people who cannot share any experiences. Such individuals are slow-witted people, who have no thoughts. Because their caliber is poor and they lack the ability to evaluate and appreciate things, no matter how old such people live to be, they never look at anything at the level of thought. They do not know how to view things and cannot see through anything. Therefore, when assessing someone’s caliber, specifically whether they have the ability to evaluate and appreciate things, do not look at their age or their past experiences. Instead, what should you look at? (We should look at whether they have thoughts.) That is, you should look at whether, after they have experienced various people, events, and things for forty or fifty years, they have any personal apprehension at the level of thought, as well as whether their past experiences involve the value of human life, the path that people take, or things related to the depths of human thought and their spiritual world. If their experiences only pertain to certain matters and do not involve things at the level of thought, then they do not possess the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. For example, some people often say, “In our generation, we lived hand to mouth. It wasn’t easy eating something good; we could only eat some meat during the New Year or other festivals. People from our generation were so simple and guileless, and we dressed so plainly.” They go on about such things as these. To which others say, “Why is your generation so worth reminiscing about? Are there things that we young people can draw from and that we can communicate about at the level of thought?” They reply, “In our time, when we went to the battlefield to fight, we went for days without sleeping because we had to march continuously. Sometimes we didn’t have a single meal all day. When we reached the camp, the new recruits would go straight to sleep, but we veterans would eat first and then sleep. Otherwise, we’d have to hit the road again after mealtime, and we’d end up going hungry on the road.” The others say, “This is just an incident; it doesn’t count as something at the level of thought. Share something that is worth us young people learning, or some lessons that can help us avoid taking detours, and prevent us from making mistakes or committing low-level errors due to foolishness.” They say, “At that time, we weren’t like young people nowadays who are lazy, gluttonous, and love ease while hating work. Back then, we just wanted to endure more hardship, do more work, and perform well so that we could gain the attention of our leaders and get promoted.” Is there anything at the level of thought in these words? (No.) After hearing this, does it make you feel like these are the words of a spiritual mentor, the kind of inspirational talk that nonbelievers say? Does it broaden your thinking, elevate your level of thought, enhance your ability to be cognizant of things, or help you discover some new things or correct thoughts and viewpoints that you had never thought of before? (No.) Then do such people have the ability to evaluate and appreciate things? No matter how you ask them about matters involving the level of thought, you won’t get anything out of them. It’s not really that they are unwilling to speak; it’s that they simply don’t have anything inside. This is what it means to have poor caliber. Even when they reach fifty or sixty years old, they have no thoughts or viewpoints; they just muddle through life like this. They do not know that living is not only about pursuing prospects, a good family, a good job, or a good life, but that there are also matters at the level of thought that require reflection, pondering, and constant summarization within the depths of the heart. They do not know that on the path of human life, people will encounter many unknown things, nor do they know how they should face them. When nothing happens to them, they do not think or contemplate in advance to avoid taking detours or going down the wrong path. They also do not know why they acted a certain way in some things they have experienced, whether acting that way was right or wrong, or how they should walk the path ahead to live happily, live with peace of mind, and live a life of value, not living in vain. Because such people have poor caliber, they do not think about these issues. When these people reach sixty years old, they just sit there reminiscing, saying, “When I was young, I was beautiful and talented; so many people pursued me! Ah, in my youth….” They only ever bring up stories from their glory days, those things that are not worth mentioning. People with poor caliber, no matter how old they live to be, do not think about issues related to human life, the path people take, or how people should live. They do not think about what kind of viewpoints people should have when dealing with various matters. As a result, no matter how they live, their level of thought will not improve, their thoughts will lack substance, their spiritual world will remain impoverished, and they will have no genuine life experience. This is what it means to have poor caliber. When you interact with such people, at twenty years old, they are quite childish and simple, they are full of sap and have a big temper. By the time they are thirty, they are still the same rotten way. At fifty, the way they speak is still at the same level—they only know how to say a few simple phrases. Their faces have more wrinkles and age spots, and they have more white hair. They clearly have some age, but they have no thoughts or viewpoints. When conversing with others, they never have anything to say. All these years of their life have been wasted, and they have made no progress. People with poor caliber are like this in life, and if they believe in God, their manifestations from beginning to end are the same. When they first believe in God in their twenties, they are like this. By the time they are thirty or fifty, they are still like this, having realized no progress at all. The things they say are still the same as before. It’s just that they’ve experienced some things while believing in God, have come to understand some words and doctrines, and can speak spiritual terminology more completely. However, they have no real experiential understanding. Their thoughts still lack depth, their viewpoints on things have not changed, their knowledge of God and the truth has not increased, and their knowledge of themselves has not grown. They haven’t undergone any change, right? (Right.) Accumulating some words and doctrines or spiritual terminology through memory or the tempering of time is not change, is not progress, and it certainly is not gain. This is precisely the manifestation of people with poor caliber. No matter how many major ups and downs they go through, or how many setbacks, failures, or frustrations they experience, they do not learn any lessons or gain any experience, and cannot obtain anything beneficial. Once something is over, it is simply over for them—they only go through the process and ultimately achieve nothing. Such people can be described as very pitiful. We say that such people have very poor caliber precisely because they lack the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. Even less can it be said that they have any ability to comprehend the truth, nor can they be said to have any change.

For people with poor caliber, in terms of the ability to evaluate and appreciate things, they do not measure up. As for those without any caliber, they lack the ability to evaluate and appreciate things even more—they cannot appreciate things, and even more so they cannot evaluate them. When you share your thoughts and viewpoints about something, people with poor caliber will be stunned as they listen, showing no reaction. In their hearts, they think, “There are thoughts and viewpoints in this? How come I didn’t perceive this?” Even if they can understand a little of what you say, they can only listen to it as words and doctrines or a formula. As for people without caliber, when they hear others fellowship about the thoughts and viewpoints within something, or the essence of the problem and the stance people should take in regard to it, they cannot understand it. They only feel that it is somewhat profound, but it is beyond their grasp. The more you fellowship about thoughts and understanding, the more confused they become. They feel, “How has this ordinary matter become complicated? Why can’t I make out anything about thoughts, viewpoints, or stances? What stance? We just have to believe in God properly and do our duties properly, and God will approve. Why is it that the longer one believes in God the more complicated things get? Listening to you, it sounds like no one can enter the kingdom!” Can you communicate with such people? (No.) Not only can you not communicate with them, but they can also say some unreasonable things: “Are those thoughts and viewpoints you mentioned really so good and so correct? I don’t think so! People can never do without money. People should always eat well and enjoy good things. Without money to spend or good food to eat, how can anyone do their duty?” What kind of logic is this? They say, “You are always talking about human life, about people’s values, thoughts, and viewpoints, and the path people take. Why don’t you talk about eating and dressing? Why don’t you talk about how to take care of your body so you can do your duty well?” What they are thinking about are these things—can they still comprehend the truth? You simply cannot communicate with such people. When you try to talk with them, they just talk about making money. They treat earning money, living their life, pursuing the world, and spending their lives eating, drinking, and enjoying themselves as the major matters of human life and the path that people should walk in life. As for what people should pursue or gain by believing in God, these things do not exist in their thoughts or consciousness. They believe that no matter how many years people believe in God, they still need to eat and live, and that to live well, you cannot do without money—having money means having a good life, and without money, life cannot go on. This is their logic; such people are prone to distortions. People who are prone to distortions have no correct thoughts or viewpoints; they are like people without souls. What difference is there between the lives of such people and those of pigs or dogs? (There is no difference.) If you try to educate a dog or cat to make it obedient and act like a well-behaved child, can it understand? (It cannot.) What can a dog at most understand? If you tell it “sit” and then give it a piece of meat, it will remember. After that, as soon as you say “sit,” no matter how far away it is, it will immediately sit down and wait for you to feed it meat. A dog can remember this mechanical action; as long as you let it know that sitting leads to a reward, it will obey. Its thoughts are that simple. So, how big is the difference between the thoughts of people without caliber and those of animals? (There is no significant difference.) After animals finish eating each day, they go out to play. When it’s time to eat again and you call them back, they immediately come running. Whether you tie them up or have them sit, they will comply. Why is that? Because there is food to eat. They are more than happy to obey your commands for the sake of that little bit of food. The thoughts of animals are this simple. To them, it is enough to hold to a regulation or formula that benefits them; they do not think about much else. Because the instincts God gives to animals are limited to these things, which are sufficient to sustain their survival, and God has not given them any commission, animals do not need to consider life, the future, their destination, or their responsibilities and obligations. They also do not need to consider what path to take or pursuing a meaningful life, and so on. But people are different. God has endowed people with various instincts and also bestowed the truth to be their life. Therefore, God has required standards for people. Thus, people should consider these issues; only doing this is conducive to their gaining the truth to be their life. This is the responsibility and obligation that people should have, and it is, of course, also their right. But if you cannot exercise this right or lack this ability to think about issues, it proves that your caliber is very poor. Among living beings at the level of humans, you belong to the category of those with poor caliber. You cannot think for yourself, and even when others explain things to you, you cannot understand. In more severe cases, you resist, mock, ridicule, or even criticize others. If your caliber is poor to this extent, it means you have no caliber at all. For example, a person without caliber reads an experiential testimony article, and you ask them, “Is this article good?” They say, “It’s quite good. Each paragraph is divided accurately, and the punctuation is mostly accurate. The first paragraph explains the time and place, the second paragraph explains the background of the characters, the third paragraph starts narrating the course of the story, and then it moves to the climax and conclusion.” If you then ask them what the author’s thoughts and viewpoints are, they say, “There are thoughts and viewpoints? The section of God’s words that the author quoted are the thoughts and viewpoints.” You ask, “Are the words of God that they quoted relevant? Are the thoughts and viewpoints they want to express accurate?” They say they don’t know. Then you ask questions like, “Is the understanding that the author shared genuine and practical? Is what they understand doctrine, or is it close to reality? Does it edify others or have value to them? Does it provide help or benefit to the readers?” They don’t know any of this and cannot perceive it. This is what it means to have very poor caliber. If you fellowship with them about the errors in the thoughts and viewpoints in the article, which parts are practical and which parts are not, they still don’t know and cannot connect it to the article. Does this show a lack of caliber? (Yes.) Even when others fellowship about the problems that exist, they still don’t know. Doesn’t this show a lack of caliber? It’s like some church leaders: When evil people or disbelievers appear in the church, they don’t know how to handle them. After you fellowship the truth principles with them, they don’t understand and ask you to give an example. After you provide an example, they still don’t know how to handle them. They say, “Please teach me. How exactly should I handle that person? Should I place them in an ordinary church, place them in a B group, or clear them out? How should I fellowship with that person? Please explain it to me word by word. I’ll record it and then follow it verbatim to handle the situation—that way, I can do it.” With them being this way, what’s the point of fellowshipping principles with them? Even when you give examples, they don’t understand and cannot handle the matter. Such people simply have no comprehension ability. In the end, they still ask, “Tell me what I should do about this present issue, and I’ll do it.” You tell them where to go to handle the matter, what to say to whom to get it done, and to what extent the matter must be handled to be considered thoroughly resolved. After you finish explaining, they seem to understand, but they still can’t handle it, and you have to find someone to cooperate with them to complete it. Such people are extremely slow-witted and lack caliber. For example, suppose that you tell people learning dance that the steps of a certain dance are very good and have them follow a video to learn them. After a few days, when you ask how they’ve progressed, some slow-witted people will say they couldn’t tell which steps were good. Even though they have teaching materials, they still can’t learn it. They don’t know which movements are good or which ones are useful, and they don’t know how to choose. What do they ultimately do? They have one tactic; they say, “Just pick a few dance steps for me to learn, and I’ll follow them—end of story.” They do have this knack; while they don’t understand principles, they have a bit of shrewdness. Aren’t they just like robots? They may have knowledge and education, but they lack the ability to evaluate and appreciate things—this is what it means to have no caliber. They don’t know why they should learn what you tell them to learn. For the things you tell them not to learn, they don’t know what’s wrong with them or why they shouldn’t learn them. Even after being told, they still can’t see it. Tell Me, do such people have caliber? (No.) Lacking the ability to be cognizant of things on their own, and lacking the ability to independently identify and judge right from wrong—this is what it means to have no caliber. Like cattle or horses, they always need someone to lead them along—are they not just tools, then? If you had caliber, would you still need someone to lead you along? What do you have a brain for, then? Your brain is useless. To put it precisely, you have no caliber. You have to listen to others and be led along by them—you are just a tool. No matter how long people like this study a certain profession or how many principles related to it they hear, they still cannot understand or grasp them. In the end, they don’t know how to apply or implement these principles. These are the kind of people with the poorest caliber—those who have no caliber. Some people say, “Don’t think that just because they lack the ability to evaluate and appreciate things and always follow your lead in doing their duty, it means they have poor caliber. In fact, they only lack caliber when it comes to comprehending the truth. When it comes to matters involving their own interests, they always think of every which way to protect themselves from suffering any loss. In these things, they are sharp—they are definitely not slow-witted people. In the church, they seem slow-witted, but if they were to return to the world, they would not be slow-witted. In the things they enjoy, they have thoughts and created works; perhaps they could have some success.” There are also people who commit reckless misdeeds in the church, and everyone says they have poor caliber, but they themselves are unconvinced: “You say I have poor caliber, but if I were in the nonbelieving world, I could still make money and earn a living. I could still flourish—it’s not a given that I’d do worse than others!” Does the nonbelieving world measure everything by the truth principles? Does it rely on God’s words as a foundation? If not, then even if their created works can hold up in the nonbelieving world, it does not prove that they have caliber. For instance, some people paint, and at first glance, the colors, composition, lighting, proportions of the figures, and other aspects of their paintings seem quite good. However, when they paint certain ancient saints in God’s house, problems arise. I say, “This painter’s works used to sell quite well among nonbelievers, and people appreciated them. But why do I find their depictions of Abraham, Job, and Noah so awkward? How did these three people from different periods end up looking like they all belong to one family? Those were ancient Israelites, and the bone structure of their facial features should reflect the characteristics of that ethnic group. Even if they don’t know the personality of each figure, at the very least, they should understand what the skeletal structure and features of that ethnicity are like. No matter which period the person they’re painting belongs to, their ethnic characteristics should be emphasized and made evident through their hair, facial features, eye color, and face shape.” Yet how is it that the figures they painted from these different periods, despite being of different ages, all have bone structures that don’t resemble those of their ethnic group? They all have rectangular faces; the younger ones just have fewer wrinkles and darker hair, while the older ones have more wrinkles, darker skin, and more white hair. The features of these figures are basically all the same: broad, rectangular faces, tall statures, and particularly strong builds. I say, “Why do all these figures look the same? They are too similar and lack distinguishing features.” The painter themselves doesn’t notice the problem. Perhaps they’ve painted too many works of this kind, their technique has become too polished, and their style has become fixed. Whenever they paint figures, the men almost always have the same face shape, and they can’t capture the unique facial features of different characters. Isn’t their ability to evaluate and appreciate things a bit poor? (Yes.) After finishing the painting, they don’t know whether the facial features they’ve depicted align with the skeletal characteristics of that ethnic group; they aren’t sure about those characteristics. Would you say their caliber in this area is average or poor? (Poor.) Can they correct it after others give them suggestions? Once, I gave them suggestions, but when I later saw their work, it was still the same. At that point, there’s nothing more to say—explaining further would still be beyond their grasp.

When it comes to issues related to people’s ability to evaluate and appreciate things, these are the manifestations of people across different levels of caliber. People with good caliber can not only appreciate things but also evaluate them. Those with even better caliber, upon encountering correct thoughts and viewpoints, will advocate for them and share or provide them to others, and when they encounter incorrect thoughts and viewpoints, they can identify and correct them. People with average caliber have a certain ability to appreciate things but lack the ability to evaluate things—they cannot identify things at the level of thought. People with poor caliber do not understand things at the level of thought, so they cannot be said to have any ability to identify things. People without caliber cannot understand these matters at all. Even if someone explains these to them, they still cannot understand what the thoughts and viewpoints being discussed actually are. To them, it’s like hearing a story about another planet—it’s completely beyond their grasp. These are the different characteristics displayed by people of varying caliber in terms of the ability to evaluate and appreciate things.

The eleventh standard for measuring a person’s caliber is innovative ability. Innovative ability is the creative ability you possess based on the understanding you have after you know the fundamentals, principles, and laws of something. This creative ability refers to improving this thing on its original foundation, developing it, enlarging its scope of influence, or turning it into a new generation of a certain thing—this is called innovative ability. Specifically, it means that on the premise of accurately grasping the objective laws of a certain thing, you can apply them to real life, enlarge and broaden their scope of application, and allow these fundamentals and principles which conform to the developmental laws of things to serve more people, so that more people receive benefit and help from it. For one thing, you are sustaining these fundamentals and principles, constantly enlarging their scope of influence and their audience. Additionally, you are transforming them from a literal presentation into a tangible thing that people can gain real benefit from in a more practical manner and by going a step further. This is what it means to have innovative ability. If a person, on the foundation of the family environment and growth background they have, and the knowledge they acquire, can accurately grasp the fundamentals, principles, and developmental laws of something, know how to apply these fundamentals and principles, and how to turn these fundamentals and principles from theory into tangible things—not stopping at the level of words and doctrines, but applying them to real life, making them part of people’s lives and turning them into results that serve people, allowing people to gain benefit and help from them, and making people’s lives more facilitated and convenient—if one can achieve this level, they are a person with innovative ability and a person of good caliber. That is to say, if you can, on the basis of understanding the fundamentals of the developmental laws of things and the truth principles, realize the promotion, sustaining, expansion, or renewal of a thing—if you have this ability or can accomplish any one of these, and can allow the fundamentals and laws of a positive thing or the principles of the truth to be implemented, materialized, and expanded among people—then this proves that your caliber is good. Even if you cannot bring it to a deeper level, at the very least, if you can sustain, expand, and materialize it, and can enlarge its positive influence, then this proves that you are a person with innovative ability. If you do not possess this ability, and you only have the ability to comprehend the laws of positive things, but this comprehension ability only remains at the level of literal and theoretical comprehension, and you cannot implement or materialize them with people, nor can you make them serve people and benefit them, then you do not have innovative ability. You must be able to practically operate and apply the fundamentals, principles, laws, and rules—only then can you be said to have innovative ability. Only those who possess this ability are people of good caliber. For example, some leaders and workers or supervisors can implement the principles and provisions of God’s house right after they understand them. They implement the truth principles of each item of work with God’s chosen people, helping more people understand the truth and making it so the church’s work proceeds in an orderly manner—that is, so that it circulates positively within the scope of the principles, continually developing and advancing, without deviation. What result do people see from this? Everyone does what they should within the scope of this work, everyone understands the principles and acts according to the principles, the work does not deviate, and this work continually produces new results or new pieces of work. Even if special circumstances arise in the process, the supervisors will know how to handle them flexibly according to the fundamentals, provisions, and principles of the work. Under their leadership, this work continually proceeds in an orderly manner and basically does not stop. That is, no matter what situation may arise, no matter who may come to disturb or spread any fallacies, it will not affect the orderly progress of the work; the work continually moves forward. Can it be said that the fundamentals of this work and the truth principles in this regard are being continuously sustained? (Yes.) Through the implementation, sustaining, and advancement of the fundamentals and principles of this work, this work has not been interrupted; it is continually implemented and sustained in an orderly manner, and at the same time, good work results emerge in different periods. The influence of these work results is continuously enlarging, and more and more people are benefiting from them. Those who benefit are, in fact, benefiting from the various principles, fundamentals, and even rigid provisions of the work arrangements that these supervisors can comprehend and accept. This is what it means to have innovative ability. That is, a person of good caliber can continuously implement the work principles and the truth principles that they comprehend and accept into the work they are responsible for and implement them with everyone, enabling the work to proceed in an orderly manner or move forward. At the same time, work results will be produced periodically or irregularly; nonbelievers call this “producing works”—that is, work results will continuously appear, and the appearance of these work results will subsequently bring greater influence and reach more people. People who possess this ability can ultimately enlarge the results of the work continuously, so that more and more people benefit. Such people are those with good caliber. To measure your caliber by your innovative ability, it is necessary to look at how, after comprehending the work principles, work provisions, and truth principles, your ability to implement, advance, and expand them is; that is, how your ability to sustain this work is. Secondly, it is necessary to look at how many people are reached by the work you do, how large the scope of those reached is, how great the degree of influence is, and how the efficiency and results of your work are. If your work efficiency is high, your work results are good, and the scope of those reached continuously enlarges, then your caliber is good. If the number of people reached is small, work efficiency is low, results are poor, and there is constant rework, stoppage, and patching of loopholes, then your caliber is average. If a person comprehends the work principles, work arrangements, and other aspects quite well and quickly, but their progress in implementation is very slow and their efficiency is very low—under normal circumstances, results could be produced in one month, but they take three months or even six months, and the results produced are still very average, the number of people reached is small, and the benefit to people is not significant—such a person is of average caliber.

Some people, after understanding certain principles or fundamentals, only apprehend the literal meaning at the time and cannot relate it to the people, events, or things in their work that involve these principles or fundamentals whatsoever. They merely listen to the principles and fundamentals as regulations or doctrines, and after hearing them, they make no plans in their hearts and do not know how to implement them or how to apply the work arrangements and the fundamentals or principles they understand to real life. They fundamentally cannot draw any connections between real life and these fundamentals or principles. When it comes to real life or work, they set aside the principles, fundamentals, and the developmental laws of things, are unable to apply them, and simply do whatever they want to do. Let’s not talk for now about whether their humanity is good or bad, or how their character is, or whether they intentionally don’t do something, or whether they don’t want to do something—just in terms of caliber, such people have poor caliber. No matter where they go, they can speak a lot of doctrines, talk about some fundamentals, and discuss some so-called developmental laws of things with others. They seem to have quite a high level of thought and to have comprehension ability, and they appear to have some caliber. However, when they are assigned an item of work, one or two months pass with no results, and no updates are heard from them. At the time of expressing their resolve, they spoke very well, but when it comes to actually doing it, they don’t know what to do. “The Above explained the principles very clearly, so what should I do now? Who should I appoint as the supervisor, who as the preacher, and who should handle external affairs? I don’t know what to do! But I made bold claims and expressed my resolve, so I have to do it!” They are so anxious that they develop internal heat and get mouth sores, cannot eat or sleep, ending up disheveled and overwhelmed, yet they still don’t know what to do. These are the manifestations of people with poor caliber. Never mind how, when work is arranged for them, they make solemn vows and express their resolve, speaking bold and grand words with such spirit—you have to see whether they can do the work, whether they have steps and plans, and whether they understand how to implement the work arrangements and act according to the principles. If they do not understand or cannot do this, then they have poor caliber. If they only understand doctrines but cannot apply the principles, and just act blindly and recklessly, this also shows poor caliber. As long as you cannot implement the principles, fundamentals, or developmental laws of things effectively and in real life, then regardless of whether you are anxious and flustered or you commit reckless misdeeds, these are manifestations of poor caliber. Are these words accurate? (Yes.) Some people act blindly, while others do not know how to do it and do not dare to do it—they don’t even know where to start. The specific manifestations of people with poor caliber, in terms of their innovative ability, are that they do not know how to apply fundamentals and principles to specific, real work; they are only able to parrot words, learn doctrines, and memorize regulations. Merely memorizing doctrines and regulations is useless, and does not indicate you have innovative ability. Whether or not you have innovative ability is evident by whether you can implement these fundamentals, principles, and rules into real life, doing the work related to these fundamentals and principles well, so that these fundamentals and principles do not remain words and doctrines, regulations, and formulae, but are implemented in people’s lives and applied to people, allowing people to use them and derive benefit and assistance from them, making them become a path for practice in life, or a guide, direction, and goal for living. If a person lacks this innovative ability and knows only how to spout words and doctrines and shout slogans, and is unable to put these principles and fundamentals to use when it comes time to do their duty, those who follow such a leader or supervisor will not gain principles of practice in this aspect of the truth. Such leaders or supervisors are people of poor caliber, incapable of the work, and should be reported and removed once identified. To evaluate whether someone can shoulder an item of work, you must first see if, after they read the work arrangements and understand the truth principles, they can arrange and implement them and get the work going. Regardless of how many people are in a church, if they get all items of the church’s work going, and no matter how many people’s work they are responsible for—whether fifty or one hundred—they can make the work thrive, ensuring everyone has their own place and can work and do their duty according to the truth principles, then such a person can be considered for election as a leader or supervisor. Of course, you must also see what their character is like, whether they are a right person, and whether they are a person who pursues the truth—knowing these things is essential! A leader or worker must at the very least possess caliber and stature in these aspects in order to lead God’s chosen people into the truth reality, and so that everyone can work and do their duty according to the work arrangements or the truth principles—this way, God’s chosen people can benefit from them. If they do not possess this ability, then they cannot be chosen. If you choose such a person, although idling around not doing any work every day while you follow them may bring comfort to your flesh, would you feel fulfilled in your spirit? If you spend a few hours every day in gatherings listening to them preach doctrines but do no actual work, is this doing your duty? (No.) They preach doctrines to you every day, and while your ears may be enriched, you are not doing your duty and are merely following them in aimless muddling. In that case, you have been misled and hindered by them. If you keep listening to them speak those dry words and doctrines, and ultimately do not do your duty or show loyalty, and have no real experience in the truth, not offering loyalty in what God has entrusted to you, not getting the work going or achieving any results—so that when God asks people for results, you have nothing to present—won’t you have suffered a loss? Therefore, if you previously thought such people were candidates for leaders, now quickly change your viewpoint and strike such people from your list of candidates. They must not be chosen as leaders. Where do people with poor caliber and no innovative ability fall short? They fall short in that they only know how to act as armchair generals while never knowing how to apply their ideas to real-life work, and in that they cannot do actual work. What would be the consequences if such people became leaders? They would only make a complete mess of the work. If they served as a church leader in mainland China, they would lead the entire church to ruin. Not only would they fail to gain the truth themselves, but the life of those they led would suffer a loss. If you can promptly identify such people and remove them, some disasters will be prevented, and the church work will not have to suffer losses. But if you remain a follower under such people and accept their leadership, then your hope of attaining salvation may very well be ruined by them, and your opportunity for salvation will then be gone. Therefore, innovative ability is a crucial ability for a leader or worker or supervisor. If you lack the basic caliber and ability to do the work, you absolutely must be cautious and not just charge ahead out of enthusiasm, and you must not always want to stand out and always want to be a leader or supervisor. Doing so not only hinders yourself but also hinders others from attaining salvation. If you only hinder yourself, it’s just your own death you’ve caused, but if you hinder the brothers and sisters, aren’t you harming many people? You might not care about your own life, but others care about theirs. Moreover, hindering your own day-to-day life or financial success is not a big deal, but hindering the work of the church is no small matter. Can you bear such a responsibility? If you are truly someone with conscience and feel that this matter carries significant responsibility, that hindering the work of the church is not something you can bear responsibility for, then you absolutely must not resort to any means necessary to show off and vie for leadership. If you lack the caliber and stature, don’t always strive to stand out. Don’t hinder the work of the church or hinder God’s chosen people from entering into the truth and gaining a good destination just to satisfy your craving for authority—this is an iniquity! You should have some self-awareness. Do what you are capable of doing and don’t always aspire to be a leader. Besides being a leader, there are many other duties you can do. Being a leader is not your exclusive right, nor should it be your pursuit. If you have the caliber and stature to be a leader, and you also have a sense of burden, then it is better to let others elect you. This practice benefits the work of the church and everyone involved. If you lack the caliber to be a leader, you should demonstrate some kindness and take some responsibility for others’ futures. Do not always vie to be a leader and do not hinder others. Wanting to be a leader and take charge of the work of the church despite having poor caliber shows a lack of reason. If you lack the caliber and stature, just do your own duties well. Truly fulfilling your duties shows you have some reason. Do whatever work you can according to your ability; do not harbor ambitions and desires. Do not only seek to satisfy your personal desires while neglecting the work of the church—this harms both yourself and the church. This is the manifestation of people with poor caliber in terms of innovative ability.

People with poor caliber all fall short of having innovative ability—those without caliber, then, possess it even less. Such people cannot understand the fundamentals of things, the developmental laws of things, or the truth principles at all when they hear them. When reading God’s words, even if they can see that these are the truth principles, they cannot connect the principles to their scope of application or to the people and matters they involve. They even think, “This fellowship on the truth is too detailed, and there’s too much of it. Hearing these words, I can understand that they are principles, but I don’t know what the definition of the principles is or what scope the principles delimit.” If they don’t even know the definition of the principles, then they certainly don’t know how to implement or practice them. For example, when something happens that needs to be handled, others tell them: “You should practice according to the principles.” They say: “I don’t even know how to practice according to the principles. I don’t know which principle this matter relates to.” Even after others explain to them the principle they should practice in handling this matter, they still don’t know what to do. Such people have extremely poor caliber; they can’t even understand human language, and even more so are unfit for use. Doesn’t this show that such people are so incompetent as to be beyond help? People who are helplessly incompetent do not possess the thinking and the ability to understand things of normal humanity, let alone thinking logic. Therefore, people who understand the truth principles or various fundamentals and rules have no way of communicating with those who lack caliber; they cannot reach a consensus, and, of course, have no common language. Why can’t they communicate? There is one essential problem, which is that the abilities of these two types of people to be cognizant of, identify, judge, understand, and accept various things are not on the same level or the same track—they’re like two parallel lines that will never intersect. This is speaking in somewhat abstract terms. To put it more concretely, the caliber of these two types of people is worlds apart, and not on the same level. Therefore, they will never have the same ability to make judgments, ability to identify things, or cognitive ability regarding the same matter. That is, what people with good caliber or average caliber can recognize, those without caliber have no recognition of at all—they even more so fall short of this, and they will forever fall short, as if they lack that function. For example, when a hen matures, it naturally lays eggs. Even if its production is low, it will still lay eggs because it has that function. However, no matter how well a rooster is fed, it cannot lay eggs because it does not have that function. The rooster says: “Although I don’t have the function of laying eggs, I can crow in the morning!” No matter how many times you crow or how loud your voice is, it doesn’t mean you can lay eggs. While the hen doesn’t crow, it has the function of laying eggs. Why am I giving you this example? Because, people without caliber will speak such distorted, fallacious, illogical reasoning—this is called having no caliber. Therefore, when people with good caliber, average caliber, or even poor caliber communicate and discuss matters with people who have no caliber, it feels awkward. With people of poor caliber, you can still communicate on certain simple and easily understood matters. But with people who have no caliber, no one can communicate with them, because they have no comprehension ability and no thoughts or viewpoints about anything. This is the description or explanation of people without caliber. When you communicate something with them, even though you explain it thoroughly and clearly, and they may say they understand, nevertheless, when the same thing happens again, they still do not understand and will again speak distorted, fallacious reasoning. Tell Me, can such people understand the truth? (No.) They have no ability to identify or be cognizant of things—how could they understand the truth? Saying they can understand the truth would simply be nonsense. People without caliber lack innovative ability, so their manifestations in this regard are like this. Because they do not understand any fundamentals or principles, they have no planning in anything they do. Their minds have no plan or steps, and even more so they cannot implement any fundamentals or principles. Whatever they do is a complete mess, a total muddle. Such people can only exert physical effort and do manual tasks. They can barely manage a simple, singular job; after all, they are ordinary people, who can engage in a single task, but when the situation elevates to the level of taking on an item of work, they are no longer competent for it. Such people are incapable of doing any valuable or technically demanding work. They can only manage some small jobs like manual labor, farm work, or raising livestock, and even then, they need a supervisor around them to oversee and support them. Sometimes, when they are in a bad mood, someone needs to straighten them out; and when they sometimes get caught up in distortions or become negative, someone has to counsel them in their ways of thinking. Even for minor tasks, someone needs to vet what they do; otherwise, problems and mistakes will arise, and the work will have to be redone. If they’re not wasting materials, they’re wasting energy, or water, electricity, and gas. In Western countries, they are constantly reported by others and fined by the police. Without someone watching them, they cannot even do small jobs properly—they are just this problematic and pitiful. These are the manifestations of people without caliber. Aren’t such people just useless and fools? Can they still be used as humans? In fact, in God’s house, such people can only exert a bit of physical effort. When it comes to church work, they cannot do it; they are incapable of doing anything. Even with jobs that require physical effort, they cannot complete them independently and still need others to instruct, supervise, and vet what they do. But when they do tasks that require physical effort, they still feel it is beneath their talents, that they are overqualified, and they become defiant, even complaining: “Look at those people doing technical computer work, writing articles, singing and dancing, or acting—how glamorous they are! But I can only handle hosting and cooking, dealing with grease and smoke all day. In a few years, I’ll turn into a haggard woman. Look how pitiful I am!” They always feel quite pitiful doing this work, but they never stop to think about why they can only do this kind of work. They do not measure whether they are truly capable of handling other work. It’s because their caliber is poor that they always feel upset when doing some tasks that require physical effort. If their caliber were truly good, they wouldn’t feel upset. Their caliber is already so poor that they can only do physical tasks, yet they still feel it’s beneath their talents. Aren’t they fools? Such people are truly foolish. People of this sort can’t even do tasks that require physical effort properly. When cooking, they either make too much or too little, and no matter how long they cook for, they still don’t know what pattern they should follow in doing so. Even so, they still feel that such tasks are beneath their talents, that they are overqualified, and think they shouldn’t be doing tasks that require physical effort. They believe they should be working in an office as a secretary, shouldering some item of work in God’s house, or at least serving as a church leader. Isn’t this entirely lacking reason? Tell Me, what work are you competent for? If you aren’t competent for any kind of work, and you are given tasks that require physical effort to do while God’s house still provides for you, isn’t this an exaltation of you? And yet you remain dissatisfied. Isn’t your reason far too poor? (Yes.) Is there a relationship between reason and caliber? (Yes.) Not knowing oneself, not knowing what level one’s caliber is at, always thinking one’s caliber is high—aren’t these manifestations of poor caliber? (Yes.) People with good caliber will know how to evaluate themselves, and after evaluating, they will know the level of their caliber. Once they determine what their caliber is, they will be able to find their place in the church. They will feel at ease no matter what they do, and they will be able to rationally approach the duty they do. Even if they are assigned tasks that require physical effort, they will feel at peace and justified in doing so; they will submit and agree to it from deep within their hearts, accepting this job and this task. This is called having rationality. If someone is never at ease when doing their duty, always feeling aggrieved, and thinking that any task they’re asked to do is beneath their talents, don’t they lack reason? (Yes.)

We’ve now finished discussing the last of the eleven abilities for measuring a person’s caliber, innovative ability. After fellowshipping on these eleven abilities, are you somewhat clearer about your own caliber? (Yes.) Are you able to measure it, then? Can you accurately measure what your own caliber truly is? There is a standard of measurement when it comes to determining whether your own caliber is good, average, poor, or nonexistent—you cannot look at only one aspect; it must be measured comprehensively. Then, which aspects should be looked at to measure what a person’s caliber is? Judging from the manifestations of the eleven abilities we fellowshipped, for a person to be measured as having good caliber, at the very least, they must possess several relatively important abilities. Consider for a moment: Which of the eleven abilities are the main ones that can demonstrate a person has good caliber? Can you measure this? The order should move from the last ability to the first: A person with good caliber must at least possess innovative ability; next is the ability to evaluate and appreciate things, decision-making ability, and the ability to respond to things; then comes the ability to identify things, the ability to make judgments, and cognitive ability; finally, there is the ability to accept things, comprehension ability, the ability to understand things, and learning ability. The order is like this. Why is the order reversed? The order we initially arranged was from low to high, but to measure a person with good caliber, it is arranged from high to low. A person with good caliber must at least possess innovative ability. This is reached on the foundation of already possessing decision-making ability, the ability to evaluate and appreciate things, and the ability to identify things. If you are able to be cognizant of, identify, and judge things, and you also possess the ability to understand things, and then you can innovate, that makes you a person with good caliber. Such people are those with leadership ability, capable of entering the decision-making level; they are talented at being leaders, and can preside over a certain area of work. These are people with good caliber. People with average caliber are those whose abilities in all aspects, from innovative ability to learning ability, are all average. Their efficiency and results in doing things are both average. These are people with average caliber. What is a primary manifestation of people with average caliber? It is that their comprehension and understanding of principles lack depth and are not very accurate. When implementing and practicing, there are always loopholes and deviations. They are always missing things, forgetting this and that, and cannot take everything into account comprehensively. For example, they are chosen to be church leaders but are unable to take charge of all aspects of the work comprehensively. When they are responsible for gospel work, they focus only on the gospel work and cannot attend to other work. They may get the gospel work going but have no time to ask questions about text-based work or film production work. Why is this? Because their caliber is thoroughly average and they can only handle one aspect of work; they can barely manage to be competent for one area of work, but once they are asked to also attend to other work, they complain bitterly and become overwhelmed, unable to do any work well. In their work, there always has to be someone supervising, reminding, inspecting, and vetting what they do. There always has to be someone beside them to support them, to fellowship the truth, to repeatedly emphasize the principles of the work and the various deviations and loopholes that are likely to occur. There always has to be someone reminding them. Why is it that they always need someone to remind and give directions to them? It is not because their work experience is inadequate, but because their caliber is average. They cannot anticipate situations and problems that are likely to arise, or what they can anticipate is very limited. Therefore, there always has to be someone beside them to guide, vet, and follow up, frequently needing to check in on them. When checking in, it turns out they either haven’t done this item of work or have forgotten that item of work; otherwise, they have neglected some aspect or do not know how to proceed, yet still don’t know whom to ask or how to seek, and are still waiting. In short, their ability to be competent for work is very average. This “average” has nothing to do with how determined they are, how strong they are, how much they like doing work, or how much they can endure hardship and pay a price—it has nothing to do with these. Rather, it refers solely to their work capability being average. People with good caliber, on the other hand, basically do not make major mistakes in their work. The principles, direction, and overarching framework they follow are basically accurate. Although they may often overlook some small details, these details do not affect the efficiency and results of the overall work. These are people with good caliber. Of course, no human is perfect. Even people with good caliber may have some minor loopholes in their work, sometimes momentarily overlooking something, or slightly neglecting one item of work because they have recently been busy with another. However, just in terms of their caliber, they can quickly turn the situation around and manage and control it, ensuring that the overall work is essentially error-free, and that the overall work is generally carried out in alignment with the truth principles, the work arrangements, or the provisions of the administrative decrees, proceeding in an orderly manner. Even when antichrists or evil people appear to cause disturbances within the scope of their work, because they possess the ability to respond to things, they will quickly handle the situation. They will handle and resolve the matter at the first opportunity, ensuring that the church work quickly gets back on the right track and that the environment for the brothers and sisters to do their duty is not affected. Even when unexpected situations arise, people with good caliber know how to handle them. Even if they have not handled such situations before, they will know how to seek the principles. Because they possess the ability to identify, judge, and be cognizant of things, they will quickly resolve the problems according to principles. They absolutely have the ability to resolve problems. Their abilities to identify things, respond to things, and make judgments enable them to quickly defuse and pacify unexpected situations, achieving the safeguarding of the normal and orderly progress of the church’s work and the safeguarding of the interests of God’s house, ensuring that such situations do not recur or remain unpacified for an extended period. At the same time, both the principles they handle things by and the final results they achieve serve to safeguard the interests of God’s house. High efficiency and good results are what people with good caliber can achieve in their work. However, when people with average caliber handle problems that occur in church work or daily life, they are somewhat overwhelmed and find it a bit difficult. Their handling of problems is often inefficient and very slow. For issues that should be resolved in one or two days, because they cannot see through them, they may have to wait, and they may have to ponder for three to five days. They cannot make decisive decisions to turn the situation around but are instead helpless, and can only let the situation continue to deteriorate. They can only handle some simple tasks, such as verifying facts, asking relevant people about the situation, or sorting out the problems and reporting them upward. Problems that others can resolve in two days may take them half a month. Although the problems are eventually resolved, the prolonged delay causes some losses to the church work. During this time, some people might be misled by antichrists, offerings might be lost, or certain items of work might suffer losses because the problems were not resolved promptly. Although subsequent compensation or recompense is provided, and the people who should be handled are eventually handled, the results and efficiency are very average. It is like firefighting: People with good caliber have a knack for putting out fires, achieving good results and preventing financial losses. However, people with average caliber, due to improper methods, lack of emergency measures, acting slowly, and an inability to make decisive decisions and grasp the key points to resolve the problem, end up causing greater losses. Some people say, “I am willing to provide compensation for the losses I caused.” If it is merely economic loss, compensation can resolve the problem. But if faced with the great red dragon’s arrests and you fail to handle it properly, causing losses to the church’s work, can you compensate for that? Can you afford to compensate for the cost of delayed work and lost time? When unexpected events occur, because the abilities to respond to things, make judgments, identify things, and even decision-making ability of people with average caliber are all average, they thus handle problems slowly and with extremely low efficiency, and their emergency measures are ineffective, which ultimately results in unsatisfactory work results and some losses. Even though the problems are eventually resolved, because prolonged delays occur and efficiency is reduced, this constitutes a loss. Therefore, these people are characterized as having average caliber. Some people say, “That’s not fair. They also put in effort, worked hard, and resolved the problems. How can You still say their caliber is average?” Evaluating such matters cannot be based on emotions or sentiments. Speaking objectively and fairly, and in terms of the level that a person’s caliber can achieve, your caliber is average. Why is it average? Because there are people with higher caliber than you; in situations where their humanity is roughly the same as yours, people with good caliber handle problems with better efficiency and results than you, and the losses are smaller than yours. Therefore, your caliber can only be classified as average. Do you understand? (Yes.) The reason such people are characterized as having average caliber is that there are people with good caliber who achieve better efficiency and results in their actions than they do. Therefore, their caliber is average. This explanation is fair and reasonable. Some people say, “They have sincerity, and they put their hearts into this task; they endured a lot of hardship and paid no small price.” What is the use of saying that? Does that mean they have good caliber? Regardless of what their humanity, emotions, or wishes are like, just in terms of their caliber, these are manifestations of having average caliber.

What are the manifestations of people with poor caliber? Looking at it from the perspective of the various abilities, people with poor caliber relatively possess some learning ability and ability to understand things. When they learn certain knowledge, theories, professional skills, or academic subjects, they can remember them solidly and accurately, noting key points in their notebooks. Because they have received education, their ability to understand things is not too poor; it can reach an average level. However, they do not possess the abilities that come after comprehension ability, such as the ability to accept things and the ability to identify things. That is, their abilities remain limited to learning and understanding theories, knowledge, technical skills, or professions at the textual level. When it comes to viewing people, handling matters, resolving problems, and implementing work arrangements in real life, they fall short. Their abilities remain limited to learning ability and the ability to understand things; they can achieve comprehension ability, but they fall short when it comes to the ability to accept things. People who possess the ability to accept things can know which real-life things these principles, theories, and fundamentals correspond to, as well as which are practical and applicable, which are not practical, and which are suitable for themselves and which are not. People with poor caliber, however, cannot see through these things. For example, there are various health knowledge and fitness training materials available online. People with poor caliber can also learn how to exercise and take care of themselves from these resources. They possess learning ability, the ability to understand things, and comprehension ability, and they also know to find what they like. However, when it comes to which of these things are practical, effective, and truly needed by people, people with poor caliber cannot identify this. They fall short when it comes to the ability to accept things. Today, it says online that spinach stewed with tofu is highly nutritious, so they eat it every day. But after eating it for a while, they have no idea what the effects are like or whether it has the effect claimed online. Later, it says online that spinach and tofu are incompatible, and after hearing this, they never make spinach stewed with tofu again. As for whether spinach and tofu are truly highly nutritious or incompatible, they do not know and will not ask; they only know to follow blindly. Information is highly developed nowadays; various pieces of news are extremely complex. They cannot identify what is right and wrong or what is correct and incorrect. They read and listen to everything, believing that anything they have not heard before, anything novel or seemingly profound, must be good. For example, it says online that eating chocolate is good for the heart, so they eat chocolate every day. As a result, they develop internal heat, get mouth sores, have red eyes, and experience tinnitus. In fact, what was said was that eating chocolate in moderation is good for the heart, but they did not remember the words “in moderation.” They are incapable of grasping the key point and end up harming themselves. A few days later, it now says online: “Eating chocolate is bad for the heart, and eating too much can also cause weight gain.” People who can identify would know that eating too much is bad for the body, but eating in moderation is fine. However, they cannot identify this; after hearing this, they stop eating chocolate altogether. They swing from one extreme to another, either leaning too far left or too far right, yet they think they are on the cutting edge: “Look, whatever the internet says is good, I eat; whatever it says is bad, I don’t eat. I’m someone who keeps up with the trends of the times.” In actuality, they are people with no ability to identify things, muddled individuals who blindly follow the crowd. There are all kinds of information online, and most claims are inaccurate. Of course, there is also a small amount of information and claims that are correct. You need to be able to identify them. As for what information to accept, you must measure it according to your needs, whether it is beneficial to you, and whether the information is positive. People with poor caliber lack the ability to identify such things. They fall short of all the abilities from the level of the ability to accept things onward. They remain limited to learning and understanding things on the textual, theoretical, and knowledge levels, possessing some comprehension ability. However, as for further identifying the correctness of various claims and whether they are valuable and meaningful, people with poor caliber lack the ability to judge and identify this. And then there’s the ability to respond to things, which people with poor caliber likewise do not possess. When it comes to various problems that crop up in real life or on the path of survival, they cannot handle them based on the truth principles they know or have grasped. No matter how many words and doctrines they can speak, these are empty and impractical. For problems occurring around them or on the path of survival, they rely on their own petty tricks to deal with them; they just try to avoid suffering losses, and that’s it, while failing to reach the level of experiencing, apprehending, or verifying the principles they have grasped. Furthermore, those with poor caliber also do not have cognitive ability. That is, when any problem arises, they cannot summarize things or recognize the essence of the matter itself, the root cause behind it, or the consequences it may lead to in the future. People with poor caliber do not know how to think about these things at all, much less apply the truth or the principles and laws of various things they have grasped to face and handle such problems. Because their caliber is poor, their thinking is therefore simplistic and superficial, and their perspective on matters is deviated. Additionally, what’s even more problematic is that they do not know from what perspective they can correctly view things. Therefore, they cannot see through the essence of anything, nor can they judge the correctness or right and wrong of anything. Without judgment, they cannot identify; of course, then, they also have no ability to respond to things, let alone decision-making ability. Some people say, “People with poor caliber also know what to eat and wear every day, and can manage their daily lives.” That’s not what it means to have caliber. Having caliber refers to being able to handle various essential problems encountered in life and on the path of survival according to the truth principles one understands. The various problems encountered in life include evaluating a person, handling a matter, and so on. The problems encountered on the path of survival include facing major issues of right and wrong, the environments arranged for you by God, God’s sovereignty, matters involving prospects and destination and how to choose the road ahead, and so on—all these belong to problems related to survival. If someone has no ability to handle problems that occur in life or on the path of survival, this means they lack decision-making ability. Such people are mentally blank, so talking about the ability to evaluate and appreciate things in regard to them is somewhat unwarranted. Of course, the last ability, innovative ability, is even further beyond the reach of people with poor caliber. It’s like discussing whether the lion or the tiger is the king of beasts. At the very least, both are qualified candidates because lions and tigers each possess the air and the abilities of a ruler among beasts. They each have their own strength, and when matched against one another, they may be evenly matched, which qualifies them to compete for the title of king of beasts. If you compare wildebeests, elk, or yaks to lions and tigers to decide who is the king of beasts, people will laugh at you. Why will they laugh at you? (Because these animals are not comparable.) They are not on the same level, not in the same weight class; they are not comparable. Similarly, people with poor caliber don’t have any thoughts, and they have no ability to appraise and appreciate any person, event, or thing on a mental level. Therefore, it is not even worth talking about whether such people possess the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. The ability to evaluate and appreciate things is relatively advanced and applies to people with good caliber. Innovative ability, then, even more so applies to people with good caliber. Innovative ability is judged by a person’s ability to practically handle anything in real life. People with poor caliber not only lack thoughts and steps in anything they do, but they also don’t have any ability to get things done, so they cannot be said to have any innovative ability. So what abilities do people without caliber have? Most people without caliber share a common characteristic: They have no strengths. In terms of expressive ability, they have none; in terms of any technical or professional strengths, they also have none; even in performing the simplest task, such as cleaning, they have no quick and concise solutions, no steps, and no order. From performing a simple job, you can see just what the characteristics of people without caliber are. The most obvious characteristic of people without caliber is that they lack ability in every aspect. Simply put, they cannot even manage their own human lives or the most basic necessities—these are all in complete disarray and devoid of any principles. The most accurate description of people without caliber is that they cannot accomplish anything and live solely to satisfy their basic daily needs—nothing more. The various manifestations of people with different levels of caliber, along with the characteristics of the caliber and abilities they possess, have all been explained clearly. If you have understood, you will be able to learn how to discern and treat people of different calibers.

Having fellowshipped about what caliber is, as well as how to divide the levels and types of people’s caliber, after you finished listening, did you gain any benefit? (Yes.) Do you truly know your own caliber is poor? (Yes.) Some people with no caliber say: “How is it that I have no caliber? Even if my caliber were average or poor, that would still be fine.” No one is willing to fall into the level of having no caliber, being an idiot, fool, or useless person, but as luck would have it, some people, measuring themselves based on their primary manifestations and the results of doing their duty over these years, truly fall into the level of people with no caliber. Does this make some people negative? When many things are not made clear, people foolishly think, “I have ability, I have capability, I am wise, my caliber is not bad, I am noble, I am someone in God’s kingdom, I am a pillar, a mainstay,” foolishly clinging to their wishful dreams, feeling quite good, quite confident, thinking they have potential and hope; they are not negative, and live with purpose. Once they know the true facts, however, they then become sad, thinking, “Doesn’t this mean I have no hope of receiving salvation?” and fall into a negative state. If these things are not made clear, people are foolishly arrogant; the more foolish a person is, the more arrogant they are, and the more boundless their arrogance becomes. Those who are clever, after accepting the supply of the truth over these years, will reflect and self-examine, will compare the truth to themselves, and gradually their revelations of an arrogant disposition will lessen. The poorer a person’s caliber, the more foolishly arrogant they are. Isn’t there such a saying: “They are nothing, yet they bow down to no one”? This saying is quite fitting; those who are nothing bow down to no one. Why? It is because their caliber is too poor. To what extent? To the extent of having no intelligence, not knowing the extent of their capability, not knowing how their intelligence measures up, not knowing that there are always people better than themselves, and not knowing what good caliber is. And to what extent does their arrogance reach? To the extent that people find it disgusting and nauseating to look at—this is foolish arrogance. “They are nothing, yet they bow down to no one” means they can accomplish nothing, their own affairs in life are a complete mess, they cannot see through anything, they have no thoughts or viewpoints, and they cannot tell whether others’ viewpoints are correct or whether they are accurate, and they just foolishly persist in their arrogance, thinking, “I have ability, I have capability, I am wise, I am better than others!” Tell Me, is it better to let them be foolishly arrogant people who bow down to no one, or to let them know that their caliber is poor, that they are nothing, just fools, useless people, and mentally deficient, so that they become negative? Which do you choose? (Let them become negative, because if they are foolishly arrogant, they are likely to do things that violate principles, and they can disrupt and disturb the church’s work.) If they become negative, they can return to the reason of humanity and be more well-behaved, doing fewer things that disrupt and disturb. This is a protection for them. Although they have not done many things beneficial to others, doing fewer things that disrupt and disturb means they will commit much fewer transgressions and evil deeds, and their likelihood of being punished in the future will decrease, right? (Yes.) Without going into whether they can attain salvation, as that is something relatively distant, will their likelihood of violating God’s administrative decrees and offending God’s disposition decrease? And will their chances of survival increase? (Yes.) Judging from the perspective of these benefits, letting people recognize their own caliber and ultimately realize they have no caliber and become negative actually turns out to be a good thing. Otherwise, when people say, “You are nothing, yet you bow down to no one—this is foolish arrogance!” they simply cannot see through it or recognize it; they become defiant and still think, “My caliber isn’t poor! And you say I’m foolishly arrogant. I’m much better than a fool!” This further proves that they are truly foolish, their intelligence is too low, and even more so they need to accept the fact that they have no caliber. What are the benefits of accepting this fact? It is not to make you negative, but to help you treat yourself correctly and avoid acting foolishly. People are arrogant because they have a corrupt disposition and have no self-knowledge whatsoever. However, some people’s arrogance is normal arrogance. For example, some people have capital from having been imprisoned and endured suffering, they have contributed to the church in certain ways, or they have gifts that make them better than others; because they have an arrogant disposition combined with having some capital, it can still be considered understandable that they reveal arrogance. But if you are nothing, if you fundamentally can accomplish nothing, have made no contributions, and even more so have no strengths, yet you are still arrogant, this doesn’t make sense—it lacks rationality. Now it is made clear to you: You have no caliber, you are nothing, and you do not even have any strengths whatsoever. Your mind is empty, and compared to people with thoughts, your mind lacks content. Though you are human all the same, you fall far short of them; in God’s view, you do not meet the standard of being human. So, what are you still being arrogant about? By the measure of God’s words, you do not meet the standard of being human. In God’s eyes, you should not be treated as a human being. But because God’s grace is immense, God has exalted you, chosen you, and treated you as a human, allowing you to do duty in God’s house. Does God treat you as a human to see you treat God and the truth that He supplies you in such a foolishly arrogant way? To see you treat your duty and your life in this way? No. Since God treats you as a human and tells you the various truths that humans should understand, He hopes you can be a true human, hopes you can accept the thoughts humans should have, and will not be foolishly arrogant. Therefore, being negative is wrong—you should not be negative. Since God has not treated you or ignored you based on your caliber, but instead has treated you as a normal person and used you in this way, you should live up to this grace from God and not disappoint God. Whatever caliber you have and whatever work you can do, just do that work well. Do not try to spout high-sounding ideas, do not do what a person should not do, and do not have extravagant ideas or ambitions that a person should not have. Do what a person ought to do and live up to God’s exaltation. Isn’t this appropriate? Doesn’t this solve the problem of being negative? (Yes.)

Discerning the various manifestations of people with different calibers and providing these specific examples is meant to help you correlate yourself with them. It is so you can accurately identify your own position, rationally approach your own caliber and various conditions, and rationally approach God’s exposure, judgment, and pruning of you, or the work arranged for you, and so that you are able to submit and be grateful from the depths of your heart, rather than show resistance and repulsion. When people can rationally approach their own caliber and then accurately identify their own position, acting as created beings that God wants in a down-to-earth way, doing what they should do properly based on their inherent caliber, and dedicating their loyalty and all their effort, they achieve God’s satisfaction. Since God has given you this caliber and these conditions, God will not force you to do things that are difficult for you, He will not force a fish to live on land. However much God has given you, that is what He has you offer. What God has not given you, He will not demand excessively. If you constantly set overly high requirements for yourself, trying to be a strong person, a superhuman, someone beyond the ordinary, this indicates you have a corrupt disposition—this is ambition. If your caliber is good, you take on more work; if your caliber is average, you can only take on less work. No matter what duty you can do, give it your all, give your loyalty, and act according to principles—do not try to spout high-sounding ideas. Always wanting to prove that you are not an ordinary person, always wanting others to regard you highly—this is wrong. This shows a great lack of self-awareness, not knowing your own measure. If you keep pursuing according to your ambition and desires, things will not end well for you. Therefore, people with poor caliber should not always aspire to be leaders, team heads, or supervisors; they should not aim too high. If your caliber is poor, then just dutifully do the things that people with poor caliber can do. If you lack thoughts and cannot handle any work, do not force it—since God has not given you that caliber, He has not set overly high requirements for you. As for the truth principles, practice them insofar as you can understand and accept them—this is the most important. What you are able to apprehend is what God has given you. Have you applied these things to your duty or to the commission God has entrusted to you? If you have applied them, then you have given your all and offered your loyalty. God will be satisfied, and you will be up to standard as a created being. If your caliber is poor, God will absolutely not make requirements of you according to the standard for those with good caliber. God will not do that. Those without caliber are of the lowest level of caliber among people. If some believers in God have no caliber, then how should they practice? Do you want to follow God? Do you admit that God is sovereign over everything concerning man? Do you want to submit to God’s orchestration and arrangements for you? If you are willing to accept and submit, then settle your heart and accept all of God’s arrangements for you. According to your caliber, you can only do some jobs that require physical effort, jobs that are not visible, looked down upon, and unremembered by people—if this is your situation, you should accept it from God and not harbor complaints, and even more so, you should not choose your duties based on your own wishes. Do whatever God’s house arranges for you, and as long as it is within your caliber, you should do it well. For example, if you are assigned to raise pigs, you should feed them well so that the brothers and sisters can eat good pork. If you are assigned to raise chickens, you should feed and manage them well so that they lay eggs normally during the laying season, and you should also protect them from other animals, making it so everyone who sees the chickens you raise will say that they are well-raised. This proves that you cherish all things created by God, and you can manage them well; it proves that no matter what kind of creature or animal it is, you can cherish it and manage it well, taking this as your responsibility and duty to carry out. Even though you cannot do other work, even though you cannot play a key and decisive role in the work of the church, and you have no significant contributions, if you can exert your full effort and loyalty in some unremarkable work and seek only to satisfy God, that is enough. This is not failing God’s exaltation of you. Do not be picky about tasks based on whether they are dirty or tiring, whether others see you doing them, whether people praise you, or whether they look down on you for doing them. Do not think about these things; just seek to accept it from God, submit, and fulfill the duties you should. When I fellowship about the manifestations of people with no caliber, I may say that you are a fool, a useless person, and mentally deficient. However, if you can shoulder the jobs entrusted to you, and in the end you do not let down God’s exaltation of you or the breath of life God has granted you, you do not live or eat in vain, you do not enjoy any of the material things God supplies for humankind in vain, and you do not fail to live up to the words from God’s mouth, that is sufficient. Even though in terms of caliber you do not measure up to being a complete person, if you can do your duty and do the work with this loyalty and sincerity, at the very least, in God’s heart, you are up to standard as a created being. What God wants is this loyalty and sincerity; He wants a created being who is up to standard. No matter what duty God’s house arranges for you, you accept it from God, and can accept and submit. This is the most precious thing. If you have done what God requires of you, and you have offered all you are able to offer, will God still have higher demands of you? If your sincerity and loyalty are seen as precious in God’s eyes, then your life has value. Is this comprehension good? (Yes.)

Some people say: “I still feel I don’t get it. Why does God predestine people with all kinds of calibers? Since God wants people to bear testimony for Him, practice the truth, and cast off their corrupt dispositions, why can’t He give people good caliber? Is it so hard for God to give people good caliber? If God made it so people had abilities in all areas—cognitive ability, the ability to make judgments, the ability to identify things, the ability to respond to things, decision-making ability, innovative ability, and even more so the ability to evaluate and appreciate things—giving people abilities in all areas, wouldn’t people’s caliber be good? Even if He gave people average caliber, wouldn’t they then be able to comprehend the truth to an average level? If people can comprehend the truth, wouldn’t they then be able to practice the truth? And wouldn’t they be able to cast off their corrupt dispositions and achieve salvation?” What is the problem with people having these thoughts? People do not understand why God gives them such thoroughly average caliber. It is hard to find leaders with good caliber, and it is extremely difficult to do church work well. People think, “If God gave people good caliber, wouldn’t it be easier to find leaders? Wouldn’t church work be easier to do? Why doesn’t God give people good caliber?” Looking at it from the perspective of the overall work of God’s house, of course, if there were more people with good caliber, church work would indeed be easier. However, there is a premise: In God’s house, God is doing His own work, and people do not play a decisive role. Therefore, whether people’s caliber is good, average, or poor does not determine the results of God’s work. The ultimate results to be achieved are accomplished by God. Everything is led by God; everything is the work of the Holy Spirit. From the perspective of God’s work, this matter should be explained this way—this is one reason. There is another reason: After being corrupted by Satan, people possess Satan’s corrupt dispositions as their life’s essence; that is, they all live by their corrupt dispositions, and their life is governed by their corrupt dispositions. If, in addition to this, someone possesses good or extraordinary caliber, and their abilities in all areas are complete, perfect, and flawless, it will foster their corrupt dispositions. It will lead to the rampant escalation of their corrupt dispositions, making them uncontrollable, and lead to that person becoming more arrogant, intransigent, deceitful, and wicked. The difficulty of their accepting the truth will increase, and there will be no way to resolve their corrupt dispositions. This is another reason. Additionally, God gives people such caliber because the humankind God wants to save is inherently an incomplete humankind, with abilities in all aspects that are average and have defects. Moreover, knowing God’s words and the truth is not accomplished merely by using various abilities; it requires a process. What does this process include? It includes changes in the environment, the growth of a person’s age, the increase of life experiences and knowledge, and the experience gained through various environments, which allow people, on the foundation of their inherent caliber and instincts, to gradually come to understand and know what the truth in God’s words actually refers to; then, they accept and practice God’s words. Through such a process, the truth in God’s words is worked into a person to become their life—it doesn’t become a theory of living or a philosophy and means of living; rather, God’s words become the foundation for their existence. Such a person is a new person, a newly born life. This is an essential process. Even if your caliber and abilities in all aspects are exceptionally good and high, these processes cannot be omitted. As a created human being, in ultimately achieving the transformation of God’s words into your life, no one can skip any step of the entire process that must be experienced. That is, everyone will develop notions, imaginings, resistance, opposition, and rebellion toward God. They will all go through setbacks, failures, stumbling, dismissal, pruning, judgment, and chastisement, experience various environments, encounter various types of people, and other such processes. Regardless of how good or high your caliber is, or how strong your abilities are in all aspects, none of these processes or steps can be omitted. Therefore, even if God were to give you exceptionally high caliber and abilities, it would still be a waste. It is better for you to be an ordinary, average person. Although you may have some defects in humanity, you can experience God’s work, understand God’s words after hearing them, and recognize your weaknesses and defects. In this way, for one thing, what you gain is more practical, and you receive more from God; for another, you come to know your natural abilities more accurately, and you become more rational. That’s why God does not intend to give everyone good caliber—He gives people average caliber.

After hearing about these specific manifestations of the various abilities that measure people’s caliber, you assess yourselves and find that at most you have just average caliber, not reaching the level of having good caliber. So, who are those who reach the level of good caliber? They are those used by the Holy Spirit. If God gives you good caliber, you must take on work that matches good caliber. If there is no need for you to take on such work, it’s already quite good that God has given you average caliber—this is God’s grace. If God gives you average caliber, you cannot do very major work, so you cannot become arrogant. This is a protection for you. With the average caliber given to you, you have no capital with which to boast, nor can you make any earthshaking contributions. You always need to think, “My caliber is average; I am not good in this area, nor in that area. I must be prudent and seek the truth principles in doing my duty.” When you feel that you are lacking in all aspects, you become much more well-behaved and much more rule-abiding, much more low-key. For example, regardless of what work you do, whether you are a supervisor or an ordinary member, if during a certain period your work goes relatively smoothly, bears some results, and the achievements are relatively outstanding, and you receive affirmation from the Above, what would your mindset be? (We would become smug, feel that we are good, and no longer easily seek the truth.) It would then become difficult for you to follow the rules and remain grounded in conducting yourself. This is a very dangerous temptation for you; this is not a good sign. However, because you are lacking or have defects in various abilities, and when doing work you either fail to consider one aspect or fail to anticipate or overlook and forget another, either getting pruned in regard to one aspect or facing setbacks and blows in another, in the depths of your heart, you constantly warn yourself: “I am not capable. My caliber is poor, and I do not understand the truth. I do not understand the principles.” In this way, you become very cautious in doing things, very afraid of making mistakes and being pruned, very afraid of disrupting and disturbing, and very afraid of creating loopholes in the work that result in losses. Because your abilities in various aspects are lacking or are all very average, your capability to be competent for work is also very average, and the work you do is very average. So you feel there is nothing to boast about—even if you do manage to achieve some hard-won results, you only achieve them after enduring a lot of hardship and exerting tremendous effort behind the scenes. You want to pretend that you are capable and quite good in front of others, but in your heart, you lack confidence. You know that no matter what you do, you cannot do it well, and still need the Above to vet it. In some things, only when faced with being pruned do you realize where you’re wrong, and see just how incredibly poor your caliber is. In this way, you will not be able to become arrogant. That is, there will always be someone with good caliber around you who surpasses you, and there will always be the truth and God’s required standards restraining you. You feel, “The little work I can accomplish is only because the Above vetted and decided it; it was only completed because the Above repeatedly examined, checked, and corrected it. I have nothing to boast about.” The next time you do something, you still think about showing off your skills, but you still fail to do it well and can never stand out. Precisely because your caliber and abilities are limited, the effects of doing your duties are always average, always failing to reach the level or standard you idealize. So, unconsciously, you continuously realize that you are not any sort of standout, any superior or extraordinary person. Gradually, you come to understand that your caliber is not as good as you imagined, but rather all too ordinary. This incremental process is very helpful for you to know yourself—you experience some failures and setbacks in a practical way, and after reflecting internally, you become more accurate in assessing your level, abilities, and caliber. You increasingly recognize that you are not a person of good caliber, that although you may have some strengths and gifts, a bit of ability to make judgments, or occasionally have some ideas or plans, you still fall short of the truth principles, far from God’s requirements and the standards of the truth, and even farther from the standard of possessing the truth reality—unconsciously, you have these judgments and assessments about yourself. In the process of judging and assessing yourself, your knowledge of yourself will become increasingly accurate, and your corrupt dispositions and revelations of corruption will become fewer and fewer, becoming more restrained and controlled. Of course, your corrupt dispositions being controlled is not the goal. What is the goal? The goal is that, as your corrupt dispositions are controlled, you gradually learn to seek the truth and conduct yourself in a well-behaved manner, not always trying to spout high-sounding ideas or show off your skills, not always striving competitively to be the best or the strongest, and not always trying to prove yourself. While this awareness continuously engraves itself deep within your heart, you will ponder, “I must seek what the truth principles for doing this are, and what God says about it.” This awareness will gradually be established deep within your heart, and your degree of seeking, acknowledging, and accepting God’s word and the truth will increasingly heighten, which for you signifies the hope of being saved. The more you can accept the truth, the less your corrupt dispositions will reveal themselves; an even better result is that you will have more opportunities to use God’s word as a standard for practice. Isn’t this gradually embarking on the path of salvation? Is this not a good thing? (Yes.) But if all your abilities are superior and perfect, and extraordinary among people, can you still seek the truth while handling matters and doing your duties? That’s hard to say. It is very difficult for someone with extraordinary abilities in all areas to come before God with a quiet heart or humble attitude to know themselves, knowing their defects and corrupt dispositions, and reach the point of seeking the truth, accepting the truth, and then practicing the truth. This is quite difficult to do, isn’t it? (Yes.)

People having average caliber contains God’s good intentions; people having too poor caliber also contains God’s good intentions. God, in wanting to save you, does not give you excessively good caliber. Why is that? God gives people various innate conditions, such as their family background, appearance, instincts, personality, and various life abilities. God even gives people certain strengths, interests, and hobbies, and also grants some people special gifts. This is sufficient. These are enough to sustain your personal survival. With these, you possess the ability and conditions to live independently and, on the basis of a certain level of caliber, you can accept God’s words, cast off your corrupt dispositions to varying degrees, and achieve being saved. This is why God does not give people excessively high caliber. God does not give people excessively good caliber. For one thing, this is so that people can, with this basic condition, remain a bit grounded, and that on the basis of feeling they are ordinary, average people, people with corrupt dispositions, they can willingly accept God’s work and God’s salvation. Only in this way do people have the basic condition to accept God’s words. For another thing, if people have very good caliber or exceptionally quick minds, with very strong abilities in all aspects, are all exceptional, having everything go smoothly for them in the world—making lots of money in business, having especially smooth political careers, operating effortlessly in all situations, feeling like a fish in water—then such people are not easily able to come before God and accept God’s salvation, right? (Right.) Most of those whom God saves do not hold high positions in the world or among people in society. Because their caliber and abilities are average or even poor, and they struggle to find popularity or success in the world, always feeling that the world is bleak and unfair, they have a need for faith, and ultimately, they come before God and enter into God’s house. This is a basic condition God gives people in choosing them. Only with this need can you have the desire to accept God’s salvation. If your conditions in all aspects are very good and suitable for striving in the world, and you always want to make a name for yourself, then you would not have the desire to accept God’s salvation, nor would you even have the opportunity to receive God’s salvation. Even though you may have average or poor caliber, you are still much more blessed than nonbelievers in having the opportunity to be saved by God. Therefore, having poor caliber is not your defect, nor is it an obstacle to your casting off corrupt dispositions and achieving salvation. In the final analysis, it is God who gave you this caliber. You have as much as God gives you. If God gives you good caliber, then you have good caliber. If God gives you average caliber, then your caliber is average. If God gives you poor caliber, then your caliber is poor. Once you understand this, you must accept it from God and be able to submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangements. Which truth forms the basis for submitting? It is that such arrangements by God contain God’s good intentions; God is painstakingly thoughtful, and people must not complain or misunderstand God’s heart. God will not hold you in high esteem because of your good caliber, nor will He disdain or detest you for your poor caliber. What is it that God detests? What God detests is people not loving or accepting the truth, people understanding the truth but not practicing it, people not doing what they are capable of doing, people not being able to give their all in their duties yet always having extravagant desires, always wanting status, always vying for position, and always making demands of Him. This is what God finds disgusting and detestable. You have poor caliber or no caliber to begin with, being unable to do any work, and yet you still always want to be a leader; you always vie for position and power, and always want God to give you a definitive answer, telling you that in the future you can enter the kingdom, receive blessings, and have a good destination. God choosing you is already an immense exaltation, yet you still want a mile when given an inch. God has given you what you should receive, and you have already gained much from God, yet you still make unreasonable demands. This is what God detests. Your caliber is very poor, or, you do not even reach human intelligence, yet God has not treated you like an animal but still treats you as a human being. Therefore, you should do what a human ought to do, say what a human ought to say, and accept everything God has given you as coming from Him. Whatever duty you can do, do it. Do not let God down. Do not want a mile when given an inch because God treats you as a human being, saying, “Since God treats me as a human, then He should give me better caliber, let me be a team head, a supervisor, or a leader. It would be best if He made it so I didn’t have to do any tiring work, so God’s house would provide for me for free, and so I wouldn’t need to exert effort or suffer fatigue, allowing me to do what I want.” These are all unreasonable demands. These are not the manifestations or the requests that a created being ought to have or put forth. God has not treated you according to your poor caliber but has instead chosen you and given you the opportunity to do your duty. This is God’s exaltation. You should not want a mile when given an inch and make unreasonable demands of God. Instead, you should thank God, and fulfill your duty to repay God’s love. This is God’s requirement of you. Your caliber is poor, but God has not made requirements of you according to the standards for those with good caliber. You lack caliber and intelligence, but God has not required that you achieve the standards that people with good caliber can reach. Whatever you are able to do, just do that. God does not force a fish to live on land. It is just that you yourself always have extravagant desires, and are always unwilling to be an ordinary person, an average person with poor caliber; it’s that you do not want to do these laborious tasks that don’t put you in the spotlight, and in doing your duty, you always dislike hardship and shy from exhaustion, picking and choosing what to do; you are always willful and always have your own plans and preferences—it is not that God has wronged you. So, how should people correctly approach their own caliber? For one thing, whatever caliber God gives you, you should accept it from God and submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangement. This is the most basic thought and viewpoint that people should possess. This viewpoint is correct, and it holds up in any situation. It is the truth principle that remains constant no matter how things change. For another thing, regardless of whether your caliber is good, average, poor, or nonexistent, you should do the work that your caliber can achieve. You should neither hold anything back nor seek to stand out. Regardless of whether your caliber is good or average, you can only do the things within the scope of your caliber and ability; there is nothing to boast about—that is what God has given you; you should offer it up. Your whole being, your breath, your innate conditions, and your abilities in all aspects of your caliber are given by God. The various truth principles you now understand are also provided by God. Without God’s work and without the various innate conditions God grants to people, humans are nothing but a handful of dust. Therefore, there is nothing for people to boast about. This is the second aspect. There is another aspect: Regardless of whether your caliber is average, poor, or nonexistent, you must approach it correctly. First, recognize which level your caliber belongs to, and then, based on your inherent caliber, do what you ought to do. Do not always try to go beyond your abilities and do things you cannot accomplish, always trying to prove yourself to people or to God. You cannot prove anything. The more you try to prove yourself in this way, the more it proves that your caliber is poor, that you do not know your own measure, and the more it proves that you are beyond reason and have a severely corrupt disposition. Do not try by all means to change your caliber or improve your abilities in all aspects, but rather accurately recognize and correctly approach your inherent caliber and abilities. If you discover where you are lacking, quickly study those areas in which you can achieve progress in a short time so as to make up for these areas. For those areas you cannot reach, do not force it. Act according to your actual situation; do things based on your own caliber and abilities. The ultimate principle is to do your duty according to God’s word, God’s requirements for humans, and the truth principles. No matter the level of your caliber, you can achieve varying degrees of acting and doing your duties according to the truth principles; you can meet or live up to God’s standards. These truth principles are absolutely not empty talk; they absolutely do not transcend humanity. They are all paths of practice tailor-made for created humankind’s corrupt dispositions, instincts, and various abilities and calibers. Therefore, no matter what your caliber is, no matter where your abilities are insufficient or flawed, it is not a problem; if you truly understand the truth and are willing to practice the truth, there will be a path forward. A person’s defects in certain aspects of caliber and abilities absolutely do not hinder their practice of the truth. If your ability to make judgments or some other ability is lacking, you can seek more and fellowship more—seek instruction and suggestions from those who understand the truth. When you understand and grasp the principles and paths of practice, you should put them into practice with all your effort based on your stature. Accepting and practicing—this is what you ought to do. Does My fellowshipping like this help you understand? (We understand a bit more.)

Why does God predestine people with all sorts of calibers? Why does God not give people perfect caliber? How many aspects have we fellowshipped about concerning what God’s intentions in this regard are and how people should correctly approach it? Let us summarize them. The first aspect is to accept it from God. This is the most basic thought and viewpoint that people should possess. The second aspect is to recognize and assess what your caliber is, and act and do your duty based on your caliber and ability. Do not try to do things that exceed your caliber and ability. What you can do, do it conscientiously and in a down-to-earth manner, and do it well. What you cannot do, do not force yourself. What is the third aspect? (We mustn’t always wish to change our caliber. Even if our caliber is average, poor, or nonexistent, we must approach it correctly. We mustn’t always wish to prove ourselves to God that our caliber is good. This is inappropriate.) That’s right. Approach your caliber correctly. Do not complain. However much God has given you, that is what He will ask of you. What God has not given you, God does not demand of you. For example, if God has given you average caliber or poor caliber, He does not require you to be a leader, team head, or supervisor. However, if God has given you eloquence, the ability to express yourself, or a certain gift, and requires you to do work related to this gift, then you should do it well. Do not fail to live up to the conditions God has given you. You must live up to God’s bestowal, giving it full play and applying it well, applying it to positive things and producing valuable work results that benefit humankind. That would be excellent, wouldn’t it? (Yes.) Additionally, you must know that God has good intentions in giving people various calibers. Precisely because God wants to save you, He has not given you excessively good caliber. This contains God’s painstaking intention. God giving you average or poor caliber is a protection for you. If people had overly good or extraordinary caliber, it would be easy for them to follow the world and Satan, and they would not easily come to believe in God. Look at the standouts in various industries and fields in the world—what kind of people are they? They’re all sly masterminds, devils incarnate. If you ask them to believe in God, they think, “Believing in God leads nowhere—only incapable people believe in God!” People with excessively good caliber, great capabilities, and advanced tactics are taken captive by Satan. They live entirely by their corrupt dispositions and completely for the world. Such people are all devils incarnate. Tell Me, does God save such people? (No.) So, are you willing to be a devil incarnate, or are you willing to be an ordinary person, a person with poor caliber but who can receive God’s salvation? (We are willing to be ordinary people.) Of these two types of people, which is blessed? Those who prosper in the world, rise to prominence, have fame, become high officials or wealthy people, who have everything they want and endless money to spend—are you willing to be such people, or are you willing to come before God and be plain, ordinary people with average caliber? What is your choice? (To be plain, ordinary people.) If you choose to be a plain, ordinary person with average caliber, preferring not to enjoy a good material life in this life, not wanting to rise to prominence, having no sense of presence in this world, and being looked down upon by everyone, preferring to be this kind of person and cherish or gain the opportunity for salvation that God gives to people—if this is your choice, if you choose to be saved and choose not to follow this world, and in your heart you wish not to belong to this world but to belong to God, then you should not disdain the caliber God has given you. Even if your caliber is very poor or God has not given you any caliber, you should still gladly accept this fact and, with the inherent conditions of the various abilities God has given you, fulfill the duty of a created being. Another aspect is that even if the caliber God gives to people is not very good—just the caliber of ordinary people—and the abilities He gives them in all aspects are average or even poor, the most basic truths people should practice which God teaches people can still be achieved and attained to if they are willing to put their hearts into practicing them. Even if your caliber is very poor, and your comprehension ability, ability to accept things, ability to make judgments, and ability to identify things are very poor or even nonexistent, as long as you possess the most basic humanity and reason, the tasks and jobs that God entrusts to you can be completed and done well. Moreover, the most basic way of fearing God and shunning evil, which God requires of people, is something you can follow; it is something you can attain to and achieve. Therefore, God has never intended to give you very good caliber. If God gave you good caliber and some special abilities, enabling you to become a devil incarnate in the world, then God would not save you. Can you understand God’s heart in regard to this matter now? (Yes.) If you can understand God’s heart, that’s good; you will understand this truth and correctly approach your own caliber; there will be no more difficulties in this regard. From here, people should simply do what they ought to do. Even if it is just one job, put your heart and effort into doing it well and do not fail to live up to God’s expectations of you. Do you understand? (Yes.) That’s all for today’s fellowship on this topic. Goodbye!

November 11, 2023