By Zhou Xuan, China

In September of 2019, I began serving as a leader and was in charge of work at a few local churches with my partner Wang Ran. Because I was fairly new to the duty, I was still unfamiliar with certain aspects of the work and would often seek Wang Ran out for discussion. Later on, however, I discovered that Wang Ran failed to bear a burden in her duty. When I proposed going with her to one church to fellowship with two leaders there who were vying for fame and gain and failing to partner harmoniously, she didn’t take the matter seriously and kept putting it off. As a result, because we were too slow to resolve the issue, the church’s work was negatively influenced. What’s more, she also dragged her feet when I wanted to discuss how we could help resolve some of the issues and difficulties our sisters and brothers were facing while spreading the gospel. Consequently, those issues did not get resolved in a timely manner and the gospel work was negatively affected. I noticed that Wang Ran didn’t have a sense of responsibility in her duty and I considered pointing this out to her, but I was new to this leadership duty and still unfamiliar with certain aspects of the work, so I worried that if I offended her and our working relationship was affected, she wouldn’t help me when I encountered problems in my duty. For this reason, I ended up not pointing out my observation to her. Not soon after that, I noticed that Wang Ran would often pass verdicts on people based on her arrogant disposition when adjusting personnel. She would say “This person won’t do” and “That one is no good” and would come up with all kinds of excuses not to cultivate them. As a result, certain church projects proceeded slowly because of the failure to assign suitable people to manage them. When our leader knew this, they asked us to find suitable candidates as soon as possible, but when Wang Ran saw the candidates I suggested, she immediately said they were no good. I thought to myself, “More brothers and sisters are needed to participate in the church’s work, but she not only has failed to cultivate people, she has even always obstructed cultivation. She is disrupting and disturbing the church’s work.” I wanted to discuss the gravity of this issue with her, but I was afraid if I spoke too frankly, she would hold it against me, so I just casually mentioned that, “We shouldn’t pass verdicts on people.” However, Wang Ran didn’t accept my suggestion. Another time, when I went to a church with her to host the election of a leader, a brother wasn’t clear about certain principles regarding the election and asked a few questions, but Wang Ran not only didn’t fellowship the truth and help him resolve the questions, she even resented what she saw as his troublesomeness and criticized him as such. This led to a very awkward atmosphere during the gathering and influenced the election. I saw that as a leader, Wang Ran didn’t treat the brothers and sisters with love, constrained them from her position of status and disturbed the election. I wanted to say something to her, but just as I was going to do so, I thought about how when I brought up her deficiencies with her before, she not only didn’t accept my opinion, she was even resistant and resentful. If she didn’t accept my suggestion again, I would be embarrassed in front of so many brothers and sisters. “Forget it,” I thought, “the fewer issues the better; I shouldn’t make trouble for myself.” A few days later, the gospel deacon mentioned to me that Wang Ran wasn’t resolving brothers and sisters’ real issues and difficulties during gatherings, their work performance was poor and when they sought her out for paths of solution, she just ignored them, didn’t take their requests seriously and even would get angry and lecture them. Despite pointing these issues out to her on several occasions, she still wouldn’t accept her suggestions and so the deacon proposed that we write a report together concerning Wang Ran’s issues. I thought that everything the gospel deacon said was true and according to principle we should indeed report her, but then I thought, “If we write the report and our leader comes to investigate, will Wang Ran not admit wrongdoing and think that I had been swayed by a biased opinion and was trying to exclude her? If I strain our relationship, how will we do our duties together going forward? I’d better not say anything.” Having made up my mind, I told the deacon that I’d wait until everything had been made clear through investigation before making a decision. After that, I began to notice that Wang Ran was having more and more issues. One time while looking through our account, I noticed that she wasn’t using the church’s money according to principle. She had bought things for the church without discussing with anyone and without considering if they were practical purchases. The things she bought ended up being inappropriate for the church’s purposes and couldn’t be used, meaning she had wasted the church’s money. I felt quite guilty after seeing that situation unfold and thought to myself, “I have to protect the church’s interests this time. I have to point out her issues and have a good, long discussion with her.” But when I did end up pointing out her issues, she not only didn’t accept my suggestions, she even tried to argue with me and defend herself. I wanted to expose the nature and consequences of her actions to her, but then I thought, “If I’m too harsh in my exposure, not only will she hold it against me, she’ll give me attitude every day. That will make life much harder for me.” So, I just tactfully reminded her that when faced with issues as a leader, we must seek more and have a God-fearing heart. After that, Wang Ran developed a bias toward me and would ignore me when discussing work and tell me to resolve it myself. I felt that she consistently failed to be responsible in her duty, acted recklessly and arbitrarily, didn’t accept pruning, and didn’t accept the truth, and that she wasn’t suited to continue in her duty. I wanted to write a letter to the leader concerning her situation, but I worried that if she were dismissed, she might think that I ratted her out behind her back and would hold that against me. Then it would be awkward for me if we ever saw each other later on. I mulled it over in my head for a while, but ultimately decided to abandon the idea of writing a letter to the leader. I felt incredibly guilty that despite understanding the truth, I was still unable to practice the truth due to being constrained by my corrupt disposition. For the next few days, I didn’t feel like doing anything and kept hitting a wall in everything I did try to do, and I felt terribly dark inside. I prayed often, telling God about my situation and asking Him to guide me to understand myself.

One day during devotionals, I saw this passage of God’s words: “When you see a problem yet do nothing to stop it, do not fellowship about it, do not try to limit it, and moreover you do not report it to those above you, but play the part of people pleaser, is this a sign of disloyalty? Are people pleasers loyal to God? Not even a little. Such a person is not just disloyal to God—they are acting as Satan’s accomplice, its attendant and follower. They are disloyal in their duty and responsibility, but to Satan, they are quite loyal. Herein lies the essence of the problem. As to professional inadequacy, it is possible to constantly learn and draw together your experiences while performing your duty. Such problems can be easily resolved. The most difficult thing to resolve is man’s corrupt disposition. If you do not pursue the truth or resolve your corrupt disposition, but are always playing the people pleaser, and not pruning or helping those whom you have seen violate the principles, nor exposing or revealing them, but always shrinking back, not taking responsibility, then such performance of duty as yours will only compromise and delay the work of the church. Treating the performance of your duty as a trifle without taking an iota of responsibility doesn’t just affect the work’s effectiveness, but also leads to repeated delays in the church’s work. When you perform your duty this way, are you not just being perfunctory and being deceptive toward God? Does it show any loyalty to God? If you are constantly being perfunctory while performing your duty, and are steadfastly unrepentant, then you will inevitably be eliminated” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. The Proper Fulfillment of Duty Requires Harmonious Cooperation). God’s words helped me to understand how people pleasers are afraid of offending others, fail to consider the interests of God’s house due to always being concerned about maintaining their relationships and do not hesitate to sacrifice the interests of God’s house in order to protect their own interests. In essence, they just act as Satan’s lackeys in disrupting and disturbing the work of God’s house. They don’t have the slightest loyalty to their duty and are particularly selfish and despicable. Reflecting on my time in partnership with Wang Ran, I had clearly discerned that she had been revealed as a false leader and should be exposed and reported according to the truth principles, but I worried that she would hold it against me and that would make it difficult to interact with her going forward. As a result, to maintain our relationship, I acted like a people pleaser, looking the other way as she caused disruptions and disturbances in the church and inflicted damage on the church’s work. As for myself, I was spurned by God and fell into darkness and suffered greatly. God’s words described my behavior well: “They are acting as Satan’s accomplice, its attendant and follower. They are disloyal in their duty and responsibility, but to Satan, they are quite loyal.” God had graced me with the opportunity to perform my duty as a leader with the expectation that I would consider His intentions and protect the church’s work, but in the most crucial moment, I didn’t live up to this expectation. Indeed, I even helped the enemy while living off the church, protecting a false leader and acting as an accomplice to Satan. How God must have despised and abhorred my actions! I thought to myself, “I knew I should report the false leader for disrupting and disturbing the church’s work and felt guilty for not doing so. I wanted to practice the truth, so why couldn’t I do it? By what was I being controlled?”

Later on, I came across this passage of God’s words: “Until people have experienced God’s work and understood the truth, it is Satan’s nature that takes charge and dominates them from within. What, specifically, does that nature entail? For example, why are you selfish? Why do you protect your own position? Why do you have such strong feelings? Why do you enjoy those unrighteous things? Why do you like those evils? What is the basis for your fondness for such things? Where do these things come from? Why are you so happy to accept them? By now, you have all come to understand that the main reason behind all these things is that Satan’s poison is within man. So what is Satan’s poison? How can it be expressed? For example, if you ask, ‘How should people live? What should people live for?’ people will answer, ‘Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost.’ This single phrase expresses the very root of the problem. Satan’s philosophy and logic have become people’s lives. No matter what people pursue, they do so for themselves—and so they live only for themselves. ‘Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost’—this is the life philosophy of man, and it also represents human nature. … Man’s satanic nature contains a great deal of satanic philosophies and poisons. Sometimes you yourself are not even aware of them, and do not understand them; nevertheless, every moment of your life is based on these things. Moreover, you think that these things are quite correct and reasonable, and not at all mistaken. This suffices to show that Satan’s philosophies have become people’s nature, and that they are living in complete accordance with them, thinking this way of living to be good, and without any sense of repentance at all. Therefore, they are constantly revealing their satanic nature, and they are constantly living by Satan’s philosophies. Satan’s nature is humanity’s life, and it is humanity’s nature essence” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. How to Walk the Path of Peter). Through God’s words, I learned that the root of my people pleasing behavior was that I lived according to Satan’s poisons such as “Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost,” “Keeping silent on the faults of good friends makes for a long and good friendship,” “If you strike others, don’t strike them in the face; if you call others out, don’t call out their shortcomings,” etc. These poisons had already taken root in my heart and I lived according to them, always seeking to maintain my relationships. I became increasingly selfish, deceitful and lacking in a human semblance in order to preserve face. These poisons had become my very nature and all my actions were controlled by them. I clearly knew the truth, but I just couldn’t practice it. Before I began believing in God, no matter who I was interacting, I would always rather take a loss in my words and actions as long as I could maintain my relationship with that person and leave them with a good impression. After believing in God, I continued to live by these satanic poisons. In order to maintain my relationship with Wang Ran, I didn’t mention her issues to her when I noticed them and didn’t expose and report her even after clearly seeing she had been revealed to be a false leader, leading to damages to the church’s work. I realized that I was a deceitful person, ingratiating and sycophantic. Focused on my efforts to maintain relationships with others, I didn’t give the slightest consideration to the work of God’s house or the life entry of my brothers and sisters. I wasn’t doing my duty at all; I was doing evil! I would rather offend God than my fellow men. In my quest to protect my own interests, I failed to practice the truth, didn’t act according to principle and served as Satan’s lackey, allowing a false leader to damage the church’s work as they pleased. How detestable! It was only then that I realized that people pleasers are bad-hearted and God loathes them! If I didn’t repent, I would certainly be spurned and eliminated by God.

Later on, I saw another passage of God’s words that said: “If you have the motivations and perspective of a people pleaser, then, in all matters, you will be incapable of practicing the truth and abiding by principle, and you will always fail and fall down. If you do not awaken and do not ever seek the truth, then you are a disbeliever, and you will never gain the truth and life. What, then, should you do? When faced with such things, you must pray to God and call out to Him, begging for salvation and asking that He give you more faith and strength and enable you to abide by the principles, do what you should do, handle things according to the principles, stand firm in the position you should stand in, protect the interests of God’s house, and prevent any harm from coming to the work of God’s house. If you are able to rebel against your self-interests, your pride, and your standpoint of a people pleaser, and if you do what you should do with an honest, undivided heart, then you will have defeated Satan and gained this aspect of the truth” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Part Three). “All of you say you are considerate of God’s burden and will defend the testimony of the church, but who among you has really been considerate of God’s burden? Ask yourself: Are you someone who has shown consideration for His burden? Can you practice righteousness for Him? Can you stand up and speak for Me? Can you steadfastly put the truth into practice? Are you bold enough to fight against all of Satan’s deeds? Would you be able to set your feelings aside and expose Satan for the sake of My truth? Can you allow My intentions to be satisfied in you? Have you offered up your heart in the most crucial of moments? Are you someone who follows My will? Ask yourself these questions, and think about them often” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Utterances of Christ in the Beginning, Chapter 13). Through God’s words, I realized that reporting and exposing false leaders is the duty and responsibility of every one of God’s chosen people and is a positive thing. Doing so protects the church’s work from obstruction, allows brothers and sisters to have a good church life, and helps false leaders to truly understand their actions and repent to God in a timely fashion. As for me, I fallaciously believed that reporting a false leader would be offensive to that person and so, despite clearly seeing that Wang Ran didn’t do real work, I failed to report and expose her, leading each of the church’s projects to be obstructed. This was very serious negligence. I had to stop living by satanic philosophy in my maintenance of relationships with others. I had to stand with God, handle affairs according to principle, protect the church’s work and act with a sense of justice. Only in so doing would I be in accord with God’s intention. I then prayed to God, saying, “Oh God! Time after time, You’ve given me opportunities to practice the truth, but I’ve continually lived in a corrupt disposition, protecting myself and failing to satisfy You. This time, I am no longer willing to live by people pleasers’ philosophy for worldly dealings and will write a letter to expose Wang Ran.” Just as I was preparing to write my report, my leader invited me over for a gathering and I proceeded to inform them of all the issues Wang Ran was having. I also opened up about how I had been a people pleaser during that time, had failed to practice the truth and had caused damages to the church’s interests.

After looking into the matter and investigating, Wang Ran was found to be a false leader who failed to do real work and should be dismissed. On the day of Wang Ran’s dismissal, after the leader finished their exposure of her behavior, they asked me to give my comments. I felt a bit worried, “If I expose her, she’ll certainly hold it against me and think that she was only dismissed because I had reported her problems. Won’t that make it hard to interact with her going forward?” I realized I was once again trying to maintain a personal relationship and acting like a people pleaser, so I silently prayed to God. I then recalled a passage of God’s words: “God has bestowed so much truth upon people, has led you for such a long time, and has provided so much for you, for the purpose of you bearing witness and safeguarding the work of the church. It turns out, when evil people and antichrists do evil deeds and disturb the work of the church, you become timid and withdraw, fleeing with your arms over your head—you are a good-for-nothing. You cannot overcome Satans, you have not borne witness, and God detests you. In this critical moment, you must stand up and wage war against Satans, expose the evil deeds of antichrists, condemn and curse them, giving them no place to hide and cleansing them away from the church. Only this can be counted as gaining victory over Satans and ending their fate” (The Word, Vol. 4. Exposing Antichrists. Item Nine (Part Eight)). God’s words gave me the power to practice the truth. I thought of how, in the past, I had lost so many opportunities to practice the truth because I had wanted to protect myself and would try to read people’s expressions and inclinations and act accordingly. This time, I had to rely upon God to practice the truth, expose all of Wang Ran’s issues and help her to reflect on and come to know herself. Realizing this, I proceeded to point out all of Wang Ran’s issues, one by one, and felt particularly at ease in the process.

Through this experience I’ve realized that being a people pleaser is harmful to myself and others and God particularly spurns such people. God does not perfect people pleasers—God likes honest people who have clear convictions about what they like and do not like and have a sense of justice and are able to protect the interests of God’s house. Only such people do their duty in a way that accords with God’s intentions and can attain salvation.