I

No matter what duty you are performing, you must seek the truth principles,

understand God's intentions,

know what His requirements are with regard to the duty in question

and understand what results you should accomplish,

you should accomplish through that duty.

Only in so doing can you carry out your work according to principle.

In performing your duty,

you absolutely can't go by your personal preferences,

doing whatever you would like to do,

doing whatever you'd be happy doing, or whatever would make you look good.

This is acting in accordance with one's own will.

If you rely on your preferences in the performance of your duty,

thinking this is what God demands, and that this is what will make God happy,

and if you forcibly impose your personal preferences on God

or practice them as though they were the truth,

observing them as if they were the truth principles,

this is not performing your duty,

and performing your duty in this way will not be remembered by God.

II

Some people don't understand the truth,

and they don't know what it means to fulfill their duties well.

They feel that they have made effort and put their heart into it,

and rebelled against their flesh,

so why can they never fulfill their duty satisfactorily?

Why is God always dissatisfied?

They did not seek out God's requirements,

and instead acted according to their own ideas.

They treated their own desires, preferences, and selfish motives as the truth,

and they treated them as though they were what God loved,

as though they were His standards and requirements.

They saw what they believed to be correct, good, and beautiful

to be the truth;

this is wrong.

III

Even though people might sometimes think

something is right and that it accords with the truth,

that does not necessarily mean that it accords with God's intentions.

The more people think something is right,

the more cautious they should be and the more they should seek the truth

to see whether what they are thinking meets God's requirements,

whether what they are thinking meets God's requirements.

If it precisely runs counter to His requirements and counter to His words,

then it's unacceptable even if you think it's right,

it is but a human thought,

and it won't accord with the truth no matter how right you think it is.

Whether something is right or wrong must be determined

based on God's words, based on God's words.

No matter how right you think something is,

it's wrong and you must discard it,

unless there is a basis for it in God's words.

It's acceptable only when it accords with the truth,

it's acceptable only when it accords with the truth,

and only by upholding the truth principles in this way

can your performance of your duty be up to standard.

from The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Only by Seeking the Truth Principles Can One Perform One's Duty Well