The truth is the life of God Himself; it represents His disposition, His essence, and everything in Him. If you say that having a bit of experience means possessing the truth, then can you represent God’s disposition? You may have some experience or light regarding a certain aspect or side of a truth, but you cannot supply others with it forever, so this light you have gained is not truth; it is merely a certain point that people can reach. It is simply the proper experience and the proper understanding a person should possess: some actual experience and knowledge of the truth. This light, enlightenment, and experiential understanding can never substitute for the truth; even if all people had completely experienced this truth, and pooled together all of their experiential understanding, it still would not be able to take the place of that one truth. As has been said in the past, “I sum this up with a maxim for the human world: Among men, there is no one who loves Me.” This is a statement of truth; it is the true essence of life. This is the most profound of things; this is an expression of God Himself. You can keep on experiencing it, and if you experience it for three years you will have a superficial understanding of it; if you experience it for seven or eight years you will gain even more understanding of it—but any understanding you gain will never be able to substitute for that one statement of truth. Another person, after experiencing it for a couple of years, might gain a little understanding, and then a slightly more profound understanding after experiencing it for ten years, and then some further understanding after experiencing it for a lifetime—but if you both combine what understanding you have gained, even then—no matter how much understanding, how much experience, how many insights, how much light, or how many examples you both possess—all of that still cannot substitute for that one statement of truth. What do I mean by this? I mean that the life of man will always be the life of man, and no matter how much your understanding might accord with the truth, God’s intentions, and His requirements, it will never be able to be a substitute for the truth. To say that people have gained the truth means that they possess some reality, that they have gained some understanding of the truth, that they have attained some real entry to God’s words, that they have had some real experience with them, and that they are on the right track in their faith in God. Just one statement from God is enough for a person to experience for an entire lifetime; even if people were to experience it for several lifetimes or even several millennia, they still would not be able to completely and thoroughly experience a single truth. If people have merely understood a few superficial words, yet they claim to have gained the truth, would that not be complete and utter nonsense? …

When people understand the truth, and live with it as their life, what life does this refer to? It refers to their ability to base how they live on God’s words; it means they have real knowledge of God’s words and a genuine understanding of the truth. When people possess this new life within them, the way they live is established upon a foundation of God’s word the truth, and they are living within the realm of the truth. People’s life is all about coming to know and experience the truth, and with this as its foundation, not surpassing that scope; this is the life that is being referred to when speaking of gaining the truth life. For you to live with the truth as your life, it is not the case that the life of truth is inside you, nor is it the case that if you possess the truth as your life, you become the truth, and your internal life becomes the life of truth; less still can it be said that you are the truth life. Ultimately, your life is still the life of a human. It is just that a human can live by God’s words, possess knowledge of the truth, and understand it to an in-depth degree; this understanding cannot be taken away from you. You experience and understand these things fully, feeling that they are so good and precious, and you come to accept them as the basis for your life; moreover, you live in reliance on these things, and no one can change that: This, then, is your life. That is, your life only contains these things—understanding, experience, and insights of the truth—and no matter what you do, you will base the way you live on them, and you will not go beyond this scope or past these borders; this is precisely the sort of life you will have. The ultimate objective of God’s work is for people to have this kind of life. No matter how well people understand the truth, their essence is still one of humanity, and is not at all comparable to the essence of God. Because their experience of the truth is ongoing, it is impossible for them to completely live out the truth; they can only live out the extremely limited bit of the truth attainable by humans. How, then, could they turn into God? … If you have a bit of experience with God’s words, and are living according to your understanding of the truth, then God’s words become your life. However, you still cannot say that the truth is your life or that what you are expressing is the truth; if such is your opinion, then you are wrong. If you have some experience with an aspect of the truth, can this in itself represent the truth? It absolutely cannot. Can you thoroughly explain the truth? Can you discover God’s disposition, and His essence, from the truth? You cannot. Everyone has experience with only one aspect and scope of the truth; by experiencing it within your limited scope, you cannot touch upon all of the truth’s myriad aspects. Can people live out the original meaning of the truth? How much does your little bit of experience amount to? A single grain of sand on a beach; a lone drop of water in the ocean. Therefore, no matter how precious that knowledge and those feelings you have gained from your experiences might be, they still cannot be counted as the truth. The source of truth and the meaning of truth cover a very broad area. Nothing can contradict it. Some people say, “Will my knowledge of experience never be contradicted?” Of course not. The true understanding that comes from your experience of the words of God is in accord with the truth—how could it be contradicted? The truth can be your life in any environment. It can give you a path, and it can allow you to survive. However, the things people have and the light they have obtained are only suitable for themselves or some others within a certain scope, but would not be suitable within a different scope. No matter how profound a person’s experience, it is still so limited, and their experience will never reach the scope of the truth. A person’s light and a person’s understanding can never be compared to the truth.

—The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Part Three