I

Over the course of your belief in God, have you dispelled your misunderstandings about Him through real appreciation and experience of His words? Have you developed genuine submission to God and consideration for God after receiving God's discipline and chastening? Have you come to know the rebelliousness and satanic nature of man in the midst of God's chastisement and judgment and thus gained a modicum of understanding about God's holiness? Have you begun to hold a new outlook on life under the guidance and enlightenment of God's words? Have you felt God's intolerance for man's offenses, His requirements of you, and His salvation of you in the midst of His trials of you?

II

If you do not know what God's discipline and chastening are, then you surely do not know what submission and consideration are, or at least you have never truly submitted to or shown consideration for God. If you have never experienced God's chastisement and judgment, then you surely do not know what His holiness is, and you are even less clear on what man's rebelliousness is. If you have never had a true, correct outlook on life, or a correct aim in life, but are still perplexed and unsure about your future path in life, and even hesitant to move forward, then it is certain that you have never received God's enlightenment and guidance, and that you have never truly been supplied or replenished by God's words.

III

If you have not yet undergone God's trials, then it goes without saying that you certainly do not know what God's intolerance for man's offenses is, nor do you understand what exactly God requires of you, much less know what exactly His work of managing and saving man is. No matter how many years a person has believed in God, if they have never experienced or perceived anything in God's words, then assuredly they have not embarked upon the path toward salvation, their faith in God is assuredly without actual content, their knowledge of God is also assuredly zero, and it goes without saying that they have no idea at all what it is to fear God.

from The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. Preface