Divine Truth, in All Its Fullness, Holiness, and Power, Is Present in the Literal Meaning of the Word (Continued)

To a considerable extent, the truths of the literal meaning of the Word are not bare truths but are semblances of truth; like similes and comparisons, they are drawn from the kinds of things that are in the physical world and are therefore adapted and fitted to the comprehension of uneducated people and children. Since they are correspondences, though, they are receptacles and dwelling places for genuine truth, like containers that gather in and hold something the way a crystal goblet holds a fine wine, or a silver plate holds gourmet food. They are like garments that serve as clothing, whether swaddling clothes for babies or attractive dresses for young women. They are also like the information in the earthly mind that comprehends within itself the perception of the spiritual self and its affection for truth.

The actual bare truths that are gathered in, contained, clothed, and comprehended are in the Word’s spiritual meaning; and the bare goodness is in its heavenly meaning.

However, this needs illustrations from the Word. Jesus said,

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, because you cleanse the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and excess. Blind Pharisee, cleanse the inside of the cup and the plate first, so that the outside of them may be clean as well. (Matthew 23:25-26)

The Lord said this using terms from the outmost level, which serve as containers. He said “the cup and the plate”–the cup meaning wine and the wine meaning the truth contained in the Word, the plate meaning food and the food meaning the goodness contained in the Word. Cleansing the inside of the cup and the plate means purifying what lies within us, matters of our will and thought and therefore of our love and faith, by means of the Word. The outside becoming clean by cleansing the inside means the consequent purification of our outer selves–our actions and speech, that is, since these have their essence from what lies within.

Again, Jesus said,

There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and indulged himself in glorious feasting every day; and there was a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid on his doorstep, (Luke 16:19-20)

Here too the Lord was speaking in earthly terms that were correspondences and that contained spiritual realities. The rich man means the Jewish people, who are called “rich” because they have the Word, in which there is spiritual wealth. The purple and linen of his clothing means what is good and true in the Word, the purple meaning what is good in it, and the fine linen what is true. Indulging in glorious feasting everyday means a delight in owning and reading it. The poor man Lazarus means the Gentiles who did not have the Word. Their being scorned and rejected by the Jews is meant by Lazarus being full of sores and laid on the rich man’s doorstep.

The reason Lazarus means Gentiles is that the Lord loved Gentiles the way the Lord loved Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead (John 11:3, 5, 36). He called Lazarus his friend (John 11:11) and Lazarus reclined with him at meals (John 12:2).

We can see from these two passages that the true and good statements of the literal meaning of the Word are like containers and clothing for the bare truths and goodness that lie hidden in the spiritual and heavenly meaning of the Word.

from Sacred Scripture: White Horse, Section 40

Divine Truth, in All Its Fullness, Holiness, and Power, Is Present in the Literal Meaning of the Word (Continued)

We can tell from this that in its literal meaning the Word is really the Word. There is spirit and life within; the spiritual meaning is its spirit and the heavenly meaning is its life. This is what the Lord said: “the words that I speak to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63). The Lord said his words to the world and said them in their earthly meaning.

Apart from the earthly meaning, which is the literal meaning, the spiritual and heavenly meanings are not the Word; [without it] they are like a spirit and life without a body–and as just noted in Section 33, like a palace that has no foundation to rest on.

from Sacred Scripture: White Horse, Section 39

Section 33: Published 4/26/2017

Divine Truth, in All Its Fullness, Holiness, and Power, Is Present in the Literal Meaning of the Word (Continued)

In heaven and in the world we find sequential arrangement and simultaneous arrangement. In sequential arrangement, one thing replaces and follows another, from the highest to the lowest. In simultaneous arrangement, though, one thing adjoins another, from the innermost to the outermost. The sequential arrangement is like a column with steps from top to bottom, while the simultaneous arrangement is like a composite object that forms a series of concentric circles [that radiate] from its center to its outer surfaces.

Next I need to explain how the sequential arrangement comes to be simultaneous arrangement on the outermost level. It comes about like this. The highest elements of the sequential arrangement become the innermost elements of simultaneous arrangement, and the lowest elements of the sequential arrangement become the outermost elements of the simultaneous arrangement. It is as though the column of steps collapsed and became a tightly fitted body on one level.

That is how sequential becomes the simultaneous; and this holds for absolutely everything in the earthly world and absolutely everything in the spiritual world, since there is something first, something intermediate, and something last everywhere, and what is first stretches toward its final form, passing through what is intermediate to reach it.

Now fort the Word. What is heavenly, what is spiritual, and what is earthly emanate from the Lord sequentially, and they exist on the last level in a simultaneous arrangement. This means that now the heavenly and spiritual meanings of the Word are together within its earthly meaning.

Once this is grasped, we can see how the earthly meaning of the Word, which is its literal meaning, is foundation, container, and support of its spiritual and heavenly meanings, and how divine goodness and divine truth are present in their fullness, holiness, and power in the literal meaning of the Word.

from Sacred Scripture: White Horse, Section 38

Divine Truth, in All Its Fullness, Holiness, and Power, Is Present in the Literal Meaning of the Word

The reason the Word (scriptures) is in its fullness, holiness, and power in the literal meaning is that the two prior or deeper meanings that are called spiritual and heavenly are together in the earthly meaning, which is the literal meaning, as explained in Section 31 above. Now I need to state briefly how they are together.

from Sacred Scripture: White Horse, Section 37

Section 31: Published 4/25/2017

The “Inner Recognition of Truth” That Is Faith Is Found Only in People Who Are Devoted to Caring (Continued)

We may conclude from all this that a saving faith, the faith that is an inner recognition of what is true, can be found only in people who are caring.

from Life/Faith: Teaching for the New Jerusalem on Faith, Section 24

The “Inner Recognition of Truth” That Is Faith Is Found Only in People Who Are Devoted to Caring (Continued)

To summarize, to the extent that we turn our backs on evils because they are sins and turn to the Lord, we are engaged in caring, and therefore in faith to the same extent.

On our being engaged in caring to the extent that we turn our backs on evils because they are sins and turn toward the Lord, see Teachings about Life for the New Jerusalem, Sections 67-73 and 74-91, and on our having faith to the same extent, see Sections 42-52. On the true meaning of the word “caring,” see Section 114 of that work.

from Life/Faith: Teaching for the New Jerusalem on Faith, Section 23

Notes:

Sections 42-52: Published 10/17/2021-10/27/2021

Sections 67-73: Published 2/14/2022-2/20/2022

Sections 74-91: Published 4/19/2022-5/5/2022

The “Inner Recognition of Truth” That Is Faith Is Found Only in People Who Are Devoted to Caring (Continued)

Love for the Lord is what “love” really means, and love for our neighbor is caring. There can be no love for the Lord in us except when we are caring: it is in this that the Lord unites with us.

Since faith in its essence is caring, it follows that no one can have faith in the Lord except while caring. Union comes from caring, through faith–a union of the Lord with us through caring and a union of us with the Lord through faith. On the reciprocal nature of this union, see Teaching about Life for the New Jerusalem, Sections 101-107.

from Life/Faith: Teaching for the New Jerusalem on Faith, Section 22

Notes:

Sections 101-107: Published 6/9/2022-6/15/2022

The “Inner Recognition of Truth” That Is Faith Is Found Only in People Who Are Devoted to Caring (Continued)

It is one thing, though, when we love our neighbors for the benefit or service they offer us and another thing to love them for the benefit or service we offer them. Even when we are evil we can love our neighbors for the benefit or service they offer us, but only when we are good can we love our neighbors for the benefit or service we offer them. Then we are loving to do good because it is good–loving useful service because we have a desire to be of use. The difference between the two attitudes is described by the Lord in Matthew 5:43-47.

People often say, “I love such-and-such a person because that person loves me does me good,” but loving others for this reason alone is not loving them deeply, unless we ourselves are intent on what is good and love the good things that they do for that reason. That is being devoted to caring: the other is being focused on a kind of friendship that is not the same as caring.

When we love others because we care about them, we unite with the good they do and not with their personality, except insofar and as long as they are engaged in doing what is good. Then we are spiritual and are loving our neighbor spiritually. If we love others merely out of friendship, though, we unite ourselves with their personality, including the evil that belongs to them. In that case it is hard for us to separate ourselves after death from a personality that is devoted to evil, though in the former case, we can.

Caring makes this distinction by means of faith because faith is truth, and when through truth we are truly caring we look carefully and see what we should love; and when we are loving and benefiting others, we focus on the quality of usefulness in what we are doing.

from Life/Faith: Teaching for the New Jerusalem on Faith, Section 21

The “Inner Recognition of Truth” That Is Faith Is Found Only in People Who Are Devoted to Caring (Continued)

Since caring is love for our neighbor, I need to say what “our neighbor” is. In an earthly sense, our neighbor is humankind both collectively and individually. Humankind collectively understood is the church, the country, and the community; humankind individually understood is the fellow citizen who in the Word is called our brother or sister or companion.

In a spiritual sense, though, our neighbor is whatever is good, and since useful service is good, useful service is our neighbor in a spiritual sense.

It is important for everyone to realize that spiritual speaking, useful service is our neighbor. Who actually loves someone simply as “someone”? No, we love people because of what is within them, what makes them the kind of people they are. That is, we love them for their nature, because that is what each human being is. The quality we love is their usefulness and is what we call “good”; so this is our neighbor.

Since the Word is spiritual at heart, this is the spiritual meaning of “loving our neighbor.”

from Life/Faith: Teaching for the New Jerusalem on Faith, Section 20

The “Inner Recognition of Truth” That Is Faith Is Found Only in People Who Are Devoted to Caring (Continued)

Our caring and faith work exactly the same way as the motion of the heart that we call systole and diastole and the motion of the lungs that we call breathing. There is also a complete correspondence between these two motions and our will and understanding and therefore also our caring and faith, which is why will and its motivating feelings are meant by “the heart” in the Word, and understanding and its thinking by “the breath” in the Word and also by “the spirit.” So “breathing one’s last” is no longer living and “giving up the ghost” is no longer breathing.

It follows, then, that there can be no faith without caring or caring without faith, and that faith without caring is like the breathing of the lungs without a heart. This is impossible for any living creature; only an automation could do it. Caring without faith is like having a heart but no lungs, in which case we would have no awareness that we were alive. So caring does useful things by means of faith the way the heart accomplishes action by means of the lungs.

The likeness between “hearts” and caring on the one hand and “lungs” and faith on the other is so strong that in the spiritual world everyone can tell simply from people’s breathing what their faith is like and from their heartbeat what their caring is like. Angels and spirits live by heartbeat and breathing just as we do, which is why they feel, think, act, and talk as we do in the world.

from Life/Faith: Teaching for the New Jerusalem on Faith, Section 19