Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matthew 6:24-34
It is termed "abuse," when there arises what is alike in ultimates, but from a contrary origin.
Good arises from a contrary origin, when it does so from man, and not from the Lord; for the Lord is good itself, consequently He is the source of all good.The good which is from Him has in it what is Divine; thus it is good from its inmost and first being; whereas the good which is from man is not good, because from himself man is nothing but evil; consequently the good which is from him is in its first essence evil, although in the outward form it may appear like good. The case herein is like that of flowers painted upon a tablet, as compared with the flowers that grow in a garden. These flowers are beautiful from their inmosts; for the more interiorly they are opened, the more beautiful they are; whereas the flowers painted on a tablet are beautiful only in the outward form, and as to the inward one are nothing but mud and a mixture of earthy particles lying in confusion, as the Lord also teaches when He says of the lilies of the field that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these (Matt. 6:29).
Such is the case with the good that is from man in comparison with the good that is from the Lord. A man cannot know that these goods are so different from each other, because he judges from outward things; but the angels well perceive whence comes the good with a man, and consequently what is the nature of it. The angels who are with a man are in good from the Lord, and as it were dwell therein; but they cannot be in the good that is from a man; they remove themselves from it as far as they can, because inmostly it is evil.
Good from the Lord has heaven in it, for this good is the form of heaven in an image, and in its inmost it stores up the Lord Himself, because in all the good that proceeds from the Lord there is a semblance of Himself, and consequently a semblance of heaven; whereas in the good that is from a man there is a semblance of the man, and as from himself a man is nothing but evil, there is a semblance of hell in it.So great is the difference between good from the Lord, and good from man.
Good from the Lord is with those who love the Lord above all things and the neighbor as themselves; but good from man is with those who love themselves above all things and despise the neighbor in comparison with themselves. These are they who have care for the morrow, because they trust in themselves; but the former are they who have no care for the morrow, because they trust in the Lord.
They who trust in the Lord continually receive good from Him; for whatsoever happens to them, whether it appears to be prosperous or not prosperous, is still good, because it conduces as a means to their eternal happiness.But they who trust in themselves are continually drawing evil upon themselves; for whatever happens to them, even if it appears to be prosperous and happy, is nevertheless evil, and consequently conduces as a means to their eternal unhappiness.
( Arcana Cœlestia 8480)