LOVE TOWARDS THE NEIGHBOR, OR CHARITY (pt. 5)

The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine
Emanuel Swedenborg
• Doctrinal Series •
LOVE TOWARDS THE NEIGHBOR, OR CHARITY
(pt. 5)

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That love is what causes anyone to be the neighbor, and that everyone is the neighbor according to the quality of his love, appears manifestly from those who are in the love of self. These acknowledge for their neighbor those who love them most, that is, so far as they belong to themselves; these they embrace, they kiss them, they confer benefits on them and call them brothers; yea, because they are evil, they say, that these are the neighbor more than others: they esteem others as the neighbor in proportion as they love them, thus according to the quality and quantity of their love.

Such persons derive the origin of neighbor from self, by reason that love constitutes and determines it. 

But they who do not love themselves more than others, as is the case with all who belong to the kingdom of the Lord, will derive the origin of neighbor from Him whom they ought to love above all things, consequently, from the Lord; and they will esteem everyone as the neighbor according to the quality of his love to Him and from Him.

From these things it appears from whence the origin of neighbor is to be drawn by the man of the church; and that everyone is the neighbor according to the good which he possesses from the Lord, thus good itself is the neighbor.

(The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 89)

• In the manuscript, the author, Emanuel Swedenborg, annexed to each section of the doctrine extracts from the  Arcana Coelestia, because in the  Arcana Coelestia the same things are more fully explained.  Arcana Coelestia is available in print or online.