Evils are to Be Shunned

Selection from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Doctrinal Ideas
of The Church which is meant by
The 'New Jerusalem'
(pt. 4)

[3 - 4 - 5] Evils are to be shunned as sins, because they are of the devil and from the devil.  Goods are to be done, because they are of God and from God. They are to be done by a man as of himself; yet he must believe that they are from the Lord with him and through him.

What need is there to prove that devils ought to be shunned because they are of the devil and from the devil? And that goods ought to be done because they are of God and from God? And that these things ought to be done by man as if of himself, yet that he ought to believe that they are done from the Lord with him and through him?

That these three doctrines are true the whole of the Sacred Scripture confirms from beginning to end.  What else does it contain in summary, but admonition to shun evils and do goods, and to believe in the Lord God?

And moreover, without these three there is no religion. Is not religion a matter of life? And what is life but the shunning of evils and doing goods? And how can a man do these and believe these except as of himself? Therefore if you take these doctrines away from the church you take from it the Sacred Scriptures, and you also take away religion from it which being removed from the church it is not a church.

(from Conjugial Love 82)