THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE (pt. 44)

THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE
for the
NEW JERUSALEM
FROM THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Emanuel Swedenborg
— Doctrinal Series —
(pt. 44)
IN PROPORTION AS ANYONE SHUNS EVILS AS SINS, IN THE SAME PROPORTION HE HAS FAITH, AND IS SPIRITUAL.

It has been shown above (articles n. 27-28) that a man may know many things, may think them over, may understand them, and yet may not be wise. And as it is the province of faith to know and to think, and still more to understand, that a thing is true, a man may well believe that he has faith and yet not have it. The reason why he has it not, is that he is in evil of life, and evil of life and truth of faith cannot possibly act as a one.

The evil of life destroys the truth of faith, because the evil of life is of the will and the truth of faith is of the understanding, and the will leads the understanding and makes it act as a one with itself, so that if there is anything in the understanding that is not in accord with the will, and the man is left to himself, and thinks from his own evil and the love of it, he then either casts out the truth that is in the understanding, or else by falsifying it forces it into oneness. 

Quite different is it with those who are in the good of life: such, when left to themselves, think from what is good, and love the truth that is in the understanding because it is in accord. In this way there takes place a conjunction of faith and life such as is that of truth and good, and both these conjunctions are like that of the understanding and the will.

(LIFE 44)