THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE (pt. 84)

THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE
for the
NEW JERUSALEM
FROM THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Emanuel Swedenborg
— Doctrinal Series —
(pt. 84)
IN PROPORTION AS ANYONE SHUNS THEFTS OF EVERY KIND
AS SINS, IN THE SAME PROPORTION HE LOVES SINCERITY.

Sincerity is to be understood as including integrity, justice, fidelity, and rectitude. In these no man can be from himself so as to love them from and for themselves. But he is in them who shuns as sins, fraud, cunning, and deceit, and is therefore in them not from himself but from the Lord (as shown above, n. 18-31) Such is the case with a priest, a magistrate, a judge, a trader, and with everyone in his own office and his own work.

This is taught by the Word in many passages, among which are the following:

• He that walketh in righteousnesses, and speaketh uprightnesses; he that despiseth oppressions for gain, that shaketh his hands from holding bribes, that stoppeth his ears from the hearing of bloods, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; he shall dwell on high (Isa. 33:15-16).

•  Jehovah, who shall abide in Thy tent? who shall dwell in the mountain of Thy holiness? He that walketh uprightly, and doeth righteousness; he that slandereth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his companion (Ps. 15:1-3, etc.).

• Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with Me he that walketh in the way of the upright, he shall minister unto Me. He that worketh deceit shall not dwell in the midst of My house; he that speaketh lies shall not stand before Mine eyes. In the dawning will I cut off all the wicked of the land, to cut off from the city all the workers of iniquity (Ps. 101:6-8).

That unless a man is interiorly sincere, just, faithful, and upright, he is insincere, unjust, unfaithful, and base, is taught by the Lord in these words:

• Except your righteousness shall exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of the heavens (Matt. 5:10).

The "righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees" means the interior righteousness in which is the man who is in the Lord. That he is in the Lord is taught by the Lord Himself in John:

• The glory which Thou hast given Me I have given unto them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected into one; that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them (John 17:22-23, 26).

From this it is evident that they are "perfect" when the Lord is in them. These are they who are called:

• The pure in heart, who shall see God and, Those who are perfect as is their Father in the heavens (Matt. 5:8, 48).

(LIFE 84)