Charity, or Love to the Neighbor, and Good Works

From True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Faith and charity are conjoined like truth and good, and these two like light and heat in spring. This is said because spiritual light, which is the light that goes forth from the sun of the spiritual world, is in its essence truth; and consequently in that world wherever truth appears, it shines with a splendor proportionate to its purity; and spiritual heat, which also goes forth from that sun, in its essence is good. This too is said because it is the same with charity and faith as with good and truth; for charity is the complex of all things pertaining to the good that a man does to his neighbor, while faith is the complex of all things pertaining to the truth that a man thinks respecting God and things Divine.

As, therefore, the truth of faith is spiritual light, and the good of charity spiritual heat, it follows that it is the same with that light and heat as with the light and heat of the natural world, that is to say, as by the conjunction of the latter all things on earth spring forth, so by the conjunction of the former all things spring forth in the human mind; but with the distinction that on the earth this growth is effected by natural heat and light, but in the human mind it is effected by spiritual heat and light, and this latter being spiritual, is wisdom and intelligence. Moreover, as there is a correspondence between these, the human mind in which charity is conjoined with faith and faith with charity is in the Word likened to a garden, and this is what is meant by the garden of Eden.

... faith without charity is not faith, nor is charity without faith charity, and neither of them is living except from the Lord; also that the Lord, charity, and faith make one, like life, will, and understanding, and if they are divided, each perishes, like a pearl reduced to powder; and finally, charity and faith are together in good works.

It is an unchanging truth, that,

for man to have spiritual life, and therefore salvation, faith and charity must not be separated.

This is self-evident to any man's understanding, even if it is not enriched with the treasures of learning.

When one hears it said, that whoever lives well and believes aright is saved, does he not see this from a kind of interior perception and therefore assent to it with his understanding? And when he hears it said that he who believes aright and does not live well is also saved, does he not reject it from his understanding, as he would a piece of dirt falling into his eye? For from interior perception the thought instantly occurs, How can anyone believe aright when he does not live well?  In that case, what is believing but a painted picture of faith, and not its living image?  So again, if anyone hears it said, that whoever lives well is saved, although he does not believe, does not the understanding, while reflecting upon this or turning it over and over, see, perceive and think, that this also is not consistent, since right living is from God, because all good that is essentially good is from God?  What then is living aright and not believing, but like clay in the hands of a potter, which cannot be formed into a vessel that would be of use in the spiritual kingdom, but only in the natural? Furthermore, cannot anyone see a contradiction in these two statements, namely, that he is saved who believes but does not live well, and that he is saved who lives well but does not believe? ... living well, which pertains to charity, is at this day both understood and not understood - living well naturally being understood, while living well spiritually is not ....

(True Christian Religion 392-393)

The Abodes of the Lord in Man

From Divine Love and Wisdom ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Man's soul, which lives after death, is his spirit, and is in complete form a man; the soul of this form is the will and understanding, and the soul of these is love and wisdom from the Lord; these two are what constitute man's life, which is from the Lord above; yet for the sake of man's reception of Him, He causes life to appear as if it were man's; but that man may not claim life for himself as his, and thus withdraw himself from this reception of the Lord, the Lord has also taught that everything of love, which is called good, and everything of wisdom, which is called truth, is from Him, and nothing of these from man; and as these two are life, that everything of life which is life is from Him.

Since the soul in its very esse is love and wisdom, and these two in man are from the Lord, there are created in man two receptacles, which are also the abodes of the Lord in man; one for love, the other for wisdom, the one for love called the will, the other for wisdom called the understanding. Now since Love and Wisdom in the Lord are one distinctly, and Divine Love is of His Divine Wisdom, and Divine Wisdom is of His Divine Love, and since these so go forth from God-Man, that is, from the Lord, therefore these two receptacles and abodes of the Lord in man, the will and understanding, are so created by the Lord as to be distinctly two, and yet make one in every operation and every sensation; for in these the will and understanding cannot be separated. Nevertheless, to enable man to become a receptacle and an abode of the Lord, it is provided, as necessary to this end, that man's understanding can be raised above his proper love into some light of wisdom in the love of which the man is not, and that he can thereby see and be taught how he must live if he would come also into that higher love, and thus enjoy eternal happiness.

But by the misuse of this power to elevate the understanding above his proper love, man has subverted in himself that which might have been the receptacle and abode of the Lord (that is, of love and wisdom from the Lord), by making the will an abode for the love of self and the world, and the understanding an abode for whatever confirms those loves. From this it has come that these two abodes, the will and understanding, have become abodes of infernal love, and by confirmations in favor of these loves, abodes of infernal thought, which in hell is esteemed as wisdom.

The reason why the love of self and love of the world are infernal loves, and yet man has been able to come into them and thus subvert the will and understanding within him, is as follows: the love of self and the love of the world by creation are heavenly loves; for they are loves of the natural man serviceable to spiritual loves, as a foundation is to a house. For man, from the love of self and the world, seeks the welfare of his body, desires food, clothing, and habitation, is solicitous for the welfare of his family, and to secure employment for the sake of use, and even, in the interest of obedience, to be honored according to the dignity of the affairs which he administers, and to find delight and refreshment in worldly enjoyment; yet all this for the sake of the end, which must be use.  For through these things man is in a state to serve the Lord and to serve the neighbor.

When, however, there is no love of serving the Lord and serving the neighbor, but only a love of serving himself by means of the world, then from being heavenly that love becomes hellish, for it causes a man to sink his mind and disposition in what is his own, and that in itself is wholly evil.

Now that man may not by the understanding be in heaven while by the will he is in hell, as is possible, and may thereby have a divided mind, after death everything of the understanding which transcends its own love is removed; whereby it comes that in everyone the will and understanding finally make one. With those in heaven the will loves good and the understanding thinks truth; but with those in hell the will loves evil and the understanding thinks falsity. The same is true of man in this world when he is thinking from his spirit, as he does when alone; yet many, so long as they are in the body, when they are not alone think otherwise. They then think otherwise because they raise their understanding above the proper love of their will, that is, of their spirit. These things have been said, to make known that the will and understanding are two distinct things, although created to act as one, and that they are made to act as one after death, if not before.

(Divine Love and Wisdom 394 - 397)

Desiring and Longing to Change

Selection from Divine Love and Wisdom ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Any one may confirm himself in favor of the Divine from things visible in nature, when he sees larvae - from the delight of some impulse, desiring and longing to change their terrestrial state to a certain likeness of the heavenly state, and for this purpose creeping into corners, and putting themselves as it were into a womb in order to be born again, and there becoming chrysalises, aurelias, caterpillars, nymphs, and at length butterflies; and having undergone this metamorphosis, and each after its kind been decked with beautiful wings, they ascend into the air as into their heaven, and there disport themselves joyfully, form marriage unions, lay eggs, and provide for themselves a posterity, nourished meanwhile with pleasant and sweet food from flowers.

Who that confirms himself in favor of the Divine from the visible things in nature can help seeing a kind of image of man's earthly state in these as larvae, and in them as butterflies an image of the heavenly state? Those who confirm themselves in favor of nature see the same things, but because in heart they have rejected the heavenly state of man they call them merely natural instincts.

(Divine Love and Wisdom 354)