If I do good, do I avoid evil?

Selection from Last Judgment [Posthumous] ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

To do goods and not to fight against evils is to do goods from self and not from the Lord.

It is believed by many that they will be saved because they have done goods, as that they have given to the poor, benefitted their neighbor, acted sincerely and justly in their duty and work, and yet have never fought against the evils opposed to their goods; believing that thus evils are removed. It appears to them, moreover, as if goods removed evils; saying in heart, "If I do good then I shall avoid evil." Nevertheless the case is as follows:

that such a one does good from obedience to the precepts of the Lord, yet not from the Lord but from himself, thus not from any spiritual law except only apparently, but from a moral and civil law actually.

In this case his evils nevertheless remain; for although he does not do them, yet he is not averse to them. Consequently when the love of evil with its delight returns, he does not resist the evil, but either excuses it and does it, or omits doing it on account of himself and the world; moreover, he does not then know that it is evil.

The case is otherwise when he fights against evil from the spiritual law; for, insofar as he does this, he censures evil, and he then loves good and its truth; and in proportion as he does good from the Lord and not from himself, in the same proportion the Lord, by the good and truth in the man, removes his evils.

(Last Judgment Posthumous 349 [342])

The Church - The Home for Love and Wisdom in Use

Selection from Divine Love and Wisdom ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

In the Lord the three degrees of height are infinite and uncreate, but in man the three degrees are finite and created.

In the Lord the three degrees of height are infinite and uncreate, because the Lord is Love itself and Wisdom itself; and because the Lord is Love itself and Wisdom itself, He is also Use itself. For love has use for its end, and brings forth use by means of wisdom; for without use, love and wisdom have no boundary or end, that is, no home of their own, consequently they cannot be said to have being and have form unless there be use in which they may be. These three constitute the three degrees of height in subjects of life.  These three are like first end, middle end which is called cause, and last end which is called effect.

In man there are these three degrees can be seen from the elevation of his mind even to the degrees of love and wisdom in which angels of the second and third heavens are; for all angels were born men; and man, as regards the interiors pertaining to his mind, is a heaven in least form; therefore there are in man, by creation, as many degrees of height as there are heavens. Moreover, man is an image and likeness of God; consequently these three degrees have been inscribed on man, because they are in God-Man, that is, in the Lord. That in the Lord these degrees are infinite and uncreate, and in man finite and created - that the Lord is Love and Wisdom in Himself; and that man is a recipient of love and wisdom from the Lord; also, that of the Lord nothing but what is infinite can be predicated, and of man nothing but what is finite.

These three degrees with the angels are called Celestial, Spiritual, and Natural; and for them the celestial degree is the degree of love, the spiritual the degree of wisdom, and the natural the degree of uses. These degrees are so called because the heavens are divided into two kingdoms, one called the celestial, the other the spiritual, to which is added a third kingdom wherein are men in the world, and this is the natural kingdom. Moreover, the angels of whom the celestial kingdom consists are in love; the angels, of whom the spiritual kingdom consists are in wisdom; while men in the world are in uses; therefore these kingdoms are conjoined.

(Divine Love and Wisdom 230-232)

Five Precepts Doctrinal Ideas of the Faith and Charity of the New Church

From Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The doctrinal ideas of the Church which is meant by the 'New Jerusalem' are as follows:

• (1) There is one God, in whom is the Divine Trinity, and He is the Lord Jesus Christ.

• (2) Saving faith is to believe in Him.

• (3) Evils are to be shunned as sins, because they are of the devil and from the devil.

• (4) Goods are to be done, because they are of God and from God.

• (5) 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.

'That there is one God, in whom is the Divine Trinity, and that He is the Lord Jesus Christ' - Is not God one and indivisible? Is there not a Trinity? If God is one and indivisible, is He not one person? If one person, is not the Trinity in that person? That He is the Lord Jesus Christ:-

• He was conceived of God the Father (Luke 1:34, 35);

so that as to the soul He is God, and hence, as He Himself says:-

• The Father and He are one (John 10:30)

• He is in the Father and the Father in Him (John xiv. 10, 11)

• He who sees Him and knows Him, sees and knows the Father (John 14:7, 9)

• No one sees and knows the Father but He who is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18)

• All things of the Father are His (John 3:35; 16:15)

• He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father but by Him (John 14:6)

Thus He is from Him because He is in Him; and, according to Paul:-

• In him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9)

Further:

• He has power over all flesh (John 17:2)

• He has all power in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18)

It follows that He is the God of heaven and earth.

'That saving faith is to believe in Him.'

• This is the will of the Father, that every one who believes in the Son shall have everlasting life (John 6:40).

• God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

• He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; but he who believes not the Son shall not see life, but the anger of God abides on him (John 3:36).

'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 'evils are to be shunned because they are of the devil and from the devil'?  And that 'goods are 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'?

Sacred Scripture from beginning to end confirms the truth of these three doctrines. What else does it contain in summary but admonition to shun evils and do goods and to believe in the Lord God?  Without these three, moreover, there is no religion. Is not religion a matter of life?  And what is life but shunning evils and doing goods?  And how can a man do and believe these things except as of himself? Therefore if you take these doctrines away from the Church you take away the Sacred Scriptures from it, and you also take religion away from it, and when that is removed from it, the Church is not a Church.

(Conjugial Love 82)