What Is Christian Charity?

Selection from Arcana Coelestia Emanuel Swedenborg

Genuine Charity is Devoid of All Claim to Merit

If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury. Exodus 22:25

"a usurer," as being one who does what is good for the sake of self-advantage; for a usurer intrusts money to another for the sake of usury,* and assists another for the sake of recompense. And because genuine charity does not regard profit or recompense as the end, but the good of the neighbor, therefore by "thou shalt not be as a usurer" is signified that it must be done from charity. 

He who does not know what Christian charity is, may believe that it consists not only in giving to the needy and the poor, but also in doing good to a fellow citizen, to our country, and to the church, for any cause whatever, or for any end whatever. But be it known that it is the end that determines the quality of all a man's deeds. If his end or intention is to do good for the sake of reputation or to acquire honors or profit, then the good which he does is not good, because it is done for the sake of himself, and thus also from himself. But if his end is to do good for the sake of a fellow citizen, his country, or the church, thus for the sake of the neighbor, then the good which the man does is good, for it is done for the sake of good itself, which, in general, is the neighbor itself; thus also it is done for the sake of the Lord, for such good is not from man, but from the Lord, and that which is from the Lord is the Lord's. It is this good which is meant by the Lord in Matthew:

As much as ye did to one of the least of these My brethren, ye did to Me (Matt. 25:40).

As it is with good, so also it is with truth. 

Those who do truth for the sake of truth, do it also for the sake of the Lord, because they do it from the Lord. To do truth for the sake of truth, is to do good; for truth becomes good when it passes from the understanding into the will, and from the will goes forth into act.

To do good in this manner is Christian charity.

Sometimes those who do good from Christian charity have regard to reputation from it, for the sake of honor, or for the sake of profit; yet they do so very differently from those who regard these things as the end; for they regard what is good and just as the essential and only thing, thus as being in the highest place; and thereafter they regard profit and honor, and reputation for the sake of these, as being relatively not essential, thus in the lowest place. When persons of such a character have in view what is just and good, they are like those who fight in battle for their country, and who then have no regard for their life, nor for their rank and possessions in the world, which are then relatively of no account. But those who have regard to themselves and the world in the first place, are of such a character that they do not even see what is just and good, because they have in view themselves and their own profit.

From all this it is evident what it is to do good for the sake of self or the world, and what it is to do good for the sake of the Lord or the neighbor, and what is the difference between them. The difference is as great as that between two opposites, thus as great as between heaven and hell. Moreover, those who do good for the sake of the neighbor or the Lord are in heaven; but those who do good for the sake of self and the world are in hell. For those who do good for the sake of the neighbor and the Lord, love the Lord above all things and the neighbor as themselves, in accordance with the chief of all the commandments:

And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. Mark 12:28-31.

But those who do all things for the sake of themselves and the world, love themselves above all things, thus more than God, and not only do they despise the neighbor, but even hold him in hatred if he does not make one with themselves, and be theirs. This is meant by what the Lord teaches in Matthew:

No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (Matt. 6:24).

There are those who serve both; but these are they who are called "lukewarm, neither cold nor hot," who are "spewed out" (Rev. 3:15-16). From all this it is now plain what was represented by usurers who took usury, namely, those who do good for the sake of profit. From this it is clear why it is said that one "should not be as a usurer, and should not put usury upon a brother;" as also in other passages in Moses:

Thou shalt not put on thy brother usury of silver, usury of food, usury of anything on which it is put. Upon a foreigner thou mayest put usury; but upon thy brother thou shalt not put usury; that Jehovah thy God may bless thee in all that thou puttest thine hand unto, in the land whither thou goest to possess it (Deut. 23:19, 20; Lev. 25:36-38)

• "to put on a brother the usury of silver" denotes to lend truths, or to instruct, for the sake of profit
• "to put the usury of food on him" denotes to lend the goods of truth for the sake of profit
• for "silver" denotes truth
• "food," the good of truth

That "Jehovah will bless those who do not so, in all that they put their hand unto in the land" is because they are in the affection of good and truth, thus in the happiness the angels have in heaven, for a man has heaven in this affection, that is, in the good of this love.

Foreigners —

The reason why it was allowable to put usury on foreigners, was that by "foreigners" are signified those who do not acknowledge and receive anything of good and truth. Thus they who do good only for the sake of profit are to serve man because they are relatively servants. In David:

He that walketh perfect, and that doeth righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart; He that giveth not his silver to usury, and taketh not a gift against the innocent. He that doeth this shall never be moved (Ps. 15:2, 5)

"to give one's silver into usury" denotes to teach merely for the sake of profit, thus to do good for the sake of the recompense. In like manner in Ezekiel:

A righteous man who doeth judgment and righteousness, giveth not into usury, and taketh not interest (Ezek. 18:5, 8).

He that withholdeth his hand from the needy, that taketh not usury or interest, that doeth My judgments, that walketh in My statutes, living he shall live (Ezek. 18:17).

In thee have they taken a gift to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and interest, and thou hast taken gain of thy companions by violence (Ezek. 22:12).

This is said of the "city of bloods," by which is signified the falsity that destroys truth and good; "taking usury and interest" denotes doing good for the sake of profit and recompense, thus not from charity.

(from Arcana Coelestia 9210)

* Usury is the act of lending money at an interest rate that is considered unreasonably high or that is higher than the rate permitted by law.

Those that Know Nothing About the Word

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The goods of works, such as are with the Gentiles

The Gentiles are said to be aside, or in collateral good, because they are outside of the church. Those within the church who are in truth and good are not in a collateral line, but in the direct line, for they have the Word, and through the Word they have direct communication with heaven, and through heaven with the Lord; but not so the Gentiles, for these have not the Word, and know not the Lord. For this reason they are said to be aside. Those Gentiles are meant who are in the goods of works, that is, who are in externals within which there is the good of charity. These are what are called the "goods of works," but not "good works;" for good works may exist without having goods within, but not so the goods of works.

• Such truth and the derivative worship as exists with the Gentiles

Although the Gentiles know nothing about the Word, and accordingly nothing about the Lord, they nevertheless have external truths such as Christians have. As for instance:

• that the Deity is to be worshiped in a holy manner
• that festivals are to be observed
• that parents are to be honored
• that we must not steal
• must not commit adultery
• must not kill
• must not covet the neighbor's goods

thus such truths as those of the Decalogue; which also are for rules of life within the church. The wise among them observe these laws not only in the external form, but also in the internal. For they think that such things are contrary not only to their religious system, but also to the general good, and thus to the internal duty which they owe to man, and that consequently they are contrary to charity, although they do not so well know what faith is. They have in their obscurity somewhat of conscience, contrary to which they are not willing to act, and in fact some of them cannot do so. From this it is evident that the Lord rules their interiors, although they are in obscurity; and thus that He imparts to them the faculty of receiving interior truths, which they do also receive in the other life. (See what has been shown respecting the Gentiles, n. 2589-2604.)

It has at times been given me to speak with Christians in the other life concerning the state and lot of the Gentiles outside of the church, in that they receive the truths and goods of faith more easily than do Christians who have not lived according to the precepts of the Lord; and that Christians think cruelly about them, in assuming that all who are out of the church are damned, and this from the received canon that without the Lord there is no salvation. This indeed, as I have said to them, is true; but the Gentiles who have lived in mutual charity, and have done from a kind of conscience what is just and equitable, receive faith and acknowledge the Lord more easily in the other life than those within the church who have not lived in such charity.

Moreover, Christians are in what is false, in believing that heaven is for them alone, because they have the book of the Word, written on paper but not in their hearts; and because they know the Lord, and yet do not believe that He is Divine as to His Human; but acknowledge Him only as a common man in respect to His other essence, which they call His human nature, and therefore when left to themselves and their own thoughts, they do not even adore Him. Thus it is they who are out of the Lord, for whom there is no salvation.

—

• Those who are in simple good as to life, and thence in natural truth as to doctrine

They who are within the church and have confirmed themselves against Divine truths, especially against these - that the Lord's Human is Divine, and that the works of charity contribute to salvation - if they have confirmed themselves against them, not only by doctrine but also by life, they have reduced themselves to such a state as to their interiors that afterwards they cannot possibly be brought to receive them, for what is once confirmed by doctrine, and at the same time by life, remains to eternity.

Those who do not know the interior state of man may suppose that anyone, no matter how he has confirmed himself against these truths, can yet easily accept them afterwards, provided he is convinced. But that this is impossible has been granted me to know by much experience in regard to such persons in the other life.

• whatever is confirmed by doctrine is absorbed by the intellectual part
• what is confirmed by life is absorbed by the will part
• that which is inrooted in both man's lives - the life of his understanding and the life of his will - cannot be rooted out.

The very soul of man which lives after death is formed thereby, and is of such a nature that it never recedes therefrom. This is also the reason why the lot of those within the church with whom this is the case, is worse than the lot of those who are out of the church; for those who are out of the church, who are called Gentiles, have not confirmed themselves against these truths, because they have not known them; and therefore such of them as have lived in mutual charity, easily receive Divine truths, if not in the world, yet in the other life.

For this reason when any new church is being set up by the Lord, it is not set up with those who are within the church, but with those who are without, that is, with the Gentiles. These things are often treated of in the Word. This much is premised in order that it may be known what is involved in Joseph's being cast into the pit by his brethren, and in his being drawn out thence by the Midianites, and sold to the Ishmaelites. For by Joseph's brethren are represented those within the church who have confirmed themselves against Divine truth, especially against the two truths - that the Lord's Human is Divine, and that works of charity contribute to salvation - and this not only by doctrine, but also by life; while by the Ishmaelites are represented those who are in simple good, and by the Midianites those who are in the truth of this good; the latter are they drew Joseph out of the pit; and of the former that they bought him.

(from Arcana Coelestia 4189, 4190; 4747)

The Mystery of the Lord's Incarnation

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Everyone adopts the religion of his native land - because he is educated in it and is afterwards confirmed in it by preachings, and particularly because there are but few who study the doctrine of the church and the interior meaning of the Word, believing that such things transcend their comprehension, and also that they are not to be seen or understood, but only to be believed.

The received faith which is called the only saving faith, "That God the Father sent His Son into the world, that through the passion of His cross He might effect propitiation, redemption, and salvation." This faith if understood according to the ideas of those who defend faith separate from life, and thence according to preachings from their doctrine, is no faith; as is evident from each and every thing that is contained in that faith and that follows as a consequence from it; and these are:
  
(1) That there is propitiation, that is, a propitiation of God the Father by the passion or by the blood of His Son.
(2) That there is mercy or compassion of God the Father for the Son's sake.
(3) That there was a bearing of our iniquities by the Lord, and a consequent deliverance from them.
(4) That there is an imputative principle, and thus an imputation of the Lord's merit, through which we are saved.
(5) That there is an intercession of the Lord with the Father.
(6) That there is redemption and salvation without the means of life and faith, and thus there is immediate mercy.
(7) That in such a faith there is no religion, but it is emptiness and vacuity.
(8) That there is in it neither any faith in the Lord, nor any acknowledgment of His Divine in His Human. (9) That consequently the trust and confidence of that faith which at this day is received as the only saving faith is an empty sound.
(10) That saving faith is wholly different.

But since it is on the lips of nearly all who are of the church that the Lord endured the cross for our sins, and that He took them upon Himself and bore them, and thereby not only reconciled the Father but also redeemed us from hell, and that by this merit of the Lord we are saved, provided we believe this in trust and confidence - it is necessary to inquire, whether these things should be understood according to the common opinion.

Add to this that he who supplicates the Father to have mercy for the sake of the Son has no other idea of the Lord than as of an ordinary man; for he regards Him as beneath the Father, thus as a man from the mother Mary, who suffered the cross, and because of this there is mercy for man; thence the Lord's Divine is separated from His Human, although there is no such separation in the doctrine of the Nicene Council respecting the Trinity; for this teaches that the Divine and the Human of the Lord are not two but one Person, and that they are like the soul and body in man.

But those who look to the Father, although they acknowledge the Lord's Divine, yet do not approach it; for they place it near the Father above the Human of the Lord, and thus they see His Human apart from His Divine, although His Divine is His soul. This is why many at this time confess the Divine of the Lord with the mouth, while but few acknowledge it in heart; and he who does not acknowledge the Divine of the Lord in His Human, and does not look to that in his supplications, cannot have any conjunction with heaven. From this it follows that in this faith, namely, that the Father should have mercy for the sake of the Son, there is no faith in the Lord nor any acknowledgment of His Divine in His Human. This, moreover, is what the Lord foretold to Peter, that at the end of the church He would no longer be acknowledged.

"That consequently, the trust and confidence of that faith, which is at this day accepted as the only saving faith, is an empty word."

For the trust of that faith is a natural trust, in which there is nothing spiritual, since there is nothing in it of truth and good, which belong to faith and life; when, therefore, that faith is confirmed by the learned, the truth of heaven may be destroyed and man shut out of heaven by such confirmation.

In such emptiness the faith alone that is accepted in the churches, or faith separated from goods of life, terminates; and yet this faith, although it is empty, fills the entire theology of the Christian world. For this reason the learned of the church, when they come after death into the spiritual world, are in so many falsities as scarcely to know a single genuine truth.

But it is otherwise with those who have not confirmed these falsities with themselves and have lived at the same time in some measure the life of faith, which is charity. These can be instructed in the truths of faith, and when they have been instructed can be received among the angels in heaven.

For it is one thing to believe these falsities with a confirmed faith, thus with the heart, and a wholly different thing to believe them with a faith not confirmed.

The reason of the Lord's coming and why He suffered:

The Lord came into the world to save the human race, who otherwise would have perished in eternal death, and that He saved them by subjugating the hells, which infested every man coming into the world and going out of the world, and at the same time by glorifying His Human, since thus He is able to keep the hells subjugated to eternity. The subjugation of the hells, together with the glorification of His Human, was accomplished by means of temptations admitted into the human that He had from the mother, and by continual victories therein. His passion in Gethsemane and on the cross was the last temptation and complete victory.

That the Lord came into the world for these two reasons, and that He thus saved the human race from eternal death, can be seen from this, that before the Lord's coming, the hells were not in order, and consequently there was no equilibrium between hell and heaven, but hell on its part prevailed over heaven. And yet man has been placed in the midst between heaven and hell; in consequence of this whatever before the Lord's coming flowed into man out of heaven was taken away by hell, because of its superior power. Therefore to restore the destroyed equilibrium it pleased the Lord to come into the world, and to accomplish at that time a Last Judgment, and subjugate the hells; and by doing this the Lord acquired for Himself the power to save the men who have faith in and love to Him from Him.

These things could be carried into effect only by the Lord's assuming a Human, for the reason that God works such effects from first principles by means of ultimates, since to work from first principles by means of ultimates is to work in fullness. The very might of the Divine power rests in things ultimate; so the Lord's might rests in His Human because that is in the ultimate. This was one reason of His coming into the world.

The other reason was that He might glorify His Human, that is, make it Divine, since by this and by no other means is He able to keep the hells subjugated to eternity, for He thus acts to eternity from first principles by means of things ultimate, and in fullness. In this way His Divine operation reaches down even to those who are lowest in the world, while otherwise it would reach only to those who are first in heaven, and mediately through these and those that follow to the lowest, who are men. Consequently, if these should give way, as happened just before the Lord's coming, the Divine operation among men would cease, and consequently they would have no means of salvation. The Divine operation of the Lord through the Human assumed in the world is called His immediate influx even to those who are lowest.

These are the two means whereby man has salvation, which is called redemption.

This is called the redemption by His blood because the subjugation of the hells, together with the glorification of the Lord's Human, could be effected only by means of temptations admitted into Himself from the hells, the last of which temptations was the passion of the cross.

From this it can now be seen that the Lord did not come into the world to propitiate the Father and to move Him to mercy, nor to bear our iniquities and thus take them away, nor that we might be saved by the imputation of His merit, or by intercession, or by immediate mercy, consequently not by a faith in these things, still less by the confidence of that faith, since that confidence confirms such things as are not true, thus such things as do not belong to faith.

He who knows why the Lord came into the world, and knows that all who believe and do the things that He taught are saved by Him, and at the same time by the Father in Him, and not by the Father separated from Him, can see that many of the things that the leaders teach respecting redemption must be understood otherwise than according to their explanation of them.

That the Lord subjugated the hells He taught when the passion of the cross was at hand, in John:

Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out (12:27, 28, 31).

In the same:

Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John 16:33).

In Luke:

Jesus said, I beheld Satan as lightning falling from heaven (10:18).

In Isaiah:

Who is this that cometh from Edom, walking in the multitude of his power? great to save; Mine arm brought salvation for Me; so He became their Savior (63:1, 5, 8; also 59:16-21).

Because the Lord subjugated the hells He gave the seventy disciples:

Authority over demons (Luke 10:17, 19).

That the Lord glorified His Human, and that the passion of the cross was the last temptation and complete victory by which He glorified it, He teaches in John:

When Judas was gone out Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God shall glorify Him in Himself, and straightway shall He glorify Him (13:31, 32).

In the same:

Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son that Thy Son also may glorify Thee (John 17:1, 5).

In the same:

Now is my soul troubled; Father, glorify Thy name. And there came a voice out of heaven, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again (John 12:27, 28).

And in Luke:

Ought not the Christ to suffer this and to enter into glory? (24:26).

This was said of His passion. "To glorify" is to make Divine. From this it can be seen that unless the Lord had come into the world and had become Man, and by this means had liberated from hell all those who believe in Him and love Him, no mortal could have been saved. Thus it is understood that without the Lord there is no salvation. This, now, is the mystery of the Lord's incarnation.

(from Apocalypse Explained 805-806