Do you believe in GOOD?

On Charity, or Love to the Neighbour, and Good Deeds: chapter 7 of True Christian Religion.

We are not saved by your good deeds, and Swedenborg does not teach that we are!

• “The current belief is that charity is no more than doing good, and that then a person does no evil.” [paragraph 437]
• “… a person can by no means act from spiritual justice and faithfulness of himself …” [423]
• “… no one is able to purity himself from evils by his own power and abilities …” [438]

Charity means: “‘Christian love of one’s fellows’ (Middle English): from Old French charite, from Latin caritas, from carus ‘dear’.

” … charity, can be defined as doing good to the neighbour daily and constantly, not only to the neighbour as an individual but also collectively; and the only way of doing this is by good and fair dealing in the position, business or work in which one is engaged and with anyone with whom one comes into contact. … A person who exercises charity in this way becomes more and more a living form of charity; for justice and faithfulness develop his mind, and exercise does his body, and in process of time the formation of his mind prevents him from willing and thinking of anything but such things as have to do with charity. These people end up by becoming like those described in the Word as having the law engraved on their hearts. … [423]

There is a difference between the obligations/duties versus the benefactions/kindnesses:

“It is generally believed that charity consists only in giving to the poor, helping the needy, taking care of widows and orphans, making donations to the building of hospices and hospitals, hostels, orphanages, and above all churches, and to their decoration and their income. But the majority of these are not the proper work of charity, but are additional to it.” [425]

Charity is the internal, and good works the externals:

“Everyone knows that a father who chastises his children when they do wrong loves them; and in the opposite case if he does not chastise them for it, he loves their faults, and this cannot be called charity. … The purpose for which they are undertaken determines whether or not they are charitable.” [407]

“No one can draw any conclusions from the morality of the external [person] about that of the internal, since he may be facing the opposite direction, … The so-called moral man of this sort is like a highwayman in town and in the woods; in town he adopts the role of a moral citizen, but in the woods he preys on travellers.” [443]

Who or what is the neighbour?

“… good, leaving persons out of account, is the neighbour.” [422]

Three important principles:

1. Acting with Prudence / Discrimination – so that GOOD is the result.

It’s OK to get it wrong!

“… because these degrees exist in the internal man, who is rarely to be discerned in the world, it is sufficient for one to love the neighbour in terms of the degrees one does know.” [410]

We teach prudence too young:

“… those kindnesses are in many ways beneficial, particularly giving to the poor and to beggars. They are a means by which boys and girls, servants and maids, and generally speaking all simple folk are introduced to charity; these are the external acts which lead people to absorb the functions of charity. They are its beginnings, and then like unripe fruit; and in the case of those who are later perfected by acquiring a proper knowledge of charity and faith, they become like ripe fruit.” [426]

2. Shunning evils of sins is the first part of charity

“Reason itself can show anyone that in so far as the evil lodged in the will is not removed, so far is the good he does impregnated with that evil.” [435]

“Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.” (Matthew 12:25)

“Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” (Matthew 15:10)

3. “As it of oneself.”

“… no one is able to purity himself from evils by his own power and abilities; yet neither can it be done without the power and abilities of man as if these were his own.” [438]

“Since no one can do any good deed unless it seems to him as if his ability, will and activity come from himself, this appearance is granted to him; and when he does it freely as if of his own accord, it is imputed to him, and accepted as the reciprocal act which brings about linking. … it is like the will being present in actions, and thought being present in speech, and the soul working at the innermost level on each of these.” [457.4]

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (John 15:4,5)

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