At face value, the Ten Commandments can seem intense and unforgiving. But Emanuel Swedenborg’s understanding of the internal sense of the Bible—spiritual meanings that lie beneath the literal words—can give us a new perspective on these familiar rules.

In this episode of their Swedenborg and Life web series, hosts Curtis Childs and Jonathan Rose study the inner meaning of the first commandment.

(参照: Apocalypse Revealed 950; Arcana Coelestia 8864, 8865, 8868, 8869, 8875, 8878, 8879, 8880, 8881)

10. (Verse 2) Who bare witness of the Word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ. That this signifies, that it is for those who in heart acknowledge Divine truth, and the Divine of the Lord in His Human, is evident from the signification of bearing witness, as denoting to acknowledge in heart, concerning which more will be said in what follows; from the signification of the Word, or discourse, of God, as denoting the Divine truth (of which see n. 4692, 5075, 9987); and from the signification of [the testimony] of Jesus Christ, as being the acknowledgment of the Divine of the Lord in His Human. This is signified by the testimony of Jesus Christ, because to bear witness is to acknowledge in heart; and to acknowledge Jesus Christ in heart, is to acknowledge the Divine in His Human; for he who acknowledges the Lord, and not at the same time the Divine in his Human, does not acknowledge the Lord; for His Divine is in His Human, and not outside it. For the Divine is in His Human as the soul in the body; therefore to think of the Human of the Lord, and not at the same time of His Divine, is like thinking of a man apart from his soul or life, which is not to think of the man.

[2] That the Divine of the Lord is in His Human, and that they are together one person, the doctrine received in the whole Christian world teaches in these words: "Although Christ is God and Man, yet they are not two, but one Christ; one, not by conversion of the Godhead into the human, but by the Divine taking of the Human into itself: One altogether; not so that the two natures are commingled, but by unity of person; for as soul and body make one man, so God and Man are one Christ" (from the Athanasian Creed). It is therefore manifest, that those who distinguish the Divine into three persons, ought, when they think of the Lord as the second person, to think of both, of the Human as well as of the Divine, for it is said that they are one person, and that they are one as soul and body. Those therefore who think otherwise, do not think of the Lord; and those who do not thus think of the Lord, cannot think of the Divine which is called the Divine of the Father; for the Lord saith:

"I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me" (John 14:6).

Because this acknowledgment is signified by the testimony of Jesus Christ, therefore it is said, that

The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Rev. 19:10).

The spirit of prophecy is the life and soul of doctrine (that spirit, in the internal sense of the Word, signifies the life or soul, may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 5222, 9281, 9818; and that prophecy signifies doctrine, n. 2534, 7269); and the acknowledgment of the Lord is the very life or soul of all doctrine in the church. But concerning these things more will be said in what follows.

[3] The reason why to bear witness is to acknowledge in heart, is, because spiritual things are treated of; no one can bear witness of those things unless from the heart, because from no other ground can he perceive that they are so. But to bear witness concerning such things as exist in the world, is to do so from science, or from memory and thought, because the man has so seen or heard. But it is otherwise in things spiritual; for these fill the whole life, and constitute it. Man's spirit, in which the man's life primarily resides, is nothing else but his will, or his love, and his understanding and faith therefrom; and the heart signifies, in the Word, the will and love, and understanding and faith therefrom. It is therefore manifest why by bearing witness, in the spiritual sense, is meant to acknowledge in heart. Since by heart is signified the good of love, and it is this alone that acknowledges Divine truth and the Divine of the Lord in His Human, and because that good is signified by John, therefore also it is said by John, that he bare witness of the Word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ; as also in another place:

"And he that saw bare witness, and his witness is true, and he knoweth that he saith truths, that ye may believe" (John 19:35)

and in another place:

"This is the disciple that testifieth of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony is true" (John 21:24).