769. Who keep the commandments of God.- That this signifies with those who live the life of faith, which is charity, is evident from the signification of keeping the commandments of God, as denoting to live according to the commandments of the Word; and as that life is a life of faith, and a life of faith is charity, therefore to keep the commandments of God signifies to live a life of faith, which is charity. A life of faith denotes charity towards the neighbour, because faith means the faith of the Word, thus the faith of truth in the Word and from the Word, while charity signifies the love for good and truth, spiritual, moral, and civil; and as that which a man loves he also wills, and what he wills this he does, therefore to keep the commandments of God signifies to live the life of faith, which is charity.

[2] From these things it is evident, that all those who separate faith from charity are entirely ignorant of the nature of both faith and charity; for their idea of faith is that it consists of all those matters contained in the memory which they accept because they have heard them from learned men. A faith of this kind, however, is merely traditional faith, for they do not see that a thing is so except from another, and what one sees only from another may be confirmed both from the sense of the letter of the Word misunderstood, and by reasonings from appearances and scientifics (scientifica), although it may be a falsity in direct opposition to the truth. When such a faith is confirmed it becomes a persuasive faith; but neither this nor traditional faith is a spiritual faith, nor consequently is it a saving faith, for such faith has as yet no life from the Lord. But that a man may receive this life he must live according to the Lord's commandments in the Word, for to live according to the commandments is the same thing as to live from the Lord, because the Lord is the Word and in the Word. Such a life is a life of faith, which is charity, and then its affection becomes charity, and thought from that affection becomes faith. For all man's thought derives its life from affection, for no one can think without affection; when therefore a man's affection becomes spiritual his thought also becomes spiritual; consequently, as is a man's charity, so is his faith. It is therefore evident that charity and faith act as one like affection and thought, or what is the same thing, like will and understanding; for affection belongs to the will, and thought to the understanding, consequently they make one in act, like good and truth. It is therefore plain that to live according to the Lord's commandments from the Word, or to keep the commandments of God, means to live a life of faith, which is charity.

4190. 'And Jacob took a stone and erected it as a pillar' means a like truth and worship based on this. This is clear from the meaning of 'a stone' as truth, dealt with in 643, 1298, 3720, and from the meaning of 'a pillar' as worship based on it, that is, on truth, dealt with in 3727, from which paragraphs it is evident that these words mean a like truth and worship based on this. The expression 'a like truth' is used, that is, truth as it exists among gentiles, because although gentiles do not know anything about the Word or as a consequence about the Lord, they still have the same external truths as Christians, such as these: One should worship God with due reverence, keep religious festivals, and honour one's parents; one should not steal, commit adultery, or kill; also, one should not covet what belongs to another. Thus gentiles have the same kind of truths as are included in the Ten Commandments and are also the standards of behaviour set within the Church. The wise among them act in conformity not only with the external but also with the internal form which those same commandments take, for they think that the kinds of things which are forbidden are not only contrary to their religion but also contrary to the common good and so to the internal obligation which they owe to other people, and that as a consequence such actions are contrary to charity. And they think in this way even though they have little knowledge of what faith is. In their obscurity they possess a kind of conscience against which they are unwilling to act, indeed against which some are incapable of acting. From this it becomes clear that the Lord governs their interiors which are in obscurity, and in so doing imparts to them an ability to receive interior truths, which they also do receive in the next life - see what has been shown concerning gentiles in 2589-2604.

[2] I have been allowed to talk on several occasions to Christians in the next life about the state and fortune of gentiles outside the Church - that they accept the truths and goods of faith more easily than do Christians who have not lived according to the Lord's commandments, and that Christians think of gentiles in a heartless fashion. That is to say, they think that all outside the Church stand condemned, a way of thinking based on the established rule that outside the Lord there is no salvation. I have told the Christians to whom I have been speaking that this rule is true, but that gentiles who have led charitable lives with one another and who, moved by some kind of conscience, have done what is just and fair, receive faith and acknowledge the Lord more easily in the next life than those who are inside the Church and have not led charitable lives. I have gone on to say that Christians are subject to falsity when they believe that heaven is theirs alone because they have the Book of the Word, written down on paper but not in their hearts, and also when they know the Lord but do not believe that He is Divine as to His Human, indeed when they do not acknowledge Him, as to His second Essence which they term the human nature, as any more than an ordinary human being. Therefore, left to themselves and their own ideas they do not even adore Him. So it is they themselves who are outside the Lord, and for whom there is no salvation.