22
ⲠⲈⲚⲦⲀⲨϪⲞϤ ⲆⲈ ⲈϪⲚ ⲚϢⲞⲚⲦⲈ. ⲠⲀⲒ ⲠⲈⲦⲤⲰⲦⲘ ⲈⲠϢⲀϪⲈ. ⲈⲢⲈⲠⲢⲞⲞⲨϢ ⲘⲠⲈⲒⲀⲒⲰⲚ ⲘⲚ ⲦⲀⲠⲀⲦⲎ ⲚⲦⲘⲚⲦⲢⲘⲘⲀⲞ ⲰϬⲦ ⲘⲠϢⲀϪⲈ ⲈϤϢⲰⲠⲈ ⲀϪⲚⲔⲀⲢⲠⲞⲤ.
Matthew 13:22
Arcana Coelestia # 2371
2371. 'And they said, Did not this one come to sojourn' means people with different teaching and a different life. This is clear from the meaning of 'sojourning' as receiving instruction and living, and so as doctrine and life, dealt with in 1463, 2025. Here the nature of the state of the Church around the last times is described, when faith is no more because charity is no more, that is to say, when the good of charity is rejected on doctrinal grounds as well, because it has severed all connection with life.
[2] The people described here are not those who falsify the good of charity by explaining things to their own advantage. They are not those who, so that they may be very great and may possess all the world's goods, make the good of charity the earner of merit. Nor are they those who assume the right to dispense rewards, and in so doing defile the good of charity by various devices and misleading means. Instead the subject is those who do not wish to hear anything about the goods of charity, that is, about good works, only about faith separated from those works. And this they wish to hear from the argument that man has nothing but evil within him and that even the good which springs from himself is in itself evil, and so contains nothing of salvation; and from the argument that no one can merit heaven by means of any good, nor accordingly be saved by it, only by means of a faith whereby they acknowledge the Lord's merit. This is the teaching which flourishes in the last times when the Church starts to breathe its last, and which is enthusiastically taught and favourably accepted.
[3] But to maintain from all this that anyone can lead an evil life and at the same time possess a faith that is good is a false conclusion. It is also a false conclusion to say that because man has nothing but evil within him, good from the Lord - which has heaven within it because it has the Lord within it, and blessedness and happiness within it because heaven is within it - cannot exist there. Finally it is a false conclusion to say that because nobody can merit [heaven] by any good, heavenly good from the Lord in which [self-] merit is regarded as something monstrous has no existence. Such good exists with every angel, such good exists with every regenerate person, and such good exists with those who perceive delight, and indeed blessedness, in good itself, that is, in the affection for it. The Lord speaks of this good or charity in the following way in Matthew,
You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy. [But] I say to you, Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who hurt and persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? And if you salute only your brothers, what more are you doing [than others]? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? Matthew 5:43-48
Similar words occur in Luke, with this addition,
Do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. Luke 6:27-36.
[4] Here good which is derived from the Lord is described and the fact that it does not carry any thought of repayment. Consequently people who are governed by that good are called 'sons of the Father who is in heaven', and 'sons of the Most High'. Yet because that good has the Lord within it there is also a reward: in Luke,
When you give a dinner or a supper, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbours, lest perhaps they invite you back in return, and you are repaid. But when you give a feast invite the poor, the maimed, the blind, and you will be blessed, for they have nothing with which to repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. 1 Luke 14:12-14.
'Dinner', 'supper', or 'feast' means the good that flows from charity, in which the Lord dwells together with man, 2341. Here it is described therefore, and it is plainly evident, that recompense lies within good itself since this has the Lord within it, for it is said that 'you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just'.
[5] People who strive to do good from themselves because the Lord has commanded it to be done are the ones who at length receive this good and who after receiving instruction then acknowledge in faith that all good comes from the Lord, 1712, 1937, 1947. And they are now so opposed to self-merit that they are saddened by the mere thought of merit and perceive that blessedness and happiness with them is that much diminished.
[6] It is quite different in the case of those who fail to do good and instead lead an evil life, while teaching and professing that salvation resides in faith separated from charity. These people are not even aware of the possibility of such good. And what is remarkable the same people in the next life, as I have been given to know from much experience, wish to merit heaven on the basis of all the good deeds they recall their having done, for they are now aware for the first time that no salvation lies in faith separated from charity. But these are the ones whom the Lord refers to in Matthew,
They will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by Your name, and by Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many mighty works? But then will I declare to them, I do not know you; depart from Me, you workers of iniquity. Matthew 7:22-23.
With these people it is also seen that they had paid no attention at all to any one of the things which the Lord Himself taught so many times about the good that flows from love and charity. Instead those things had been to them like clouds sailing by or like things seen in the night, such as the things recorded in:
Matthew 3:8-9; 5:7-48; 6:1-20; 7:16-20, 24-27; 9:13; 12:33; 13:8, 23; 18:21-end; 19:19; 22:35-40; 24:12-13; 25:34-end;
Mark 4:18-20; 11:13-14, 20; 12:28-35;
Luke 3:8-9; 6:27-39, 43-end; 7:47; 8:8, 14-15; 10:25-28; 12:58-59; 13:6-10;
John 3:19, 21; 5:42; 13:34-35; 14:14-15, 20-21, 23; 15:1-8, 9-19; 21:15-17.
These then, and other things like them, are what were meant by the words 'the men of Sodom' - that is, those immersed in evil, 2220, 2246, 2322 - 'saying to Lot, Did not this one come to sojourn, and will he surely judge?' that is, Will people with different teaching and a different life teach us?
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. The Latin means the dead; but the Greek means the just, which Swedenborg has in other places where he quotes this verse.
Matthew 8
1
When he came down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.
2
Behold, a leper came to him and worshiped him, saying, "Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean."
3
Jesus stretched out his hand, and touched him, saying, "I want to. Be made clean." Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
4
Jesus said to him, "See that you tell nobody, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."
5
When he came into Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking him,
6
and saying, "Lord, my servant lies in the house paralyzed, grievously tormented."
7
Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him."
8
The centurion answered, "Lord, I'm not worthy for you to come under my roof. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed.
9
For I am also a man under authority, having under myself soldiers. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and tell another, 'Come,' and he comes; and tell my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
10
When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to those who followed, "Most certainly I tell you, I haven't found so great a faith, not even in Israel.
11
I tell you that many will come from the east and the west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven,
12
but the children of the Kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
13
Jesus said to the centurion, "Go your way. Let it be done for you as you have believed." His servant was healed in that hour.
14
When Jesus came into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother lying sick with a fever.
15
He touched her hand, and the fever left her. She got up and served him.
16
When evening came, they brought to him many possessed with demons. He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick;
17
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying: "He took our infirmities, and bore our diseases."
18
Now when Jesus saw great multitudes around him, he gave the order to depart to the other side.
19
A scribe came, and said to him, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go."
20
Jesus said to him, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."
21
Another of his disciples said to him, "Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father."
22
But Jesus said to him, "Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead."
23
When he got into a boat, his disciples followed him.
24
Behold, a violent storm came up on the sea, so much that the boat was covered with the waves, but he was asleep.
25
They came to him, and woke him up, saying, "Save us, Lord! We are dying!"
26
He said to them, "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?" Then he got up, rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm.
27
The men marveled, saying, "What kind of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"
28
When he came to the other side, into the country of the Gergesenes, two people possessed by demons met him there, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that nobody could pass that way.
29
Behold, they cried out, saying, "What do we have to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?"
30
Now there was a herd of many pigs feeding far away from them.
31
The demons begged him, saying, "If you cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of pigs."
32
He said to them, "Go!" They came out, and went into the herd of pigs: and behold, the whole herd of pigs rushed down the cliff into the sea, and died in the water.
33
Those who fed them fled, and went away into the city, and told everything, including what happened to those who were possessed with demons.
34
Behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus. When they saw him, they begged that he would depart from their borders.
