6765. 'And he said to the one in the wrong, Why are you striking your companion?' means a rebuke, deploring that one person should wish to destroy another's faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'the one in the wrong' as a person who does not uphold the truth of faith and yet is within the Church (for within the Church there are those who uphold the truth of faith and there are those who do not, as the existence of various heresies goes to prove; and those who subscribe to heresy, that is, who do not uphold the truth of faith, are meant here by 'the one in the wrong'); from the meaning of 'striking' as destroying, as above in 6758; and from the meaning of 'companion' as a person who upholds the truth of faith. For when 'the one in the wrong' means a person who does not uphold the truth of faith, 'companion' means one who does uphold it. The word 'companion' is used, not 'brother', even though both of them were Hebrews, because they were hostile to each other. The fact that this is a rebuke is self-evident. What all this implies is that when a person is being regenerated he is sent into battles against falsities. During these the Lord maintains him in truth, but in what he has convinced himself to be the truth; and this is what is used in the battles against falsity. Even that which is not the real truth can be used, provided that it is such as can in some way be joined to good. And it is joined to good through innocence, for innocence is the means which enables that conjunction to be effected. This explains why people within the Church who have accepted any teaching whatever can be regenerated, though those who are in possession of real truths are in a better position than others.

6757. 'And saw their burdens' means a discernment that they were being molested by falsities. This is clear from the meaning of 'seeing' as a discernment, dealt with above in 6772; and from the meaning of 'burdens' as molestations by falsities, for in the spiritual sense the burdens laid by Pharaoh on the children of Israel are nothing else. 'Pharaoh' is false factual knowledge, 6651, 6679, 6683; and molestations by falsities are nothing other than 'burdens' to those who are guided by truths. As for the nature of molestations by falsities, which are 'burdens' to those guided by truths, that cannot be known by anyone while he lives in the world, for he does not suffer that kind of molestation then. While he is in the world his mind either clings to falsities or dispels them, without any conscious feeling of molestation. But in the next life when those guided by truths suffer molestation by falsities they are held by evil spirits in the grip of those falsities like people in bonds. But the Lord holds the interior parts of their minds in truths, which are used to dispel the falsities. A state of molestation by falsities such as is experienced in the next life is what is meant here in the internal sense, as are many other things; for the Word has been written not only for man but also for spirits and angels.