9230. 'And you shall not eat flesh torn in the field' means that falsified good of faith must not be joined [to oneself]. This is clear from the meaning of 'flesh' as good, dealt with in 7850, 9127; from the meaning of 'the field' as the Church in respect of good, thus the Church's good, dealt with in 2971, 3766, 7502, 7571, 9139, 9141; from the meaning of 'torn' as something destroyed by falsities, thus also something falsified, dealt with in 5828; and from the meaning of 'eating' as making one's own and joining [to oneself], dealt with in 2187, 3168, 3513 (end), 3596, 4745, 5643, 8001. From these meanings it is evident that 'you shall not eat flesh torn in the field' means that the Church's good, or the good of faith, if it has been falsified, is not to be made one's own or joined [to oneself].

[2] A brief statement must be made here about what the good of faith is and what the truth of faith is. The good of faith is a term that denotes everything of the Church that has to do with life and service inspired by teachings of the Church that compose its faith, in short, everything that has to do with willing those things and doing them in a spirit of obedience; for the Church's truths of faith become, through people's willing them and doing them, forms of good. But the truth of faith is a term that denotes everything which does not as yet have useful service as its end in view or does not exist for the sake of its use in life. Consequently it is something a person comes to know and retain in the memory, then grasps with his understanding, and goes on to teach. As long as the Church's truths go no further than the understanding they are merely items of knowledge and known facts, and in contrast to forms of good stand outside the person himself. For the human memory and understanding are like the hall outside a room, and the will is so to speak the actual room, the will being the person himself. This shows what the truth of faith is and what the good of faith is. But the good that a person does in the first state, while he is being regenerated, is called the good of faith, whereas the good that he does in the second state, which is when he has been regenerated, is called the good of charity. When therefore a person doing good is governed by the good of faith, he does good in a spirit of obedience; but when someone doing good is governed by the good of charity, he does good out of affection. Regarding those two states with a person who is being regenerated, see 7923, 7992, 8505, 8506, 8510, 8512, 8516, 8643, 8648, 8658, 8685, 8690, 8701, 9224, 9227.

4976. 'And ministered to him' means that factual knowledge was assigned to its own good. This is clear from the meaning of 'ministering' as serving by supplying what another has need of, in this case as being assigned to since the subject is natural good to which factual knowledge is to be assigned. 'Ministering' is also used to describe known facts, for in the Word a minister and a servant mean factual knowledge or natural truth because this is subservient to good as its lord. Factual knowledge stands in relation to delight present in the natural man - or what amounts to the same, natural truth stands in relation to its good - in exactly the same way as water does to bread, or drink to food. Water or drink enables bread or food to be dissolved, and once dissolved to be conveyed into the blood, from which it passes into all parts around the body and nourishes them. Without the water or drink the bread or food is not broken down into extremely small particles and carried around the body to fulfill its purpose.

[2] The same applies to factual knowledge in relation to delight, or truth in relation to good. That being so, good longs for and desires truth, and does so because of the purpose such truth can fulfill by ministering to it and serving it. Food and drink also correspond to these. No one in the next life is nourished by any natural food or natural drink, only by spiritual food and spiritual drink, spiritual food being good, and spiritual drink truth. This is why, when bread or food is mentioned in the Word, angels understand spiritual bread or food, which is the good of love and charity; and when water or drink is mentioned they understand spiritual water or drink, which is the truth of faith. From this one may see what the truth of faith without the good of charity is, and also what kind of nourishment the former without the latter is able to supply to the internal man; that is to say, it is like the nourishment supplied by water or drink alone without bread or food. It is well known that a person fed on water or drink alone wastes away and dies.