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Matthew 10

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1 And having called to [him] his twelve disciples, he gave them power over unclean spirits, so that they should cast them out, and heal every disease and every bodily weakness.

2 Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the [son] of Zebedee, and John his brother;

3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the tax-gatherer; James the [son] of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, who was surnamed Thaddaeus;

4 Simon the Cananaean, and Judas the Iscariote, who also delivered him up.

5 These twelve Jesus sent out when he had charged them, saying, Go not off into [the] way of [the] nations, and into a city of Samaritans enter ye not;

6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh.

8 Heal [the] infirm, [raise the dead], cleanse lepers, cast out demons: ye have received gratuitously, give gratuitously.

9 Do not provide yourselves with gold, or silver, or brass, for your belts,

10 nor scrip for the way, nor two body coats, nor sandals, nor a staff: for the workman is worthy of his nourishment.

11 But into whatsoever city or village ye enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and there remain till ye go forth.

12 And as ye enter into a house salute it.

13 And if the house indeed be worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.

14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, as ye go forth out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.

15 Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in judgment-day than for that city.

16 Behold, *I* send you as sheep in the midst of wolves; be therefore prudent as the serpents, and guileless as the doves.

17 But beware of men; for they will deliver you up to sanhedrims, and scourge you in their synagogues;

18 and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony to them and to the nations.

19 But when they deliver you up, be not careful how or what ye shall speak; for it shall be given to you in that hour what ye shall speak.

20 For *ye* are not the speakers, but the Spirit of your Father which speaks in you.

21 But brother shall deliver up brother to death, and father child; and children shall rise up against parents and shall put them to death;

22 and ye shall be hated of all on account of my name. But he that has endured to [the] end, *he* shall be saved.

23 But when they persecute you in this city, flee to the other; for verily I say to you, Ye shall not have completed the cities of Israel until the Son of man be come.

24 The disciple is not above his teacher, nor the bondman above his lord.

25 [It is] sufficient for the disciple that he should become as his teacher, and the bondman as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more those of his household?

26 Fear them not therefore; for there is nothing covered which shall not be revealed, and secret which shall not be known.

27 What I say to you in darkness speak in the light, and what ye hear in the ear preach upon the houses.

28 And be not afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul; but fear rather him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall to the ground without your Father;

30 but of you even the hairs of the head are all numbered.

31 Fear not therefore; *ye* are better than many sparrows.

32 Every one therefore who shall confess me before men, *I* also will confess him before my Father who is in [the] heavens.

33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will *I* also deny before my Father who is in [the] heavens.

34 Do not think that I have come to send peace upon the earth: I have not come to send peace, but a sword.

35 For I have come to set a man at variance with his father, and the daughter with her mother, and the daughter-in-law with her mother-in-law;

36 and they of his household [shall be] a man's enemies.

37 He who loves father or mother above me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter above me is not worthy of me.

38 And he who does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.

39 He that finds his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for my sake shall find it.

40 He that receives you receives me, and he that receives me receives him that sent me.

41 He that receives a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man, shall receive a righteous man's reward.

42 And whosoever shall give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold [water] only, in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 4169

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4169. 'Your sheep and your she-goats have not miscarried' means its state as regards good and the good of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'sheep' as good, dealt with below, and from the meaning of 'she-goat' as the good of truth, dealt with in 3995, 4006. The word good when used by itself means the good of the will, whereas the expression the good of truth means the good of the understanding. The good of the will consists in doing good from good, whereas the good of the understanding consists in doing it from truth. To people who do good from truth those two activities seem to be one and the same, when in fact they are considerably different from each other. For doing good from good consists in doing it from the perception of good, and that perception does not exist with any except those who are celestial. But doing good from truth is doing it from knowledge and consequently from the understanding. It amounts to doing it without any perception that it is good, and so solely as something that a person has been taught to do by others, or else by the exercise of his own intellect has decided that it is good. Such truth may well be faulty, but if it has good as its end in view, then a person's action arising out of that truth becomes tantamount to good.

[2] 'Sheep' means goods. This may be seen from many places in the Word, from which places let merely the following be quoted: In Isaiah,

He was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He is led like a lamb 1 to the slaughter, and like a sheep before its shearers, he did not open his mouth. Isaiah 53:7.

This refers to the Lord, where He is compared to 'a sheep' not by virtue of truth but of good. In Matthew,

Jesus said to the twelve whom He sent out, Do not go into the way of the gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Matthew 10:5-6.

'The gentiles' to whom they were forbidden to go stands for those among whom evils exist - 'gentiles' meaning evils, see 1259, 1260, 1849; 'the cities of the Samaritans' stands for those among whom falsities are present; and 'sheep' stands for those among whom forms of good may be found.

[3] In John,

Jesus after the Resurrection said to Peter, Feed My lambs. A second time He said, Feed My sheep; the third time He said, Feed My sheep. John 21:15-17.

'Lambs' stands for those who have innocence within them. The first reference to 'sheep' stands for people whose practice of good stems from good, the second for those whose practice of it stems from truth. In Matthew,

When the Son of Man comes in His glory He will place the sheep at His right hand but the goats at His left. And He will say to those at His right hand, Come, O blessed of My Father, possess as an inheritance the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me. Insofar as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers you did it to Me. Matthew 25:31-40.

Here it is quite plain that 'sheep' stands for goods, that is, for those in whom good is present. Every kind of good flowing from charity, which will in the Lord's Divine mercy be described elsewhere, is included here in the internal sense. 'Goats' means in particular those who have faith but no charity.

[4] Similarly in Ezekiel,

As for you, O My flock, said the Lord Jehovih, Behold, I am judging between one member of the flock and another, between rams of the sheep, and he-goats. Ezekiel 34:17.

'He-goats' means in particular those whose faith is not linked to any charity. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'he-goats' in the good sense as those who possess the truth of faith and from this some charity, but in the contrary sense those whose faith is not linked to any charity. Such people reason about salvation from basic assumptions that faith is what saves. The same point is apparent from what the Lord says about the goats in the passage in Matthew quoted above. But people who do not possess any truth of faith, or at the same time any good of charity, are carried away into hell without undergoing any such judgement, that is to say, without any examination to prove that they are governed by falsity.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. The Latin means cattle, but the Hebrew means lamb, which Swedenborg has in other places where he quotes this verse.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.