3121. 'And His truth towards my master' means an influx of charity from that inflowing love. This is clear from the meaning of 'truth' as charity. In the proper sense 'truth' means the same as faith, and in the Hebrew language faith is expressed by such a term, so that what is called truth in the Old Testament Word is regularly called faith in the New Testament Word. This is also why, in what has gone before, truth has often been called the truth of faith, and good the good of love. But in the internal sense faith is nothing else than charity - see what has often been stated and shown already, such as the following:

No faith exists except through love, 30-38.

Faith does not exist except where charity does so, 654, 724, 1162, 1176, 2261.

Faith is faith grounded in charity, 1608, 2049, 2116, 2343, 2349, 2417.

Charity constitutes the Church, not faith separated from charity, 809, 916, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1844, 2190, 2228, 2442.

From these paragraphs it is evident that in the internal sense truth or faith is the same as charity. Indeed all faith springs from charity, and faith that does not spring from it is not faith. Or what amounts to the same, all truth in the internal sense is good, since all truth is grounded in good, and truth that is not grounded in it is not truth. For truth is nothing else than the form that good takes, 3049; it is born from, and receives its life from nothing other than good.

2261. 'If I find in Sodom fifty righteous persons in the midst of the city' means if truths are full of goods. This is clear from the meaning of 'fifty' as that which is full, and from the meaning of 'the midst of the city' as that which is present inwardly, or within truth, dealt with above in 2252, which see since the same words occur there. It may be assumed that a person is certain to be saved if truths are full of goods. But it should be recognized that very few truths exist with man; and if they do, that they have no life unless there are goods within them; and if they have goods within them, that he is saved, but on account of mercy. For as has been stated, very few truths reside with a person, and the goods contained within them receive their character from the truths and from that person's life.

[2] Regarded in themselves truths do not confer life; but goods do so. Truths are simply the recipients of life, that is, of good. Nobody is ever able to say therefore that he can be saved by means of truths or as is commonly asserted, by faith alone - not, that is, unless within the truths, which are part of the faith, good is present. And this good which must exist within them must be the good that flows from charity. This explains why in the internal sense faith itself is nothing else than charity, as shown above in 2231. When people say that the acknowledgement of truth is the faith that saves, it should be recognized that no acknowledgement can possibly exist with people who lead lives immersed in things contrary to charity, only some kind of persuasion which has the life of self-love or of the love of the world allied to it, so that the acknowledgement which they speak of does not have within it the life of the faith which is that of charity. The worst people of all, acting from self-love or from love of the world, that is, acting for the sake of excelling others in what are called intelligence and wisdom, and so acting for the sake of earning exalted positions, reputation, and gain, have the ability to grasp the truths of faith and to confirm them in many ways; but with them those truths are nevertheless dead. The life of truth and so of faith comes solely from the Lord, who is Life itself.

[3] The Lord's life is mercy, which is that of love towards the whole human race. Those people cannot possibly be drawing on the life that is the Lord's who, although they profess the truths of faith, despise others in comparison with themselves, and who, where their self-love and love of the world are affected, harbour hatred towards the neighbour and are delighted when he experiences loss of wealth, position, reputation, and life. But the position with the truths of faith is that it is by means of them that one is regenerated, for they are the actual vessels for receiving good. As are the truths therefore, also the goods within those truths, and the combination of those truths and goods and from this their capacity to be perfected in the next life, so is the state of blessedness and happiness of that person after death.