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Matthew 6

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1 Take·​·heed that you do not do your alms in·​·front·​·of men, to be observed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in the heavens.

2 Therefore when thou doest alms, do not sound·​·a·​·trumpet in·​·front·​·of thee, just·​·as the hypocrites do, in the synagogues and in the lanes, so·​·that they may be glorified by men. Amen I say to you, They have their reward.

3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left·​·hand know what thy right·​·hand does,

4 so·​·that thine alms may be in secret, and thy Father who looks in secret shall repay thee Himself in what·​·is·​·manifest.

5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be just·​·as the hypocrites; for they love to pray standing in the synagogues, and in the corners of the streets, so·​·that they may appear unto men. Amen I say unto you that they have their reward.

6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy bedroom, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who looks in secret shall repay thee in what·​·is·​·manifest.

7 And when you pray, do not speak·​·on·​·and·​·on, just·​·as the gentiles, for they think that they shall be heard by their many·​·words.

8 Therefore be· ye not ·like them; for your Father knows what things you need before you ask Him.

9 In·​·this·​·way, therefore, you should pray: Our Father, who art in the heavens, hallowed be Thy name;

10 Thy kingdom come; Thy will be·​·done, as in heaven so upon the earth.

11 Give us this·​·day our daily bread.

12 And forgive* us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil*; for Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

14 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

16 And when you fast, be not just·​·as the hypocrites, of·​·a·​·sad·​·face, for they spoil their faces, so·​·that they may appear to men to fast. Amen I say to you, that they have their reward.

17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face,

18 so·​·that thou appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father who looks·​·on in secret shall repay thee in what·​·is·​·manifest.

19 Treasure· not ·up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust spoil, and where thieves dig·​·through and steal;

20 but treasure·​·up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust spoils, and where thieves do not dig·​·through nor steal.

21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

22 The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single*, thy whole body shall be illuminated;

23 but if thine eye be wicked, thy whole body shall be dark; if therefore the light in thee is darkness, how·​·great is the darkness!

24 No·​·one can serve two lords, for either he will hate the one and love the·​·other, or he will hold·​·to the one and despise the·​·other. You cannot serve God and mammon*.

25 On·​·account·​·of this I say to you, Be· not ·anxious for your soul, what you shall eat and what you shall drink; nor for your body, what you shall put·​·on. Is not the soul more than food, and the body more than clothing?

26 Look·​·intently at the birds of the sky*; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are· you not ·of· more ·value than they?

27 And which of you by being·​·anxious can add one cubit to his stature?

28 And why are· you ·anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they labor not, neither do they spin;

29 but I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these.

30 And if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of·​·little·​·faith?

31 Be· not therefore ·anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, With what shall we be arrayed?

32 For all these·​·things do the nations seek; for your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these·​·things.

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these·​·things shall be added to you.

34 Therefore do not be·​·anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow shall be·​·anxious for the·​·things of itself. Sufficient for the day is the evil of it.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Divine Providence # 264

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264. 2. Doubts about divine providence may be raised by the fact that until now people have not known that there is spiritual meaning in the details of the Word and that this is the basis of its holiness. It may raise doubts about divine providence when people ask, "Why is this only being revealed now? And why is it happening through this particular individual, and not through some prominent clergyman?" Whether it is some prominent clergyman or some prominent clergyman's servant, though, is up to the Lord. He knows the nature of each.

There are two reasons, though, that this meaning of the Word has not been revealed earlier. The first is that if it had been revealed earlier, the church would have profaned it, and in so doing would have profaned the very holiness of the Word; and the second is that the genuine truths that constitute the Word's spiritual meaning could not be revealed until the Last Judgment had been completed and the new church meant by the Holy Jerusalem was being founded by the Lord. But let us look at these separately.

[2] (a) The Word's spiritual meaning was not revealed earlier because if it had been, the church would have profaned it, and in so doing would have profaned the very holiness of the Word. Not long after the church was begun it turned into a Babylon, and later it turned into a Philistia. Babylon does actually recognize the Word, but it looks down on it. They say that the Holy Spirit gives just as much inspiration to the members of its supreme council as it did to the prophets. They recognize the Word because the papacy was founded on the Lord's words to Peter, but they still look down on it because it does not agree with them. That is why they have taken it away from the people and hidden it in monasteries, where there are few who actually read it. So if the spiritual meaning had been revealed, where the Lord and all angelic wisdom are present, they would have profaned the Word not only as it is in its outermost form, in what we find in the literal meaning, but in its deepest meanings as well.

[3] Philistia too (meaning faith separated from charity) would have profaned the Word's spiritual meaning, because as already noted [258] it puts salvation in some words that we are to think about and say and not in good deeds that we are to do. So it attributes the power to save to something that has no such power. Particularly, it creates a gap between our intelligence and what we are to believe. For people like this, what becomes of the light that the spiritual meaning of the Word is in? Does it not turn into darkness? And when the outer meaning is turned into darkness, what else can happen to the spiritual meaning? Does anyone who has decided on faith separated from charity and on justification by that kind of faith want to know what a good life really is, what love for the Lord and our neighbor are, what caring and its good effects are, what good actions are, what "doing" is--actually what faith is in its essence, or any of the real truth that constitutes it? Such people write volumes, and all they do is prove what they call faith, claiming that all the things I have just listed are inherent in that faith.

We can see from this that if spiritual meaning had been disclosed earlier, it would have turned out as described by the Lord's words in Matthew, "If your eye had been evil, your whole body would have been full of darkness. So if the light that is in you is darkness, what a darkness!" (Matthew 6:23). In the Word's spiritual meaning, "the eye" means our discernment.

[4] (b) The genuine truths that constitute the Word's spiritual meaning could not be revealed by the Lord until the Last Judgment had been completed and the new church meant by the Holy Jerusalem was being founded by the Lord. The Lord foretold in the Book of Revelation that after the Last Judgment had been completed genuine truths would be disclosed, a new church would be begun, and spiritual meaning would be disclosed. On the completion of the Last Judgment, see what is presented in the booklet Last Judgment and in its supplement. This is the meaning of the heaven and earth that will pass away (Revelation 21:1). The disclosure of genuine truths is foretold by these words in the Book of Revelation, "The one sitting on the throne said, 'Look! I am making all things new!'" (Revelation 21:5). See also Revelation 19:17-18; Revelation 21:18-21; and Revelation 22:1-2. On the need for a revelation of the Word's spiritual meaning, see Revelation 19:11-16. This is the meaning of the white horse on which was seated the one called "The Word of God," the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. On this, see the booklet on The White Horse. On the holy Jerusalem meaning a new church that the Lord would begin, see Teachings for the New Jerusalem on the Lord 62-65, where this is explained.

[5] We can see, then, that the Word's spiritual meaning was to be revealed for a new church that would recognize and worship the Lord alone and would keep his Word holy, loving divine truths and rejecting any faith that is separated from charity. There is more about this meaning of the Word, though, in Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Sacred Scripture 5-26 and following. There the nature of the spiritual meaning is discussed in 5-26. Its presence throughout the Word and in every detail is discussed in 9-17; the spiritual meaning as the reason that the Word is divinely inspired and holy in every word, in 18-19; why the spiritual meaning has as yet been unknown and was not revealed earlier, in 20-25; and the granting of the spiritual meaning, from now on, only to people who have genuine truths from the Lord, in 26.

[6] We can therefore tell that it is under the Lord's divine providence that the spiritual meaning has been hidden from the world until this present age, and has been kept safe in the meanwhile among angels, who draw their wisdom from it. This meaning was known and cherished by the people of very ancient times, the ones who lived before Moses; but since their descendants took the correspondential relationships that were the sole basis of their Word and therefore of their religion and diverted them to various forms of idolatry (and to magic in Egypt), that meaning was closed off under the Lord's divine providence, first among Israelites and later among Christians, for the reasons just given. Only now is it being opened for the Lord's new church.

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