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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 # 265

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265. 3. Doubt about divine providence may be raised by observing the ignorance of the fact that the essence of the Christian religion is to abstain from evils as sins. I have explained in Teachings about Life for the New Jerusalem, from beginning to end, that this is the essence of the Christian religion; and since a faith divorced from charity does nothing but prevent it from being accepted, that topic was dealt with as well. We can say that people have not known that abstaining from evils as sins is the essence of the Christian religion, because hardly anyone does know, and yet everyone does know, really (see 258 above). The reason hardly anyone knows, still, is that faith separated [from charity] has blotted it out. This theology claims that faith alone is what saves us, not any good work or goodness effected by our caring. It claims that we are no longer under the yoke of the law but are in freedom. People who keep hearing this stop thinking about any evil life they may be leading or any good life. We are all inclined by nature to embrace this belief; and once we have done so, we no longer think about the state of our lives. This is the reason for our ignorance.

[2] I have been shown this ignorance in the spiritual world. I have asked more than a thousand newcomers from our world whether they knew that abstaining from evils as sins was the essence of religion, and they have told me that they did not, that this was something new that they were hearing for the first time. They had heard, though, that they could do nothing good on their own and that they were not under the yoke of the law. When I have asked whether they knew that they should examine themselves, see their sins, repent, and then begin a new life, and that otherwise their sins were not forgiven, and that if their sins were not forgiven they would not be saved, noting that they had been told this loud and clear every time they came to the Holy Supper, they have answered that they had not noticed this. All they had really heard was that they were being granted forgiveness of sins through the sacrament of the Supper and that their faith would take care of everything else without their knowing about it.

[3] I have said repeatedly, "Why have you taught your children the Ten Commandments, if it is not so that they would know which evils are the sins that they should abstain from? Is it just that they should know this and believe it, and not do anything about it? So why are you telling me that this is something new?" The only answer they have had is that they knew but did not know. They never thought about the sixth commandment when they were committing adultery or about the seventh when they were engaged in surreptitious theft or fraud, and so on, let alone about the fact that such actions are against divine law and therefore against God.

[4] When I have recited any number of statements from the teachings of the church, along with their scriptural basis, statements that abstaining and turning from evils as sins is the essence of the Christian religion and that our faith depends on the extent to which we have abstained and turned from them, they have been silent. The truth of the matter was proved to them, however, when they saw that they were all being examined in terms of their lives and judged by what they had done, no one being judged by a faith separated from life, because in all cases their faith depended on their life.

[5] It is under a law of divine providence that Christendom is so largely ignorant of this. We are all left to act in freedom and rationally (see above, 71-99, 100-128). The law also applies that no one is taught directly from heaven but indirectly through the Word and through teaching and preaching from it (see 154-174). This ignorance is also under all the laws of permission, which are also laws of divine providence. There is more on these in 258 above.

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

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Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture # 26

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26. 5. The Word’s spiritual meaning is granted after this only to someone who possesses genuine truths from the Lord. The reason is this: because no one can see the spiritual meaning unless he is enabled to do so by the Lord alone, and unless he possesses genuine truths from Him. For the Word’s spiritual meaning deals with the Lord alone and His kingdom, and that sense is the one possessed by His angels in heaven. It is, indeed, His Divine truth there. It is possible for a person to violate that truth if he has a knowledge of correspondences and tries to use it to explore the Word’s spiritual meaning in accord with his own intelligence. Applying some of the correspondences he knows, he may twist its meaning and use it to confirm even falsity, which would be to do injury to Divine truth, and to heaven as well. If someone tries to lay open that sense on his own, therefore, and not from the Lord, heaven is closed, and when heaven is closed, a person either sees nothing, or he becomes spiritually irrational.

[2] There is also another reason. Because the Lord teaches everyone by means of the Word, and teaches him in accordance with the truths the person already possesses and does not infuse new truths directly, therefore if the person is without any Divine truths, or if he possesses only a few truths and is caught up at the same time in falsities, it would be possible for him to use those falsities to falsify the truths — as is also commonly known to be the case with every heretic as regards just the Word’s literal sense.

Consequently, to keep people from entering into the Word’s spiritual meaning, or from twisting the genuine truth found in that sense, the Lord has set protections, meant in the Word by cherubim.

[3] That protections have been set was represented to me in the following way:

I was given to see large purses, looking like sacks, which had stored away in them a great deal of silver. Since they were open, it seemed as if anyone might take some of the silver deposited in them, even to make off with it. However, next to the purses two angels were sitting as guards. The place where the purses rested looked like a manger in a stable. In the next room I saw modest maidens, together with a chaste wife. Near that room were two little children, and I heard it said they were not to be played with in a childish way, but wisely. Afterward a harlot appeared, then a horse lying dead.

4] On seeing these images I was informed that they represented the literal meaning of the Word, which has a spiritual meaning within. The large purses full of silver symbolized concepts of truth there in great abundance. The purses’ being open and yet guarded by angels symbolized that anyone might draw concepts of truth there, but that people should take care not to falsify the spiritual meaning, which contains only truths. The manger in the stable where the purses were sitting symbolized spiritual instruction for the intellect. (A manger has this symbolism, because a horse, which feeds from it, symbolizes the intellect.)

5] The modest maidens I saw in the next room symbolized affections for truth, and the chaste wife the conjunction of truth and good. The little children symbolized the innocence of the wisdom in it (they were angels from the third heaven, all of whom appear like little children). The harlot together with the dead horse symbolized the falsification of the Word by many people today, by which all understanding of the truth has been extinguished. (A harlot symbolizes falsification, and a dead horse no understanding of truth.)

  
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Thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.