Arcana Coelestia # 2371
2371. 'And they said, Did not this one come to sojourn' means people with different teaching and a different life. This is clear from the meaning of 'sojourning' as receiving instruction and living, and so as doctrine and life, dealt with in 1463, 2025. Here the nature of the state of the Church around the last times is described, when faith is no more because charity is no more, that is to say, when the good of charity is rejected on doctrinal grounds as well, because it has severed all connection with life.
[2] The people described here are not those who falsify the good of charity by explaining things to their own advantage. They are not those who, so that they may be very great and may possess all the world's goods, make the good of charity the earner of merit. Nor are they those who assume the right to dispense rewards, and in so doing defile the good of charity by various devices and misleading means. Instead the subject is those who do not wish to hear anything about the goods of charity, that is, about good works, only about faith separated from those works. And this they wish to hear from the argument that man has nothing but evil within him and that even the good which springs from himself is in itself evil, and so contains nothing of salvation; and from the argument that no one can merit heaven by means of any good, nor accordingly be saved by it, only by means of a faith whereby they acknowledge the Lord's merit. This is the teaching which flourishes in the last times when the Church starts to breathe its last, and which is enthusiastically taught and favourably accepted.
[3] But to maintain from all this that anyone can lead an evil life and at the same time possess a faith that is good is a false conclusion. It is also a false conclusion to say that because man has nothing but evil within him, good from the Lord - which has heaven within it because it has the Lord within it, and blessedness and happiness within it because heaven is within it - cannot exist there. Finally it is a false conclusion to say that because nobody can merit [heaven] by any good, heavenly good from the Lord in which [self-] merit is regarded as something monstrous has no existence. Such good exists with every angel, such good exists with every regenerate person, and such good exists with those who perceive delight, and indeed blessedness, in good itself, that is, in the affection for it. The Lord speaks of this good or charity in the following way in Matthew,
You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy. [But] I say to you, Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who hurt and persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? And if you salute only your brothers, what more are you doing [than others]? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? Matthew 5:43-48
Similar words occur in Luke, with this addition,
Do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. Luke 6:27-36.
[4] Here good which is derived from the Lord is described and the fact that it does not carry any thought of repayment. Consequently people who are governed by that good are called 'sons of the Father who is in heaven', and 'sons of the Most High'. Yet because that good has the Lord within it there is also a reward: in Luke,
When you give a dinner or a supper, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbours, lest perhaps they invite you back in return, and you are repaid. But when you give a feast invite the poor, the maimed, the blind, and you will be blessed, for they have nothing with which to repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. 1 Luke 14:12-14.
'Dinner', 'supper', or 'feast' means the good that flows from charity, in which the Lord dwells together with man, 2341. Here it is described therefore, and it is plainly evident, that recompense lies within good itself since this has the Lord within it, for it is said that 'you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just'.
[5] People who strive to do good from themselves because the Lord has commanded it to be done are the ones who at length receive this good and who after receiving instruction then acknowledge in faith that all good comes from the Lord, 1712, 1937, 1947. And they are now so opposed to self-merit that they are saddened by the mere thought of merit and perceive that blessedness and happiness with them is that much diminished.
[6] It is quite different in the case of those who fail to do good and instead lead an evil life, while teaching and professing that salvation resides in faith separated from charity. These people are not even aware of the possibility of such good. And what is remarkable the same people in the next life, as I have been given to know from much experience, wish to merit heaven on the basis of all the good deeds they recall their having done, for they are now aware for the first time that no salvation lies in faith separated from charity. But these are the ones whom the Lord refers to in Matthew,
They will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by Your name, and by Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many mighty works? But then will I declare to them, I do not know you; depart from Me, you workers of iniquity. Matthew 7:22-23.
With these people it is also seen that they had paid no attention at all to any one of the things which the Lord Himself taught so many times about the good that flows from love and charity. Instead those things had been to them like clouds sailing by or like things seen in the night, such as the things recorded in:
Matthew 3:8-9; 5:7-48; 6:1-20; 7:16-20, 24-27; 9:13; 12:33; 13:8, 23; 18:21-end; 19:19; 22:35-40; 24:12-13; 25:34-end;
Mark 4:18-20; 11:13-14, 20; 12:28-35;
Luke 3:8-9; 6:27-39, 43-end; 7:47; 8:8, 14-15; 10:25-28; 12:58-59; 13:6-10;
John 3:19, 21; 5:42; 13:34-35; 14:14-15, 20-21, 23; 15:1-8, 9-19; 21:15-17.
These then, and other things like them, are what were meant by the words 'the men of Sodom' - that is, those immersed in evil, 2220, 2246, 2322 - 'saying to Lot, Did not this one come to sojourn, and will he surely judge?' that is, Will people with different teaching and a different life teach us?
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. The Latin means the dead; but the Greek means the just, which Swedenborg has in other places where he quotes this verse.
Luke 12
1
Meanwhile, when a multitude of many thousands had gathered together, so much so that they trampled on each other, he began to tell his disciples first of all, "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
2
But there is nothing covered up, that will not be revealed, nor hidden, that will not be known.
3
Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light. What you have spoken in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.
4
"I tell you, my friends, don't be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.
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But I will warn you whom you should fear. Fear him, who after he has killed, has power to cast into Gehenna. Yes, I tell you, fear him.
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"Aren't five sparrows sold for two assaria coins? Not one of them is forgotten by God.
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But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Therefore don't be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows.
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"I tell you, everyone who confesses me before men, him will the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God;
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but he who denies me in the presence of men will be denied in the presence of the angels of God.
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Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
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When they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, don't be anxious how or what you will answer, or what you will say;
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for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that same hour what you must say."
13
One of the multitude said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."
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But he said to him, "Man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you?"
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He said to them, "Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness, for a man's life doesn't consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses."
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He spoke a parable to them, saying, "The ground of a certain rich man brought forth abundantly.
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He reasoned within himself, saying, 'What will I do, because I don't have room to store my crops?'
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He said, 'This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns, and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
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I will tell my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, be merry."'
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"But God said to him, 'You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared--whose will they be?'
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So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
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He said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, don't be anxious for your life, what you will eat, nor yet for your body, what you will wear.
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Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.
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Consider the ravens: they don't sow, they don't reap, they have no warehouse or barn, and God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than birds!
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Which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to his height?
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If then you aren't able to do even the least things, why are you anxious about the rest?
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Consider the lilies, how they grow. They don't toil, neither do they spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
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But if this is how God clothes the grass in the field, which today exists, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith?
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Don't seek what you will eat or what you will drink; neither be anxious.
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For the nations of the world seek after all of these things, but your Father knows that you need these things.
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But seek God's Kingdom, and all these things will be added to you.
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Don't be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.
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Sell that which you have, and give gifts to the needy. Make for yourselves purses which don't grow old, a treasure in the heavens that doesn't fail, where no thief approaches, neither moth destroys.
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For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
35
"Let your waist be dressed and your lamps burning.
36
Be like men watching for their lord, when he returns from the marriage feast; that, when he comes and knocks, they may immediately open to him.
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Blessed are those servants, whom the lord will find watching when he comes. Most certainly I tell you, that he will dress himself, and make them recline, and will come and serve them.
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They will be blessed if he comes in the second or third watch, and finds them so.
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But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched, and not allowed his house to be broken into.
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Therefore be ready also, for the Son of Man is coming in an hour that you don't expect him."
41
Peter said to him, "Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everybody?"
42
The Lord said, "Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the right times?
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Blessed is that servant whom his lord will find doing so when he comes.
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Truly I tell you, that he will set him over all that he has.
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But if that servant says in his heart, 'My lord delays his coming,' and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken,
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then the lord of that servant will come in a day when he isn't expecting him, and in an hour that he doesn't know, and will cut him in two, and place his portion with the unfaithful.
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That servant, who knew his lord's will, and didn't prepare, nor do what he wanted, will be beaten with many stripes,
48
but he who didn't know, and did things worthy of stripes, will be beaten with few stripes. To whoever much is given, of him will much be required; and to whom much was entrusted, of him more will be asked.
49
"I came to throw fire on the earth. I wish it were already kindled.
50
But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!
51
Do you think that I have come to give peace in the earth? I tell you, no, but rather division.
52
For from now on, there will be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.
53
They will be divided, father against son, and son against father; mother against daughter, and daughter against her mother; mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."
54
He said to the multitudes also, "When you see a cloud rising from the west, immediately you say, 'A shower is coming,' and so it happens.
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When a south wind blows, you say, 'There will be a scorching heat,' and it happens.
56
You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, but how is it that you don't interpret this time?
57
Why don't you judge for yourselves what is right?
58
For when you are going with your adversary before the magistrate, try diligently on the way to be released from him, lest perhaps he drag you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison.
59
I tell you, you will by no means get out of there, until you have paid the very last penny."
