9020. 'Shall surely die' means damnation, as above in 9008. The reason why they are damned who apply the truths of faith to evils and in so doing alienate them from themselves is that they have hitherto acknowledged them. If the truth of faith has been acknowledged, and then after that it is applied to evil, it is mixed together with falsity arising from evil, the result of which is profanation. For such mixing together is profanation, see the places referred to below in 9021. To make this matter more understandable, let an example serve to shed light on it. Take people who wish to direct according to their own will things that are the Lord's, especially those things that belong to heavenly life with a person, to the end that they may have dominion over everyone and may gain the [whole] world. When they take some of the Lord's words to support their desire they are thieves in a spiritual sense; for they are stealing truths from the Word and applying them to evils. They are evils because those people's end in view is dominion and gain, not the salvation of souls. If up to now those truths which they begin to apply to evils have been acknowledged without a view to dominion and gain, such people profane them; for by applying them to evils they mix falsities arising from evils together with the truths. Such people cannot possibly escape damnation, since they deprive themselves of all spiritual life by what they do. That they deprive themselves of spiritual life is evident from the consideration that when they are left on their own, and they then think alone or talk among themselves, these people possess no belief in truths. They do not believe in the Lord, in heaven, or in hell. Even so they proclaim them with their lips more than others do, because an intense desire for dominion and gain drives them towards these things, as means to their ends. This is especially prevalent in Christian Gentilism where images of persons canonized as saints are on display for veneration, before which those people too genuflect and prostrate themselves but do so because of their guile, in order that they may deceive and convince others.

8897. 'Honour your father and your mother' means love for goodness and truth, in the highest sense for the Lord and His kingdom. This is clear from the meaning of 'honouring' as loving, for in the spiritual sense 'honour' is love, because in heaven one loves another, and in loving him also honours him since love is present within honour (honour without love there is rejected, indeed spurned, because it is devoid of life from good); from the meaning of 'father' as goodness, dealt with in 3703, 5581, 5902, 6050, 7833, 7834, and in the highest sense as the Lord in respect of Divine Goodness, 15, 1729, 2005, 2803, 3704, 7499, 8328 (the reason why 'Father' in the highest sense is the Lord is that He imparts new life to the person, so that this life may make that person a son and heir of His kingdom); and from the meaning of 'mother' as truth, dealt with in 3703, 5581, and in the highest sense the Lord in respect of Divine Truth, thus His kingdom since Divine Truth which emanates from the Lord makes heaven. The reason why the Lord's Divine Truth makes heaven is that in the next life the Lord in respect of Divine Good is the Sun, and in respect of Divine Truth is the Light. This Divine Light radiating from the Lord as the Sun is what enlightens angelic minds and fills them with intelligence and wisdom, causing them to be angels of light. Divine Good is present within Divine Truth, even as heat from the sun is present within the light in springtime and summer in the world.