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Matthew 13

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1 On that day Jesus went out of the house, and sat by the seaside.

2 Great multitudes gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat, and sat, and all the multitude stood on the beach.

3 He spoke to them many things in parables, saying, "Behold, a farmer went out to sow.

4 As he sowed, some seeds fell by the roadside, and the birds came and devoured them.

5 Others fell on rocky ground, where they didn't have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of earth.

6 When the sun had risen, they were scorched. Because they had no root, they withered away.

7 Others fell among thorns. The thorns grew up and choked them.

8 Others fell on good soil, and yielded fruit: some one hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty.

9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

10 The disciples came, and said to him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?"

11 He answered them, "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them.

12 For whoever has, to him will be given, and he will have abundance, but whoever doesn't have, from him will be taken away even that which he has.

13 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they don't see, and hearing, they don't hear, neither do they understand.

14 In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, 'By hearing you will hear, and will in no way understand; Seeing you will see, and will in no way perceive:

15 for this people's heart has grown callous, their ears are dull of hearing, they have closed their eyes; or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and should turn again; and I would heal them.'

16 "But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.

17 For most certainly I tell you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which you see, and didn't see them; and to hear the things which you hear, and didn't hear them.

18 "Hear, then, the parable of the farmer.

19 When anyone hears the word of the Kingdom, and doesn't understand it, the evil one comes, and snatches away that which has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown by the roadside.

20 What was sown on the rocky places, this is he who hears the word, and immediately with joy receives it;

21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

22 What was sown among the thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of this age and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

23 What was sown on the good ground, this is he who hears the word, and understands it, who most certainly bears fruit, and brings forth, some one hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty."

24 He set another parable before them, saying, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field,

25 but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds also among the wheat, and went away.

26 But when the blade sprang up and brought forth fruit, then the darnel weeds appeared also.

27 The servants of the householder came and said to him, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where did this darnel come from?'

28 "He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' "The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and gather them up?'

29 "But he said, 'No, lest perhaps while you gather up the darnel weeds, you root up the wheat with them.

30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, "First, gather up the darnel weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn."'"

31 He set another parable before them, saying, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field;

32 which indeed is smaller than all seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches."

33 He spoke another parable to them. "The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, until it was all leavened."

34 Jesus spoke all these things in parables to the multitudes; and without a parable, he didn't speak to them,

35 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, "I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world."

36 Then Jesus sent the multitudes away, and went into the house. His disciples came to him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the darnel weeds of the field."

37 He answered them, "He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man,

38 the field is the world; and the good seed, these are the children of the Kingdom; and the darnel weeds are the children of the evil one.

39 The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

40 As therefore the darnel weeds are gathered up and burned with fire; so will it be at the end of this age.

41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity,

42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

43 Then the righteous will shine forth like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

44 "Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found, and hid. In his joy, he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field.

45 "Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a merchant seeking fine pearls,

46 who having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

47 "Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet, that was cast into the sea, and gathered some fish of every kind,

48 which, when it was filled, they drew up on the beach. They sat down, and gathered the good into containers, but the bad they threw away.

49 So will it be in the end of the world. The angels will come forth, and separate the wicked from among the righteous,

50 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth."

51 Jesus said to them, "Have you understood all these things?" They answered him, "Yes, Lord."

52 He said to them, "Therefore, every scribe who has been made a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a householder, who brings out of his treasure new and old things."

53 It happened that when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed from there.

54 Coming into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom, and these mighty works?

55 Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother called Mary, and his brothers, James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?

56 Aren't all of his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all of these things?"

57 They were offended by him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and in his own house."

58 He didn't do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

   

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Divine Love # 17

  
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17. XVII. MAN HAS ETERNAL LIFE ACCORDING TO HIS AFFECTION OF USE.

Since affection is the man himself, and use is its effect and work, and is as a field or theater for its exercise, and since affection is not found apart from its subject, even so the affection of man's life is not found apart from use; and since affection and use make one, so man, who is affection, is known as to his quality from use,-imperfectly and slightly in the natural world, but clearly and fully in the spiritual world. For the spiritual discloses the affection and all its particulars, since in its essence the spiritual is Divine love and Divine wisdom, and in its manifestation is the heat and the light of heaven; and these disclose the affections of uses, as the heat of the sun of the world discloses objects of the earth by odors and flavors, and its light discloses them by its various colors and distinctions of shade. Every man has eternal life according to his affection of use, for the reason that affection is the man himself; consequently such as the affection is, such is the man.

[2] But affection of use in general is of two kinds; there is the spiritual affection of use and there is the natural affection of use. In external form the two are alike, but in internal wholly unlike; for this reason they are not known the one from the other by men in the world, but are readily known by angels in heaven; for they are wholly opposite, since the spiritual affection of use gives heaven to man, while natural affection of use, without the spiritual, gives hell; for the natural affection of use looks only to honors and gains, thus to self and the world as ends, while spiritual affection of use looks to the glory of God and to uses themselves, thus to the Lord and the neighbor as ends.

[3] For there are men in the world who discharge their duties and offices with much zeal, labor, and earnestness; magistrates, overseers, and officers, performing their functions with all diligence and industry; priests, leaders, ministers, preaching with warmth as if from zeal; learned men who write books full of piety, doctrine and learning; and others of a like character; and thereby they perform eminent uses to the church, to their country, to society, and to their fellow-citizens; and yet many do these things from natural affection alone, which is for the sake of self, that they may be honored and exalted to dignities, or for the sake of the world, that they may gain wealth and become rich. In some these ends so enkindle the affection for doing uses that they sometimes perform more excellent uses than those do who are in the spiritual affection of use. I have spoken with many after death when they had become spirits, who had been in this kind of affection of use, and who then demanded heaven on the ground of merit; but as they had performed uses from merely natural affection, thus for the sake of self and the world, and not for the sake of God and the neighbor, they received answer like this in Matthew:

Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, have we not prophesied by Thy name, and by Thy name have cast out demons, and by Thy name done many mighty works? And then will I profess unto them, I know you not; depart from Me all ye that work iniquity (Matthew 7:22-23).

And in Luke:

Then shall ye begin to say, We did eat and drink before Thee, and Thou didst teach in our streets. But He shall say, I say unto you, I know you not whence ye are, depart from Me all ye workers of iniquity (Luke 13:26-27).

[4] Moreover, they were examined as to what they had been in the world, and their interiors were found to be full of lusts and evils therefrom pressed together, and with some these appeared fiery from the love of self, with some livid from the love of the world, with some dusky from the rejection of things spiritual; while their exteriors from uses in external form still appeared snow-white and purple. From all this it is clear that although they had done uses, yet with themselves they had given no thought to anything but reputation with a view to honors and gains, and that these belonged to their spirit, and they were in them and these were their life, also that their good actions were either purely deceptive appearances, or merely means conducive to these things as ends. Thus much about the natural affection of uses.

[5] But the spiritual affection of use is both internal and external, and it is external or natural to the same extent that it is spiritual; for what is spiritual flows into what is natural, and arranges it in correspondence, thus into an image of itself. But as there is in the world at the present day no knowledge of what the spiritual affection of use is, and what distinguishes it from the natural affection, since in outward appearance they are alike, it shall be told how spiritual affection is acquired. It is not acquired by faith alone, which is faith separated from charity, for such faith is merely a thought-faith, with nothing actual in it; and as it is separated from charity it is also separated from affection, which is the man himself; and for this reason it is dissipated after death like something aerial. But spiritual affection is acquired by shunning evils because they are sins; which is done by means of combat against them. The evils that man must shun are all set forth written in the Decalogue. So far as man fights against them because they are sins he becomes a spiritual affection, and thus he performs uses from spiritual life. By means of combat against evils those things that possess one's interiors are dispersed; and these, as has been said above, with some appear fiery, with some dusky, and with some livid. In this way one's spiritual mind is opened, through which the Lord enters into his natural mind and arranges it for performing spiritual uses which appear like natural uses. To these and to no others is it granted by the Lord to love Him above all things and the neighbor as oneself. If a man by means of combat against evils as sins has acquired anything spiritual in the world, be it ever so small, he is saved, and afterwards his uses grow like a grain of mustard seed into a tree (according to the Lord's words, Matthew 13:31-32; Mark 4:30-32; Luke 13:18-19).

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