Iniquity, transgression and sin
In the Word three terms are used to refer to bad actions: transgression, iniquity, and sin. Transgression is the least bad. It means a violation of what is true in an external context, a violation of what is right and orderly. Iniquity is next and denotes acts that violate more interior truths. Sin is the worst. It is a violation of what is holy and righteous, a violation against the Lord. Sin is the deepest kind of evil. Regarding iniquity -- to be in charity, or live a life of charity is to live a life where the acts and thoughts that have top priority are those that have within them a love for the neighbor. Sometimes our love of self, our inborn desire to put ourselves first, is stronger than our charity and we do something for ourselves at the expense of our neighbor, or even do harm to our neighbor. Such an act, if our motive is selfish, is an iniquity.
(Verweise: Arcana Coelestia 9156, 9965 [2-3])
Heaven and Hell #57
57. We can say the same of the church as we have of heaven, since the church is the Lord's heaven on earth. It also has many components, and yet each is called a church and is a church to the extent that the qualities of love and faith rule within it. In it, the Lord forms a single whole out of the varied elements, and therefore makes a single church out of many churches. 1
Much the same can be said of the individual member of the church as has been said about the church in general, namely that the church is within and not outside, and that anyone is a church in whom the Lord is present in the qualities of love and faith. 2
Much the same can be said of the individual who has the church within as has been said about the angel who has heaven within, that such an individual is a church in least form as the angel is a heaven in least form. Even more, we can say that the individual who has the church within is a heaven just as much as an angel is, for we have been created to enter heaven and become angels. So anyone who has the quality of goodness from the Lord is an angel-person. 3
It is worth noting what we have in common with angels and what we possess that they lack. We have in common with angels the fact that our deeper levels are formed in the image of heaven and that we also become images of heaven to the extent that we participate in the qualities of love and faith. What we have that angels lack is that our more outward levels are formed in the image of this world; and that to the extent that we are engaged in what is good, the world within us is subordinated to heaven and serves it; 4 and that then the Lord is present with us on both levels as he is in his heaven. He is actually present on both levels in his divine order, for God is order. 5
Fußnoten:
1. [Swedenborg's footnote] If goodness were the essential characteristic of the church and not truth apart from goodness, the church would be one: 1285, 1316, 2982, 3267, 3445, 3451-3452. Further, all the churches constitute a single church in the Lord's sight because of their quality: 7395 [7396?], 9276.
2. [Swedenborg's footnote] The church is within the individual and not outside, and the church in general is made up of people who have the church within themselves: 3884.
3. [Swedenborg's footnote] The individual who is a church is a heaven in least form, in the image of the greatest, because the deeper levels of his or her mind are arranged in the form of heaven and are therefore arranged for the acceptance of all the elements of heaven: 911, 1900, 1982 [1928?], 3624-3631, 3634, 3884, 4041, 4279, 4523-4524, 4625, 6013, 6057, 9279, 9632.
4. [Swedenborg's footnote] We have an inner and an outer nature, our inner formed from creation in the image of heaven, and our outer in the image of the world, which is why the ancients called the human being a microcosm: 4523-4524, 5368 [3628?], 6013, 6057, 9279, 9706, 10156, 10472. Consequently we have been so created that the world serves the heaven in us, which actually happens in good people: however, the opposite holds true for evil people, in whom heaven is subservient to the world: 9283, 9278.
5. [Swedenborg's footnote] The Lord is order because the divine good and truth that emanate from the Lord constitute order: 1728, 1919, 2201 [2011?], 2258, 5110, 5703, 8988, 10336, 10619. Divine truths are laws of order: 2247, 7995. To the extent that we live according to order - that is, to the extent that we are engaged in what is good as determined by divine truths - to that extent we are human and have the church and heaven within us: 4839, 6605, 8067 [8513?].
