107. I need to append some information about the teachings concerning love for the Lord and concerning caring that were held by the ancient people among whom there was a church. The purpose is to make known the nature of a body of teaching that used to exist but is not in existence today. This is drawn from Secrets of Heaven 7257-7263.
Good that is done out of love for the Lord is called "heavenly good," and good that is done out of love for one's neighbor or caring is called "spiritual good. " The angels who live in the inmost or third heaven are devoted to doing good because they love the Lord, so they are called "heavenly angels"; while the angels who live in the intermediate or second heaven are devoted to doing good because they love their neighbor and are therefore called "spiritual angels. "
[2] The teachings concerning how to do good in a heavenly way, which is good that is done out of love for the Lord, are the most extensive and at the same time the deepest of all teachings. They are the teachings that are followed by the angels of the inmost or third heaven, which are so extensive and deep that if we heard them from the angels' own mouths we would understand scarcely a thousandth part of them. These teachings also contain things that simply cannot be expressed. While it is the inner meaning of the Word that contains teachings concerning spiritual love, it is the Word's inmost meaning that contains these heavenly teachings. 1
[3] The teachings concerning how to do good in a spiritual way, which is good that is done out of love for one's neighbor, are also extensive and deep, but much less so than the teachings concerning how to do good in a heavenly way, which is good that is done out of love for the Lord. How extensive the teachings are that concern loving our neighbor or caring is established by the fact that they touch every least thing we think and intend and therefore everything we do and say, and also from the fact that caring is not the same thing in one person as in another and that one neighbor is not the same as another.
[4] Because the teachings concerning caring were so extensive, the ancient people (for whom that was the main thing taught by their church) distinguished caring about one's neighbor into many categories. These they then went on to subdivide, assigning designations to the individual types and teaching how caring was to be practiced toward people of one particular type and toward people of another particular type. In this way they imposed an order on their teachings about caring and on the practice of caring so that it was clearly understandable.
[5] They had many designations for the people to whom caring was extended. Some they called "the blind"; some "the deaf"; some "the lame"; some "the poor," as well as "the wretched" and "the afflicted"; some "orphans"; and some "widows. " In general, though, they spoke of "the hungry" to whom they would give food, "the thirsty" to whom they would give drink, "the strangers" whom they would take in, "the naked" whom they would clothe, "the sick" whom they would attend, and those "bound and in prison" whom they would visit.
The particular kinds of people intended by each category have been laid out in Secrets of Heaven as follows: "the blind" in §§2383, 6990; "the deaf" in §4302; "the poor" in §§2129, 4459, 9209, 9253, 10227; "the wretched" in §2129; "the afflicted" in §§6663, 6851, 9196; "orphans" in §§4844, 9198, 9199, 9200; "widows" in §§4844, 9198, 9200; "the hungry" in §§4958, 10227; "the thirsty" in 4958, 8568; "the strangers" in 4444, 7908, 8007, 8013, 9196, 9200; "the naked" in §§1073, 5433, 9960; "the sick" in §§4958, 6221, 8364, 9031; and those "bound in prison" in §§5037, 5038, 5086, 5096.
Everything we can be taught about caring is summed up in the services extended to the hungry, the thirsty, the strangers, the naked, the sick, and those bound in prison, of whom the Lord spoke in Matthew 25:34, 35, 36, and following; see §§4954-4959.
[6] These designations were given from heaven to the ancient people who were part of the church; they used them to refer to the spiritual condition of others. That church's teachings, focused on caring, told them not only what other people were like but also which particular kind of caring was appropriate for each.
That is why we find these same designations in the Word and why when spiritually understood they mean people of these kinds.
The Word truly understood teaches nothing else except loving the Lord and caring about our neighbor, as the Lord himself taught:
You are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. The second is like it: you are to love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments. (Matthew 22:37, 38, 39, 40)
"The Law and the Prophets" are the whole Word: 2606, 3382, 6752, 7463.
[7] These designations are found in the Word so that the Word, which in its own right is spiritual, might be earthly in its outermost form. As a result, people whose devotion was external would show caring toward people who were in that condition physically; but those whose devotion was internal would show caring toward people who were in that condition spiritually. Therefore the simple would understand and do what the Word teaches in a simple way and the wise would do so in a wise way; and through their outward caring the simple might be introduced into its inner forms.
Faith
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