(A commentary on John 21:15-25)

In the first part of this chapter, seven of the Lord's disciples had come home to Galilee. They had gone fishing, seen Jesus on the shore, followed his instructions to fish on the right side of the boat, dragged a net loaded with 153 fish to shore, and... as the second half of the chapter begins, they have just finished breaking their fast with Him. Now they are relaxing.

Jesus says to Peter,"Do you love me?" and Peter, perhaps a little startled at the question, thinking that the answer is obvious, answers "yes", and Jesus responds, "Feed my lambs". Twice more this sequence is repeated, but with some changes. Then, after this unusual conversation, the Lord tells them all a little parable about being young and later being old. Then the Lord tells Peter to follow him, and Peter, apparently jealous, asks what John is supposed to do. The Lord mildly rebukes Peter’s jealousy by saying, "If this man tarry until I come what is that to you?", but then He tells John also to follow him.

Finally, the gospel of John, and indeed the collection of all four gospels, closes with an explanation by John that he is the writer of this gospel.

So now, let’s look more closely at the conversation, the parable, and the outbreak of jealousy.

Only two of the seven disciples, Peter and John, are mentioned in this part of the story. Peter represents faith, or truth, but truth about spiritual things that we really believe are from God. John represents good, or love to the neighbor. The former resides in the understanding part of the mind and the latter in the will part of the mind.

In telling Peter to feed His sheep, the Lord is saying that to follow Him means to preach the truths that all the disciples now know about the Lord, His coming, and about how a life should be led, in order to be a follower of the Lord in a new church. In the conversation the Lord is direct and probing. "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?" I think Peter is being asked whether he loves the Lord, Jesus, more than he loves his fellow Galilean friends, though it’s ambiguous, it could mean "do you love me more than these other six do?’ When Peter answers the first time he says "Lord thou knowest that I love thee."

With this first of the three probing questions, the Lord answers "Feed my lambs," while after that the response is "Feed my sheep." Sheep and lambs both represent people who are in a love of doing good, but while sheep means those who love to do good for the sake of the neighbor, lambs mean those who do good for the sake of the Lord. The first is spiritual good, and the second is higher, and is called celestial good. But people who wish to do good at first don’t know what is good; they need to learn that from the Word and be taught. This is why Peter is told to "feed them", which is to say that truth must indicate how good is to be done. In order to do things that are good, the will's wanting to, and the understanding's knowing how to go about it, must be conjoined. For a successful Christian life, or on a larger scale, a Christian church, 'Peter' and 'John' must work in harmony.

Then comes the parable. "When you were young you got yourself ready and did what you wanted on your own. But when you become old, you have to reach out for help and another shall carry you where you don’t want to go."

This doesn’t seem to fit in here, but of course it does, and in two ways. The first way is given in the Biblical text; it is about the Lord’s death, that all the prophecies were leading Him to His crucifixion, as is mentioned. The second way is a lesson for all of us. When we are young, confident, and strong, we feel that we can do what we want and don’t need any help. Temptations to do evil we ourselves can deal with. But when we grow wiser we realize that all our strength comes from the lord, and if we continue to depend only on ourselves, the temptations from the hells will be too strong and we will be led into doing what the hells want for us, not what we want. We must learn at the start to follow the Lord and depend on Him. This he says at the end of the parable, where it seems not to fit until we understand the parable. "And when He had spoken this He saith unto (them), follow Me." That’s what we need to do also.

Peter is happy to do this preaching of the truth and maybe feels that he has been singled out, but he also realizes that John also loves the Lord and is loved in return. So he asks "And what is this man supposed to do?" It seems that the needed harmony is not yet present, and that Peter is jealous of the bond, and probably hopes to be assured that he is number one... but that doesn’t happen. Peter is simply told that it doesn’t matter; he needs to do the job he has been given.

I’m reminded of the story of Jacob and Esau, in Genesis 25, where Esau is the firstborn and will inherit the birthright and blessing from Isaac, as his due. Jacob by craft devised by his mother deceives Isaac and steals what is Esau’s. Then he runs off to Padan-Aram and stays there with his uncle and becomes rich. It is only on his return journey that he wrestles with the angel and has his name changed to Israel, that he again meets Esau. The change of name means that now that Jacob is rich with truth from the Word, now with the friendly meeting with Esau, also rich, that the two twins can in parable, be merged into one personage, called Israel, meaning the joining of good and truth in the mind.

Esau means something similar to John, they both represent goodness or true charity. Jacob means something similar to Peter, they both represent truth learned from the Word. Any seeming enmity between them as to which is more important can make them both useless, and in a person who is becoming angelic (as everyone should be aiming for), there is no enmity. Truth enables good, and good inspires truth in order to get something done. Although we can think and speak of them separately, they are (perfectly in the Lord and less so in angels) conjoined into a oneness so as to be seen as married. The marriage of the Lord's Divine good and Divine truth is the origin of all creation. Yes, all creation.

This marriage of good and truth, and the need for both to work in our lives, in balance and harmony, is a core New Christian concept.

In the Gospels, there is just one more story that takes place after this one. In it, the rest of the disciples join the seven mentioned here to hear the Lord’s last commands.

39. Because the Christian world does not know that there can be no faith without charity, or what charity towards the neighbour is, not even that it is the will which is the real person, and his thought contributes only so far as it is inspired by the will, I should like, so as to shed some intellectual light on these matters, to add here my collected notes of passages in ARCANA CAELESTIA, which may be of use as illustration.

ON FAITH

If anyone does not know that all things in the universe relate to truth and to good and that they have both to be linked for anything to be produced, he also does not know that all things in the church relate to faith and to love and to their linking (7752-7762, 9186, 9224).

All things in the universe relate to truth and good and to their linking (2451, 3166, 4390, 4409, 5232, 7256, 10122, 10555).

Truths belong to faith, and kinds of good to love (4352, 4997, 7178, 10367).

[2] If anyone does not know that every detail in the make-up of a human being relates to the intellect and the will and to their linking, which must happen for the person to be human, neither do they know that everything in the church relates to faith and love and to their linking, which must happen for the church to be present in a person (2231, 7752-7754, 9224, 9995, 10122).

A person has two faculties, one called the intellect, the other the will (641, 803, 3623, 3539).

The intellect is assigned to the reception of truths, and so of things to do with faith; the will is assigned to the reception of kinds of good, and so of things to do with love (9300, 9930, 10064).

Hence it follows that it is love or charity which makes a church and not faith alone, that is, faith separated from love and charity (809, 916, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1844, 4766, 5826).

[3] Faith separated from charity is no faith (654, 724, 1162, 1176, 2049, 2116, 2343, 2349, 2417, 3419, 3849, 3868, 6348, 7039, 7342, 9783).

A faith of this kind is lost in the other life (2228, 5820).

Teachings about faith alone destroy charity (6353, 8094).

Those who separate faith from charity are represented in the Word by Cain, Ham, Reuben, by the first-born of the Egyptians and by the Philistines (3325, 7097, 7317, 8093).

The further charity is withdrawn, the stronger becomes the dogma of faith alone (2231). A church in course of time turns aside from charity to faith, and finally to faith alone (4683, 8094).

In the final period of a church there is no faith because there is no charity (1843, 3489, 4689).

If anyone regards faith alone as offering salvation, he is excusing wickedness of life; and those who lead wicked lives have no faith, because they have no charity (3865, 7766, 7778, 7790, 7950, 8094).

These people are inwardly subject to the falsities of their own evil, although they do not know it (7790, 7950). Consequently good cannot be linked to them (8981, 8983).

In the other life too they oppose good and those who have good in them (7097, 7127, 7317, 7502, 7545, 8096, 8313).

Those who are simple at heart know better than the wise what constitutes goodness of life, and so charity, but not what faith is separately (4741, 4754).

[4] Good is being and truth is coming into existence from this being. Thus the truth of faith has its being in life from the good of charity (3049, 3180, 4574, 5002, 9154).

Consequently the truth of faith is given life by the good of charity; so the life of faith is charity (1589, 1947, 1997, 2571, 4070, 4096, 4097, 4736, 4757, 4884, 5147, 5928, 9154, 9667, 9841, 10729).

A person's faith is not alive when he merely knows and thinks about matters to do with faith, but only when he wills them and by willing does them (9224).

The Lord is not linked with a person by faith, but by the life of faith, which is charity (9380, 10143, 10153, 10578, 10645, 10648).

Worship based on the good of charity is true worship; but if it is based upon the truth of faith without the good of charity it is only an external act (7724).

[5] Faith alone, that is, separated from charity, is like light in wintertime when everything on earth is sluggish and no growth takes place. But faith with charity is like light in spring and summertime, when everything flowers and grows (2231, 3146, 3412, 3413). Winter light, that given by faith separated from charity, is in the other life turned into thick darkness, when light pours in from heaven.

Those whose faith is of that kind are then reduced to blindness and stupidity (3412, 3413).

Those who separate faith from charity are in darkness, or in ignorance of the truth, so they are subject to falsities; for these are darkness (9186).

They plunge themselves into falsities and so into evils (3325, 8094); the errors and falsities into which they plunge (4721, 4730, 4776, 4783, 4925, 7779, 8313, 8765, 9224).

The Word is a closed book to them (3773, 4783, 8780).

They do not see or pay attention to all the Lord's many statements about love and charity (1017, 3416).

Neither do they know what good or heavenly love or charity are (2057, 3603, 4136, 9995).

[6] Charity makes the church, not faith separated from charity (809, 916, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1844)

How much good there would be in the church, if charity were regarded as its primary concern (6269, 6272).

If charity were its essential element, there would be one church, not a division into many; and it would then not matter if their teachings about faith and external forms of worship were different (1285, 1316, 2385, 2853, 2982, 3267, 3445, 3451, 3452).

Everyone in heaven is seen from the point of view of charity, and no one from that of faith without charity (1258, 1394, 2364, 4802).

[7] The Lord's twelve disciples represented the church as regards the whole of faith and charity taken together, in the same way as the twelve tribes of Israel (2129, 3354, 3488, 3858, 6397).

Peter, James and John represented respectively faith, charity and the good works of charity (3750). Peter stands for faith (4738, 6000, 6073, 6344, 10087, 10580); John the good works of charity (AC preface to chapters 18, 22 of Genesis).

There being in the final periods no faith in the Lord because there is no charity was represented by Peter's thrice-repeated denial of the Lord before the cock crew the second ¹ time; for Peter in the representative sense there is faith (6000, 6073).

Cock-crow and twilight mean in the Word the final period of a church (10134).

Three or thrice means final completion (2788, 4495, 5159, 9198, 10127).

There is a similar meaning in the Lord's words to Peter, when he saw John follow the Lord, 'What is it to you, Peter? Follow me, John.'

For Peter said about John 'What of him?' John 21:21-22 (10087).

John reclined on the Lord's breast, because he represented the good works of charity (3934, 10081).

All personal and place names in the Word stand for abstract qualities (768, 1888, 4310, 4442, 10329).

ON CHARITY

[8] Heaven is divided into two kingdoms, one called the celestial kingdom, the other the spiritual kingdom. Love in the celestial kingdom is love to the Lord, called celestial love, and love in the spiritual kingdom is charity towards the neighbour, called spiritual love (3325, 3653, 7257, 9002, 9835, 9961).

The division of heaven into those two kingdoms is described in HEAVEN AND HELL 20-28. The Lord's Divine in the heavens is love to Him and charity towards the neighbour (13-19).

[9] There is no knowledge of what good and truth are without knowledge of what love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour are, since all good has to do with love and charity, and all truth has to do with good (7255, 7366).

Knowing truths, willing truths and having affection for truths for truths' sake, that is, because they are true, is charity (3876, 3877).

Charity consists in an inward affection for doing what is true, and not in an outward affection without an inward one (2439, 2442, 3776, 4899, 4956, 8073).

Charity equally consists of performing services for their own sake and its nature depends upon the services performed (7078, 8253).

Charity is a person's spiritual life (7081).

The whole of the Word is a lesson in love and charity (6632, 7261).

There is ignorance to-day about what charity is (2417, 3398, 4776, 6632).

Still one can know even by the light of one's own reason that it is love and charity that make one a person (3957, 6273); also that good and truth are in harmony, and belong each to the other, and so do charity and faith (7627).

[10] In the highest sense the Lord is the neighbour, because He is to be loved above all. Consequently everything that proceeds from Him and in which He is present, and so good and truth, are the neighbour (2425, 3419, 6706, 6819, 6823, 8124).

The difference between one neighbour and another depends upon the nature of good, and so on the Lord's presence (6707-6710).

Every person and every community, as well as one's country and one's church, and in the universal sense the Lord's kingdom, are the neighbour. Loving the neighbour is doing good to them appropriately to their condition. So the neighbour is the good of those for whom one should take thought (6818-6824, 8123).

Civic good, which is justice, and moral good, which is goodness of life in the community, are the neighbour (2915, 4730, 8120-8122).

Loving the neighbour is not loving a person, but what he possesses which gives him his nature, so his good and truth (5025, 10336).

Those who love a person, and not what he possesses and which gives him his nature, love evil as much as good (3820).

These people do good to wicked as much as to good people, yet doing good to the wicked is doing harm to the good; and this is not loving the neighbour (3820, 6703, 8120).

A judge, who punishes the wicked to reform them and to prevent the good being infected by their evil, is loving the neighbour (3820, 8120, 8121).

[11] Loving the neighbour is doing good, behaving fairly and correctly in every task and in every office (8120-8122).

Thus charity towards the neighbour extends to every single thing a person thinks, wills and does (8124).

Doing what is good and true for the sake of goodness and truth is loving the neighbour (10310, 10376).

Those who do this love the Lord, who is in the highest sense the neighbour (9210).

A life of charity is living in accordance with the Lord's commands, so living in accordance with Divine truths is loving the Lord (10143, 10153, 10310, 10578, 10645).

[12] True charity seeks no reward (Arcana Caelestia 2027, 2273, ² 2380, 2400, 3887, 6388-6393), because it comes from inward affection, so from the pleasure of doing good (2273, 2400, 3887, 6388-6393).

In the other life, those who separate faith from charity regard faith and what seem outwardly like good deeds they have done as deserving reward (2273).

[13] The teaching of the Ancient Church was about how to live, which is teaching about charity (2385, 2417, 3419, 3420, 4844, 6628).

The ancients who belonged to the church reduced the good deeds of charity to an order and divided them into classes, giving each its name. This was the source of their wisdom (2417, 6629, 7259-7262).

The wisdom and intelligence of those who have lived a charitable life in the world increase immeasurably in the other life (1941, 5849).

The Lord fills charity with Divine truth, because this is the real life of a person (2363).

A person resembles a garden when charity and faith are linked in him, a desert when they are not (7626).

In so far as a person departs from charity he equally departs from wisdom (6630). Those who lack charity are ignorant about Divine truths, however wise they think themselves (2417, 2435).

The life of angels consists in performing the good deeds of charity, which are services (454).

Spiritual angels are models of charity (553, 3804, 4735).

ON THE WILL AND THE INTELLECT

[14] A person has two faculties, one called the intellect, the other called the will (35, 641, 3539, 10122).

Those two faculties constitute the true person (10076, 10109, 10110, 10264, 10284).

The nature of those faculties determines the person's nature (7342, 8885, 9282, 10064, 10284).

These faculties serve to distinguish man from animals, because the human intellect can be uplifted by the Lord so as to see Divine truths; and likewise the will can be uplifted so as to perceive Divine kinds of goodness. Thus a person can be linked to the Lord by the two faculties which constitute him.

But the case is different with animals (4525, 5114, 5302, 6323, 9231).

Because man is superior to animals in having that ability, he is unable to die as regards the interiors which belong to his spirit, but he lives for ever (5302).

[15] All things in the universe relate to good and truth; so all things in a person relate to the will and the intellect (803, 10122), because the intellect receives truth and the will receives good (3332, 3623, 5835, 6065, 6125, 7503, 9300, 9930).

It comes to the same thing whether you speak of truth or of faith, since faith has to do with truth and truth with faith. It comes to the same thing whether you speak of good or of love, since love has to do with good and good with love.

A person calls true what he believes and he calls good what he loves (4353, 4997, 7178, 10122, 10367).

It follows from this that the intellect is a receiver for faith and the will for love (7179, 10122, 10367).

Because a person's intellect is capable of receiving faith in God and his will is capable of receiving love to God, he can by faith and love be linked to God; and being capable of this, he cannot ever die (4525, 6323, 9231).

[16] A person's will is the real being of his life, because it serves to receive love or good. His intellect is the coming-into-existence of his life from this source, because it serves to receive faith or truth (3619, 5002, 9282).

Thus it is the life of the will which is the chief element in a person's life, and the life of the intellect is derived from it (585, 590, 3619, 7342, 8885, 9282, 10076, 10109, 10110); similarly light comes from fire or flame (6032, 6314).

A person makes his own what enters into the intellect and at the same time into the will, but not what only enters into the intellect (9009, 9069, 9071, 9128, 9182, 9386, 9393, 10076, 10109, 10110).

What is received by the will becomes part of a person's life (3161, 9386, 9393).

It follows from this that what makes a person human depends on his will and on his intellect derived from it (8911, 9069, 9071, 10076, 10109, 10110).

It is also true that every individual is loved and esteemed by others in proportion to the good of his will, and thus of his intellect. Anyone who wishes well and understands well is loved and esteemed, and anyone who understands well but does not wish well is rejected and criticised (8911, 10076).

After death a person remains in the state of his will and intellect derived from it (9069, 9071, 9386, 10153).

Matters of the intellect which are not at the same time matters of will then fade away, because they are not in the person (9282).

To put it another way, a person's state after death remains such as was his love and thus his faith, or such as was his good and thus his truth. Matters which have to do with faith, but not also with love, or matters to do with truth, but not also with good, then fade away, because they are not in the person or part of him (553, 2363, 10153).

A person can grasp intellectually what he does not willingly do; that is, he can understand what he cannot will, because it opposes his love (7539).

The reason why people have difficulty in making the distinction between thinking and willing (9995).

[17] How perverse is the state of those whose intellect and will do not act as one (9075).

This state is found in hypocrites, tricksters, toadies and charlatans (3573, 4327, 4799, 8250).

[18] All willing of good and thus understanding of truth is from the Lord; but not the understanding of truth separated from the willing of good (1831, 3514, 5482, 5649, 6027, 8685, 8701, 10153).

It is the intellect which is enlightened by the Lord (6222, 6608, 10659).

This enlightenment occurs to the extent that a person receives truth in his will, that is, to the extent that he wishes to act in accordance with truth (3169).

The intellect depends upon light from heaven, just as sight depends on light from the world (1524, 5114, 6608, 9128).

The nature of the intellect is determined by the nature of the truths derived from good by which it is formed (10064).

The intellect is properly formed by truths derived from good, but not by falsities derived from evil (10675).

It is the function of the intellect on the basis of experience to see truths, causes, connexions and logical consequences (6125).

It is the function of the intellect to see and perceive whether a thing is true before it is proved, not to be able to prove anything whatever (4741, 7012, 7680, 7950, 8521, 8780).

The ability to see and perceive whether a thing is true before it is proved is only possible for those who have an affection for truth for truth's sake, those, that is, who enjoy spiritual light (8521).

The light afforded by proofs is natural light, which even the wicked may possess (8780).

All dogmas, however false, can be proved to the point where they appear to be true (2482, 2490, 5033, 6865, 7950 ³ ).

脚注:

9300. 'The first of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of [Jehovah] your God' means that every truth of good and every good of truth is holy because it comes from the Lord alone. This is clear from the meaning of 'the firstfruits of the ground' as the truth that the Church's forms of good and its truths must be attributed to the Lord alone (for these are meant by 'the firstfruits', see 9223, and the Church by 'the ground', 566, 1068), the expression 'the first of the firstfruits' being used because that truth must be paramount, since forms of good and truths receive their life from the Lord, that is, they receive it from the Lord when they are attributed to Him; and from the meaning of 'bringing into the house of God' as bringing them to the Lord, in order that they may be holy (for 'the house of God' is the Lord, see 3720, and everything holy comes from the Lord, 9229). From all this it is evident that 'the first of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of your God' means that every truth of good and every good of truth is holy because it comes from the Lord alone.

[2] The terms 'truth of good' and 'good of truth' are used because in the case of a person who is being regenerated, and especially of one who has been regenerated, truths emanate from good, and forms of good emanate from truth. For the truths compose the life of his understanding, and the good the life of his will. And with the person who has been regenerated understanding and will form a mind that is one, communicating reciprocally with each other; the truths which belong to the understanding communicate with the good which belongs to the will, and the good belonging to the will with the truths belonging to the understanding. There is a mutual flow from one to the other, scarcely any different from the flow of the blood from the heart into the lungs, and from them into the heart again, then from the left side of the heart into the arteries, and from these back again through veins into the heart. One can form an idea similar to this regarding the reciprocal flow of the good and truth with a person from his understanding into his will and from his will into his understanding. The reason why the heart and lungs can give us an idea especially of the reciprocal activity of the truth of faith and the good of charity in the understanding and the will is that the lungs correspond to the truths belonging to faith and the heart to the good belonging to love, 3635, 3883-3896. So it is also that 'the heart' in the Word means the life of the will, and 'the soul' ¹ the life of faith, 9050.

[3] The reason why those two organs can help us to form an idea regarding truths belonging to the understanding and good belonging to the will is that all things which are aspects of faith and of love are accompanied by ideas formed from such things as a person knows. For without ideas formed from things that can be known and things that can be perceived by the senses a person has no ability to think. And a person thinks properly, even about aspects of faith and love, when he does so from objects that correspond; for correspondences are natural truths in which spiritual truths are reflected as in a mirror. Therefore to the extent that ideas in the mind regarding spiritual realities are conceived of but not by means of those correspondences, they are formed either from the illusions of the senses or from absurdities. What a person's ideas are like regarding aspects of faith and of love is transparently evident in the next life, for people's ideas there are plainly perceptible.

[4] The statement that the truths of faith belong to a person's understanding and the good of charity to his will may seem to be nonsensical to people who say and are convinced that having a belief in matters of faith is all that is necessary. This is because the natural man and his power of understanding has no grasp whatever of things of that nature, and because faith comes not from a person himself but from the Lord. But those same people nevertheless acknowledge and believe that a person is enlightened by truths and inspired by good when he reads the Word, and that when he is enlightened he perceives what is or is not the truth. They also speak of those who excel others in uncovering truths from the Word as the enlightened. From this it is evident that those who are enlightened see and perceive within themselves whether something is the truth or not; what is then enlightened within them is their understanding, and what is then inspired within them is their will. But if that which enlightens them is the authentic truth of faith and that which inspires them is the authentic good of charity, it is the internal man's understanding that is enlightened and the internal man's will that is inspired. The situation is different if the truth of faith, or the good of charity, is unauthentic.

[5] People governed by these, and even those ruled by falsities and evils are indeed able to give their assent to the Church's truths; yet they have no inner ability to see and perceive whether they really are truths. So it is that most people keep to the teachings of the Church in which they were born but go no further than giving their assent to them. They would assent even to extremely heretical beliefs such as those of Socinianism or Judaism if they had been born from parents holding such beliefs. From all this it is evident that the understanding is enlightened in the case of those with an affection for truth arising from good but not in the case of those with an affection for truth arising from evil. In the case of those with an affection for truth arising from good the internal man's understanding is enlightened and the internal man's will is inspired, whereas in the case of those with an affection for truth arising from evil the internal man's understanding is not enlightened nor is the internal man's will inspired, for the reason that they are natural men and women. As a consequence of this they maintain that the natural man has no ability to grasp any thing which is a matter of faith.

[6] The fact that the understanding is what is enlightened by the truths of faith and the will is what is inspired by the good of charity in the case of those with an affection for truth arising from good, who are therefore more internal or spiritual men and women, is evident from the same kind of people in the next life. Those who are there are able to understand all matters of faith and to will all that constitutes charity, as they themselves also clearly perceive. Consequently intelligence and wisdom beyond description are theirs; for after they have cast aside the body they enjoy that more internal understanding which was being enlightened in the world and that more internal will which was being inspired in the world. But they could not perceive during that time how they were being enlightened and inspired because during that time their thinking took place within the body and was founded on such things as belong to the world. From all this it is now clear that the truths of faith compose the life of the understanding and the good of charity composes the life of the will, that is, that the understanding ought to be present in those things which are matters of faith and the will in those which are aspects of charity. Or what amounts to the same thing, those two powers of mind are what faith and charity from the Lord flow into; and these are received according to the state of those powers. Thus the Lord's dwelling-place with a person is nowhere else than within those powers.

[7] An idea of what more there is to all this may be gained from what has been stated about the internal man and the external man in 6057, 9279, namely this: The internal man has been created so as to conform to an image of heaven, but the external man so as to conform to an image of the world; and those whose internal man has not been opened up see nothing from a heavenly point of view. And what they see from a worldly point of view regarding heaven is thick darkness, as a consequence of which they cannot have any spiritual idea about such things as are matters of faith and charity. As a result of this furthermore they fail so completely even to see what Christian good is, that is, what charity is, that they entirely suppose that the life of heaven consists solely in truths, which they call the truths of faith, and also that this life can be imparted to anyone at all with whom the assurance of faith exists though not the life of faith.

[8] How blind these people are regarding the life of faith, which is charity, is plainly evident from the consideration that they pay no attention whatever to thousands of things taught by the Lord Himself regarding goodness of life, and that when they read the Word they instantly toss them away behind the back of faith, thereby concealing them from themselves and from others. So it is also that anything which has to do with good, that is, with charity and its works, is banished by them from the teachings of the Church to that lower body of teachings which they call moral theology, and which they regard as natural, not spiritual. But in reality the life of charity remains after death, and faith only in the measure that it accords with that life, that is, thought regarding the truths of faith remains in the measure that there is a will to do good in accordance with them. Those who have faith that arises out of good are able to use any factual knowledge whatever to corroborate things for themselves and thereby make their faith stronger, see 2454, 2568, 2588, 4156, 4293, 4760, 5201, 6047, 8629.

脚注: