2388. Hast thou yet anyone here? Son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whomsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of the place. That this signifies that all who are in the good of charity, and that all things belonging thereto, would be saved, and also those who are in the truth of faith, provided they would recede from evil, is evident from the signification of “sons-in-law,” of “sons,” of “daughters,” of “city,” and of “place,” concerning which in what follows.

[2] As regards those being saved who are in the truth of faith, provided they recede from evil, the case is this. The truths of faith are the very receiving vessels of good (n. 1900, 2063, 2261, 2269); and they receive good insofar as the man recedes from evil; for good continually flows in from the Lord, and it is the evil of life that hinders its being received in the truths which are with man in his memory or knowledge. Therefore insofar as a man recedes from evil, so far good enters and applies itself to his truths; and then the truth of faith with him becomes the good of faith. A man may indeed know truth, may also confess it under the incitement of some worldly cause, may even be persuaded that it is true; and yet this truth does not live so long as he is in a life of evil. For such a man is like a tree on which there are leaves, but no fruit; and His truth is like light in which there is no heat, such as there is in the time of winter when nothing grows. But when there is heat in it, the light then becomes such as there is in the time of spring, when all things grow. In the Word truth is compared to light and is called “light,” but heat is compared to love, and is also called spiritual heat. In the other life also truth manifests itself by light, and good by heat; but truth without good by cold light, and truth with good by light similar to that of spring. This shows what the truth of faith is without the good of charity. Hence it is that the sons-in-law and the sons, by whom such truths are signified, were not saved; but only Lot with His daughters.

[3] As it is here said that those also who are in the truth of faith are saved, provided they recede from evil, be it known that these are they who profess faith and think nothing about charity for the reason that they have been so instructed, and do not know what charity is (supposing that it consists merely in the giving of our own to others, and in pitying everybody), and who also do not know what the neighbor is toward whom charity is to be exercised (for they suppose that the neighbor is almost everybody, without distinction), and yet who live in the life of charity toward the neighbor, because in the life of good. It does these persons no harm to profess faith along with all the rest, for in their faith there is charity, since this means all the good of life in general and in particular. What therefore charity is, and what the neighbor, will of the Lord’s Divine mercy be told in what follows.