9210. 'You shall not be like a money-lender' means that it must be done in a spirit of charity. This is clear from the meaning of 'a money-lender' as someone who does good for the sake of gain; for a money-lender entrusts money to another for the sake of interest and gives help to another for the sake of reward. And since real charity does not have gain or reward as the end in view, but the neighbour's good, 'you shall not be like a money-lender' means that the thing must be done in a spirit of charity. Anyone who does not know what Christian charity is may think that it consists not only in giving to the needy and poor but also in doing good to his fellow citizen, country, or Church for any reason whatever, that is, with no matter what end in view. But he should recognize that the end is what gives all of a person's deeds their true character. If the end or intention is to do good for the sake of reputation, in order to acquire important positions or else monetary gain, the good that he does is not good because it is done for the sake of self and thus also originates in self. But if the end is to do good for his fellow citizen's, country's, or Church's sake, thus for his neighbour's sake, the good he does is good since it is done for the sake of good itself, which in general is the real neighbour, 5025, 6706, 6711, 6712, 8123, and so is also done for the Lord's sake since such good does not have its origin in the person but in the Lord, and what originates in the Lord is the Lord's. This is the good that is meant by the Lord in Matthew,

Insofar as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers you did it to Me. Matthew 25:40.

[2] As it is with good, so it is also with truth. Those who do the truth for its own sake do it also for the Lord's sake since it comes from Him. Doing truth for its own sake is doing good; for truth becomes good when it passes from the understanding into the will, and from the will goes out into actions. Doing good in this manner is Christian charity. People who do good in the spirit of Christian charity may sometimes look for reputation earned as a result of doing it, so as to obtain an important position or else monetary gain. But their attitude is altogether different from that of anyone for whom these things are his end in view. For they regard what is good and right as the essential, one and only thing that matters, and accordingly rank it in highest position. As for monetary gain in comparison with this, or an important position, or reputation for the sake of them, they regard as non-essential, and accordingly rank it in lowest position. When the eyes of people such as these are fixed on what is right and good they are like soldiers fighting in battle for their country. During it they give no thought at all to their life, nor thus to their status or their assets in the world, which compared with what they are doing are of no importance to them. But those who rank self and the world at the top are the kind of people who do not even see what is right and good, because their eyes are fixed on themselves and on gain.

[3] All this shows what doing good for a selfish or a worldly reason is, what doing good for the Lord's or for the neighbour's sake is, and what is the difference between them. The difference is as great as that between two opposites, thus as great as that between heaven and hell. Furthermore those who do good for their neighbour's or for the Lord's sake are in heaven; but those who do it for a selfish or a worldly reason are in hell. For those who do good for their neighbour and the Lord's sake love the Lord above all things and their neighbour as themselves - commandments which are 'the first of all the commandments', Mark 12:28-31. But those who do everything for selfish and worldly reasons love themselves above all things, thus more than God; and they not only despise their neighbour but also hate him if he does not make common cause with them and align himself with them. This is the meaning of the Lord's teaching in Matthew,

No one can serve two lords, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will cling to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24.

There are people who do serve both; but they are called 'lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, who are spewed out', Revelation 3:15-16. All this now shows what money-lenders who took interest represented, namely those who do good for the sake of gain.

[4] It makes plain the origin of this prohibition, that they were not to be like a money-lender, charging a brother interest, as again declared elsewhere in Moses,

You shall not charge your brother interest on silver, interest on food, interest on anything on which it is charged. A foreigner you shall charge interest, but your brother you shall not charge interest; so that Jehovah your God may bless you in everything to which you set your hand ¹ in the land which you are entering to possess it. Deuteronomy 23:19-20; Leviticus 25:36-38.

'Charging a brother interest on silver' means lending truths, that is, giving instruction in them, for the sake of gain, 'charging interest on food' hiring out forms of the good of truth for the sake of gain; for 'silver' means truth, 1551, 2954, 5658, 6914, 6917, and 'food' the good of truth, 5147, 5293, 5340, 5342, 5576, 5410, 5426, 5487, 5582, 5588, 5655, 5915, 8562. The reason why those who do not charge it are blessed by Jehovah in everything to which they set their hand in the land is that their affection is for goodness and truth, so that the happiness which angels in heaven possess is theirs; for that affection, or the good of that love, holds heaven within it for a person, 6478, 9174. The reason why foreigners could be charged interest was that those who do not acknowledge anything of goodness or truth and are unreceptive of them are meant by 'foreigners', 7996, that is, they are those who do good solely for the sake of gain. These must serve a person, for in comparison they are servants or slaves, 1097. In David,

He walks blameless and does righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart. He does not lend his silver at interest, and does not take a bribe ² against the innocent. He who does this will never be moved. Psalms 15:2, 5.

'Lending his silver at interest' means teaching for the sake solely of gain, thus doing good for the sake of reward. Something similar occurs in Ezekiel,

A righteous man who executes judgement and righteousness does not lend at interest and does not take increase. Ezekiel 18:5, 8.

In the same prophet,

He who withdraws his hand from the needy, does not take interest or increase, executes My judgements, [and] walks in My statutes will surely live. Ezekiel 18:17.

In the same prophet,

In you they have taken bribes ² to shed blood; you have taken interest and increase, and seized gain of your companions by violence. Ezekiel 22:12.

These things are said about 'the city of blood', by which falsity destroying truth and good is meant, 9127. 'Taking interest and increase' means doing good for the sake of gain and reward, thus not in a spirit of charity. In true charity there is no thought of earning a reward, see 2371, 2373, 2400, 4007, 4174, 4943, 6388-6390, 6392, 6478.

V:

10409. 'Who caused you to come up out of the land of Egypt' means which led them. This is clear from the meaning of 'causing to come up out of the land of Egypt', when those whose interest lies in external things and not in what is internal are the subject, as being self-led; for 'the land of Egypt', when they are the subject, means slavery, while 'causing to come up' means leading themselves out of it. For here the same words serve to mean the opposite of what they do when they are used in reference to those whose interest in external things is accompanied at the same time by an interest in what is internal. In reference to the latter those words mean being led by the Lord, thus being raised from the natural man to the spiritual man, or from the world to heaven, consequently passing from slavery into freedom. But when those words refer to people whose interest lies in external things and not in internal ones they mean being self-led, which does not constitute being raised to heaven but casting themselves down to hell, consequently passing from freedom into slavery. For the fact that being self-led is slavery, while being led by the Lord is freedom, see 2892, 9096, 9586, 9589-9591.

[2] But since these people suppose that nothing Divine is at work in a person and that a person is self-led, and also that this constitutes freedom, a brief statement on this subject must be made here. All who love themselves and the world above everything make this supposition and persuade themselves that it is right; for what they love above all things they worship as their god. Those like this in the Christian world at the present day are very many. But what they are really like I have been allowed to know primarily from such people in the next life; for when a person becomes a spirit after a life in the world he is - so far as the affections composing his love, and his thoughts and firm beliefs are concerned - exactly the same as what he was when he lived in the body. Those people have told me that they had substantiated that belief for themselves by the evidence that a person attains eminent positions and acquires wealth not as a result of any Divine help and Providence but as a result of his own intelligence and carefulness, and sometimes as a result of good fortune, though even then this is due to causes which are seen by them to have a human origin. They say that ordinary experience bears witness to this; for bad, deceitful, and wicked people rather than the good are frequently raised to eminent positions and become rich, which would not happen if the Divine were in control of things.

[3] But I have been allowed to tell them that the substantiation of their belief by the use of such ideas is no more than reasoning which relies on their own intelligence and their own love, and such reasoning is based on mere illusions and takes place in complete darkness so far as awareness of causes is concerned. For they suppose that being raised to eminent positions and obtaining greater wealth than others is the real good that the Divine confers on a person, and so they suppose that a Divine blessing, as they also call those gains, lies in such things alone. But those gains are more of a curse to those who love self and the world above all things; for to the extent that people rise to important positions and obtain wealth by their own application and skill, they rise into self-love and love of the world, till at length they set their whole heart on those things and regard them as the only possible forms of good, thus the only possible forms of happiness and bliss for a human being. But those things come to an end with a person's life in the world, whereas the forms of good, happiness, and bliss which the Divine gives a person and provides him with are eternal and do not come to an end, so that these are the true blessings. What is temporary bears no comparison with what is eternal, just as a limited amount of time bears none with an unlimited amount of it. What lasts to eternity has being, in comparison with which what comes to an end does not have being. The Divine provides that which has being, but not that which does not have being, except insofar as it is of use to the former. For Jehovah, who is the Deity Himself, has Being; and what is derived from Him also has being. From this it is evident what anything that the Divine gives a person and provides him with is like and what anything that a person does for himself is like.

[4] Furthermore the Divine leads each individual person by means of his power of understanding; if this were not so, no person at all could be saved. That is why the Divine leaves a person's understanding in freedom and does not restrict it. And this explains why the evil are successful with their ploys and tricks, which are a product of their understanding. But the happiness they get out of all this comes to an end with their life in the world and turns to unhappiness, whereas the things which the Divine provides the good with do not come to an end; and they become sources of eternal happiness and bliss.

[5] When I have talked about these matters to those who were such in the world they have said in response that they had not thought anything at all then about what was eternally good, happy, and blissful, and that whenever the loves that were truly theirs took charge of them they had totally denied the reality of a person's life after death. They said that inasmuch as they had attained important positions and acquired wealth they had thought that no other forms of good existed, indeed that neither heaven nor the Divine existed; consequently they had not known what being led by the Divine might be.

[6] Those in the world who have become entrenched in these ways of thinking in doctrine and in life remain like that in the next life. Their interiors are closed, and so they do not have any contact with heaven. Only their exteriors lie open, by means of which they are then in contact solely with the hells. Those of them who have attained important positions or acquired riches by means of ploys, skillful devices, and tricks become sorcerers there. They are seen below the buttocks, seated at a table and wearing a hat pulled down to the eyebrows. Seated thus, seemingly deep in thought, they assemble ideas of use to a sorcerer's skill, while assuming that they have the ability to lead themselves by means of them. Their speech as it passes between their teeth makes a sort of whistling noise. Afterwards, when they undergo vastation, they are cast into a wide-bottomed pit, where there is total darkness. There the light of their understanding decreases till it becomes dull-wittedness. I have seen among those cast down there people who in the world had been considered the cleverest.