9346. 'Lest perhaps they cause you to sin against Me' means lest evils turn away forms of good from the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of the inhabitants of the land, to whom the words 'lest perhaps they cause to sin' refer, as evils, as above; from the meaning of 'sinning' as turning away, dealt with in 5474, 5841, 7589; and from the meaning of 'you against Me' as [turning away from] forms of good from the Lord. For the children of Israel, to whom 'you' refers here, mean those governed by good, and so mean forms of good, 5801, 5803, 5806, 5812, 5817, 5819, 5826, 5833, 9340, and Jehovah, to whom 'Me' refers here, means the Lord, dealt with in 9194, 9199, 9315, and in the places referred to in these paragraphs. The reason why evils turn away forms of good from the Lord is that evils and forms of good are opposites or contraries, and two opposites or contraries cannot exist together, since they loathe and clash with each other. This becomes perfectly clear from the consideration that evils spring from hell but forms of good from heaven, and hell is totally remote from heaven, not as to distance since there is no distance in the next life, but as to state. Those therefore who live in the state that is hell's cannot be transferred to the state that is heaven's, for the evils residing with them repel the forms of good residing with those in heaven. This is the meaning of Abraham's words to the rich man,

Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass across from here to you cannot, nor can those who are there pass across to us. Luke 16:26.

'A great gulf' is the opposite and contrary natures of their states of life. From all this it is evident how to understand the explanation that evils turn forms of good away from the Lord; that is to say, those immersed in evils not only fail to receive forms of good, which with everyone flow in unceasingly from the Lord, but also completely turn them away. For this reason a person cannot by any means receive the good of heaven until he refrains from evils.

5841. 'I shall be sinning against my father all my days' means a turning away, as a result of which the good of the Church ceases to exist. This is clear from the meaning of 'sinning' as a separation, dealt with in 5229, 5474, and so a turning away. And if the good of the external Church, which 'Judah' represents, turns away from the good of the internal Church, which 'Israel' represents, the good of the Church is made to go out of existence. The actual joining together causes the good from which the Church receives its being to exist. With those two kinds of good - the good of the internal Church and the good of the external Church - the situation is this: By means of influx the good of the internal Church, which is internal good, brings the good of the external Church, which is external good, into being. This being so, internal good raises external good up to itself so that such external good may look to it, and thereby look up towards the Lord. This is the situation when they exist joined together. But if they are separated external good turns away and looks downwards, and by doing that is destroyed. This turning away is what is meant by 'I shall be sinning against my father all my days'.