Explanation of Luke 6
By Rev. John Clowes M.A.
Verses 1-2. That when conjunction of good and of truth is effected, it is allowed man to appropriate every good, notwithstanding appearances to the contrary in the representative Church.
Verses 3-5. Since the Lord, by coming into the world, and uniting his Human principle to the Divine, abolished the Sabbath as to representative worship, and made Himself the True Sabbath.
Verses 6-11. And thus restores the truth of the Church to conjunction with its good, from which it had been separated, since this was the great end of his coming into the world, and making his Human principle Divine.
Verse 11. Nevertheless this doctrine excites abhorrence and hatred against Him in the representative Church.
Verse 12. Which abhorrence and hatred become instrumental in leading the Lord's Human principle to a more intimate union with the Divine.
Verse 13. So that by the light derived from this union he is enabled to discriminate all the goods and truths constituent of the Church, and to conjoin them to himself.
Verses 14-17. Which goods and truths are enumerated.
Verses 17-20. Therefore all, who are desirous of spiritual instruction, and to be delivered from false and evil principles, seek communication and conjunction of life with the Lord, and find it.
Verse 20. Being instructed, that all have such communication and conjunction, who from the heart acknowledge that no one knows, understands, and is wise of himself, but from the Lord, since in this acknowledgement there is internal truth and good.
Verse 21. And being further instructed, that, all are gifted with heavenly good, who in heart desire it, and that all are gifted with heavenly truth, who feel the want of it.
Verses 22-23. And that all goods and truths are more closely conjoined with the Lord, and more fully confirmed, in states of opposition from infernal men and infernal spirits, than at any other time, and that this has been the case from the beginning.
Verses 24-25. Yet that truth of itself, without good, separates itself from the Lord, as also does good without truth, and as likewise does the affection of truth, unless the affection of good be in it.
Verse 26. Since the affection of truth may be excited by worldly considerations of fame and glory, as was the case with teachers of old.
Verses 27-28. Whereas the affection of good is kind and well-disposed towards all, doing good to, instructing, and interceding for all.
Verses 27-29. Also being patient, and contented as far as possible, under the assault of evil, whether the assault be against good, or against truth.
Verses 30-31. And imparting both good and truth to all who are in the affection of those principles, content, for the sake of others, to be deprived of its own, and showing kindness to others in the same degree that it expects to receive, kindness from others.
Verses 32-34. Since true charity does not consist in natural affection, but in spiritual, and thence in natural.
Verses 35-36. Good therefore ought to be done without a view to recompense, because it brings along with it its own reward, by restoring in man the Divine image and likeness.
Verses 37-38. So that he will never think ill of what is good and true, but will live in the exercise of charity, from a conviction, that in proportion as he does good to others, he will receive a more abundant measure of the love of good from the Lord.
Verse 39. Neither will he attempt to instruct others, until he himself is instructed in the truth, lest he should lead both himself and others into what is false.
Verses 39-40. But will rather submit himself to the guidance of the Divine Truth.
Verses 41-42. Not looking at the intellectual errors of another, but at the evils which pervert his own understanding, since it is impossible to correct another's intellectual errors, until a man's own understanding be separated from evil, and therefore every one ought first to remove evil from his own love and life, that he may be in a state to remove error from the understanding of another;
Verses 43-44. For the good of love produces good of life, as evil love produces evil of life, therefore every one's quality may be known from his life, since no good, either external or internal, can be derived from falsities and evils.
Verse 45. The true character of every one is thus determined by his will, since if the will be principled in the love of truth, the good of life will be thence derived, whereas if the will be principled in the love of what is false, it will then give birth to evil of life.
Verse 46. That consequently external worship is of no avail, unless it proceed from obedience of life.
Verses 47-48. Which obedience consists in the acknowledgement of the Lord's divine Humanity, and in a right understanding and practice of His precepts, by virtue whereof the true believer acquires a knowledge of the Interior truths of the Word, and conjoins them with the divine truth, and thus is preserved in all states of spiritual temptation.
Verse 49. Whereas he, who is only in the intelligence of truth, and not in the good of love and charity, fails in temptation, and perishes by grievous falsities.
Psalms 78
1
Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.
2
I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,
3
Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4
We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, his strength, and his wondrous works that he has done.
5
For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;
6
that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children,
7
that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments,
8
and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that didn't make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
9
The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
10
They didn't keep God's covenant, and refused to walk in his law.
11
They forgot his doings, his wondrous works that he had shown them.
12
He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13
He split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap.
14
In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire.
15
He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.
16
He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
17
Yet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.
18
They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire.
19
Yes, they spoke against God. They said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
20
Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?"
21
Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel,
22
because they didn't believe in God, and didn't trust in his salvation.
23
Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven.
24
He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky.
25
Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full.
26
He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind.
27
He rained also flesh on them as the dust; winged birds as the sand of the seas.
28
He let them fall in the midst of their camp, around their habitations.
29
So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire.
30
They didn't turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths,
31
when the anger of God went up against them, killed some of the fattest of them, and struck down the young men of Israel.
32
For all this they still sinned, and didn't believe in his wondrous works.
33
Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.
34
When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.
35
They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer.
36
But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.
37
For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.
38
But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn't destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and didn't stir up all his wrath.
39
He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn't come again.
40
How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!
41
They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
42
They didn't remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;
43
how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan,
44
he turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink.
45
He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
46
He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.
47
He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost.
48
He gave over their livestock also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
49
He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil.
50
He made a path for his anger. He didn't spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,
51
and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.
52
But he led forth his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53
He led them safely, so that they weren't afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54
He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.
55
He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
56
Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and didn't keep his testimonies;
57
but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
58
For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.
59
When God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel;
60
So that he forsook the tent of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;
61
and delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the adversary's hand.
62
He also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance.
63
Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.
64
Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn't weep.
65
Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.
66
He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.
67
Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, and didn't choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68
But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.
69
He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever.
70
He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;
71
from following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.
72
So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. A Psalm by Asaph.
