The Bible

 

Matthew 2:5

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5 And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet,

Commentary

 

Christmas Gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

By New Christian Bible Study Staff

The Adoration of the Magi, a Design for Bas Relief.

In the Christmas story, the wise men bring gifts to the Lord: gold, frankincense and myrrh.

The gold is listed first, because it is the inmost - signifying good, e.g. the good that we do when we love the Lord and the neighbor.

The frankincense is next. It signifies rational truth, which is the set of true ideas that we know, not about external things like cars or cooking, but about what is really good, and what is really true.

These rational truths are built on earlier knowledges that we learn, before we have really made them our own. Those early knowledges about spiritual things - often learned in childhood - are represented by the myrrh.

In a way, these gifts are really a reciprocation. We can't actually give them to the Lord until the Lord has given them to us. We necessarily start out by learning and doing the Lord's law (myrrh). The Lord can then call up those memories to become rational truths (frankincense). Then, over time, and with effort, those truths can be transformed into good (gold). The wise men from the East had gone through this process of learning and becoming vessels that could receive truths and goods. They were able to perceive the Lord's birth, and find him, and bring gifts to him.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Scriptural Confirmations #6

  
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6. 4. If any one preacheth any other gospel than that which He preached let him be accursed (Galatians 1:8-9).

I live, no more I, but Christ liveth in me (Galatians 2:20). The power which God wrought in Christ, wherefore He set Him at His own right hand above the heavens, above all principalities, power, and might, etc., and hath put all things under His feet, and hath given Him to be the head over all things of the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all (Ephesians 1:20-23).

Through Christ we have access in one Spirit unto the Father. Christ is the corner stone, by whom the whole building framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, through whom ye also are builded together into an habitation of God in the spirit (Ephesians 2:18, 20-22).

God hath founded all things by Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:9).

One body and one Spirit; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all; and unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ (Ephesians 4:4-7).

He that descended is also the same that ascended above all the heavens, that He might fill all things (Ephesians 4:10).

For the edifying of the body of Christ, and that the church is the body and Christ the head (Ephesians 4:12, 15-16).

We are members of His body; of His flesh, and of His bones (Ephesians 5:30).

By faith we have access to Christ in confidence (Ephesians 3:12).

Christ is the head of the church, and He is the Savior of the body (Ephesians 5:23).

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.