9230. 'And you shall not eat flesh torn in the field' means that falsified good of faith must not be joined [to oneself]. This is clear from the meaning of 'flesh' as good, dealt with in 7850, 9127; from the meaning of 'the field' as the Church in respect of good, thus the Church's good, dealt with in 2971, 3766, 7502, 7571, 9139, 9141; from the meaning of 'torn' as something destroyed by falsities, thus also something falsified, dealt with in 5828; and from the meaning of 'eating' as making one's own and joining [to oneself], dealt with in 2187, 3168, 3513 (end), 3596, 4745, 5643, 8001. From these meanings it is evident that 'you shall not eat flesh torn in the field' means that the Church's good, or the good of faith, if it has been falsified, is not to be made one's own or joined [to oneself].

[2] A brief statement must be made here about what the good of faith is and what the truth of faith is. The good of faith is a term that denotes everything of the Church that has to do with life and service inspired by teachings of the Church that compose its faith, in short, everything that has to do with willing those things and doing them in a spirit of obedience; for the Church's truths of faith become, through people's willing them and doing them, forms of good. But the truth of faith is a term that denotes everything which does not as yet have useful service as its end in view or does not exist for the sake of its use in life. Consequently it is something a person comes to know and retain in the memory, then grasps with his understanding, and goes on to teach. As long as the Church's truths go no further than the understanding they are merely items of knowledge and known facts, and in contrast to forms of good stand outside the person himself. For the human memory and understanding are like the hall outside a room, and the will is so to speak the actual room, the will being the person himself. This shows what the truth of faith is and what the good of faith is. But the good that a person does in the first state, while he is being regenerated, is called the good of faith, whereas the good that he does in the second state, which is when he has been regenerated, is called the good of charity. When therefore a person doing good is governed by the good of faith, he does good in a spirit of obedience; but when someone doing good is governed by the good of charity, he does good out of affection. Regarding those two states with a person who is being regenerated, see 7923, 7992, 8505, 8506, 8510, 8512, 8516, 8643, 8648, 8658, 8685, 8690, 8701, 9224, 9227.

2553. 'Because I said, Surely there is no fear of God in this place' means the thought derived from this that men would have no respect for spiritual truth in that state in which they were then. This is clear from the meaning of 'the fear of God' as respect for Divine, or spiritual, truth, and from the meaning of 'a place' as a state, dealt with in 1273-1275, 1377. Involved here is the fact that man is unable to grasp any doctrine which is purely spiritual and celestial, that which is Divine, because it goes infinitely above and beyond his grasp of things, and so also above the range of his belief. All thoughts which man has are confined within natural things experienced by his senses, and anything that is said which does not draw on and does not fit in with those natural things is not comprehended but perishes, like sight gazing into some ocean or universe without any object there on which it may focus. Consequently if matters of doctrine were presented to man in any other manner, they would not be received at all, and so he would have no respect for them. This may become quite clear from each detail in the Word. There purely Divine things are for the same reason presented as natural, indeed sensory ones, such as that Jehovah has ears, eyes, and a face, has affections as man does, anger, and many more things.

[2] This was still more the case with men when the Lord came into the world. At that time they did not even have any knowledge of what the celestial or the spiritual was, nor even of anything internal. Wholly earthly and worldly, and thus external things possessed every thought in their minds, even the minds of the apostles themselves who supposed that the Lord's kingdom would be like a worldly kingdom. For that reason these asked to sit one on His right hand and the other on the left and for a long while imagined they were going to sit on twelve thrones and to judge the twelve tribes of Israel, still unaware of the fact that in the next life they would not have the power to judge even the least detail of any one individual's affairs, 2129 (end). His looking into this state of the human race was the reason why the Lord at first thought about whether the rational ought to be consulted in the doctrine of faith. In this He was moved by a love which was that the salvation of all might be taken care of and that the Word should not perish.