In New Christian thought, “charity” has a significantly different meaning than in the common modern English definition. In Swedenborg's works "charity" is usually the English rendering of the Latin word "caritas", which is also the root of the verb “to care.” If we think of “charity” as “a state of caring,” we can start seeing what Swedenborg was trying to convey.

“Caring” does not necessarily have to be emotional. You can take care of someone you don’t like, you can take care of business or errands or duties that have little or no emotional content. Swedenborg would call these “acts of charity,” things done from a desire to be a good person. But the idea of “caring” can elevate, too: When you care about someone it involves real affection, and to care about an idea or mission implies a deep commitment - it is a feeling, an emotional state. The ultimate state of “caring,” of course, would be caring about all of humanity, wanting what’s best for everyone on the planet. This is what Swedenborg would call “true charity,” and it is marked by love - the love of others. Importantly, though, it can't be left as an abstraction; it needs to be grounded out in action.

Or as Swedenborg puts it in Arcana Coelestia 8033: “Charity is an inward affection consisting in a desire which springs from a person's heart to do good to the neighbour, which is the delight of his life.”

At all these levels, though, charity cannot act on its own. It needs tools.

Imagine, for instance, a young mother falling and breaking her leg. Her four-year-old might love her desperately, but cannot take care of her. A paramedic, meanwhile, might see her as just a case number, but will get her stabilized and delivered to a hospital. The difference, obviously, is knowledge. The paramedic has a bunch of tested, true ideas in her head that give her the capacity to care for the mother; the four-year-old does not.

That knowledge is actually part of what Swedenborg would call “faith,” though he’s referring to spiritual things rather than medical ones. In general, “faith” in Swedenborg’s works refers to not just belief in the Lord but also the things we accept as true because they come to us from the Lord and the Lord’s teachings. If we take them and apply them to life, we can do works of charity - we can use knowledge to take care of people and things, to actually do something good. For this reason, faith and charity are often linked in Swedenborgian theology.

And just like the idea of caring, these items of faith can elevate. “Thou shalt not murder” is a good low-level matter of faith, and should certainly be applied if we want to be charitable people. “Love thy neighbor as thyself” is a bit higher, a bit more internal, and will help us be charitable on a deeper level. The idea that by loving others we are loving the Lord will take us to a deeper place yet.

And perhaps most beautiful of all is what happens when we reach a state of true charity. If we work to be good because we want to serve the Lord, the Lord will eventually change our hearts, transforming us so that we delight in being good and delight in loving and helping others. At that stage the ideas of faith change from being the masters over our evil desires to being the servants of our good desires. From a loving desire to be good and serve others we will seek and use knowledge that lets us fulfill that mission.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 809, 916 [2], 1798 [2-5], 1799 [3-4], 1994, 8120; Charity 11, 40, 56, 90, 199; The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 121; True Christian Religion 367, 377, 392, 425, 450, 453, 576)

425. IX. The kindnesses of charity are giving to the poor and helping the needy, but with prudence.

A distinction must be drawn between the duties of charity and its kindnesses. By the duties of charity is meant the exercise of charity arising directly from charity itself; as was shown just above, these chiefly have to do with one's work. But by kindnesses we mean the secondary actions which go beyond the first group. They are called kindnesses, because a person is free to do them as he chooses; and when they are done, they are regarded by the recipient as nothing but kindnesses. They are distributed in accordance with the reasons and intentions the person who does them has in mind. It is generally believed that charity consists only in giving to the poor, helping the needy, taking care of widows and orphans, making donations to the building of hospices and hospitals, hostels, orphanages, and above all churches, and to their decoration and their income. But the majority of these are not the proper work of charity, but are additional to it.

[2] Those who suppose these kindnesses to be real charity cannot help believing their deeds are meritorious; and despite their verbal protestations that they do not want them to be meritorious, they still have lurking in them the belief that they are. This is plain to see after their death. Then they count up their deeds and demand salvation as their reward. But then enquiry is made into the origin and thus the nature of their deeds; and if it is found that they arose either from pride, or seeking a reputation, or from mere generosity, or from friendship, or from purely natural inclination, or from hyprocrisy, then that origin judges them, since the nature of its origin is present in every deed. True charity, however, is the product of those who have employed fairness and careful judgment in their deeds, which they perform without any intention of being rewarded, in accordance with the Lord's words (Luke 14:12-14). These people also call the sort of actions mentioned above kindnesses, as well as duties, though they are a part of charity.

1834. That 'birds of prey came down on the carcasses' means evils and derivative falsities that wished to destroy is clear from the meaning of 'bird of prey' as falsity. In the Word a bird of prey means truth, as shown above, and also in the contrary sense falsity - that is, both meanings occur there, just as almost every other such expression in the Word has two meanings. That a bird of prey may also mean falsity has been shown already in 778, 866, 988. Anyone may see that certain arcana are meant by this reference to birds of prey coming down, otherwise this detail would not have been worthy of mention. Which particular arcanum is meant has also been stated already and is evident from the train of thought in the internal sense, namely that it is something regarding the state of the Church.

[2] When a Church is raised up by the Lord it is faultless to begin with. At that time one person loves another as his brother, as is well known from the Primitive Church after the Lord's Coming. In those days all members of the Church lived with one another as brothers; they also called one another brothers, and loved one another mutually. In the course of time however charity faded and passed away, and as it passed away evils took its place, and along with the evils falsities too wormed their way in. From this schisms and heresies resulted, which would never have existed if charity had continued to reign and live. In those days they would not even call schism schism, or heresy heresy, but a matter of doctrine adhered to in accordance with the particular belief of that schism or heresy. That matter of doctrine they would leave to each individual's conscience, provided it did not deny anything fundamental, that is, the Lord, eternal life, or the Word, and provided it was not contrary to Divine order, that is, to the Ten Commandments.

[3] The evils and derivative falsities which in the Church take the place of charity as it passes away are what is here meant by the birds of prey that Abram drove away, that is, that the Lord, whom Abram represents here, put to flight. Abram drove away nothing else than birds of prey, and nothing whatever of evil and falsity. Nor in heaven do they know of Abraham except as any other human being who of himself has no power to accomplish anything - for the Lord alone has such power, as is also stated in Isaiah,

You are our Father, for Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O Jehovah, are our Father, our Redeemer; from of old is Your name. Isaiah 63:16.