90. V. MAN IS THE SUBJECT OF CHARITY, AND SUCH AS IS THE CHARITY WITH HIM SUCH A SUBJECT OF IT HE IS; AND SUCH IS THE CHARITY HE EXERCISES TOWARDS THE NEIGHBOUR. ¹

Let these things be explained in this order:

1. Man was created to be a form of love and wisdom.

2. At this day, for a man to be man, he ought to be a charity in form.

3. A man ought to be a charity in form, not from himself but from the Lord; thus he is a receptacle of charity.

4. A man is a form of charity of such a quality as, with him, good of the will is conjoined to truths of the understanding.

5. Whatever proceeds from such a man derives from that form that it is a likeness of it; thus it is charity.

6. The neighbour can be loved from what is not charity; and yet this, regarded in itself, is not loving the neighbour.

7. He is loving the neighbour, who loves him from the charity in himself.

Footnotes:

8975. 'He shall serve for six years' means a state of labour and some conflict, and of consequent strengthening of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'six years' as states of labour and conflict. For the meaning of 'six' as labour and conflict, see 737, 900, 8888, and 'years' as states, 487, 488, 493, 893, 7839. The reason why strengthening of truth is also meant is that spiritual truth, which is called the truth of faith, is strengthened through labour and conflict. The words 'some conflict' are used because those imbued with the truth of faith and not with complementary goodness of life are not allowed to experience any serious conflict, that is, temptation, since they would go under; for the Lord cannot flow in through good with them and so cannot protect them from the evils and falsities which attack in temptations. They are merely external people, and whatever flows in from the Lord must do so by way of the internal man into the external. When people are not imbued with the good of charity, the internal man does not lie open; for good is what opens the internal man, and is what dwells there.