9261. Keep thee far from the word of a lie. That this signifies an aversion for the falsity of evil, is evident from the signification of “a lie,” as being falsity from evil (see n. 8908, 9248). The reason why there is signified falsity from evil is that this falsity must be kept far away, because it derives its essence from evil; and evil and good are opposites; for evil is from hell, and good is from heaven, and there it is from the Lord. But falsity not derived from evil, which is the falsity of ignorance, is not of such a nature (see n. 1679, 2863, 4551, 4552, 4729, 4736, 6359, 7272, 7574, 8149, 8311, 8318, 9258). And from the signification of “keeping far away,” as being to feel aversion for. That “removal far away” denotes aversion, originates from the removals of this kind which appear in the spiritual world, in that they are according to dissimilarities, differences, and aversions, in respect to the things of spiritual life. For those who appear there in one place are in a like state of the affections and of the derivative thoughts; but as soon as they are at variance, they are separated and go far away from one another; and this according to the degree of their variance. This comes to pass because in the spiritual world both spaces and times are states, and therefore distances are differences of states. Nevertheless, before the external sight, states appear there as spaces, and their differences as distances. (That spaces and distances, and also times, are states, see n. 1273-1277, 1376-1382, 2625, 3356, 3387, 3404, 3638-3641, 4321, 4882, 7381, 9104; but that nevertheless there are appearances of spaces and distances, which originate from changes of state in the interiors, n. 5605.) From this it is now evident that in the internal sense “removal far away” denotes aversion.

4729. And we will say, An evil wild beast hath devoured him. That this signifies a lie from a life of cupidities, is evident from the signification of a “wild beast,” as being affection and cupidity (n. 45, 46); for a “wild beast” in the genuine sense denotes what is living (n. 774, 841, 908); hence by an “evil wild beast” is here signified a life of cupidities; that it is a lie is plain. This has reference to what goes before-that their rejecting that Divine truth among falsities, was a lie from a life of cupidities. For there are three sources of falsity, one the doctrine of the church, another the fallacy of the senses, and the third a life of cupidities. That which is from the doctrine of the church takes hold of man’s intellectual part only; for he is persuaded from infancy that it is so, and confirmatory things afterwards strengthen it. But that which is from the fallacy of the senses does not so much affect the intellectual part; for those who are in falsity from the fallacy of the senses have but little insight from the understanding, because they think from lower and sensuous things. But the falsity which is from a life of cupidities springs from the will itself, or what is the same, from the heart; for what man wills from the heart, he desires. This falsity is the worst of all, because it inheres, and is not eradicated except by new life from the Lord.

[2] There are, as is known, two interior faculties in man, the understanding and the will. What the understanding absorbs and becomes imbued with, does not for this reason pass into the will; but what the will absorbs does pass into the understanding. For whatever a man wills, he thinks; and therefore when he wills evil from cupidity, he thinks it and confirms it. The confirmations of evil by the thought are what are called falsities from a life of cupidities. These falsities appear to him as truths; and when he has confirmed them in himself, truths appear to him as falsities; for he has then shut out the influx of light through heaven from the Lord. But if he has not confirmed these falsities in himself, then the truths with which his understanding had previously been imbued, resist and do not permit them to be confirmed.