9176. 'Its owner not being with it' means if the good of that truth does not exist along with the general good. This is clear from the meaning of 'owner' as good, dealt with in 9167; and from the meaning of 'not being with it' as not existing along with the general good. The implications of this are made clear by what has been shown above in 9154 regarding truths in good, namely that all truths in general are arranged into order under good. But in the present verse borrowed truths are the subject, that is, truths received from another, see 9174. These truths are either accompanied or not accompanied by their own good. Those accompanied by their own good are truths which stir a person's affections when he hears them, whereas those unaccompanied do not stir his affections then. Truths accompanied by their own good are meant by borrowed things that are broken or die, when the owner is with them; but truths unaccompanied by their own good are meant by borrowed things that are broken or die, when the owner is not with them.

[2] It is indeed possible to provide a description of these truths, but it will be unintelligible except to those who are in the light of heaven coming from the Lord. All others who see things solely in the light of the world, that is, in natural illumination, will find those things incomprehensible, because such people are in thick darkness so far as heavenly realities are concerned. And if they did seem to themselves to comprehend them, they would do so with the help of illusions and material ideas which do more to obscure things and put them in the shade than to cast light on them. It is enough to know simply that the truths of faith joined to their own good or not joined to it are the subject. Truths not joined to it are those that are learned from others but sink in no further than the memory, where they remain as factual knowledge. There is no perception of them as there is of the truths arranged in general under good. From all this one can know to a small extent what those things are like in which angelic wisdom consists; for angels not only comprehend the nature of them but also countless details about them. Thus they comprehend things which man does not even know to exist, let alone know anything about. For angels dwell in the light of heaven, and the light of heaven holds within it an infinite number of things, since the light of heaven is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord.

2359. 'No, my brothers, do not act wickedly' means that no violence should be done to these, that is to say, to the good that flows from charity, or to the Lord's Divine Human and His Holy proceeding. This is clear from the meaning of 'acting wickedly' as doing violence. All these considerations show that the subject is people inside the Church and that it is these who are meant by 'the men of Sodom', for nobody is capable of violating those things except him who possesses the Word. The utter holiness of those things becomes clear from the consideration that nobody can be admitted into the Lord's kingdom, that is, into heaven, unless the good of love and charity exists in him; and that cannot exist with anyone unless he acknowledges the Lord's Divinity and [proceeding] Holiness. It is from Him alone that this good flows in, and indeed into good itself of which He is the source. The Divine cannot flow in except into that which is Divine; nor can it be communicated to man except through the Lord's Divine Human and His Holy deriving from this. From this one can understand what is implied when it is said that the Lord is the All in all of His kingdom, and that no good at all residing with man is man's but the Lord's.