404. We take on a completely different condition if love for the world or for wealth constitutes the head, meaning that this is our dominant love. Then love for heaven leaves the head and goes into exile in the body. People who are in this state prefer the world to heaven. They do indeed worship God, but they do so from a love that is merely earthly, a love that leads them to take credit for all their acts of worship. They also do good things for their neighbor, but they do them to get something back in return.

In the case of people like this, heavenly things are like the clothes in which they strut about, garments that we see as shining but angels see as drab. When love for the world inhabits our inner self and love for heaven inhabits our outer self, then love for the world dims all things related to the church and hides them as if they were behind a piece of cloth.

Love for the world or for wealth comes in many forms, however. It gets worse the closer it approaches to miserliness. At the point of miserliness the love for heaven becomes dark. This love also gets worse the closer it approaches to arrogance and a sense of superiority over others based on love for oneself. It is not as detrimental when it tends toward wasteful indulgence. It is even less damaging if its goal is to have the finest things the world has to offer, like a mansion, fine furniture, fashionable clothing, servants, horses and carriages in grand style, and things like that. With any love, its quality depends on the goal that it focuses on and intends to reach.

Love for the world and for wealth is like a dark crystal that suffocates light and breaks it only into colors that are dull and faded. It is like fog or cloudiness that blocks the rays of the sun. It is also like wine in its first stages - the liquid tastes sweet, but it upsets your stomach.

From heavens point of view, people like this look hunchbacked, walking with their head bent down looking at the ground. When they lift their head toward the sky, they strain their muscles and quickly go back to looking downward. The ancient people who were part of the church called people of this kind "Mammons. " The Greeks called them "Plutos. "

722. We Come Forward Worthily to Take the Holy Supper When We Have Faith in the Lord and Goodwill toward Our Neighbor - That Is, When We Have Been Regenerated

Every Christian who studies the Word knows, acknowledges, and perceives that the three universal elements of the church are God, goodwill, and faith. These are universal elements because they are the universal means of being saved.

Before we can be said to be religious and before anything of the church can be established in us we have to acknowledge the existence of God; any reasoning that has anything spiritual within it affirms the necessity of this. Therefore if we come forward to take the Holy Supper but do not acknowledge the existence of God, we desecrate the Holy Supper. We see the bread and wine with our eyes and we taste them with our tongue, but our mind is thinking, "This ritual is pointless. How do these elements differ from what I have on my table at home? I am only going through this to avoid the shame of being accused of being an atheist, first by the priest and then by everyone else. "

[2] Once we have come to acknowledge the existence of God, goodwill is the second means that allows us to take the Holy Supper worthily. This is clear both from the Word and from the statements that are read throughout the Christian world before people come forward for the Holy Supper.

As for the Word, it teaches that the first commandment and rule is to love God above all and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:35-40; Luke 10:25-28). Paul teaches that there are three things that contribute to our salvation, and the greatest of these is goodwill (1 Corinthians 13:13). "We know that God does not hear sinners, but if people worship God and do his will, he hears them" (John 9:31). "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Matthew 7:19-20; Luke 3:8-9).

[3] As for the statements that are read throughout the Christian world before people come forward for the Holy Supper, these statements sternly warn people to find goodwill through reconciliation and repentance first. The only example that I will copy out here is the statement read in England to people about to partake of the Holy Supper:

The way and means of becoming a worthy partaker in the Holy Supper is first to examine your life and your conversations by the rule of God's commandments. In whatever regard you notice that you have committed an offense of will, speech, or act, then bewail your own sinfulness and confess yourselves to Almighty God, with full purpose of amending your life. If you observe that your offenses are not only against God but also against your neighbors, you shall reconcile yourselves to them, being ready to make restitution and satisfaction to the utmost of your power for all injuries and wrongs done by you to any other, and being likewise ready to forgive others who have offended you, just as you wish to have forgiveness from God for your offenses. Otherwise receiving the Holy Supper does nothing but increase your damnation. Therefore if any of you is a blasphemer of God, or a hinderer or slanderer of his Word, [or an adulterer,] or someone taken with malice or ill will, or involved in any other grievous crime, repent of your sins. Or else do not come to the Holy Supper; otherwise, after you take it the Devil may enter into you as he entered into Judas, fill you with all wickedness, and bring you to destruction of both body and soul.

[4] Faith in the Lord is the third means of worthily enjoying the Holy Supper, because goodwill and faith act as one, like heat and light in spring; every type of tree comes back to life when heat and light work together. Likewise, it is spiritual heat (goodwill) and spiritual light (truth related to faith) that bring us all to life.

The following passages make it clear that faith in the Lord has this effect:

Those who believe in me will never die; they will live. (John 11:25-26)

This is the will of the Father, that all who believe in the Son should have eternal life. (John 6:40)

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son so that everyone who believes in him would have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Those who believe in the Son have eternal life. Those who do not believe in the Son will not see life; instead God's anger will remain upon them. (John 3:36)

We are in the truth in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is the true God and eternal life. (1 John 5:20)