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THE CUP AND THE PLATE |
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It is probably difficult for most of us to believe that many people who perform all the religious rituals and do good deeds on earth will still be unable to enter into the harmonic fields of Heaven. Why? Hence, if we desire to enter the harmonic fields of Heaven, we should first search out our heart and mind and make sure that our motivations and intentions are not selfish before we perform religious rituals or good deeds. The Lord, when He was on earth, made this very clear when He spoke to the Pharisees. To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men — robbers, evildoers, adulterers — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." LUKE 18:9-14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith: but these ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone. Ye blind guides, that strain out the gnat, and swallow the camel! Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full from extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the platter, that the outside thereof may become clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but inwardly ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. MATTHEW 23:23-28 Some of the truths in the Word's literal meaning are apparent truths rather than naked truths. They are like similes or comparisons taken from earthly situations, which are therefore accommodated and adapted to the grasp of people who are simple or young. Nevertheless, because they are correspondences they are still vessels and dwelling places for genuine truth. They are vessels that contain genuine truth the way a crystal goblet contains fine wine or a silver plate holds palatable food. They are like garments that clothe, like a baby's swaddling cloths or a young woman's beautiful clothing. They are like facts our earthly selves know that also involve our awareness and love of spiritual truth. The naked truths that are enclosed, contained, clothed, and involved are in the Word's spiritual meaning. There is also naked goodness in the Word's heavenly meaning. Let me illustrate this from the Word: Those who want in some way to merit heaven distance themselves from heaven Then, as I was in conversation with spirits, I also saw by a spiritual mental image that the more people suppose that they merit heaven by such means and thus come nearer to heaven, the more they distance themselves from heaven, because they ascribe merit to themselves and take it away from the Lord, ascribing faith, charity, and the goodness of their works to themselves, denying them to the Lord. Thus the more one does this, the farther one distances oneself from heaven. This is a well established truth and can be corroborated in many ways by them in the other life, for in so doing they interpose a kind of chasm between two mountains, so that they cannot cross over onto the other mountain without falling headlong into the chasm, or else an intervening sea into which a person plunges, shipwrecked, who wants in this way to cross over into heaven-who must therefore go back, and be led by a different way by the Lord. Emanuel Swedenborg [SE 2652, 2653] MERIT IN GOOD WORKS. Good works take place with merit, and they take place without merit, as may be illustrated by the person who holds an office, and who performs his duty for the sake of merit: it is in order to obtain applause, thus for the sake of reputation, and honor and future promotion, or for the sake of gain; but, if he can have these things without the performance of his duty, he does so. But he who does not place merit in it, does it on account his obligation, because it belongs to his office. In this lies concealed the fear of God, and also love of the community but in the former is the love of self and the world. Also take as an example, a workman. One does his work because it is of his religion, and hence because he is under obligation, to do it: this is his end; but another does it merely to obtain applause and to be better thought of, solely that he may profit thereby. The latter places merit therein, the former not. The former, like the other, accepts any fame, honor and profit but to such ones these things are additions from the Lord. Emanuel Swedenborg [SE 6075] In the exercise of charity a person avoids attributing merit to deeds, so long as he believes that all good is from the Lord. |
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Image credit: Kopp med fat. Motiv Stockholmsvy. HWY Gr.XLVII:K.I:A.a.01. Nyckelord: Kopp, Fat, Guldkant, Gulddekor, Heinemann, Porslin, Europeiskt, Föremålsbild Date 1830s , Hallwyll museum , Source/Photographer Jens Mohr - LSH 87144 |
Copyright © 2011-2014 A. J. Coriat All rights reserved. |