new church life: march/april 2015
that he questioned them, and they made answer. With the one who was in faith not
separated from a good life, the angel spoke as follows:
“Friend, who are you?”
“I am a Reformed Christian.”
“What is your doctrine and the religion you have from it?”
“Faith and good will.”
“These are two things?”
“They cannot be separated.”
“What is faith?”
“To believe what the Word teaches.”
“What is good will?”
“To do what the Word teaches.”
“Have you only believed these things, or have you also done them?”
“I have also done them.”
The angel of heaven then looked at him, and said, “My friend, come with me, and
dwell with us.” (Doctrine of Faith 41, 43)
So a heavenly attitude is one that is on a spiritual walk with the Lord,
putting principles of truth to work in life. And what kind of life is that? It’s an
active, energetic, hard-working life. Again, we read from the doctrine of the
New Church:
In heaven, everyone is rewarded according to the nobleness of his or her use, and
at the same time according to his affection for useful service. There no idler is
tolerated, no lazy vagabond, no indolent boaster claiming credit for the zeal and
vigor of others. But everyone must be active, skillful, attentive and diligent in his
office and business, and must put honor and reward not in the first place, but in the
second or third. (Divine Love XII, found at the end of Apocalypse Explained, vol. 6)
Again, Swedenborg writes:
Just in so far as we put our mind into our work and labor, from the love of it, so far
we are in it as to affection and thought. And in proportion as we are in it, we are
withheld from thinking of and loving vanities, and afterwards are led by the Lord
to think about and love what is good. All workers who look to the Lord and shun
evils as sins, shun idleness, because it is the devil’s pillow; they shun insincerity
and fraud; and they shun luxury and intemperance. They are hard-working,
sincere, sober, content with their lot, and work for their neighbor as they would for
themselves; because in doing their work they love themselves and their neighbor in
equal degree. (Charity 168, part of Posthumous Theological Works)
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