Church of the Holy City

How Good Forms Truth

How Good Forms Truth
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
October 31, 2010

Isaiah 55:1-7 Matthew 7:7-20 Psalm 34

Last Sunday we looked at the nature of truth. We saw that with us truths evolve and change as we grow. We also noted that since we are all different, truth with one person may be different from truth with another person. Today we will look at the interrelation between what is good and what is true. A truly evolved person is a union between truth and good. Truth alone is useless. And good alone has no direction. We need to be good and that good needs to be directed by truth. Truth tells good how to operate. This is the great marriage principal in Swedenborg. All through his theology we find the marriage principal by which good and truth are married together to make a whole individual. We will have more to say about this later.
The subject of good is at the heart of Swedenborg’s theology. Good is the goal of everything we learn. Every truth we learn points us toward some good. We learn truths in order to become good people. The highest angels, do not even think from truth. They think from the good that is in their hearts.
Swedenborg’s use of the word “good” is complex. He uses it in several different meanings. One meaning is the common one. Good can mean the opposite of evil. Here, there is good and evil. But there is another way Swedenborg uses the word “good.” In this other way of thinking, good is whatever we love. The thing that we love is called a good. In this use of the word, good can be an evil. For instance, greed and selfishness are evil loves. And there are goods that they love. Some of the goods that greed and selfishness love are status, power, control over others, and material possessions. In this sense, good means whatever we are driven by. So Swedenborg can talk about, “the good which moves [truths], and with which they comply, is of the love of self and the world” (AC 3318).
This definition of good leads us directly into today’s talk. For truth is nothing but a vessel that holds some good. So Swedenborg says,
Man is nothing but an organ, or vessel, which receives life from the Lord . . . This love, or the life therefrom, flows in and applies itself to the vessels which are in man’s rational and which are in his natural. . . . These vessels in the rational man, and in his natural, are those which are called truths (AC 3318).
At its best, truth holds heavenly goods–” The heavenly is love and charity; all truth is therefrom; and because all truth is therefrom, it is nothing but a kind of vessel” . . . (AC 1496).
Truth is a very broad word. It can means facts. But it can also mean our world-view–how we think the world is and how we should act in the world. Truth is our attitude. Truth is how we view others compared with ourselves. Truth is what we think is important. All these meanings of truth, though, relate to some form of love. All these meanings of truth hold something we call good.
We saw last Sunday that truth changes with us over time. So also does the good that truth holds. Our loves and our goods evolve over time. In our early life, it may well be the case that our truths hold selfish and worldly goods. Truth can be filled with a love that is not heavenly. How can this be? Let’s consider one very simple, very basic truth. “There is a God.” That seems simple enough. It is simple, until we consider what kind of love it is married to. This simple truth can be filled with worldly and selfish love. “There is a God” can mean, “My God is the true God.” From there it can mean, “Your God is a false God.” The progression can then be, “What I believe is the only true belief.” And from there, one can think, “I must destroy everyone who doesn’t believe what I believe.” The history of religions shows us that this is a very real consequence of self-love acting in the name of religion. It motivated the Christian crusades in the middle-ages. And worse still, it motivated the Spanish Inquisition. And today we see it motivating fanatical terrorists. So when we look at truth, we need to consider how it relates to love and what kind of love it relates to.
We learn truths all through life. Many of the truths we learn are from our childhood. And we may find that our early relationship with truth is motivated by self-love and worldliness. When Swedenborg wrote, a person could be highly thought of who knew a lot of theology. Religion was much more deeply imbedded in society. People could gain a reputation by spouting off all their knowledge about religion. Today, that isn’t the case. There are academic theology departments, and religious scholars can get a reputation in the university. But that is a very narrow audience. For the most part, our society is becoming less and less concerned with religion. But we are all here in this church. And for us, religious truth is important. So what Swedenborg says about the evolution of truths is relevant for us.
Swedenborg claims that early in life we are motivated by self and world oriented loves. This is proper and a necessary part of our evolution. We need to provide for ourselves and find work in society. But the difficulty comes when we look at how tenaciously we hold onto these early motivations. Ultimately, the loves for self and the world need to be replaced with loves for our neighbor and for God. Love for heaven and for God are higher loves and these loves flow into us from God. But Swedenborg asserts that we can hold onto our early loves quite powerfully. Then, our loves for ourselves and for the world can block the heavenly love that is flowing into us from God. As our loves for self and world clash with the inflowing love for God and heaven, we experience temptations. It is through temptations that the truths we learn early in life can become filled with heavenly love.
Good itself, which has life from the Lord, or which is life, is what flows in and disposes. . . . This can in no way be effected so long as a person is in that state into which he is born, and to which he has reduced himself; for the vessels are not obedient . . . for the good which moves them, and with which they comply, is of the love of self and the world . . . Wherefore, before they can be rendered compliant and fit to receive anything of the Lord’s love, they must be softened. This softening is effected by no other means than by temptations; for temptations remove what is of self-love and of contempt for others in comparison with self, consequently what is of self-glory, and also hatred and revenge arising therefrom (AC 3318).
What Swedenborg is describing here, is how love flows into our hearts and minds and shapes our truths into forms that can hold it. It is this inflowing love that adapts our truths to be more accurate. This is why truth changes with us. Heavenly love is flowing into our consciousness and shaping our truths so that they can hold God’s love more and more fully. A person that is thinking, “I am all that matters to me,” has little room in his heart for a love for God. A person that thinks, “I am the greatest,” can’t think, “God is the greatest.” So the truths we hold in our consciousness need to be shaped into truths that can hold spiritual loves. We play a part in this process. We need to actively prepare a place for God in our consciousness. We make room for God when we see evil and abstain from it. When we abstain from evil and do good, our personality evolves. God shines a flashlight on our souls and we are able to see with greater clarity the limitations that interfere with the love God is giving us.
When we do abstain from our evils by the Lord’s agency, then, our love for evil and its warmth are put aside and a love for what is good, with its warmth, is brought in in its place, enabling a higher level to be opened. The Lord actually flows in from above and opens it and unites the love or spiritual warmth with wisdom or spiritual light. As a result of this union we begin to blossom spiritually like a tree in springtime (DLW 246).
So just as our truths change, we will find that our loves change also. We become different people. The truths with us evolve and become better suited to God’s love. And as God’s love flows into us more fully, we become more angelic.
This is the reason why a person is regenerated, that is, made new, by temptations, or what is the same, by spiritual combats, and that he is afterward gifted with another personality, being made mild, humble, simple, and contrite in heart. From these considerations it may now be evident what use temptations promote, namely this, that good from the Lord may not only flow in, but may dispose the vessels to obedience, and thus conjoin itself with them (AC 3318).
As I said in the beginning of this talk, good is the ultimate goal of spirituality. The purpose of truth is to shape us into that personality described by Swedenborg: “mild, humble, simple, and contrite in heart.” I think of the fiery argumentativeness of youth, and the quiet smile of wisdom in old age. At least that’s the way it often goes. The choice is up to us. Will we act with God? Will we invite Him into our hearts and minds? Will we be ready to abandon truths that no longer work in our lives? Will we ask for guidance? Regeneration is a wonderful journey. It reminds us that we are only pilgrims and sojourners on this planet. It reminds us that our true home is in heaven, in a rapturous love affair with God.