December
23

Gifts

And opening their treasures, they offered to Him gifts: gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. (Matthew 2:11)

“Eastward to the land of the east.” This signifies to the good of faith. The good of faith which is signified by the “land of the east,” is no other than that which in the Word is called charity toward the neighbor; and charity toward the neighbor is nothing else than a life according to the Lord’s commandments… Therefore they who were in the knowledges of the good of faith were called “sons of the east.” (AC 3249)

Truths, that relate to charity toward the neighbor and to love to the Lord, must be learned before it is possible for a man to be regenerated; and must also be acknowledged and believed; and insofar as they are acknowledged, believed, and ingrafted in the life, so far the man is regenerated, and insofar they are at the same time implanted in the man’s natural, in which they are as in their own ground. They are first implanted therein through instruction by parents and teachers; next from the Word of the Lord; and afterwards through the man’s own reflection about them; but by these means they are merely stored up in the memory of the natural man, being classed among the knowledges therein, but still not acknowledged, believed, and ingrafted, unless the life is in accordance with them; for in this case the man comes into affection, and insofar as he comes into affection from life, so far these truths are implanted in his natural as in their ground. (AC 3762:2)

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