Week 1    Day 5

    Listen:

Offering Thy Gift on the Altar

Matthew 5:23-24

If therefore thou offer thy gift on the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother has anything against thee, leave there thy gift in front of the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come offer thy gift.

Apocalypse Explained 746:19-20

As the universal heaven is in the good of charity towards the neighbor, and the universal hell is in anger, enmity, and hatred against the neighbor, and hence these are the opposites of that good; and as worship of the Lord, because it is internal, is worship from heaven, but it is no worship if anything of it is from hell, and yet from hell there is external worship without internal, therefore it is said, “If thou offer thy gift upon the altar, and shalt there remember that thy brother has anything against thee, go, first be reconciled to thy brother, and then coming offer thy gift upon the altar.” “The gift upon the altar” signifies the worship of the Lord from love and charity, “brother” meaning the neighbor, and in an abstract sense the good of charity. “Having anything against thee” signifies anger, enmity, or hatred; and “to be reconciled” is the dispersion of these and the consequent conjunction by love.

From this it can be seen that the Lord, by “brother,” means the like as by “neighbor,” and “neighbor” signifies in the spiritual sense good in the whole complex, and good in the whole complex is the good of charity. “Brother” has a similar meaning in the spiritual sense in many passages in the Old Testament. As in Moses:

Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart (Lev. 19:17).

In David:

Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity (Ps. 133:1).

In this sense, also, Lot called the inhabitants of Sodom brethren (Gen. 19:7). And this is meant by:

The covenant of brethren between the sons of Israel and Edom (Amos 1:9).

And by the brotherhood between Judah and Israel (Zech. 11:14).

For by “the sons of Israel and Edom,” as well as by “Judah and Israel,” these are not meant in the spiritual sense, but the goods and truths of heaven and the church, all of which are conjoined with each other.

Apocalypse Explained 391:20

In Matthew... “to offer a gift upon the altar” means in the spiritual sense to worship God, and to worship God means worship that is both internal and external, namely, from love and from faith, and thus from the life. This is meant because in the Jewish Church, worship consisted chiefly in offering sacrifices or gifts upon the altar, and the chief thing is taken for the whole. From this the meaning of these words of the Lord in the spiritual sense can be seen, namely, that Divine worship consists primarily in charity towards the neighbor, and not in piety without charity. “To offer a gift upon the altar” means worship from piety, and “to be reconciled to a brother” means worship from charity, and this is truly worship, and such as this is, such is the worship from piety. (On this see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, n. 123-129; and in the work Heaven and Hell, n. 222, 224, 358-360, 528, 529, 535; and above, n. 325.)

Arcana Coelestia 9293

With gifts... it is the will in these which the Lord looks at. Consequently, by the gifts offered to Jehovah—that is, to the Lord—are signified such things as are of the will, or of the heart. Man’s will is what is called in the Word his “heart.” From all this it is also evident how it is to be understood that everyone will receive judgment in the other life according to his deeds or works (Matt. 16:27); namely, that it will be according to those things which are of the heart, and from this of the life.

That such things are signified by the gifts offered to Jehovah, is plain from the Word, as in the following passages:

Sacrifice and gift Thou hast not desired, burnt-offering and sacrifice for sin Thou hast not required. I have longed to do Thy will, O my God (Ps. 40:6, 8).

Jehovah your God, He is God of gods, and Lord of lords, who does not accept faces, and does not take a gift (Deut. 10:17).

If thou offer thy gift upon the altar, and with this remember that thy brother has something against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go away; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift (Matt. 5:23, 24).

From this it is evident that gifts offered to the Lord were testifications of such things as are offered by the heart, which are those of faith and of charity; being “reconciled to a brother” denotes charity toward the neighbor.

previous		next