Week 6    Day 6

    Listen:

Shunning Theft and Being Perfect

Life 80

In proportion as anyone shuns thefts of every kind as sins, in the same proportion he loves sincerity.

To “steal,” in the natural sense, means not only to commit theft and robbery, but also to defraud, and under some pretext to take from another his goods. But in the spiritual sense to “steal” means to deprive another of his truths of faith and his goods of charity. And in the highest sense to “steal” means to take away from the Lord that which is His and attribute it to oneself, and thus to claim righteousness and merit for oneself. These are “thefts of every kind.” And they also make one, as do adulteries of every kind, and murders of every kind, of which we have already treated. The reason why they make one is that they are one within another.

Life 81

The evil of theft enters more deeply into a man than any other evil because it is conjoined with cunning and deceit; and cunning and deceit insinuate themselves even into the spiritual mind of man, in which is his thought with understanding. That man possesses a spiritual mind and a natural mind will be seen below.

Life 82

That in proportion as anyone shuns theft as a sin, in the same proportion he loves sincerity, is because theft is also fraud, and fraud and sincerity are two opposite things, so that in proportion as anyone is not in theft in the same proportion he is in sincerity.

Life 83

Sincerity is to be understood as including integrity, justice, fidelity, and rectitude. In these no man can be from himself so as to love them from and for themselves. But he is in them who shuns as sins, fraud, cunning, and deceit, and is therefore in them not from himself but from the Lord.... Such is the case with a priest, a magistrate, a judge, a merchant, and with everyone in his own office and his own work.

Life 84

This is taught by the Word in many passages, among which are the following:

He that walks in justice, and speaks uprightnesses; who despises oppressions for gain, who shakes off his hands lest they hold a bribe; who stops his ears lest he hear of bloods, and shuts his eyes lest he see evil; he shall dwell on high (Isa. 33:15- 16).

Jehovah, who shall abide in Thy tent? who shall dwell in the mountain of Thy holiness? He that walketh uprightly, and doeth justice; he that slanders not with his tongue, nor does evil to his companion (Ps. 15:1-3, etc.).

My eyes are towards the faithful of the land, that they may sit with Me; he that walks in the way of the upright, he shall minister to Me. He that makes deceit shall not sit in the midst of My house; the one speaking lies shall not stand before My eyes. In the dawning will I cut off all the wicked of the land, to cut off from the city all the workers of iniquity (Ps. 101:6-8).

That unless a man is interiorly sincere, just, faithful, and upright, he is insincere, unjust, unfaithful, and base, is taught by the Lord in these words:

Unless your justice shall exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of the heavens (Matt. 5:10).

The “justice that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees” means the interior justice in which is the man who is in the Lord. That he is in the Lord is taught by the Lord Himself in John:

The glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected into one; that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them (John 17:22-23, 26).

From this it is evident that they are “perfect” when the Lord is in them. These are they who are called: The pure in heart, who shall see God, and,

Those who are perfect as is their Father in the heavens (Matt. 5:8, 48).

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