The Bible

 

Luke 16

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1 And he said also unto the disciples, There was a certain rich man, who had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he was wasting his goods.

2 And he called him, and said unto him, What is this that I hear of thee? render the account of thy stewardship; for thou canst be no longer steward.

3 And the steward said within himself, What shall I do, seeing that my lord taketh away the stewardship from me? I have not strength to dig; to beg I am ashamed.

4 I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.

5 And calling to him each one of his lord's debtors, he said to the first, How much owest thou unto my lord?

6 And he said, A hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bond, and sit down quickly and write fifty.

7 Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, A hundred measures of wheat. He saith unto him, Take thy bond, and write fourscore.

8 And his lord commended the unrighteous steward because he had done wisely: for the sons of this world are for their own generation wiser than the sons of the light.

9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when it shall fail, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles.

10 He that is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much: and he that is unrighteous in a very little is unrighteous also in much.

11 If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true [riches]?

12 And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?

13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

14 And the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things; and they scoffed at him.

15 And he said unto them, Ye are they that justify yourselves in the sight of men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

16 The law and the prophets [were] until John: from that time the gospel of the kingdom of God is preached, and every man entereth violently into it.

17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one tittle of the law to fall.

18 Every one that putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and he that marrieth one that is put away from a husband committeth adultery.

19 Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, faring sumptuously every day:

20 and a certain beggar named Lazarus was laid at his gate, full of sores,

21 and desiring to be fed with the [crumbs] that fell from the rich man's table; yea, even the dogs come and licked his sores.

22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and that he was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom: and the rich man also died, and was buried.

23 And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.

25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things: but now here he is comforted and thou art in anguish.

26 And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that they that would pass from hence to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from thence to us.

27 And he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house;

28 for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

29 But Abraham saith, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.

30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one go to them from the dead, they will repent.

31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, if one rise from the dead.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #8993

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8993. 'And when a man sells his daughter to be a female slave' means an affection for truth springing from natural delight. This is clear from the meaning of 'a man's daughter' as an affection for truth, for an affection is meant by 'daughter', dealt with in 2362, 3963, while truth is meant by 'a man', 3134, as it also is by an Israelite, whom 'a man' refers to here, 5414, 5879, 5951, 7957, 8234; and from the meaning of 'a female slave' as an external or natural affection, dealt with in 2567, 3835, 3849. Consequently 'a man's daughter sold as a female slave' means an affection for truth springing from natural affection and delight.

[2] By natural delight one should understand delight emanating from self-love and love of the world. The people with an affection for truth emanating from these kinds of love are those who learn the teachings of the Church, called the truths of faith, either for the sake of gain or for the sake of important positions, and not for the sake of the life they should lead. Since affections such as this do not emanate from spiritual good but from natural delight they are represented by the daughter of an Israelite man sold as a female slave or servant-girl. For whatever owes its origin to self-love or love of the world is not freedom but slavery. What freedom and slavery are, see 892, 905, 1947, 2870-2893, 6205. The nature of affection for truth arising from those kinds of love is described in the internal sense of what follows next.

[3] It should be borne in mind that a genuine affection for truth consists in willing and desiring to know the real truths of faith with a view to putting them to good use and for the sake of the life one should lead. But an affection for truth which is not genuine consists in willing and desiring truths for selfish reasons, that is, in order to acquire important positions and make monetary gain. Those with an affection for truth that has this origin do not care whether the truths they learn are genuine or not, provided that they are such as can be palmed off as truths. This being so, they confine themselves to endorsing the teachings of the Church in which they were born, regardless of whether those teachings are true or not. They are also in the dark so far as real truths are concerned; for worldly ends or gains, and selfish 1 ends or important positions make people completely blind.

[4] But those with a genuine affection for truth, that is, those who desire to know truths to put them to good use and for the sake of the life they ought to lead, they too keep to the teachings of the Church, until they reach the age when they begin to think for themselves. Then they examine the Scriptures and pray to the Lord for enlightenment; and when they receive it, their hearts rejoice. For they know that if they had been born where the teachings of the Church are different, indeed where the greatest heresy exists, then - if they had not examined Scripture from a genuine affection for truth - they would have remained in it, as for example they would have done if they had been born Jews, or they had been born Socinians. All this shows who exactly those people are, and what they are like, who have a genuine affection for truth, and who they are, and what they are like, who have an affection for truth that is not genuine. Those with a genuine affection for truth are meant in the representative sense by the daughters of Israelite men; but those with an affection for truth that is not genuine are meant in the representative sense by female slaves from among the daughters of Israel, who are the subject at present.

Footnotes:

1. literally, bodily

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.