December
25

Gifts for the Lord

And when they had heard the king they went out; and behold, the star which they saw in the east went before them, till it came and stood over where the little Child was. And having seen the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. And coming into the house, they found the little Child with Mary His mother, and falling down, they worshiped Him. And opening their treasures, they offered to Him gifts: gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed into their own country by another way. (Matthew 2:9-12)

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. (Arcana Coelestia 3249)

These truths, which 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 they must also be acknowledged and believed. And so far as they are acknowledged, believed, and ingrafted in the life, so far the man is regenerated, and so far 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 in it 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 there, 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 so far as he comes into affection from life, so far these truths are implanted in his natural as in their ground. (Arcana Coelestia 3762:2)

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