December
25

The Word was Made Flesh.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made...But as many as received Him, to them He gave authority to become the children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of bloods, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt in a tabernacle among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-3, 12-14)

It is important to know how a person can be in such enlightenment as to learn the truths that must constitute his faith, and in such affection as to do the goods that must constitute his love. These things are possible as follows:

(1) Let him read the Word every day—one or two chapters—and learn from a master and from preachings the dogmas of his religion. Let him especially learn that God is one, that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, that the Word is holy, that there is a heaven and a hell, and that there is a life after death.

(2) Let him learn from the Word, from a master, and from preachings, what works are sins…. Let him learn all these things from childhood to youth.

(3) When a person begins to think for himself, it must be to him the first and chief thing to refrain from doing evils for the reason that they are sins against the Word, thus against God…. Afterwards, as he grows up and becomes old, he must turn away from them in thought and intention. But in order to so refrain from them and shun and turn away from them, he must pray to the Lord for help.

(4) So far as a person detests these evils because they are opposed to the Word, and thence opposed to God, so far there is granted him communication with the Lord, and conjunction is effected with heaven.

(5) So far, then, as a person detests these sins, so far good affections enter.

(6) So far as a person is in these good affections, he is led by the Lord and not by self.

(7) The affections that are granted are an affection for knowing and understanding the truths and goods of heaven and the Church, together with an affection for willing and doing them; also an affection for combating with zeal against falsities and evils and dispersing them—both with himself and with others.

(8) Thus and in no other way a person is reformed; and so far as he knows and believes truths, and wills and does them, so far is he regenerated, and from natural becomes spiritual. (Apocalypse Explained 803)

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