Week 1
Day 6

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Piety and Charity
External Worship and the Worship of Life

What are the uses of external worship?

One thing I have desired of Jehovah; that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Jehovah, and to visit His temple in the morning. (Psalm 27:4)

AC 1618. When a man is in love and charity he is continually in worship, external worship being merely the effect. The angels are in such worship; with them, therefore, there is a perpetual Sabbath…. But man, while in the world, should not fail to be in external worship also. For by external worship, internal things are excited, and by means of external worship, external things are kept in holiness, so that internal things can flow in. And besides, man is thus imbued with knowledges, and is prepared for receiving heavenly things, and is also gifted with states of holiness, although he is unaware of this. These states of holiness are preserved for him by the Lord for the use of eternal life, for in the other life all the states of his life return.

AC 1798:3. Take the Precepts of the Decalogue. The first of these is to worship the Lord God. He who has the life of love or of charity worships the Lord God, because this is his life.

Another precept is to keep the Sabbath. He who is in the life of love, or in charity, keeps the Sabbath holy, for nothing is more sweet to him than to worship the Lord, and to glorify Him every day.

The precept, “Thou shalt not kill,” is altogether of charity. He who loves his neighbor as himself, shudders at doing anything that injures him, still more at killing him.

So too the precept, “Thou shalt not steal;” for he who has the life of charity would rather give of his own to his neighbor, than take anything away from him.

And so with the precept, “Thou shalt not commit adultery;” he who is in the life of charity the rather guards his neighbor’s wife, lest anyone should do her such injury, and regards adultery as a crime against conscience, and such as destroys conjugial love and its duties.

To covet the things that are the neighbor’s is also contrary to those who are in the life of charity; for it is of charity to desire good to others from oneself and one’s own. Such people therefore by no means covet the things which are another’s.

AC 7038. True worship consists in the performance of uses, thus in the exercises of charity. He who believes that serving the Lord consists solely in frequenting a place of worship, in hearing preaching there, and in praying, and that this is sufficient, is much mistaken. The very worship of the Lord consists in performing uses; and during man’s life in the world, uses consist in everyone’s discharging aright his duty in his station, thus from the heart being of service to his country, to societies, and to the neighbor, in dealing sincerely with his fellow, and in performing kind offices with prudence in accordance with each person’s character. These uses are chiefly the works of charity, and are those whereby the Lord is chiefly worshiped. Frequenting a place of worship, hearing sermons, and saying prayers, are also necessary; but without the above uses they are of no avail, because they are not of the life, but teach what the life must be. The angels in heaven have all happiness from uses, and according to uses, so that to them uses are heaven.

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