The Doctrine of Charity - Swedenborg Foundation

CHARITY 238(2) A society, smaller or larger, is the neighbor according to the goodof its use.(3) One’s own country is the neighbor according to its good, spiritual,moral, and civil.(4) The human race is the neighbor in the widest sense; but as it isdivided into empires, kingdoms, and republics, any one of them is theneighbor according to the good of its religion, and according to the goodthat it performs to the country and to itself.73. (1) Every man is the neighbor according to the quality of hisgood. Since in the spiritual idea good is the neighbor, and man isthe subject of good, and also the object of him who does good, itfollows that in the natural idea man is the neighbor.74. Nor is one man more the neighbor than another as to hisperson merely, but as to the good by virtue of which he is such orsuch a man; for there are as many differences of neighbor as thereare of good, and the differences of good are infinite.75. It is believed that a brother, kinsman, or relation is more aneighbor than a stranger; and that he who is born in one’s countryis more a neighbor than one born out of the country. But everyoneis a neighbor according to his good, be he Greek or Gentile.76. For everyone is the neighbor according to spiritual affinityand relationship. This may be seen from the fact that after deathevery man comes among his own, with whom as to good, or, whatis the same, as to the affections, there is a mutual likeness.Moreover, natural affinities vanish after death, and are succeededby spiritual affinities; for in the same heavenly society they knowone another, and are associated, because they are in similar good.Of ten brothers in the world, five may be in hell, and five inheaven, and these five in different societies; and when they meetthey do not know each other. Also all have a face according to theiraffections. It is therefore plain that every man is the neighboraccording to the quality of his good.