FAITH AND CHARITY

Swedenborg devotes two long chapters to a consideration of the subject, Faith and Charity. In all ages these two things have been regarded as the heart of religion! Worship, of course, is the central point of churchmanship. But practical, everyday religion is based on these two qualities, faith and charity. For many centuries people debated the relative importance of these two things and the part they played in the salvation of mankind.

Some thinkers asserted that it mattered little what you believe so long as you practiced charity in your everyday life. Others asserted that your actions were of comparatively little importance. The vital point was that you had the right and proper faith. In Swedenborg's day the Protestant Church was dominated by what is known as “Salvation by faith alone.” No one could be saved by good works, but only by a belief in the vicarious atonement achieved by the Savior on the Cross. Swedenborg had a profound respect for faith.

He had an even more profound respect for charity. He finds a place for both of these in regeneration and salvation. He answers the question “Which is first, faith or charity?” by the statement that faith is first in point of time; charity is first in point of importance. In reading these chapters of True Christian Religion it is well for us to remember Swedenborg's teaching to the effect that to all people who obey the law which they have learned in this life, even though that law has not been true, will be taught truth in the future life.

The heathen, who never heard of Christ on earth, will, if they have lived good lives, welcome a knowledge of him in the spiritual world. Everyone must have the right and proper faith before it is possible to enter heaven. If there is no chance of acquiring such a faith on earth, there will be a full opportunity of learning it on entering the spiritual world. Only the good will wish to acquire this faith. Bearing all this in mind we are prepared to receive Swedenborg's statement that “saving faith is faith in the Lord God the Savior, Jesus Christ.”

“Saving faith is faith in God the Savior, because he is God and Man, and he is in the Father and the Father in him; thus they are one; therefore those who go to him, at the same time go to the Father also, thus to the one and only God, and there is no saving faith in any other.” In proof of that statement Swedenborg quotes the words of Jesus himself. “This is the will of the Father who sent me, that everyone who beholdeth the Son and believeth in him, should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

“He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” This faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the glorified Savior, was, says Swedenborg, the faith of the apostles and the early Christian Church. A faith in a tri-personal God is something that has been read into the apostolic writings. It had no part in the early Christian Church.

How can a person acquire such a faith? Any one can form opinions. From parents and teachers we receive certain ideas about God, immortality and duty. But faith is something more than opinions. It is a heart-felt conviction that God exists, and a heart-felt conviction that he must be obeyed. We cannot compel ourselves to believe. But the formation of a true faith is not, says Swedenborg, a difficult matter. “It is achieved by our going to the Lord, learning truths from the Word, and living according to them” Our author has no doubt whatever that any one can acquire faith.

To seek the Lord, get truths, and live according to them will ensure the growth of faith in the mind. But such a faith is much more than mere opinion, much more than a memory rich in truth. It is an inner conviction based on truth that has been woven into life. “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” The more of truth we know and practice, the stronger and deeper our faith in the Lord. The possession of faith comes only as we practice the truth we learn. There is no faith without charity.

There may be a fanatical adherence to a creed. There may be unshakable opinion concerning certain tenets of religion. But true faith comes only to those who practice and live the truth. And because faith itself is a heavenly thing, it cannot be the portion of the evil. Only the good possess faith. Only those who are principled in truth can know the essence of faith. Let us now see what Swedenborg says about charity. We shall find his definition of the word rather startling. To us charity means love expressed in philanthropy.

We think of it almost solely as being connected with feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, ministering to the sick, and such like channels of merciful activity. But charity is much more than the practice of philanthropic actions. It is love to the neighbor. And its pursuit includes all good deeds. It is the practice in daily life of all the truth a person has learned from the Lord. Indeed charity can exist quite apart from those things that we include in the realm of philanthropy. If one is impelled by a desire to serve God and the neighbor, every act of life becomes a deed of charity.

The discharge of daily duties from an unselfish motive is as much the work of charity as is the founding of a hospital. Charity is faith in action. Charity is love to the neighbor. Therefore real faith and real charity can never be separated. Each one is incomplete without the other. Swedenborg draws attention to three universal affections in the heart: the love of heaven, the love of the world and the love of self. These three affections reside in every individual from birth. Properly controlled and directed they are all good. They look to use as the great object in life.

It is only when they are regarded selfishly that they become perverted and injurious. In the life of a good person charity is closely associated with all of these affections, for charity is not only love to the neighbor, it is the love of use. Speaking of charity as love to the neighbor, Swedenborg sheds new light on the subject. Our neighbor is not necessarily the individual who lives next door. Charity is to be exercised toward every person according to the good that is in him. For it is to the good in another that we are to be a neighbor. And it is the good in another person that will be a neighbor to us.

The Lord is our neighbor in the highest sense; the church, our native land and our fellow man are the neighbor in lesser degree. The exercise of charity is shown in our love to the Lord, the Church, the country and the individual. To love each and all of these is to exercise charity. This gives us a wider definition of the virtue of charity than we can find in the work of any other writer. It is much more comprehensive than the usual meaning attached to that word. Charity is usually restricted to philanthropy. Of course, true philanthropy is charity.

When a person founds a hospital, orphanage or school, and does so unselfishly, it is an act of genuine charity. When we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and care for the suffering, we are acting charitably. But that is only a part of the subject. Here is Swedenborg's definition of charity: “Charity itself is acting justly and faithfully in the office, business and employment in which one is engaged, because all that such a person does is of use to society, and use is good.'' Swedenborg thus makes charity cover the entire life of an upright person.

Acting wisely and unselfishly, such an individual is practicing charity throughout the waking hours. Even the most menial tasks, unselfishly done, are deeds of charity. The worker's daily toil, the parent's care for the children, the doctor's care for the sick, every use, every calling of the Christian life is a deed of charity. These latter are what Swedenborg calls “the obligations of charity.'' Acts of philanthropy he calls “the benefactions of charity.” We can, he says practice charity even when paying our taxes. Those to whom their country is dear pay their taxes cheerfully. He says that the duties of charity in our own homes are so numerous that they would fill a volume.

Charity is so all embracing that it even covers the entertainments and diversions of life. Swedenborg speaks of dinners and suppers of charity, given only among those who are in mutual love from a similarity of faith. The first thing of charity is to put away all evils; the second is to do goods that are of use to the neighbor. It is the practice of the truly religious life. It brings a person into communion with heaven. It teaches an individual to ascribe all good to the Lord, and to be of service to the neighbor as thyself. Charity worketh no ill to his neighbor; charity is the fulfilling of the law.”

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