AC 3419 - The Lord, Charity and the Neighbor

AC 3419 [3, 6]

. . . as the ancients were in
the representatives and the meanings
of the Lord's kingdom,
in which there is nothing but celestial and spiritual love,
they had also doctrinal things
that treated solely of love to God
and of charity toward the neighbor;
and by virtue of these doctrinal things
they were called the wise.
From these doctrinal things they knew
that the Lord would come into the world,
and that Jehovah would be in Him,
and that He would make the human in Himself Divine,
and would thus save the human race.
From these doctrinal things
they also knew what charity is,
namely, the affection of being of service to others
without any end of recompense;
and also what is the neighbor
toward whom there should be charity,
namely, all in the universe,
but still each with discrimination.
At this day these doctrinal things are utterly lost,
and in place of them there are doctrinal things of faith,
which the ancients accounted as relatively nothing.
At the present day
the doctrinal things of love to the Lord
and of charity toward the neighbor are rejected,
in part by those who in the Word
are called "Babylonians and Chaldeans,"
and in part by those
who are called "Philistines" and also "Egyptians";
and thus are so completely lost
that there remains scarcely any trace of them.
For who at the present day knows what
that charity is which is devoid of all regard for self,
and which is averse to everything
that is for the sake of self?
And who knows that the neighbor is everyone,
with discrimination
according to the kind and amount of good in him,
thus that he is good itself,
consequently in the supreme sense the Lord Himself,
because He is in good,
and good is from Him,
and the good which is not from Him is not good,
however much it may appear to be so?
And because it is not known what charity is,
and what the neighbor,
it is not known who they are that in the Word
are signified by the "poor," the "miserable,"
the "needy," the "sick," the "hungry" and "thirsty,"
the "oppressed," "widows," "orphans," "captives,"
the "naked," "sojourners," the "blind," the "deaf,"
the "halt," "maimed," and others
when yet the doctrinal things of the ancients
taught who these were,
and to what class of the neighbor,
and thus of charity, each belonged.
The whole of the Word in the sense of the letter
is written in accordance with these doctrinal things,
so that he who has no knowledge of them
cannot possibly know
any interior sense of the Word.

. . . in the supreme sense
the Lord is the neighbor, for He says:

'I tell you the truth,
whatever you did
for one of the least of these brothers of mine,
you did for Me.'
Matthew 25:40)