AC 4149 & AC 4151 - States of Good and Evil and How We React

AC 4149

Every spiritual good has its own truths;
for where this good is,
there are its truths.
Regarded in itself good is one,
but it becomes various by means of truths;
for truths may be compared to
the fibers that compose one of the bodily organs,
in accordance with the form of which fibers
there results the organ,
and consequently its operation,
which operation is effected by means of
the life that flows in through the soul;
and this life is from the good which is from the Lord.
It is thus that good, although one,
is yet various with every individual,
so various as never to be similar in every respect
with one as with another.
So also it is that the truth of one
can never subsist in the good of another.
For all the truths with everyone who is in good
communicate with one another,
and produce a certain form,
and therefore the truth of one
cannot be transferred into another;
but when it is transferred,
it passes into the form of him who receives it,
and puts on another aspect.
But this arcanum is too deep
to be expounded in a few words.

AC 4151 [3, 5,6]

Speaking generally, the case is
that no one ever has good and truth which is his own,
but all good and truth flow in from the Lord,
both immediately,
and also mediately through angelic societies;
and yet it appears as if
the good and truth were the person's,
to the intent that they may be appropriated to him,
until he comes into a state to know,
and then to acknowledge,
and at last to believe,
that they are not his,
but the Lord's.

The same is the case with evil and falsity.
According to the doctrinals from the Word,
the devil is continually endeavoring to seduce a person,
and is continually inspiring evil;
and therefore when anyone commits a great crime;
it is said that he has suffered himself
to be led astray by the devil.

That this is the case has frequently been shown to spirits
who had come recently from the world into the other life.
But some of them have said
that if all evil and falsity also flow in,
nothing of evil and falsity can be attributed to them,
and they are not in fault,
because these come from another source.
But they received for answer
that they had appropriated evil and falsity
by believing that they think and will of themselves;
whereas if they had believed as the case really is,
they would not then have appropriated the evil and falsity,
for they would have believed
all good and truth to be from the Lord;
and if they had believed this,
they would have suffered themselves
to be led by the Lord,
and therefore would have been in a different state;
and then the evil which entered into their thought and will
would not have affected them,
because not evil but good would have gone out of them;
for it is not the things that enter in,
but those which go out that affect us;
according to the Lord's words in Mark 7:15:

Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean'
by going into him.
Rather, it is what comes out of a man
that makes him 'unclean.'