AC 5746 - Evil Is; AC 5747, 5749 - Do Not Claim for Yourself What Is the Lord's

AC 5746 - Evil Is

. . . evil is nothing else than a turning away from good;
for those who are in evil spurn good,
that is, spiritual good,
which is of charity and faith.

AC 5747 [2] - Do Not Claim for Yourself What is the Lord's

. . . before regeneration
a person supposes that he procures truth for himself,
and so long as he supposes this
he is in spiritual theft.
To claim good and truth to one's self,
and to attribute them to one's self
for righteousness and merit,
is to take away from the Lord that which is His.

AC 5749

The reason why a person ought not to claim to himself
anything that is from the Lord,
thus not truth and good,
is that he may be in the truth;
and in so far as he is in the truth,
so far he is in the light in which angels are in heaven;
and in so far as he is in this light,
so far he is in intelligence and wisdom;
and in so far as he is in intelligence and wisdom,
so far he is in happiness.
This is the reason why a person ought to
acknowledge from the faith of the heart
that nothing of truth and good is from himself,
but all from the Lord,
and this because it is so.