AC 8867, 8867 - Truth Is Only Truth If the Lord Is In It

AC 8867

'You shall not have other gods before My face'
(Exodus 20:3)

means that there must be no thought about truths
from any source other than the Lord.
This is clear from the meaning of 'gods' as truths,
and in the contrary sense as falsities;
and from the meaning of 'face',
in a reference to God's face,
as love, mercy, peace, and goodness,
thus the Lord Himself,
since the Lord is the Source from which these spring.
The reason why
'there must be no other gods before My face'
means that there must be no thought about truths
from any source other than the Lord
is also that the Lord's Divine Human,
meant by 'I am Jehovah your God', is mentioned first,
which is therefore first in line and must reign universally
in each individual truth that follows.
Consequently the commandment now declares
such things as are to be avoided
because they are thoroughly destructive
and prevent the Lord from reigning universally
in each and every truth contained
in the commandments and statutes
that were dictated and commanded from Mount Sinai.
The first thing that would be destructive
is thought about truths from a source other than the Lord,
which is meant in the words that prohibit
the presence of other gods before the Lord's face.
All other things
which would destroy that truth reigning universally
are contained in the prohibitions that follow in sequence -
that they were not to make a graven image for themselves;
that they were not to make any likeness of the things
that were in the heavens, on the earth, and in the waters
and that they were not to bow down to them,
and not to serve them.
And after these therefore comes the reiteration
'for I am Jehovah your God',
meaning that the Lord must be in every single one.

AC 8868 [1, 2]

A brief statement must also be made about truths
which come from a source other than the Lord.
In general they are those
which do not have the Lord within them.
The truths a person knows do not have the Lord within them
when he refuses to accept Him and His Divinity,
or else when he does accept Him
and yet believes that what is good and true
does not begin in Him but in himself,
as a result of which he claims righteousness for himself.
Nor do those truths have the Lord within them
which are taken from the Word,
in particular from the sense of the letter there,
and interpreted in favor of
personal dominion and personal gain.
In themselves these are truths
because they come from the Word
yet they are not truths
because they are interpreted wrongly
and thereby perverted.

Truths which come from the Lord
never cease to be truths from the Lord in their inward form.
But truths which do not come from the Lord
appear to be truths only in their outward form,
not in their inward form -
for inwardly they are either empty, false, or evil.
To be the truth,
truth must have life within it;
for truth devoid of life
is not the truth of faith with a person,
and life comes from no other source than good,
that is, from the Lord by way of good.
If therefore the Lord is not within truth
it is truth devoid of life, and so is not truth.
And if there is falsity or evil within it
the actual truth with a person is falsity or evil.
For what exists inwardly constitutes its essential nature,
and also in the next life
shines through the outward appearance.