Readings
“Blessed is the person who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he or she shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but her leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:7-8)
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.” (Matthew 12:33)
“Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” (Matthew 7:20)
“For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. A good person out of the good treasure of his or her heart brings forth good; and an evil person out of the evil treasure of his or her heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:43-45)
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit....Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. One who abides in Me, and I in him or her, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing....By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples....You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.” (John 15:1-2, 4-5, 8, 16-17)
“Let your light so shine before people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)
“For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.” (Matthew 16:27)
“If you know these things, happy are you if you do them.” (John 13:17)
“The life of a person is his or her love, and that which they love they not only like to be doing, but also like to be thinking. The reason therefore why we say that the life is to do that which is good is that doing what is good acts as a one with thinking what is good, for if in a person these two things do not act as a one, they are not of their life.” (Doctrine of Life 1)
“It is true that no one can from self do what is really good. But to use this truth in such a way as to do away with all the good deeds of charity that people do who shun evils as sins is a great wickedness, for it is diametrically contrary to the Word, which commands that people shall do good. It is contrary to the commandments of love to God and love toward the neighbor on which the Law and the Prophets hang, and it is to flout and undermine everything of religion. For everyone knows that religion is to do what is good, and that everyone will be judged according to their deeds. Everyone is so constituted as to be able (by the Lord’s power, if he or she begs for it) to shun evils as of themselves; and that which they do afterwards is good from the Lord.” (Doctrine of Life 31)
“1. Christian charity, with everyone, consists in faithfully performing what belongs to their calling, for by doing this, if they shun evils as sins, they are doing good things every day and are themselves their own use in the general body. In this way also the common good is cared for, and the good of each person in particular. 2. All other things that they do are not the proper works of charity, but are either its signs, its benefactions, or its obligations.” (Doctrine of Life 114)
“Everything good is good according to its usefulness. Its form reflects what is true because the true is the form of the good. This is why everything in the whole world and in the world of nature that is in the divine design goes back to what is good and what is true.” (Heaven and Hell 107)
“Being useful is the essential delight of life for everyone [in heaven]. We can see from this that the Lord’s kingdom is an organized structure of functions.” (Heaven and Hell 219)
“There is no way to list all the functions that people have in the heavens or to describe them in detail... Everyone there does something specifically useful, for the Lord’s kingdom is a kingdom of uses.” (Heaven and Hell 387)
“Since all the activities of heaven focus on a common use, which is the welfare of the Lord’s kingdom (which now is our country), and since we fulfill our distinctive individual functions to the extent that they focus directly and intimately on that common use, all the countless distinctive and individual functions are good and heavenly. This means that for each of us an affection for what is true is united to an affection for usefulness to the point that they act as one.” (Heaven and Hell 517)
“On the basis of an opinion formed in the world, some spirits have believed that heavenly happiness consisted of a life of leisure, being waited on by others; but they were informed that there is never any happiness in idling around in order to be content. This would mean wanting the happiness of others for oneself, in which case no one would have any at all. This kind of life would be idle, not active, a life that would lead to atrophy. They might in fact have known that apart from an active life, a life has no happiness, and that idleness serves that life only for refreshment, in order to return them to the active life with more energy. Then they were shown in many ways that angelic life consists of worthwhile, thoughtful actions, actions that are useful to others, and that all the happiness angels have is found in service, derives from service, and is proportional to service.” (Heaven and Hell 403)