You Shall Have No Other Gods Before My Faces

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Resource 1: Secrets of Heaven

“You shall have no other gods before My faces.”

  • Think what is true from the Lord.

    • Notes:

      • The word, “gods” in Scripture means truths, and in the opposite sense falsities.

      • [Therefore, the words, “You shall have no other gods before My faces,” mean “You shall not think what is false,” or, “You shall not think what is from self instead of what is from the Lord,” etc.]

  • Think what is true from love, mercy, peace and goodness.

    • Note: The word, “face” in Scripture, when used in reference God, symbolically means God’s love. The word, “faces,” when used in reference to God, symbolically means love, mercy, peace, and goodness. These things—love, mercy, peace, and goodness—therefore refer to the Lord Himself, because they are from Him.

  • Allow the Lord to reign universally in each and all of the truths contained in the commandments that were dictated and commanded from Mount Sinai.

    • Let the Lord to be within truths.

    • Let the Lord as to His divine humanity reign universally in each and all things of good and truth.

      • Note: The Lord as to His divine humanity is the one who is meant by “Jehovah God” in the Word, where it says, “I am Jehovah your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”

    • Let the Lord be in each and all things.

    • Note: The Lord is able to reign universally in you when you…

      • Remember Him/keep Him in your memory.

      • Believe that all good and all truth are from Him.

        • Note: Angels are in the faith and also a perception that all good and truth are from the Lord.

      • Love the above idea to be so.

      • Allow the Lord to be present in each and all things of your thought, and in each and all things of your will.

      • Let the Lord flow in and make your life.

      • Let the Lord fill everything in you and make your life.

      • Let the Lord constitute your very mind and life.

      • Let your life be the Lord’s life in you.

      • Let the life of your will be love from the Lord.

      • Let the life of your intellect (or understanding) be faith from the Lord.

      • Receive inflow of light from the Divine.

      • Let the Lord be everything of everything in your experience of heaven.

        • Note: The Lord is heaven.

      • Let the Lord be in all the truths and goods of faith with you, as your heart is in all the blood vessels of your body.

        • The blood vessels originate in the heart.

        • The blood vessels receive their blood (which is their life) from the heart.

      • Be led by the Lord.

      • Above all, love the Divine, think of the Divine, and be in fear of doing injury to the Divine.

  • Be in truths that are from the Lord.

  • Note: Truths that are from the Lord are truths in which He is present. These include the following:

    • Truths that you possess when you acknowledge the Lord and His divinity, and when you believe that good and truth are from Him.

      • Note: People who are like this attribute all righteousness to the Lord.

    • Truths that are taken from the Word and explained in favor of the Lord’s sovereign rule.

    • Truths that are rightly explained and thus preserved.

  • Further notes on truths from the Lord:

    • Truths that are from the Lord are always true inwardly.

    • Truths that are not from the Lord appear to be true outwardly, but not inwardly.

      • Within themselves they are empty, false, or evil.

    • In order for truth to be true, there must be life within it. Truth without life is not the truth of faith with people.

    • Life is from no other source than good, that is, through good from the Lord.

    • In addition, truths that are alive are truths of faith that come from love of the Lord and goodwill toward your neighbor.

    • Therefore, if the Lord is not present in truth, it is truth without life, thus it is not truth.

    • As a general rule, that which is within something makes its essence, and also shines through to the outside.

    • Therefore:

      • Be in truths that are inwardly true.

      • Be in truths that have life and goodness in them from the Lord.

      • Be in truths that come from love of the Lord and goodwill toward your neighbor.

      • Be in truths that live from the Lord.

      • Be in truths that are alive.

  • Let the words that you speak be open within.

    • Let there be affection within your words—affection for what is good.

    • Let the words of your speech be inwardly soft.

    • Let everything of your speech be open even to the Lord.

  • Final note for this section:

    • People have truths according to their life, that is, according to that which universally reigns in them.

“You shall not make to you a graven image…”

  • Worship the Lord as God, not yourself.

  • Adore the Lord as God, rather than your own intellect or your own will.

  • Believe that intelligence and wisdom flow in from the Divine.

  • Let your intelligence be from the Lord.

  • Let your intelligence and spiritual life come only from the Lord.

  • Let any wisdom that you have be from Him.

  • Let any wisdom that belongs to life be from Him.

  • Let the teachings that guide your life be truths from His Word.

  • Love what comes from the Lord above all things.

    • Note: That which comes from the Lord is truth and goodness.

  • Attribute all things to the Divine.

    • Do this from the heart.

  • Acknowledge the Divine Providence in everything that happens to you.

  • Acknowledge God in your heart.

  • Scripture: Give glory and praise to the Lord alone.

“Nor any likeness...”

  • Entertain truths from no other source than the Divine.

  • Speak what is from the Divine, and do such things as have been commanded by the Divine.

    • At the same time, think and will these things from your heart.

  • Be in goodwill and faith, inwardly as well as in outward life.

“Of that which is in the heavens above…”

  • Know about, and be genuinely involved in, the good and truth that belong to…

    • Faith.

    • Goodwill toward your neighbor.

    • Love of the Lord.

“Or that which is in the earth beneath...”

  • Be genuinely involved in civil and moral good and truth.

“Or of that which is in the waters under the earth.”

  • Let anything you learn through your outer senses, or any sensual delight that you experience, be used for good and also directed toward what is good.

“You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them.”

  • Worship the Lord as divine.

  • Humble yourself before Him.

  • Submit yourself to Him.

  • Notes on humility and submission:

    • Humility and submission are essential parts of worship.

    • Worship without them is not worship, but gesture that imitates those who are in true worship.

    • Life from the Lord flows only into a humble and submissive heart, because such a heart has been fitted to receive.

    • When your heart is truly humble, nothing of the [self-centered] love of self and [self-centered] love of the world stands in the way.

“For I Jehovah your God…”

  • Allow the Divine from the Lord to be in each and all things.

“Am a zealous God…”

  • Receive the divine truth of the Lord’s divine goodness.

  • The zeal of the Lord is love and mercy (or love and compassion).

    • Note: There is nothing but pure love and mercy in the Divine (i.e., in the Lord).

  • Let yourself be in the atmosphere of the Lord’s love, mercy, and compassion, and in that way let yourself be spiritually protected by the Lord’s divine truth and divine goodness.

  • Some passages from Scripture:

    • To us a child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government will be on His shoulder, and He has called His name Wonderful, Counselor, God, Hero, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace. To the multiplying of His government and peace there shall be no end. The zeal of Jehovah will perform this.

    • Thus said the Lord Jehovih, “Now I will bring back the captivity of Jacob, and will have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be zealous for the name of My holiness.”

    • Jehovah will go forth as a Hero; He will stir up zeal like a man of war; He will shout and cry, He will prevail over His enemies.”

    • Jehovah will be zealous for His land and will spare His people.

“Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons upon the thirds and upon the fourths…”

  • Accept the Divine into your life.

  • Let truth multiply, based in what is good.

  • Receive what is good constantly.

    • Note: In this way there is a successive accumulation of good traits and tendencies in offspring, and a linking of truths with each other in a long series.

“Of them that hate Me.”

  • Acknowledge the divinity of the Lord.

  • Be in what is good and thence in what is true.

    • Note: So far as people are in good and thence in truth, so far they not only acknowledge the Divine but also hold it in love.

  • Be in heavenly light.

  • See the humanity of the Lord as being divinely human.

    • Notes:

      • The Divine itself is divine love—the being of all life.

      • The Lord was this love from conception; thus this love was the inmost being of His life.

      • Thus the Lord was Jehovah.

      • He glorified His humanity, that is, He made it divine.

“And doing mercy to thousands…”

  • Welcome the inflow of good and truth from the Lord, and the consequent spiritual life, forever.

    • Note: This happens through the process of spiritual rebirth/regeneration.

“Of them that love Me…”

  • Receive the good of love from the Lord.

    • Notes:

      • They who love the Lord do not love from themselves but from the Lord; for all good flows in from Him.

      • Those who love are those who abstain from evil, because evil stands in the way and rejects the inflow of good from the Lord.

      • When evil has been removed good is received.

      • Good is constantly present from the Lord, striving to enter.

“And keep My commandments.”

  • Receive the truths of faith.

    • Note: The Lord’s commandments are the truths of faith.

  • Allow these truths to flow into you from the Lord.

  • Learn them and store them up in your memory.

  • Next, will them and do them.

    • Note: In this way they become living, and they become truths of faith.

  • This is accomplished by the Lord when you abstain from evils.

  • Therefore, abstain from evils.

Resource 2: The Apocalypse Explained

Forms of goodness related to this commandment:

  • Have faith that there is a God.

  • Acknowledge and believe that there is a God.

  • In your heart believe in the existence of God.

    • Have faith in your heart, which is faith in internals.

  • Love God.

  • Let a perception that there is a God—who is the Creator and Preserver of the universe—also that God is one, flow into you from the Lord though heaven.

    • Notes:

      • This perception is able to flow in for the reason that when evils have been removed, heaven is opened; and when heaven is opened a person no longer thinks from self but from the Lord through heaven; and the universal principle in heaven, which comprises all things, is the principle that there is a God and that God is one is.

      • A person’s inner thought, which is the thought of his or her spirit, is from heaven when evils have been removed.

      • When a person thinks from heaven, he or she sees from the light in heaven that there is a God and that He is one.

      • When a person shuns and turns away from evils because they are sins, he or she not only sees from the light of heaven that God exists and that God is one, but also that God is divinely human. For people wish to see their God, and they are unable to see Him otherwise than as divinely human.

      • There is an intuition in the human spirit that God is divinely human.

      • It follows that those who are of the church where the Word of God is present, if they shun and turn away from evils as sins, they see, from the light of heaven in which they then are…

        • The divinity in the Lord’s humanity,

        • The trinity (or tri-unity) of divine love, divine wisdom, and divine useful service in Him (which is salvation),

        • And that He is the God of heaven and earth.

      • The idea of God is the primary of all ideas.

      • Such as your idea of God is, such is your…

        • Communication with heaven.

        • Union with the Lord.

        • Enlightenment.

        • Affection for truth and good.

        • Perception.

        • Intelligence.

        • Wisdom.

      • These things are not from you but from the Lord according to union with Him.

      • The idea of God is the idea of the Lord and His divinity, for no one else is the God of heaven and the God of earth, as He Him-self teaches in Matthew: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”

  • Love heaven.

  • Love all who acknowledge God. 

  • Love all who acknowledge the Lord.

  • In your heart support all the good and true things of the church.

  • When it comes to governing or ruling over others, be in a love of governing or ruling from a delight in useful service and for the sake of the public good.

  • When it comes to the love of material things, be in a love of possessing goods of the world from a delight in useful services, also for the sake of the good that can be accomplished by means of them.

  • Note: The two forms of love mentioned just above are good loves to the extent that they regard useful service in the first place and self in the second.

  • Do things for the sake of the church, your country, society in general, and your neighbor.

    • Note: The good things that you do to these for their sake, and not for your own, are not from you but from the Lord.

  • Accept and receive what is good and delightful from heaven.

    • Confirm this in yourself.

    • In this way, confirm heaven in yourself.

  • Let the very delight of your life be to do good deeds of every kind.

  • In a word, be an angel.

Resource 3: Principles of Life

This resource discusses only the commandments on murder, adultery, stealing, and bearing false witness against your neighbor.

Resource 4: True Christianity

Forms of goodness related to this commandment:

  • On the earthly level:

    • Acknowledge God in your heart.

    • Love God and what comes from God above all else.

  • On the spiritual level:

    • Worship the Lord Jesus Christ.

    • Acknowledge and worship the Lord the Savior, Jesus Christ, who is Jehovah God Himself in human form.

    • Acknowledge and believe in one God under a visible human form, and that the Lord God the Savior is He.

    • Believe in the existence of one divine person who is the one God.

    • Notes:

      • The Lord Jesus Christ is Jehovah, who came into the world and wrought the redemption without which neither any person nor any angel could have been saved.

      • There is no God beside Him.

      • This is evident from the following passages in the Word [among others that are quoted in this particular reference]:

        • It shall be said in that day, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him that He may deliver us; this is Jehovah; we have waited for Him, we will rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”

        • I am Jehovah; and besides me there is no Savior.

        • To us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, God, Mighty, Father of eternity, Prince of peace.

      • The Lord Jesus Christ is Jehovah Himself, who is at once Creator, Redeemer, and Regenerator.

      • This is our God and therefore our Savior.

  • On the heavenly level:

    • Jehovah the Lord is infinite, measureless, and eternal.

    • He is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.

    • He is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, who was, is, and is to be.

    • He is love itself and wisdom itself, or good itself and truth itself,

      • Consequently, He is life itself.

    • He is the one only Being from whom all things exist.