808. Verse 9. If anyone hath an ear let him hear, signifies the reception by those who are in the understanding of truth, and the consequent perception of good. This is evident from the signification of, "If anyone hath an ear let him hear," as being one who understands and hearkens to what the Lord teaches in the Word (see above, n. 108, 180, 255); thence these words signify also the reception of Divine truth by those who are in the understanding of it. Those who are in the perception of good are also meant, because "to have an ear and to hear" signifies both to understand truth and to perceive good; to understand truth pertains to thought, and to perceive good pertains to affection; and both pertain to the ear or to hearing, since what enters the ear passes into the sight of the understanding and also into the affection of the will; and for this reason the "ear" and "hearing" signify hearkening and obedience. So "to hear" anyone signifies to understand, and "to give ear to" anyone signifies to obey, and both are meant by "hearkening." [2] As it has been shown above that in the faith received by the general body in the church there is mere emptiness, since there is nothing of life in it from any truth, I will here tell briefly what faith is saving faith. Saving faith is to believe that the Lord is the Savior of the world, and that He is the God of heaven and the God of the earth, and that by His coming into the world He entered into the power to save all who receive truths from Him through the Word, and who live according to them. Who those are that are able to receive truths from Him and to live according to them has been explained above (n. 803), namely, those who shun sins because they are sins against the Word and thus against God, since by so doing man's internal is purified, and when this is purified man is led by the Lord and not by self; and so far as man is led by the Lord he loves truths, and receives them and wills them and does them. This faith is saving faith. [3] These words, "If anyone hath an ear let him hear" mean especially that it must be received and believed that the Divine of the Lord is in His Human, that is, that His Human is Divine. Is it not surprising that the idea of the Lord's Divine Human has been altogether destroyed in the Christian churches, especially among the learned there, and that only with the simple does anything of it remain? For the simple think of God as a Man, and not as a Spirit without a human form as the learned do. The most ancient people, who were wiser than those of our days, had no other idea of God than as a Man encompassed about the head with radiant circles, as is shown by the writings of ancient men, and by their paintings and sculptures. Moreover, all who were of the church from the time of Adam down to Abraham, Moses, and the prophets, thought of God as a Man. They also saw Him in a human form, and called Him Jehovah, as is evident from the Word; and God under a human form is the Lord, as is clear from the Lord's words in John:
Before Abraham was, I am (8:58). [4] That the inhabitants of this earth from the primeval age had an idea of God-Man, or of the Divine Human, is evident from their idols, also from the ideas of such Gentiles as had interior thought and perception, like some of the Africans; likewise from the inhabitants of almost all the earths (as may be seen in a separate small work). Man has such an idea of the Divine because it flows in from heaven, for in heaven no one can think of God except in the human form. If he thinks otherwise his thought of God perishes, and he himself falls from heaven. This is because the human form is the form of heaven, and all the thought of angels proceeds according to the form of heaven. Yet this idea of God, which is the chief of all ideas, is with the learned of the world at this day rooted out, as it were to such an extent that when it is merely said that God is a Man they are unable to think of it. [5] This is why, even from the first establishment of the church, they have separated the Divine of the Lord from His Human; and from this it has come to pass that few in thinking of the Lord think of His Divine, but they think of Him as a man like themselves. And yet with this idea of the Divine no one, whoever he may be, can enter heaven, but is repelled as soon as he touches the first threshold of the way that leads thither. This therefore, is what is especially meant by "If anyone hath an ear let him hear."
This page is part of 
© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church