Many people believe that they are saved because they have done good deeds, such as giving to the poor, assisting the neighbor, and acting honestly and justly in their occupation or employment. And yet they had never fought against the evils opposed to their good deeds, believing that the evils had been by their actions removed (and it does appear as though good deeds remove evils), saying in their heart, "If I do good, then I will refrain from evils." Yet the fact of the matter is this, that such a one indeed does good in obedience to the Lord's commandments, but still not from the Lord, but from self, thus not in conformity with spiritual law except in appearance only, but actually in conformity with moral and civil law. And in that case evils still remain, evils to which, even if he does not do them, he is still not averse. Consequently, when the love of the evil with its delight returns, he then does not resist it. As a result he either excuses the evil and does it, or refrains from doing it out of concern for himself and the world, and does not even know that it is evil. The case is otherwise, however, when he fights against evil in conformity with spiritual law. In the measure that he does this, in the same measure he becomes averse to the evil, and in the same measure he loves good and its truth, and in the same measure he does good from the Lord and not from self, and in the same measure the Lord operating through good and its truth removes the evil.