self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of your cup and
plate, so that the outside may be clean as well.” (Matthew 23 : 25 , 26 )In saying this the Lord used similes and comparisons that are also corre-
spondences. He mentioned a cup and a plate. A cup does not just relate to
the truth in the Word; it also meansthat truth. A cup relates to wine, and
wine means truth. A plate relates to food, and food means goodness. There-
fore cleaning the inside of their cup and plate means using the Word to
purify the inner things in their mind related to their will and thought. “So
that the outside may be clean as well” means that by doing this, their outer
aspects—their actions and conversations—would be purified, because the
essence of actions and conversations comes from within.
[ 3 ] For another example,
Jesus said, “There was a rich person who wore purple and fine linen
and indulged himself splendidly every day. And there was a poor per-
son named Lazarus, covered with sores, who was put on his porch.”
(Luke 16 : 19 , 20 )
Here again, in saying this the Lord used similes and comparisons that
were correspondences with spiritual content. The rich person means the
Jewish nation. He is called rich because the Jewish nation had the Word,
and the Word contains spiritual wealth. The purple and fine linen he
wore mean the goodness and truth of the Word: the purple means the
Word’s goodness; the fine linen means its truth. “Indulging himself splen-
didly every day” refers to the delight that the Jews felt because they had
the Word and heard many things from it in their temples and synagogues.
Lazarus, the poor person, means the people outside the Jewish church,
because they did not have the Word. Lazarus being put on the rich per-
son’s porch means that people outside the Jewish church were despised
and rejected by the Jews. Lazarus’s sores mean that people outside the
church had many false beliefs because they did not know the truth.
[ 4 ] Lazarus means the people outside the Jewish church because the
Lord loved the people outside the church just as he loved Lazarus (John
11 : 3 , 5 , 36 ), raised him from the dead, called him his friend (John 11 : 11 ),
and gave him a place at his table (John 12 : 2 ).
As the two passages quoted just above make clear, things that are
good and true in the Word’s literal meaning are like vessels or clothing
for the naked goodness and truth that lie hidden in the Word’s spiritual
and heavenly meanings.
§215 sacred scripture 293