1. “I am Worthless.” False.

The Lord God Jesus Christ doesn't make junk. He has profound love and purpose for every one of us. It might not be readily or steadily apparent, and it sure isn't "fair" that some people have more external advantages than other people. But the Lord takes the long view. Our natural and spiritual lives start at the same time. Our natural lives are sort of like a booster rocket stage; they get us going, and eventually get used up, and fall away... while our spiritual lives go on and on.

The natural life booster stage is vital. It gives us a chance to try/fail, try/fail, try/succeed. Each of us is dealt a natural-life hand of cards. They aren't the same. Sometimes we get a bad hand, and it's really tough. But... there it is, and we have to play it. So, how do we approach it? Selfishly? Bitterly? Meanly? Angrily? Or do we do our best with it, and try -- and keep on sincerely trying day after day, year after year -- to love the Lord and love our neighbors?

The second-stage trajectory is a lot better if we take the unselfish approach. This is NOT easy. But it IS possible.

Here are many Bible passages that speak to this; here are a few examples:

"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:20).

"the mercies of the Lord are from everlasting to everlasting upon those that fear Him" (Psalms 103:17).

"I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock." (Psalms 40:1-2).

Here, too, are a couple of interesting excerpts from Arcana Coelestia:

"All inward trial contains doubt over the Lord's presence and mercy, over salvation, and so on. People undergoing such trials feel deep distress, even to the point of despair." (Arcana Coelestia 2334).

"when someone is subject to temptations, the Lord struggles for him, overcoming the spirits of hell who assail him; and after his temptation He glorifies him, that is, renders him spiritual." (True Christian Religion 599)

In Arcana Coelestia again, we also find this: "It is also wrong to think that because we have nothing but evil inside us we cannot receive goodness from the Lord–goodness that has heaven in it because it has the Lord in it, and that has bliss and happiness in it because it has heaven in it." (Arcana Coelestia 2371).

True humility does NOT mean believing that "you" are worthless. It means that you realize that the evil in you is from hell, and worthless, and that the good in you is from the Lord, and very worthwhile. Any "you" are this mixture, with the God-given power to reject one and adopt the other. Even if you get into a dark place, that God-given power is still available to you. You can turn away from the evil, and towards the good, and the mixture will gradually change.

2. "I am Doing the Best I Can." Also False.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, there's the “I am doing the best I can” attitude. This is common; we hear it bandied about a lot. We probably think it ourselves pretty often, too. But is it true? Are we ever really doing the best we can? Maybe occasionally. But probably not nearly as often as we trot out this justification!

It's a subtle thing. "I'm OK the way I am," is partly true. God doesn't make junk. And you need a positive "can-do" attitude. But if you think you're OK as is, you probably aren't. Here's how it works: The good loves and true ideas that you have ARE "OK the way they are." When they are the things you're using to govern your life, you're OK. You're on the right road. But, your evil loves and false ideas are NOT OK the way they are, and you need to get rid of them. If you don't, to the extent you're using them to govern your life, they will dominate you spiritually, and snuff out the good.

Here's another interesting excerpt from Arcana Coelestia: "In short, to the extent that a person is governed by love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour he is governed by his internal man; and from his internal man springs his thought and will, and from there also his words and his actions. But to the extent that a person is ruled by self-love and love of the world he is ruled by his external man, and also his words and actions spring from there, so far as he dares to let them." (Arcana Coelestia 9705)

Our perception of whether we're doing our very best is unreliable. We want other people to believe it. We want to believe it ourselves. But if we're actually being ruled by our "external man", our perception's not accurate. And we won't see that.

3. The Hopeful Path.

So, we are worthwhile, AND there's room for improvement. Both the self-condemning state (“I am worthless”) and the self-satisfied state (“I am doing the best I can”) cut us off from genuine spiritual progress. The former denies the Lord’s love and His ability to transform us. The latter downplays our real need for His ongoing salvation.

What's the good path to take? Weed out the evil and the false. Cultivate the good and the true. Know and internalize the belief that the Lord loves us, and know, too, that we can (and need to) do better, with His help.

"Cease to do evil, learn to do good." (Isaiah 1:16)

"turn me, and I shall be turned; for you are Jehovah my God..." (Jeremiah 31:18)

"Away then with fear; you are more precious than a multitude of sparrows." (Matthew 10:31)

2335. 'For we will spend the night in the street' means that He was willing, so to speak, to judge from truth. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'the street' and from the meaning of 'spending the night'. 'Street' is mentioned in various places in the Word, and in the internal sense has a similar meaning to 'a way', namely, truth; for a street is a way within a city, as will be clear from the places quoted in the next paragraph. That here 'spending the night' is judging may become clear from the meaning of 'the night'. It has been shown above in 2323 that 'the evening' means the penultimate state of the Church when faith is starting to be no more. It also means the visitation which takes place prior to judgement. From this it is evident that night which follows is the last state when faith is no more, and also when judgement takes place. From this it is plain that in the internal sense 'spending the night in the street' means judging from truth.

[2] As for judgement it is twofold, that is to say, there is judgement from good and judgement from truth. People who have faith are judged from good, but those who do not have it are judged from truth. The fact that those who have faith are judged from good is quite clear in Matthew 25:34-40, while those who do not have it are judged from truth, in verses 41-46. Those judged from good are saved since they have accepted good, but those judged from truth are condemned because they have rejected good. Good is the Lord's, and those who acknowledge this in life and faith are the Lord's, and are therefore saved; but those who do not acknowledge it in life, nor consequently in faith, cannot be the Lord's nor thus be saved. They are judged therefore according to the actions done in their life and according to their thoughts and ends in view. And when judged according to these they are inevitably condemned, for the truth is that of himself man can do, think, and intend nothing but evil, and of himself rushes towards hell insofar as he is not held back from that place by the Lord.

[3] The situation with regard to judgement from truth is this: The Lord never judges anyone except from good, for His will is to lift all men, however many these may be, up to heaven, indeed if it were possible, up to Himself. For the Lord is mercy itself and good itself, and mercy itself and good itself cannot possibly condemn anyone. It is man who, in rejecting good, condemns himself. As a person has fled habitually from good during his lifetime, so in the next life he flees from it, and therefore from heaven and the Lord. For the Lord cannot be present except within good. He is present in truth as well, but not in truth separated from good. That the Lord does not condemn anyone, that is, does not judge them to hell, He Himself declares in John,

God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world but that the world might be saved through Him. This is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, but men preferred darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. John 3:17, 19.

And in the same gospel,

If anyone hears My words, yet does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. John 12:47.

[4] See in addition what has been said already on these matters in 223, 245, 592, 696, 1093, 1683, 1874, 2258. When judgement was dealt with above in 2320, 2321, it was shown that all judgement belongs to the Lord's Divine Human and His Holy proceeding, according to the Lord's words in John,

The Father does not judge anyone, but has given all judgement to the Son. John 5:22.

Now however it is said that the Lord does not judge anyone by condemning him. This shows the nature of the Word in the letter — that unless understood from a sense other than the letter, namely from the internal sense, it would be unintelligible. The internal sense alone shows what is really involved in judgement.