According to Swedenborg, the “goods” that people have in the Bible – their possessions – represent spiritual possessions, which are desires to be good and knowledge that helps us actually do it. In the contrary sense they represent the lust for evil and the false ideas that support and justify those lusts. When the Lord instructed people to give away or sell all they had, the meaning has to do with us setting aside those evils and falsities that are natural to us so they can be replaced them with truth and desires for good.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3049
3049. ‘And every good thing that was his master’s was in his hand’ means the goods and truths associated with those facts residing with the natural man. This is clear from the meaning of ‘every good thing that was his master’s’ as both good and truth, for in itself truth is good since it springs from good – truth being the form that good takes, that is, when good receives a form so that it can be perceived in the understanding it is called truth; and from the meaning of ‘the hand’ as power, dealt with in 878. Thus the goods and truths residing with the natural man are meant here. General facts are not in themselves good, nor do they have any life; but the affection for them is what causes them to be good and to have life, for in that case they exist for the sake of their use. No one’s affection is stirred by any fact or truth, except on account of the use it serves. The use is what makes it good, though the particular nature of the use determines the nature of the good.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 5886
[5] In Luke,
Jesus said to the young ruler, You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, then you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me. Luke 18:22.
In the internal sense these words mean that everything completely a person’s own, which consists of nothing but evil desires and false ideas, ought to be alienated from him, for such desires and ideas are meant by ‘all that he has’, and then he will receive from the Lord good desires and true ideas, which are ‘treasure in heaven’.
[6] This is similar to what is said elsewhere in the same gospel,
Sell your resources and give alms; make for yourselves money bags that do not grow old, a treasure that does not fail in heaven. Luke 12:33.
Anyone can see that this verse holds a meaning other than the literal one. For at the present day ‘selling one’s resources’ would be making oneself a beggar, and depriving oneself of any further opportunity to exercise charity, quite apart from the fact that one would inevitably regard such a course of action as being meritorious. Also it is an invariable truth that there are rich people in heaven as well as poor ones. The meaning other than the literal one contained in this verse is what was stated just above.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6017
6017. ‘And the acquisitions they had made in the land of Canaan’ means truths acquired from other truths which the Church already possessed. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the acquisitions’ as truth that has been acquired, dealt with in 4105, and also good that has been acquired, 4391, 4487; and from the meaning of ‘the land of Canaan’ as the Church, dealt with in 3686, 3705, 4447, 4517, 5136. It follows that the acquisition was made from truths which the Church already possessed, for the reason that when truths are stimulated by good to multiply themselves, they multiply from truths that are already present.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 10227
[18] In Luke,
Any one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be My disciple. Luke 14:33.
Anyone who does not know that ‘possessions’ in the internal sense are spiritual riches and wealth, which consist of cognitions or knowledge derived from the Word, cannot possibly have any other idea than that if he is to be saved he will have to strip himself of all his wealth. But that is not the meaning of those words; ‘possessions’ there is used to mean everything that is the product of self-intelligence. For no one can be wise by virtue of what is his own, only by virtue of what is the Lord’s. Therefore ‘renouncing all one’s possessions’ means attributing no intelligence or wisdom at all to oneself; and whoever fails to do this cannot be taught by the Lord, that is, be His disciple.
[19] Since possessions, riches, wealth, silver, and gold mean the things that constitute intelligence and wisdom, the Lord also compares the kingdom of heaven to treasure hidden in a field, Matt. 13:44; and He says that people should provide themselves treasure that does not fail in heaven; for where the treasure is, there the heart is, Matt. 6:19-21; Luke 12:33, 34.