"The words that I speak unto you are spirit and are life" (John vi. 63). "The water that I will give you shall become . . . a fountain of water springing up unto eternal life" (John iv. 14). "Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt. iv. 4). "Work . . . for the meat that abideth unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto you" (John vi. 27).
Such is the Word. (A.E., n. 1074.)
It has been said that the Divine truth goes forth from the Lord, and that the Word is from that, and that through the Word angels and men have wisdom. But so long as it is unknown how Divine truth goes forth from the Lord, this may be said but it cannot be understood. Divine truth, which is the same as Divine wisdom, goes forth from the Lord as light and heat do from the sun. The Lord is Divine love itself, and love appears in the heavens from correspondence as fire, and the Lord's Divine love as a sun, glowing and resplendent like the sun of the world. From that sun, which is high above the heavens where the angels are, and which is Divine love, heat and light go forth; the heat therefrom is Divine good, and the light therefrom is Divine truth. The heat is Divine good, because all heat of life going forth from love is felt as good, for it is spiritual heat; and the light is Divine truth because all light going forth from love is felt as truth, for it is spiritual light; consequently it is from that light that the understanding sees truths, and it is from that heat that the will is sensible of goods; and this is why in the Word love is meant by heavenly fire and wisdom by heavenly light.
It is the same with a man and with an angel. Every angel and man is his own love, and a sphere flowing out from his love encompasses every man and angel. That sphere consists of the good of his love and of the truth of his love, for love gives forth both, as fire gives forth both heat and light; from the will of a man or angel it gives forth good, and from his understanding it gives forth truth. This sphere, when the man or angel is good, has an extension into the heavens in every direction according to the character and amount of the love, and into the hells in every direction when the man or angel is evil. But the sphere of the love of a man or an angel has a finite extension into a few societies only of heaven or hell, while the sphere of the Lord's love, being Divine, has an infinite extension, and creates the heavens themselves. (A.E., n. 1076.)
The Word of the Lord is wonderful in this respect, that in every particular of it there is a reciprocal union of good and truth, which testifies that the Word is the Divine that goes forth from the Lord, which is Divine good and Divine truth reciprocally united; and also testifies that in the Word there is a marriage of the Lord with heaven and the church, which also is reciprocal. There is a marriage of good and truth, also of truth and good, in every particular of the Word, in order that it may be a source of wisdom to angels and of intelligence to men, for from good alone no wisdom or intelligence is born, neither from truth alone, but from their marriage when the love is reciprocal. This reciprocal love the Lord sets forth in John:
"He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me and I in him" (vi. 56).
In the same,
"In that day ye shall know, that . . . ye are in Me and I in you. He that hath My commandments and doeth them, he it is that loveth Me; . . . and I will love him" (xiv. 20, 21).
The reciprocality is that such are in the Lord and the Lord is in them, also that whoever loves the Lord, the Lord also will love him. "To have His commandments" is to be in truths, and "to do them" is to be in good.
Reciprocality is also described by the Lord in His union with the
Father, in these words,