Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 364spiritual life from the Lord. So far as anyone receives from the Lordhe is worthy; but so far as he receives from self, that is, from what ishis, or from what is his own (proprium) he is not worthy. Nothingelse constitutes spiritual life with man but the knowledges of truthand good from the Word applied to life; and they are applied to lifewhen man holds them as the laws of his life, for he then looks tothe Lord in everything, and with such the Lord is present, and givesintelligence and wisdom and an affection for them and delight inthem. For the Lord is in His truths with man, since every truthproceeds from the Lord, and what proceeds from the Lord that isHis, even so that it is He; therefore the Lord says:I am the truth and the life (John 14:6).He that doeth the truth cometh to the light, [that his works maybe made manifest] that they have been wrought in God (John 3:21).The Word was with God, and God was the Word. In Him waslife; and the life was the light of men. That was the true light, thatlighteth every man. And the Word was made flesh (John 1:1, 4, 9, 14).The Lord is called “the Word” because the Word signifies Divinetruth; He is also called “the Light” because Divine truth is the lightin the heavens; He is also called “the Life,” because everything thatlives, lives from that life; from that also angels have intelligence andwisdom, in which their life consists. He who would derive life fromany other source than from the Divine that proceeds from theLord, which in heaven is called Divine truth and is there seen aslight, is greatly mistaken. From this it can be seen how it is to beunderstood that “God was the Word,” and that “in Him was life,and that the life was the light of men.”[2] “White” in the Word is predicated of truths, because Divinetruth is the light of heaven, as was just said, and whiteness andbrightness are from the light of heaven. From this it was:That when the Lord was transfigured before Peter, James, andJohn, His face appeared as the sun, and His garments as the light (Matt.17:2);