Such as is a Man's Love, Such is His Life

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

And Jehovah said, Behold, the people are one, and they all have one lip, and this is what they begin to do; and now nothing will be withholden from them of all which they have thought to do. Genesis 11:6

Behold, the people are one, and they all have one lip.

...The people is said to be "one," and their "lip one," when all have as their end the common good of society, the common good of the church, and the kingdom of the Lord; for when this is the case the Lord is in the end, and all are a one from Him.

But the Lord cannot possibly be present with a man whose end is his own good; the Own [proprium] itself of man estranges the Lord, because thereby the man twists and turns the common good of society, and that of the church itself, and even the kingdom of the Lord, to himself, insomuch that it is as if it existed for him. He thus takes away from the Lord what is His, and puts himself in His place. When this condition reigns in a man, there is the like of it in every single thought he has, and even in the least particulars of his thoughts; for such is the case with whatever is regnant in any man.

This does not appear so manifestly in the life of the body as it does in the other life - for there whatever is regnant in anyone manifests itself by a certain sphere which is perceived by all around him, and which is of this character because it exhales from every single thing in him.

The sphere of him who has regard to himself in everything, appropriates to itself, and, as is said there, absorbs everything that is favorable to itself, and therefore it absorbs all the delight of the surrounding spirits, and destroys all their freedom, so that such a person has to be banished from society.

But when the people is one, and the lip one, that is, when the common good of all is regarded, one person never appropriates to himself another's delight, or destroys another's freedom, but insofar as he can he promotes and increases it. This is the reason why the heavenly societies are as a one, and this solely through mutual love from the Lord; and the case is the same in the church.

And this is what they begin to do.

That this signifies that now they began to become different, is evident from the connection. To begin to do, here signifies their thought or intention, and consequently their end, as also is evident from the words that next follow, and now nothing will be withholden from them of all which they have thought to do. That in the internal sense their end is signified, is because nothing else than the end in a man is regarded by the Lord. Whatever may be his thoughts and deeds - which vary in ways innumerable - provided the end is made good, they are all good; whereas if the end is evil, they are all evil.

It is the end that reigns in everything a man thinks and does.

The angels with a man, being the Lord's angels, rule nothing in the man but his ends; for when they rule these, they rule also his thoughts and actions, seeing that all these are of the end.

The end with a man is his very life.

All things that he thinks and does have life from the end, for, as was said, they are of the end; and therefore such as is the end, such is the man's life.

The end is nothing else than the love; for a man cannot have anything as an end except that which he loves. He who thinks one thing and does another, still has as the end that which he loves;

in the dissimulation itself, or in the deceit, there is the end

which is the love of self or the love of the world, and the derivative delight of his life. From these considerations anyone may conclude that such as is a man's love, such is his life. These therefore are the things signified by "beginning to do."

(Arcana Cœlestia 1316 - 1317)