Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
The thought alone that there is a God and that the Lord is the God of heaven opens heaven and presents man as present there, and yet so slightly as to be almost unseen, appearing afar off as in the shade. But in proportion as his thought of God becomes more full, true, and just, he appears in the light.Thought becomes more full by the knowledges of truth from the Word that pertain to faith and of good that pertain to love; for all things from the Word are Divine, and Divine things taken together are God.
A man who thinks merely that there is a God and who gives no thought to what God is, is like one who thinks that the Word exists and that it is holy, and yet knows nothing of its contents; or like one who thinks that the law exists, but knows nothing of what is in the law. But the thought of what God is, is so great that it fills heaven, and makes all the wisdom of the angels, which is ineffable, for in itself it is infinite, because God is infinite. The thought that there is a God, derived from what He is, is what is meant in the Word by "the name of God."
It has been said that man has thought from light and thought from love, and that thought from light makes man's presence in heaven, but thought from love makes man's conjunction with heaven, and for the reason that love is spiritual conjunction. Therefore, when man's thought from light becomes his thought from love he is introduced into heaven as to a marriage, and so far as love is the primary agent in thought from light or leads that thought, man enters heaven as a bride enters the bride-chamber, and is wedded. For the Lord is called in the Word a "bridegroom" and a "husband," and heaven and the church are called a "bride" and a "wife." "To be wedded" means to be conjoined to heaven in some society of it; and one is so far conjoined to heaven as he has acquired in the world intelligence and wisdom from the Lord through the Word, thus so far as he has learned by means of Divine truths to think that there is a God, and that the Lord is that God. And yet one who thinks from few truths, thus from little intelligence, although he is conjoined with heaven when he thinks from love, is conjoined in its lower parts only.
By love, love to the Lord is meant, and loving the Lord does not mean loving Him as a Person, for by such a love only man is not conjoined to heaven, but by the love of Divine good and Divine truth, which are the Lord in heaven and in the church — these two are not loved by knowing them, thinking about them, understanding them, and speaking them, but by willing and doing them for the reason that they are commanded by the Lord, and thus because they are uses.
- Nothing prior is full until it has been done; and the end for the sake of which the thing is done is the love; consequently the love of knowing a thing, of thinking about it, and of understanding it springs from a love of willing and doing it.
He that hath My commandments and doeth them, he it is that loveth Me, and I will make My abode with him. But he that loveth Me not keepeth not My words (John 14:21, 23-24).In a word, loving and doing are one; therefore where loving is mentioned in the Word doing is meant, and where doing is mentioned loving also is meant; for what I love, that I do.
(from Apocalypse Explained 1098:2, 1099:2,3)