their possessions from the harsh elements outside; the civil laws and all the
means of their enforcement that protect the lives and uses of the people from
harm; the formal vows and “piece of paper” that put a protective boundary of
honor, laws and customs in place around a marriage to preserve it.
Outer forms are needed to protect the more essential, living and perfect
realities within. Natural language, including doctrinal formulations, serve to
communicate and preserve Divine and spiritual truths in the natural world.
Let’s take just one word, “command,” as an example from Scripture of how
different the spiritual sense of the Word is from the literal. To “command”
means to issue a stern order that must be obeyed, and might well be shouted.
In the spiritual sense of the Word, though, “command” signifies an “influx”
from the Lord of goodness and truth into a person’s mind.
The Lord commands us from without, in the letter of the Word, to obey
His Law, while at the same time He gently leads us from within, by the subtle,
unseen influence of His providence, to love the spirit of the Law.
He orders us from without to do and not do certain things, only for the
sake of creating a new order within us capable of receiving the life of heaven.
Then we will delight in living by the Lord’s Word; and we will be no longer
“servants” obeying orders but “friends” who wish nothing more than to walk
with the Lord in the path of life. (See John 15:15)
The angels don’t command or order each other to do things. They are all
united in loving the Lord and one another. They are all "on the same wave
length.” They know each other’s thoughts, and perceive the meaning of them.
And because the angels are grouped according to their loves, and share a
common sphere formed by the Lord’s love, they not only understand each
other very well but are in essential agreement. (See Arcana Coelestia 5732)
In this world, our loves and thoughts are not as much in tune with the
Lord’s love and wisdom as the angels are. And the words we use to communicate
with each other are relatively crude and clumsy, and often poorly chosen. So
harmonious communication is not as easy for us now as it will be in heaven.
But still, especially in the Church – and most especially in the New
Church, in which the spiritual sense of the Word has been revealed, and which
is formed from within by influx from the new heaven – we should aim for
spiritual oneness, based on shared perceptions of truth arising from a shared
love of the Lord and of our neighbors.
The Lord prayed that His disciples “all may be one, as You, Father, are in
Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe
that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that
they may be one just as We are one.” (John 17:21-22)
Here we have a prayer, a most beautiful and heartfelt prayer, a Divine hope
and vision for the Church. It is not a harsh command or order accompanied
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