394. There Are Three Universal Categories of Love: Love for Heaven; Love for the World; and Love for Ourselves

We are starting with these three categories of love because they are universal and fundamental to all types of love and because goodwill has something in common with each of the three.

Love for heaven means love for the Lord and also love for our neighbor. Love for heaven could be called love for usefulness, because both love for the Lord and love for our neighbor have usefulness as their goal.

Love for the world is not only love for wealth and possessions but also love for all the things that the world provides that please our physical senses: beauty pleases our eye, harmony pleases our ear, fragrances please our nose, excellent food pleases our palate, soft touches please our skin. It also includes beautiful clothes, spacious accommodations, and social groups to belong to - all the pleasures that we get from these and many other things.

Love for ourselves is not only a love for respect, glory, fame, and status but also a love for seeking and getting high positions and becoming a leader.

Goodwill has something in common with each of these categories of love, because goodwill is by definition a love for usefulness of all kinds. Goodwill wants to do what is good for our neighbor, and goodness is the same as usefulness. Each of the categories of love just mentioned have usefulness as their goal: love for heaven has the goal of being useful in spiritual ways; love for the world has the goal of being useful in earthly ways, which could also be called forms of civil service; and love for ourselves has the goal of being useful in physical ways, which could also be labeled benefits at home for ourselves and our loved ones.

781. "The New Heaven" and "the New Earth" and "the New Jerusalem Coming Down from Heaven" in the Book of Revelation Mean This [Second Coming of the Lord]

In the Book of Revelation we read:

I saw a new heaven and a new earth, because the former heaven and the former earth had passed away. And I, John, saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (Revelation 21:1-2)

We read something similar in Isaiah:

Behold, I am creating a new heaven and a new earth. Be glad and rejoice forever. Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a rejoicing and its people a joy. (Isaiah 65:17-18)

As I have shown earlier in this chapter [773], the Lord is at this time forming a new heaven. It consists of Christians who did acknowledge while they were in the world, and Christians who were able to acknowledge after they left the world, that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, as he himself says in Matthew 28:18.