“Life” in the Bible has reference to what we love, to our affections, because what we care

about actually makes us who we are. “Light” has to do with our thinking, our intellect –

which is not life itself, but defines and guides our lives. This verse, then, in saying “in

him was life,” reveals that it is divine truth that inspires our feelings, that makes us want

what is good. And when we want what is good, that will be “the light of men,” inspiring

us to seek and understand true ideas that can help us actually be good and do what is

good.

So divine truth – the exquisite expression of the Lord’s love – is not only the driving

force behind creation, it is also the agent that creates our own internal lives, inspiring our

desires for good and through them our understanding of what is true.

(Препратки: Apocalypse Revealed 200; Arcana Coelestia 2894, 4687 [2-3]; Teachings about the Lord 1; True Christian Religion 39)

3877. 'Therefore she called his name Levi' means the essential nature of it. This is clear from the meaning of 'name' or 'calling the name' as the essential nature, dealt with above in 3872. That nature is what is contained in the words, 'Now this time my husband will cling to me, for I have borne him three sons', dealt with immediately above in 3875, 3876. This nature is what is meant by 'Levi', and also by the tribe named after him; and it is the third universal attribute of the Church, or the third development when a person is being regenerated or is becoming the Church. It is also charity. The situation with charity is that it contains the will for truth within itself, and through the will for truth contains the understanding of truth. For one in whom charity is present possesses those abilities to will truth and to understand it. But before a person arrives at charity he must pass through an external stage, that is to say, of understanding truth, then of willing truth, until at last he has an affection for truth, which is charity. And when charity is present in that person he looks to the Lord, who is meant in the highest sense by 'Judah', Jacob's fourth son.