Verses 1-4. And now the corrupted man, therefore, ceases to pervert the truth, and begins to contemplate the rejection of all truth; but he is able also to behold the state of the spiritual man as in heavenly order, and can discern truths in a state of apparent humility.

Verses 5-9. The happy state of the truly spiritual man is described, as to good and truth, as to deliverance from evil, and as to his power, from the Lord, against evil.

Verses 10-14. But the corrupted man conjoins in himself evil and falsity; he more clearly feels and perceives the opposition between himself and the spiritual man; and he recognizes that the truth cannot be changed to promote evil and error, and that he must be entirely separated from it.

Verses 15-25. A prophetic description of the coming of the Lord; of the process of Judgement, by which the external man in the case of the good, is made one with the internal; and of the same process in the case of the wicked, by which they are totally vastated as to all good and truth.

6296. 'But truly his younger brother will become greater than he' means that good from truth, thus the spiritual man, will receive even greater increase. This is clear from the representation of Ephraim, to whom 'younger brother' refers here, as truth that belongs to the understanding within the natural and is born from the internal, dealt with in 6234, 6238, 6267, though 'Ephraim' at this point is good from truth, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'becoming greater than another' as receiving even greater increase. The reason why here 'Ephraim' is good from truth is that he represents the member of the spiritual Church - the member of the external spiritual Church, to be exact - just as 'Manasseh' represents the member of the external celestial Church, 6295. What makes someone a member of the spiritual Church is good from truth - the internal part of that Church being what 'Israel' represents, the external what 'Ephraim' represents. A member of the spiritual Church differs from a member of the celestial in the fact that the spiritual member's good has been implanted in the understanding part of his mind, whereas the celestial member's has been implanted in the will part, see 863, 875, 895, 927, 928, 1023, 1043, 1044, 2256, 4328, 4493, 5117. This difference goes to explain why 'Ephraim' represents the spiritual man, and 'Manasseh' the celestial man.

[2] The reason why good from truth, or the spiritual man, will receive greater increase than good which gives rise to truth, which is the celestial man, is that the human will has been unceasingly corrupted, so corrupted that at length evil has taken complete possession of it, with the result that nothing sound has remained there. So that a person is not destroyed on account of this the Lord has seen to it that the understanding part of his mind may be regenerated and that he may thereby be saved. This now explains why there are few who still have any soundness in the will part of their mind, thus why there are few who can become celestial people but many who can become spiritual ones; and this in turn explains why those who are spiritual will receive greater increase than those who are celestial. This then is the meaning of 'his younger brother will become greater than he'.