139. Internal Meaning of Ezekiel, Chapter 16

The successive states of the Jewish church. (2)

1-2 There was nothing in it but falsity and evil. (2)

3-6 It was forsaken by the Lord from the beginning, because it was without anything of the church. (2)

7-12 After a time truths and goods of every kind and species were given to it through the Word, and thus evils and falsities were removed. (2)

13-14 Thus it could have been in intelligence. (2)

15-20 It falsified all things of the Word. (2)

21-22 It extinguished truths and goods, and became as in the beginning. (2)

23-25 It turned truths into falsities (2)

26-28 by knowledges [scientifica] of the natural man, by traditions, and by reasonings from them, (2)

29-30 finally profaning [truths]. (2)

31 It exalted itself above all men. (2)

32-34 It obtruded its falsities on others. (2)

35-42 They will utterly perish by the falsities by which the truths of the Word have been destroyed. (3)

43-45 Thus they will be as in the beginning. (3)

46-52 The like has come to pass with the Israelitish church, but in a less degree. (3, 17)

53-55 Nevertheless the church in general shall be restored. (11)

56-58 It is everywhere better than in the Jewish church. (11)

59-63 A new church is to be instituted among others. (11)

A company might have executives setting policy and strategy, engineers designing products, managers handling personnel and others handling various functions. They all do different things -- but if they're doing them with a shared underlying purpose, the company -- and the individuals in it -- will likely be successful. The Lord wants all human society to function in a similar way. We have different skills and individual loves, but if we all share a mutual love -- a love of serving others -- then society will function as one, will be a reflection of heaven and will be a good receptacle for the Lord's love. This can also happen within each of us, as we unify our talents and ideas around a central love. And in an abstract sense, it illustrates how a wide collection of varying ideas can be unified around a shared good intention. That is the kind of love pictured when “one” is used in the Bible, either as a specific number or in the sense of several people or objects “being one.” In more casual references -- when used to identify a specific person or object -- the meaning is relatively literal, and is connected to that person or object.