The heart means love. A good heart means love to the Lord and to the neighbor, while a hard or stony heart means the love of self or the world -- riches and things. When the psalmist asks the Lord to search his heart, he wants the Lord to see what it is that he loves. And we are what we love. What we eat may form our earthly body, but it's only temporary, what we love forms our spiritual body, beautiful or ugly as we have chosen. It's interesting to note that the first multi-cellular motion of our embryo is the pulsating that starts in a twist of blood vessel that is to become our heart, and the last motion of our natural body is our heartbeat. It is there for all of our natural life. And of course there is a beating heart in our spiritual bodies when we come to put them on.

'Honor, virtue, and might,' as mentioned in Revelation 7:12, signify divine celestial things of the Lord. 'To honor thy father and thy mother,' as mentioned in Exodus 20:12, in a spiritual sense, signifies revering and loving God and the church. (True Christian Religion 306) In a celestial sense 'father' means our Lord Jesus Christ, and 'mother' means the new church. 'Honor' signifies the good of love. 'To honor,' as mentioned in Isaiah 24:15, signifies worship and adoration. 'Honor' refers to worship from good, and 'fear' refers to worship from truth, as mentioned in Malachi 1:6. 'To be honored above all,' as mentioned in Genesis 34:19, signifies what is primary. 'The honor of Carmel and Sharon,' as mentioned in Isaiah 35:1, 2, signifies divine good that the Gentiles should receive.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 8897)