250. Attentive readers may observe that there seem to be pairs of expressions in the Word which look like repetitions of the same thing. For instance, brother and companion, poor and needy, wilderness and solitude, void and emptiness, enemy and opponent, sin and iniquity, anger and wrath, nation and people, joy and gladness, grief and weeping, righteousness and judgment, etc. These appear to be synonyms, yet they are not; for brother, poor, wilderness, [void,] enemy, sin, anger, nation, joy, grief and righteousness are used in speaking of good, and, in the opposite sense, of evil. Companion, needy, solitude, emptiness, opponent, iniquity, wrath, people, gladness, weeping and judgment are used in speaking of truth, and, in the opposite sense, of falsity. Yet it looks to the reader, who does not know this secret, that poor and needy, wilderness and solitude, void and emptiness, etc., are one and the same; still they are not, but they are joined to make a single unit.

Many expressions in the Word are coupled, like fire and flame, gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone, bread and wine ¹ , purple and fine linen, etc. Fire, gold, bronze, wood, bread and purple are used in speaking of good; but flame, silver, iron, stone, water, wine and fine linen are used in speaking of truth. Likewise when it is said that one is to love God with all one's heart and with all one's soul, or that God would create in a person a new heart and a new spirit. The heart is used in speaking of the good of love, the soul or spirit of the truths of faith. There are also words which are used by themselves without other additions, because they relate to both good and truth, but these and many other things do not become evident except to angels, and to those who, while having the natural sense, are also able to receive the spiritual sense.

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It is hard for us to conceive this, but time does not exist in spiritual reality. Time is an aspect of physical reality that no longer constrains us in spiritual life, just as we are no longer constrained by our physical bodies in spiritual life. That is what "forever" means in the Bible. It doesn't just mean "for a long time," "for the rest of your life" or even "until the sun expands and destroys the earth and all life here." It means to eternity without end.