21. Verses 4-5 And God saw that the light was good; and God made a distinction between the light and the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night.

The light is called good, because it comes from the Lord, who is good itself. 'The darkness' is those things which were there prior to the person's new conception and birth. They were seen as light, because evil was seen as good, and falsity as truth. But in reality they are darkness and things proper to that person which are lingering on. All things that are the Lord's, being things of light, are compared to the day, and all that are man's own, being those of thick darkness, are compared to the night, as is done many times in the Word.

2253. 'Will You also destroy and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous persons who are in the midst of it?' means intercession made from love that they should not perish. This is clear from the meaning of 'fifty', also of 'righteous', as well as of 'the midst of it', that is, of the city, dealt with above in 2252. All these expressions together imply intercession made from love, and that those persons should not perish. Regarding this intercession, see above in 2250. That it is made from love is also evident. With the Lord, when He was in the world, no other life was present than the life of love towards the whole human race, which He passionately desired to save eternally. That life is wholly celestial life, by which He united Himself to the Divine, and the Divine to Himself - for Being (Esse) itself, or Jehovah, is nothing else than mercy, which is the manifestation of love towards the whole human race - and that life was the life of pure love, which life cannot possibly exist with any human being. People who do not know what life is, and that the nature of the life is determined by that of the love, do not comprehend this. From this it is evident that in the measure anyone loves the neighbour he draws on the life that is the Lord's.