356. Of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand were sealed. (7:7) This symbolizes spiritual love, which is love for the neighbor or charity, in those people who will be part of the New Heaven and of the Lord's New Church.

In the highest sense Simeon symbolizes providence; in the spiritual sense, love for the neighbor or charity; and in the natural sense, obedience and giving ear.

In the first two series the subject was people who are in the Lord's celestial kingdom. In this series, now, the subject is people who are in the Lord's spiritual kingdom. Their love is termed a spiritual love, which is love for the neighbor and charity.

Simeon and his tribe represented this love and thus symbolize it in the Word because he was born after Reuben and was the next before Levi, and these three - Reuben, Simeon and Levi - in that sequence symbolized truth in the intellect or faith, truth in the will or charity, and truth in practice or good work, like Peter, James and John. As Simeon and his tribe consequently represented truth in the will, which is both charity and obedience, therefore he was given a name derived from a word meaning to hear, and to hear symbolizes both to understand truth and to will it or obey - to understand it in the phrase to "hear someone," and to will it and obey in the phrase to "listen to someone" or hearken.

[2] We will say something here about love for the neighbor or charity. Love for the neighbor is a love of obeying the Lord's commandments, especially those in the second table of the Ten Commandments, namely, you shall not kill, you shall not commit whoredom, you shall not steal, you shall not bear witness falsely, and you shall not covet anything that is your neighbor's. A person who wills not to do these things because they are sins, loves his neighbor. For someone who hates his neighbor, and who out of hatred wishes to kill him, does not love his neighbor. Someone who wishes to commit whoredom with his neighbor's wife, does not love his neighbor. Neither does someone who wishes to steal and plunder his neighbor's goods love his neighbor, and so on.

Paul, too, teaches this in these words:

...he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "You shall not commit whoredom," "You shall not kill," "You shall not steal," "You shall not be a false witness," "You shall not covet," and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." ...Charity therefore is the fulfillment of the law." (Romans 13:8-10)