32. I, John, who am also your brother and companion. (1:9) This symbolizes those people who possess the goodness of charity and consequent truths of faith.

The Apostle John represented those people who possess the goodness of charity, as we said in no. 5 above, and people who possess the goodness of charity also possess truths of faith, since charity is the soul and life of faith.

It is because of this that John calls himself the brother and companion of the people in the church to whom he was writing, for he was writing to the seven churches. In the spiritual sense of the Word a brother means someone who possesses the goodness of charity, and a companion someone who for that reason possesses truths of faith. For people are all as though blood relatives through charity, and relatives by marriage through faith. That is because charity unites, but not so much faith unless it springs from charity. When faith springs from charity, then the charity unites and the faith affiliates. Moreover, because the two go together, therefore the Lord commanded all to be brothers; for He said,

...One is your Teacher, the Christ, while you are all brethren. (Matthew 23:8)

[2] The Lord also calls those brothers who possess the goodness of charity or goodness of life. He said,

My mother and My brothers are these who hear the Word of God and do it. (Luke 8:21; cf. Matthew 12:49, Mark 3:33-35)

Mother means the church, and brothers those who possess charity. Moreover, because the goodness of charity is "a brother," therefore the Lord names those who possess it His brothers (see also Matthew 25:40); and so likewise the disciples (Matthew 28:10, John 20:17). But we do not read that the disciples called the Lord brother, because "a brother" is the goodness that emanates from the Lord. It is comparatively like the case of a king, prince, or eminent person, who calls his relatives by blood and marriage brothers, even though they do not call him so in return. For the Lord says,

...One is your Teacher, the Christ, while you are all brethren. (Matthew 23:8)

And so, too:

You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say rightly, for so I am. (John 13:13)

The children of Israel called brothers all those who were descended from their ancestor Jacob, and in a wider sense those also who were descended from Esau. But people not descended from those ancestors they called companions.

However, because in its spiritual sense the Word deals only with people who are in the Lord's church, therefore in that sense brothers mean those who possess the goodness of charity emanating from the Lord, and companions those who possess truths of faith, as in the following passages:

Thus every one of you shall say to his companion, and every one to his brother, "What has Jehovah answered?" (Jeremiah 23:35)

You have not (proclaimed) liberty, every one to his brother and every one to his companion. (Jeremiah 34:17)

Let him not press his companion or his brother... (Deuteronomy 15:1-2)

For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will... say... (Psalms 122:8)

Everyone helps his companion, and says to his brother, "Be strong!" (Isaiah 41:6)

And in an opposite sense:

Everyone beware of his companion, and do not trust in any brother; ...every brother... supplants, and every companion slanders. (Jeremiah 9:3)

I will embroil Egypt with Egypt; each will fight against his brother, and... against his companion... (Isaiah 19:2)

And elsewhere.

I have adduced these particulars to make known why John calls himself a brother and companion - that in the Word a brother means one who possesses charity or goodness, and a companion one who possesses faith or truth.

Still, because charity is the foundation from which faith springs, therefore the Lord does not call anyone a companion, but a brother or neighbor. Everyone also is the neighbor in accordance with the quality of his goodness (Luke 10:36-37 ¹ ).

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5. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John. This symbolizes the things that have been revealed by the Lord through heaven to people who possess goodness of life arising from charity and its accompanying faith.

"He sent and signified it by His angel" means, in the spiritual sense, things that have been revealed by the Lord from heaven or through heaven. For in the Word an angel frequently means the angelic heaven, and in the highest sense the Lord Himself. That is because no angel ever speaks with a person in dissociation from heaven, for each has such a conjunction with all the rest there that everyone speaks in accord with the communion, even though the angel is not conscious of it.

In the Lord's sight, in fact, heaven is as a single person, whose soul is the Lord Himself. Therefore the Lord speaks with a person through heaven, as a person does from his soul through his body in speaking with another. And this the person does in conjunction with each and every part of his mind, at whose center are the things that he is saying. But this secret cannot be explained in a few words. We have explained it in part in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom.

In the highest sense the Lord is meant by an angel because heaven is not heaven in consequence of the angels' own qualities, but owing to the Lord's Divinity from which they have their love and wisdom, indeed their life. It is on this account that in the Word the Lord is Himself called an angel.

It is apparent from this that the angel did not of himself speak with John, but that the Lord did so by means of heaven through the angel.

[2] As for saying that this statement means that these things have been revealed to people who possess goodness of life arising from charity and its accompanying faith, that is because it is they who are meant by John. For by the Lord's twelve disciples or apostles are meant all in the church who possess truths arising from goodness, and in an abstract sense, all constituents of the church. By Peter are meant all who are governed by faith, and abstractly, faith itself. By James are meant those who are impelled by charity, and abstractly, charity itself. And by John are meant those who possess goodness of life arising from charity and its accompanying faith, and abstractly, the resulting goodness of life itself. That these are what are meant by John, James and Peter in the Gospels may be seen in the short work The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine (London, 1758), no. 122.

[3] Now because goodness of life arising from charity and its accompanying faith is what forms the church, therefore it was through the apostle John that secrets were revealed concerning the state of the church, the secrets that are contained in his visions.

The fact that the names of persons and places in the Word all symbolize things having to do with heaven and the church is something we showed many times in Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven), also published in London.

It can be seen from this that the phrase, "He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John," means, in the spiritual sense, the things that have been revealed by the Lord through heaven to people who possess goodness of life arising from charity and its accompanying faith. For charity produces goodness through faith, and not charity by itself or faith by itself.