Fire, in the spiritual sense, can mean either love or hatred depending on the context, just as natural fire can be either comforting in keeping you warm, or scary in burning down your house. Our language reflects this, too -- we use concepts like a smoldering hatred or a burning love. So fire signifies a love, either a good love of the neighbor and to the Lord, or, in a bad sense, selfish love of oneself that, if unchecked by conscience, leads to hatred of anyone that opposes it.

The Lord is life itself, and we are recipients of life. This is true even of the most evil spirits, who loved only themselves in life and hate and deny the Lord from their place in the lowest hells; the Lord forces life upon them, despite their rejection, in the amount necessary to keep them from ceasing to exist. The situation is much different, of course, with people who accept and follow the Lord; by doing this they open themselves up to the inflow of life, and become more full the more open they are. This is the “life” in question when the Bible uses that word. It indicates spiritual life, the life that comes from the Lord into our hearts and minds. We accept life from the Lord by learning about Him, learning what is right and wrong, and by determining that we will stop doing what's wrong and instead do what is right.