In many cases, the spiritual meaning of "own," both as a verb and as an adjective, is relatively literal. When people are described as the "Lord's own," however, it specifically means those people who know Him and have His Word. This has taken various forms since the dawn of humanity; in the prehistoric church known as the "Most Ancient Church" the Lord's truth -- the direct expression of His love -- flowed into people directly. In the Ancient Church the Lord's Word was recognized in nature and in the form of deeply representative stories, some of which were passed on to us in the early chapters of Genesis. Among the Children of Israel the Lord's Word was expressed through the Ten Commandments, the laws of Moses, the very history of the nation of Israel and the various psalms and prophecies. The early Christians had those stories along with the teaching and inspiration of Jesus himself. We now have the whole Bible, including the teachings of Jesus, and can understand the Bible's true meaning. Each of these churches, then, was at some point the Lord's own.

3168. 'And they ate and drank' means making one's own the good and truth introduced in this way. This is clear from the meaning of 'eating' as being communicated and joined together, thus being made one's own, dealt with in 2187, 2343, and more specifically (since 'eating' has reference to bread and 'bread' means good, 276, 680, 2165, 2177, 2187) making good one's own; and from the meaning of 'drinking' as being communicated and joined together, thus being made one's own, dealt with in 3089, and more specifically (since 'drinking' has reference to wine and 'wine' means truth, 1071, 1798) making truth one's own. The situation is as stated above in 3167, namely that when truth is introduced into good in the rational, more so when it is joined to it, the good and truth of the spiritual man, that is, spiritual things, become made over to the natural as its own.