36. People who have separated faith from love do not even know what faith is. When they do entertain an idea about faith, some of them see it only as mere thought, others as thought directed towards the Lord, and a few as the doctrine of faith. But faith involves not only knowledge of all the things that the doctrine of faith embraces and the acknowledgment of them; it is first and foremost obedience to everything that doctrine teaches. The primary point that it teaches for men's obedience is love of the Lord and love of the neighbour. Whoever is devoid of this is devoid of faith, a point which the Lord teaches so plainly in Mark as to leave absolutely no room for doubt,

The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Therefore you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. The second is also like it, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. Mark 11:28-33.

In Matthew, He calls the former 'the first and great commandment', and says 'on these commandments the Law and Prophets depend', Matthew 22:35-40. The Law and the Prophets are the doctrine of faith in its entirety and the whole of the Word.

7884. 'You shall keep it as a feast by an eternal statute' means worship of the Lord in keeping with the order of heaven for those belonging to the spiritual Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'an eternal statute' as the order of heaven, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'keeping a feast' as worship of the Lord, as just above in 7882. And since the children of Israel are the ones who are told to keep it as a feast, those belonging to the spiritual Church are meant. The reason why 'an eternal statute' means the order of heaven is that all the statutes which the children of Israel were commanded to observe were the kind that flowed from the order of heaven, and therefore also represented the things of heaven. By worship in keeping with the order of heaven one should understand all the good that is performed in keeping with the Lord's commandments. By the worship of God people at the present day mean primarily worship of the lips in church, and also morning and evening. Worship of God does not however consist essentially in that, but in a life of performing useful services; this worship is in keeping with the order of heaven. Worship of the lips is also worship, but it achieves nothing whatever without worship in the life one leads, since this is worship of the heart. If worship on the lips is to be true worship it must spring from this.