The number "four" in the Bible represents things being linked together or joined. This is partly because four is two times two, and two represents the ultimate linking between our desire to be good and our understanding of truth. We can also see this in the fact that most buildings are rectangular, with the four sides linking together to make a whole. We also divide directions into four -- north, east, south and west -- and talk about the "four corners" of something meaning all of it. So our special thinking naturally looks at four sides as linking together into a whole.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 417; Arcana Coelestia 1686, 9103, 9601, 9767, 9864)

6820. The community is the neighbour over the individual person because it consists of a group of people; therefore the same charity ought to be exercised towards it as towards the individual person, that is to say, in keeping with the kind of good that resides there. Thus it should be exercised towards a community of upright people in a way altogether different from that in which it should be towards a community of people who are not upright.