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.

The relationship between men and women is deep and nuanced, and one entire book of the Writings -- Conjugial Love -- is devoted to the subject. So we can hardly offer a full explanation here. In a very general sense, though, the Writings say that men are creatures of intellect, driven by the love of growing wise; women, meanwhile are creations of affection, driven by the love of wisdom and the good that wisdom can do. They are formed this way to reflect the Lord's Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, and so that they can form marriages that reflect the unity of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. Marking differences between men and women can be a touchy thing, but realistically it's easy to see that men tend to love acquiring knowledge whether it has any practical application or not. Many of them can spout out sports statistics or hold court on the workings of the internal combustion engine, even though it is knowledge they are not likely to ever use. They find such knowledge interesting for its own sake. It follows, then, that when the Bible speaks of men, the men represent facts, ideas, knowledge, truth, intellect and wisdom -- or in the negative sense falsity, twisted logic, and reasoning that is devoid of concern for others.