34. Love and faith cannot possibly be separated for they constitute one and the same thing. This is why, when first the [great] lights are dealt with and they are taken to be one, it is said [using a singular verb with a plural noun], 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens'. Let some marvels relating to this be mentioned here. Since celestial angels possess from the Lord that kind of love, they possess by virtue of that love every cognition of faith, and by virtue of that love the kind of life and light of understanding that almost defies description altogether. On the other hand spirits who without love have a knowledge of the doctrinal matters concerning faith live such cold lives and are in such dull light that they cannot approach even the outer gateway to heaven before running off in the opposite direction. Some claim to have believed in the Lord, but they have not lived according to His teaching. The Lord refers to these people in Matthew as follows,

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does My will. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? and so on. Matthew 7:21-22-end.

[2] From this is clear that those who have love have faith as well, and so heavenly life, whereas those who claim to have faith and yet have none of the life inherent in love do not. The life of faith devoid of love is like sunlight devoid of warmth, as is the case in wintertime when nothing grows and every single thing is inactive and dies off. But faith deriving from love is like the sunlight in springtime when everything grows and blossoms, for it is the warmth of the sun that brings it out. It is similar with spiritual and celestial things, which are normally represented in the Word by the things found in the world and on earth. An absence of faith, and faith devoid of love, are also compared by the Lord to winter where He foretold the close of the age in Mark,

Pray that your flight may not happen in winter, for those will be days of affliction. Mark 13:18-19.

'Flight' means the final period, also the time when a person dies; 'winter' is life which is destitute of love, 'days of affliction' his wretched condition in the next life.

1963. 'Abram was a son of eighty-six years' means the Lord's state as regards celestial goods acquired through the conflicts brought about by temptations. This is clear from the meaning of 'eighty', a number that is similar to forty in what it embodies, which, as shown already in 730, 862, means temptations; from the meaning of 'six' as conflict, also dealt with already in 720, 737, 900; as well as from the meaning of 'ten' as remnants, dealt with in 576. With the Lord these remnants were acquisitions of celestial goods by which He united the Human Essence to the Divine Essence; see 1906 (end). These three numbers go to make up the number of eighty-six, which embodies such matters within it, and so means the Lord's state as regards celestial goods that had been acquired through the conflicts brought about by temptations; for all numbers in the Word mean real things, as shown already in 482, 487, 575, 647, 648, 755, 813. As the numbers mentioned here ¹ are numbers of years, and as they in fact occur in a historical narrative regarding Abram, it does seem as though they are not used to mean such things. But nothing is written in the Word that does not pass into a spiritual or celestial sense when it reaches the angels, for with angels none other than spiritual and celestial ideas exist. When the Word is being read by man, angels neither know nor perceive what eighty-six is, nor are they concerned about what age Abram was when Hagar bore him Ishmael. Rather, when such a number is read, the real things embodied in that number instantly present themselves to them, as when all other expressions are read, these present themselves as the things which they have been shown to mean in the internal sense.

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