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.

2629. 'Whom Sarah bore to him' means its essential being received from, and its manifestation given by, the Divine spiritual united to the Divine celestial. This is clear from the meaning of 'bearing' as giving manifestation to, dealt with in 2621; and since childbirth implies conception - and the giving of birth, or manifestation, rests with the Divine spiritual, while conception or the imparting of being rests with the Divine celestial, and these are united here - 'bearing' here means the receipt of being as well as the gift of manifestation; and also from the representation of 'Sarah' as the Divine spiritual united to the Divine celestial, dealt with in 1468, 1901, 2063, 2065, 2172, 2173, 2198, 2507. These arcana are so deep that they defy description, so deep in fact that they cannot be illustrated by anything at all in this world. They are intended for the minds of angels, to which they are presented in the light of heaven by means of things which lie beyond description.