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.

711. III. By understanding this it is possible to grasp the fact that the Holy Supper contains everything to do with the church and heaven, both at the universal and at the particular level.

It was shown in the previous section that the Lord Himself is present in the Holy Supper, and that flesh and bread are the Lord in respect of the Divine good of love, and blood and wine are the Lord in respect of the Divine truth of wisdom. There are therefore three items involved in the Holy Supper, the Lord, His Divine good and His Divine truth. So since the Holy Supper includes and contains these three, it follows that it also includes and contains the universals of heaven and the church. Since all particulars depend upon universals, as contents do on their containers, it also follows that the Holy Supper includes and contains all the particulars of heaven and the church. The first fact established by this is that, since the Lord's flesh and blood, and likewise bread and wine, mean the Divine good and the Divine truth, both coming from the Lord and being the Lord, the Holy Supper contains everything to do with heaven and the church both at the universal and at the particular level.