This verse reinforces points in the first verse: that the divine truth was not created by or created after the divine love which it expresses. The two are one: Love has to express itself as truth to have form; truth has to express love to have substance. Love without truth is not really love at all; it’s just a feeling and a potential. Truth without love is not really truth; it’s just a concept with no goal, no use, no purpose.

"God" here represents the Lord’s desire for good; this verse then reinforces that perfect truth and perfect good were together from the beginning.

It’s also worth noting that along with the ultimate "beginning," there are also "beginnings" for each of us, marking the moments when we choose to turn away from evil and open ourselves to the Lord. This verse, then, reassures us that when we make such a beginning, the Lord’s love and the Lord’s truth will be there for us. And it also tells us that if we want to make a real beginning, we need to find that truth and cling to it as the best way to receive the Lord’s love.

160. Charity in the case of the Priest.

If he looks to the Lord and shuns evils as sins, and honestly, justly, and faithfully does the work of the ministry he is charged with, he is doing a good of use continually, and becomes a charity in form. But he does this good of use or the work of the ministry honestly, justly, and faithfully, when it is the salvation of souls that affects him; and in proportion as this affects him, truths affect him, because by them he is to lead souls to heaven; and he is leading souls to heaven by means of truths when he leads them to the Lord. His love is then diligently to teach truths from the Word, because when he teaches them from the Word he is teaching them from the Lord. For the Lord not only is the Word (John 1:1, 2, 14), but He is also the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6), and He is the Door. He, therefore, who enters into the sheepfold through the Lord as the door, is a good shepherd; but he who does not enter into the sheepfold through the Lord as the door, is a bad shepherd, who is called a thief and a robber (John 10:1-9).