(A commentary on John 21:15-25)

In the first part of this chapter, seven of the Lord's disciples had come home to Galilee. They had gone fishing, seen Jesus on the shore, followed his instructions to fish on the right side of the boat, dragged a net loaded with 153 fish to shore, and... as the second half of the chapter begins, they have just finished breaking their fast with Him. Now they are relaxing.

Jesus says to Peter,"Do you love me?" and Peter, perhaps a little startled at the question, thinking that the answer is obvious, answers "yes", and Jesus responds, "Feed my lambs". Twice more this sequence is repeated, but with some changes. Then, after this unusual conversation, the Lord tells them all a little parable about being young and later being old. Then the Lord tells Peter to follow him, and Peter, apparently jealous, asks what John is supposed to do. The Lord mildly rebukes Peter’s jealousy by saying, "If this man tarry until I come what is that to you?", but then He tells John also to follow him.

Finally, the gospel of John, and indeed the collection of all four gospels, closes with an explanation by John that he is the writer of this gospel.

So now, let’s look more closely at the conversation, the parable, and the outbreak of jealousy.

Only two of the seven disciples, Peter and John, are mentioned in this part of the story. Peter represents faith, or truth, but truth about spiritual things that we really believe are from God. John represents good, or love to the neighbor. The former resides in the understanding part of the mind and the latter in the will part of the mind.

In telling Peter to feed His sheep, the Lord is saying that to follow Him means to preach the truths that all the disciples now know about the Lord, His coming, and about how a life should be led, in order to be a follower of the Lord in a new church. In the conversation the Lord is direct and probing. "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?" I think Peter is being asked whether he loves the Lord, Jesus, more than he loves his fellow Galilean friends, though it’s ambiguous, it could mean "do you love me more than these other six do?’ When Peter answers the first time he says "Lord thou knowest that I love thee."

With this first of the three probing questions, the Lord answers "Feed my lambs," while after that the response is "Feed my sheep." Sheep and lambs both represent people who are in a love of doing good, but while sheep means those who love to do good for the sake of the neighbor, lambs mean those who do good for the sake of the Lord. The first is spiritual good, and the second is higher, and is called celestial good. But people who wish to do good at first don’t know what is good; they need to learn that from the Word and be taught. This is why Peter is told to "feed them", which is to say that truth must indicate how good is to be done. In order to do things that are good, the will's wanting to, and the understanding's knowing how to go about it, must be conjoined. For a successful Christian life, or on a larger scale, a Christian church, 'Peter' and 'John' must work in harmony.

Then comes the parable. "When you were young you got yourself ready and did what you wanted on your own. But when you become old, you have to reach out for help and another shall carry you where you don’t want to go."

This doesn’t seem to fit in here, but of course it does, and in two ways. The first way is given in the Biblical text; it is about the Lord’s death, that all the prophecies were leading Him to His crucifixion, as is mentioned. The second way is a lesson for all of us. When we are young, confident, and strong, we feel that we can do what we want and don’t need any help. Temptations to do evil we ourselves can deal with. But when we grow wiser we realize that all our strength comes from the lord, and if we continue to depend only on ourselves, the temptations from the hells will be too strong and we will be led into doing what the hells want for us, not what we want. We must learn at the start to follow the Lord and depend on Him. This he says at the end of the parable, where it seems not to fit until we understand the parable. "And when He had spoken this He saith unto (them), follow Me." That’s what we need to do also.

Peter is happy to do this preaching of the truth and maybe feels that he has been singled out, but he also realizes that John also loves the Lord and is loved in return. So he asks "And what is this man supposed to do?" It seems that the needed harmony is not yet present, and that Peter is jealous of the bond, and probably hopes to be assured that he is number one... but that doesn’t happen. Peter is simply told that it doesn’t matter; he needs to do the job he has been given.

I’m reminded of the story of Jacob and Esau, in Genesis 25, where Esau is the firstborn and will inherit the birthright and blessing from Isaac, as his due. Jacob by craft devised by his mother deceives Isaac and steals what is Esau’s. Then he runs off to Padan-Aram and stays there with his uncle and becomes rich. It is only on his return journey that he wrestles with the angel and has his name changed to Israel, that he again meets Esau. The change of name means that now that Jacob is rich with truth from the Word, now with the friendly meeting with Esau, also rich, that the two twins can in parable, be merged into one personage, called Israel, meaning the joining of good and truth in the mind.

Esau means something similar to John, they both represent goodness or true charity. Jacob means something similar to Peter, they both represent truth learned from the Word. Any seeming enmity between them as to which is more important can make them both useless, and in a person who is becoming angelic (as everyone should be aiming for), there is no enmity. Truth enables good, and good inspires truth in order to get something done. Although we can think and speak of them separately, they are (perfectly in the Lord and less so in angels) conjoined into a oneness so as to be seen as married. The marriage of the Lord's Divine good and Divine truth is the origin of all creation. Yes, all creation.

This marriage of good and truth, and the need for both to work in our lives, in balance and harmony, is a core New Christian concept.

In the Gospels, there is just one more story that takes place after this one. In it, the rest of the disciples join the seven mentioned here to hear the Lord’s last commands.

790. And they worshipped the beast. That these words signify an acknowledgment of those reasonings by which discordance with the Word was apparently removed, is evident from the signification of worshipping, as denoting to acknowledge as certain, and thence to worship as Divine (according to what was said above, n. 789); and also from the signification of the beast, as denoting reasonings from the natural man, confirming the separation of faith from life (concerning which see above, n. 774). And because that beast was seen to have seven heads and ten horns; and, moreover, was like a leopard as to the body, a bear as to the feet, and a lion as to the mouth; and because various things are signified by these, therefore these things are also here meant by the beast; for they worshipped it because of them.

[2] Because in the preceding article, it was shown that faith alone, or faith separate from charity, cannot produce goods of life, as a tree does fruit; it is of importance now to show in what manner spiritual faith, or the faith from charity, is acquired. But because the learned world has not hitherto known the nature and quality of what is spiritual in its essence, and how it is distinguished from what is natural, therefore they could not know the nature of spiritual faith, and how it is distinguished from natural faith. And yet natural faith, without spiritual faith as its source, is not faith at all, but merely knowledge, and also thought therefrom that a thing is so; and this, if called faith, is merely an historical faith, which, when confirmed, is persuasive faith. Moreover, both these kinds of faith are natural. Faith merely natural does not save, but spiritual faith does. Wherefore in what follows it shall now be explained how spiritual faith is formed by the Lord.

It is known in the world, that there is a natural man and a spiritual man; also, that the natural man is worldly, and the spiritual man heavenly. Nevertheless it is not known what spiritual faith is, and how this differs from natural faith. We have to observe therefore:

[3] 1. That every man has two minds, one natural and the other spiritual. And because it is the mind that wills and thinks, every man has also a natural will and thought, and a spiritual will and thought. The natural mind wills and thinks as a man in the world, and the spiritual mind wills and thinks as an angel of heaven. It follows, therefore, that faith, because it is in man, is also natural and spiritual; and that natural faith accords with the will and thought of a man in the world; and that spiritual faith accords with his will and thought in heaven.

It is said will and thought, because everything from which a man is a man, pertains to these two; for he acts from the will, and speaks from thought. And because a man acts and speaks either from himself or from God, therefore he wills and thinks either from himself or from God.

From these things it is clear first, that there is such a thing as a natural faith, and a spiritual faith; and that to have a natural without a spiritual faith is to think of such things as are in the Word from oneself; but that to have a natural from a spiritual faith is to think of them from God; although this also appears to man to be as from himself.

[4] 2. Since every man has two minds, a natural and a spiritual, and the natural mind is opened and formed by such things as are in the world, the spiritual mind, on the contrary, by such things as are in heaven; and because the things that are in heaven are all spiritual, therefore it is necessary that man's spiritual mind should be opened and formed by those things that are contained in the Word, where everything is spiritual, because Divine.

In the Word there are truths which must be known and thought, and goods which must be willed and done; and therefore, by both the latter and the former, man's spiritual mind is opened and formed. From these things it follows, that unless the spiritual mind is opened and formed by means of truths and goods from the Word, it remains closed; and also that when this mind is closed, the natural mind only is opened and formed by means of such things as are in the world, from which a man has indeed a natural light (lumen), but which discerns nothing that is from heaven.

From these things it is clear, secondly, that faith is not faith so long as the natural mind alone is opened. If, however, the thought that a thing is so is called faith, it is historical faith; and this is nothing but the knowledge, from which the natural man thinks.

[5] 3. In order that the spiritual mind may be opened and formed, it is necessary that it should have a storehouse from which it may supply itself with what is required; otherwise the man would be empty; and no Divine operation is possible in a void. This storehouse is in the natural man and its memory, in which every thing knowable can be stored up, and thence called forth. In this storehouse for the formation of the spiritual man, there must be truths which are to be believed, and goods which are to be done, both of which are derived from the Word, and from doctrine and preaching from the Word. These a man must learn from his infancy.

But all these things, however abundant they may be, and although they are derived from the Word, are nevertheless natural only, before the spiritual mind is opened; for they are mere knowledge. It is thought from this storehouse that is called faith by those who separate faith from good works in doctrine and in life.

[6] 4. The spiritual mind is primarily opened by man's abstaining from doing evils because contrary to the Divine precepts of the Word. If a man abstains from evils from any other fear than this, the spiritual mind is not opened.

The reasons why the spiritual mind is opened by this means and not otherwise, are these:- First, That evils in man must first be removed before communication and conjunction with heaven can be granted him. For evils, which are all in the natural man, keep heaven closed, which, nevertheless, must be opened, because otherwise a man would remain natural. The second reason is, that the Word is from the Lord, and consequently the Lord is in the Word, because He is the Word; for the Word is Divine truth, which is entirely from the Lord. It follows, therefore, that he who abstains from doing evils because they are contrary to the Divine precepts in the Word abstains from them from the Lord. The third reason is, that in proportion as evils are removed in the same proportion goods enter. That this is the case, a man may see from natural light (lumen) alone. For when lasciviousness is put away, chastity enters; when a man ceases to be intemperate, he becomes temperate; when he ceases to be deceitful, he becomes sincere; when hatred and the delight of revenge are put away, love and the delight of love and friendship enter; and so in other cases. The reason is, that the Lord enters, and with Him heaven, so far as a man abstains from doing evils from the Word, because he then abstains from them from the Lord.

[7] 5. This, however, shall be illustrated by examples. Thus with respect to the four precepts of the Decalogue: "Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not bear false witness"; these are Divine precepts because in the Word. He who shuns and is averse to adultery, from a fear that it is against the Lord, against heaven, and contrary to the spiritual life, which is the ground of eternal felicity, such a one loves chastity, and also his conjugial partner; because love truly conjugial is chastity itself. He who shuns or is averse to thieving, from a similar fear, loves sincerity, and also the good of his neighbour as his own good. He who shuns and is averse to murders, or deadly hatred, from a like fear, loves his neighbour and is in charity. He who shuns and is averse to false testimony, from a similar fear, loves justice and also truthfulness, and this from the Lord, because from the Word. Hence such a one after death, when he becomes a spirit, is like an angel of heaven, and therefore becomes an angel of heaven.

On the other hand, he who does not shun adultery from that holy fear, but from a fear of the loss of reputation, and thence of honour and gain, or from fear of the law or of disease, or because of infirmity; such a one is still unchaste, because he fears the world only, and the loss of his income in the world; he does not fear the Lord, nor, consequently, the loss of heaven and of eternal life. Similarly, he who abstains from theft, murder or deadly hatred, and from false testimony, from natural fear only and not from spiritual fear, abstains from these things of himself, and not from the Lord; and he who does this of himself, still remains in them, because no one can be withdrawn from such things except by the Lord.

From these things it is evident that the spiritual mind is opened in man by his abstaining from doing evils, from the Word; and, moreover, that it is opened in proportion as he abstains by shunning and becoming averse to them.

[8] 6. So far concerning the opening of the spiritual mind. Something shall now be said concerning its formation.

The spiritual mind is formed from the things laid up in man's memory from the Word, the memory being a storehouse, of which we have spoken above; but those things are called forth by the following means.

First, a man is gifted with the affection of truth, which is called the spiritual affection of truth, and which consists in loving truth because it is truth. The reason why this affection of truth is possible, is that, evils being removed, a man is in goods from the Lord, and good loves truth, and truth good; and they desire to be conjoined. This affection comes from the Lord alone; for the Lord in heaven is Divine truth; and it comes by means of the Word, because the Lord in the church is the Word.

Secondly, those things that are from the Word, in man's storehouse above mentioned, are called forth and purified by the Lord; and genuine truths are there discriminated and separated from what is false; for man's spiritual mind cannot be formed except by genuine truths, because heaven is not in any other.

Thirdly, those truths are elevated by the Lord in a wonderful manner, and become spiritual. This is effected by the influx of heaven, and thence of spiritual things corresponding to natural; and these truths are there arranged into a heavenly form, the nature of which may be seen described in the work concerning Heaven and Hell 200-212).

Fourthly, those truths which are elevated into the spiritual mind are not in a natural, but a spiritual form. Truths in a spiritual form are such as those in the spiritual sense of the Word; but truths in a natural form are such as those in the natural sense of the Word; and that these are distinct from each other, and yet make one by correspondences, was illustrated in the work concerning Heaven and Hell 87-115). This is why a man when after death he becomes a spirit, and his spiritual mind is opened, no longer thinks and speaks naturally but spiritually.

Fifthly, a man, so long as he lives in the world, does not at all know what he thinks in the spiritual mind, but only what he thinks from that mind in the natural. After death, however, the state is changed, and he then thinks from the spiritual mind, and not from the natural. So far concerning the opening of the spiritual mind and its formation.

[9] 7. When a man's spiritual mind is opened and formed, then the Lord forms the natural mind. For a man's natural mind is formed from the Lord through the spiritual mind. The reason is, that the spiritual mind is in heaven, and the natural mind in the world; for the natural cannot be formed to the idea of such things as are in heaven except from heaven, nor before communication and conjunction with heaven are affected. This formation is effected by the Lord by influx out of the spiritual mind into the natural, whereby the things in the natural mind are arranged in order so as to correspond to those that are in the spiritual; this correspondence is treated of in many places in the Arcana Coelestia, and also in the work concerning Heaven and Hell. The truths that are in the natural mind from the spiritual are called rational, moral and natural truths, and, in general, scientific truths; and the goods that are in the natural mind from the spiritual are called affections and desires for those truths, and to think, speak, and act from them; and in general they are called uses. All the things that are from the spiritual mind in the natural come under the man's view and into his perception.

[10] 8. It must be known that this formation of both minds in man continues from his infancy to old age, and afterwards to eternity; and sometimes from the middle life to the end, and afterwards to eternity. Nevertheless, it continues in the other life in a manner different from that which proceeded in the world. And as man is being formed, so he is perfected in intelligence and wisdom, and becomes a man. For no man is a man from his natural mind, being from this rather an animal; but he becomes a man by intelligence and wisdom from the Lord, and in proportion as he is intelligent and wise, in the same proportion he is a beautiful man, and an angel of heaven. In proportion, however, as he rejects, suffocates, and perverts the truths and goods of the Word, that is, of heaven and the church, and thence rejects intelligence and wisdom, he is so far a monster and not a man, because he is so far a devil. From these things it is evident that man is not a man from his parents, but from the Lord, by whom he is born and created anew; this therefore is regeneration and a new creation.

[11] 9. This being premised, something shall now be said concerning the will and understanding of the man that is created anew or regenerated by the Lord, and afterwards concerning charity and faith. His will is formed in the natural man by the influx of the heat of heaven through the spiritual mind from the Lord. The heat of heaven is, in its essence, the Divine Good proceeding from the Divine Love of the Lord. On the other hand, the understanding in the natural man is formed by the influx of the light of heaven through the spiritual man from the Lord. The light of heaven is, in its essence, Divine truth proceeding from the Divine Love of the Lord. Hence it follows that the will is formed from goods, from which man has love and affection; and that the understanding is formed from truths therefrom, from which man has intelligence and wisdom. And because truths are nothing else but forms of good, it follows that the understanding is nothing else but the form of its will. The only difference is, that the understanding sees, and the will feels. It is evident, therefore, that according to the quality of the will of good which a man has, such is his understanding of truth; or what amounts to the same, according to the quality of man's love, such is his intelligence.

Hence it is evident, that although the will and the understanding are two faculties of life, still they act as one, wherefore those two faculties of life are called one mind. This is the case in the natural man. In the spiritual man also there are will and understanding, but much more perfect; and these are also called one mind. The latter therefore is the spiritual mind and the former the natural mind. Such is the case with the man whose spiritual mind is opened and formed; but it is entirely otherwise with him whose spiritual mind is closed, and only the natural mind opened.

[12] 10. The same things may be said concerning charity and faith as have been said concerning the will and understanding; for the will is the subject and receptacle of charity, because it is the subject and receptacle of good; and the understanding is the subject and receptacle of faith, because it is the subject and receptacle of truth. For charity derives all its quality from good, and faith derives all its quality from truth; therefore we say the good of charity and the truth of faith. It follows, therefore, that charity and faith act as one, like will and understanding; and that according to the quality of the charity such is the faith. This takes place in the natural mind; but in the spiritual mind, the love of good is in the place of charity, and the perception of truth in the place of faith.

[13] 11. That spiritual love, which is charity, produces faith, may appear from this single circumstance, that a man after death, who is then called a spirit, is nothing else but an affection which is of love, and that his thought is therefrom. The whole angelic heaven, therefore, is arranged into societies according to the varieties of affections; and every one in heaven, in whatever society he may be, thinks from his own affection. This is why the affection, or love, produces faith; and the faith is according to the quality of the affection. For faith is nothing else but thinking that a thing is so in truth. By affection is meant love in its continuity.

But a man in the world at this day is ignorant that his thought is from affection, and according to it. And the reason is that he sees his thought, but not his affection. And because thought is his affection in a visible form, therefore he knows only that the whole mind of man is thought. The case was otherwise formerly with the ancients where the churches were. As these knew that love produces all things of thought, they therefore made charity, which is the affection of knowing truths, of understanding them, and also of willing them, and becoming wise by means of them, the principal means of salvation. And because that affection makes one with faith, therefore they knew nothing of faith as such.

[14] From these things it is evident not only how faith is formed in man, but also that faith can never produce charity; but that charity, which is spiritual love, forms faith to a resemblance of itself, and presents therein an image of itself; and that for this reason the quality of faith is known from charity and its goods, which are good works, as the quality of a tree is known from its fruit. By the tree, however, is not meant faith, but the man as to his life. By its leaves are signified truths whereby is faith, and by the fruits thereof are signified goods of life, which are goods of charity. Besides these there are innumerable other mysteries respecting the formation of faith by charity from the Lord; but still it is the Lord who does all these mysterious things, man being ignorant of it. All the work necessary on the part of man is to learn truths from the Word and live according to them.