1. Teachings for the New Jerusalem on the Lord

The Entire Sacred Scripture Is about the Lord, and the Lord Is the Word

WE read in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and nothing that was made came about without him. In him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind. And the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not grasp it. And the Word became flesh and lived among us; and we saw his glory, glory like that of the only-begotten child of the Father. He was full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-3, 5, 14)

In the same Gospel,

Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

And elsewhere in the same Gospel,

While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light. I have come into the world as a light so that anyone who believes in me will not remain in darkness. (John 12:36, 46)

We can see from this that the Lord is God from eternity and that he himself is that Lord who was born into the world. It actually says that the Word was with God and that the Word was God, as well as that nothing that was made came about without him, and then that the Word became flesh and that they saw him.

There is little understanding in the church of what it means to call the Lord “the Word.” He is called the Word because the Word means divine truth or divine wisdom and the Lord is divine truth itself or divine wisdom itself. That is why he is also called the light that is said to have come into the world.

Since divine wisdom and divine love are one with each other and have been one in the Lord from eternity, it also says “in him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind.” The life is divine love, and the light is divine wisdom.

This oneness is what is meant by saying both that “in the beginning the Word was with God” and that “the Word was God.” “With God” is in God, since wisdom is in love and love is in wisdom. This is like the statement elsewhere in John, “Glorify me, Father, together with yourself, with the glory I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:5). “With yourself” is “in yourself.” This is why it adds “and the Word was God.” It says elsewhere that the Lord is in the Father and the Father is in him [John 14:10], and that the Father and he are one [John 10:30].

Since the Word is the divine wisdom of the divine love, it follows that it is Jehovah himself and therefore the Lord, the one by whom all things were made that were made, since everything was created out of divine love by means of divine wisdom.

4448. Shechem my son. That this signifies the truth thence derived, is evident from the representation of Shechem, as being interior truth (see n. 4430), thus the truth thence derived, namely, from the good which is “Hamor” (n. 4447); for all the truth of the church is from its good, and from no other source does this truth ever come forth. This truth, here represented by Shechem, is called interior truth, and in its essence is nothing else than the good of charity. For the Most Ancient Church, being celestial, was in the good of love to the Lord, and thence in the perception of all truth, because the men of that church were almost like angels, and had communication with them, from which came their perception, and therefore they never reasoned about any truth of faith, but said “It is so,” because they perceived it from heaven, insomuch that they were not willing even to mention faith, but in its stead charity (see n. 202, 337, 2715, 2718, 3246), and this is the reason why by “interior truth” is here meant the good of charity. That there were remains of the church in question with Hamor the Hivite and his son Shechem, was shown just above (n. 4447).

[2] The case was different with the Ancient Church which was spiritual, for this church was not in love to the Lord, as was the Most Ancient Church, but was in charity toward the neighbor; and they could not attain to charity except through the truth of faith, of which they had no perception, like the most ancient people, and therefore they then began to make an investigation about truth to see whether it is so. (As to the difference between the celestial who had perception, and the spiritual who have it not, see n. 2088, 2669, 2708, 2715, 3235, 3240, 3246, 3887)