1026. With every living soul that is with you symbolizes everything in general that has been reborn in us. This can be seen from statements above and below [§§1022, 1036, 1040] and from the symbolism of living. Everything that receives life from the Lord is called living; everything in regenerate people that lives from that life is called a living soul. The extent to which we receive life when we are regenerate determines the extent to which individual elements inside us — both our reasoned ideas and our feelings — have life. This living force in the individual aspects of all we think and say is evident to angels, although it is not very evident to human beings.

2861. It happened after these words symbolizes the end of events centering on people within the church. This can be seen from the symbolism of words as events. In the original language, events are called words, so "after these words" means after these events had been brought to a close.

So far, from verse 13 to this one, the story has had to do with the salvation of spiritual people by the Lord's divine humanity-specifically, of people within the church who have goodness. They are the ones who are capable of being truly spiritual, because they have the Word and therefore know religious truth. Doctrinal truth, united to the goodness in our lives, makes us spiritual. That is the source of all spirituality.

Because people outside the church do not have the Word, they do not learn religious truth, as long as they live in this world. Even if they devote themselves to doing good out of love for their neighbor, they are not truly spiritual until they have been taught religious truth. Most non-Christian nations cannot be taught in this world, so in the Lord's providence and mercy, those individuals who have lived lives of mutual kindness and obedience receive instruction in the other world. Then they readily accept religious truth and become spiritual. (For this as the condition and destiny of non-Christians in the other world, see §§2589-2604.)

[2] Since the message so far has had to do with people within the church saved by the Lord's divine humanity, from here to the end of the chapter it has to do with people outside the church who are saved. They are symbolized by the children born to Abraham's brother Nahor by Nahor's wife Milcah and his concubine Reumah. This also follows in order. Anyone who does not know the Word's inner meaning would imagine that this is simply a genealogy for the house of Terah, introduced because of Rebekah, who became Isaac's wife, and because of Bethuel, whose two granddaughters, Leah and Rachel, became Jacob's wives. However, as has been said and shown time and again, all names in the Word have symbolic meaning (§§1224, 1264, 1876, 1888), and if they did not, the Word would not be divine but worldly. From this too it can be seen that the verses that follow form a series dealing with the Lord's spiritual church, but specifically that church as it exists among non-Christians. The image used is Abraham's brother Nahor, and the purpose is to symbolize people whose goodness makes them part of the fellowship, as it says below in §2863.