1419. The symbolism of and make your name great as glory can be seen without an explanation.

On the surface, making a name implies something worldly, as does glory, but in an inner sense it implies something heavenly. The heavenly equivalent is not the effort to become greatest but to become least, the servant of all, as the Lord said in Matthew:

It shall not be this way among you, but anyone among you who wants to become great will have to be your attendant. And anyone who wants to be first will have to be your slave. Just as the Son of Humankind ¹ did not come to be served but to serve others, and to give his soul as a ransom for many. (Matthew 20:26-27, 28; Mark 10:43, 44, 45)

[2] What makes love heavenly is not the desire to have anything for ourselves but to share with everybody; so it is the desire to give everything that is ours to others. This is the essence of heavenly love. Because the Lord is love itself, or the essence and living power of the love that everyone in heaven has, he wants to give everything that is his to the human race. That is what is symbolized by his declaration that the Son of Humankind had come to give his soul as a ransom for many people.

This demonstrates that the inner meaning of a name and glory is something entirely different from the surface meaning. Anyone in heaven who is obsessed with becoming big and important is rejected, because this goes against the essence and vitality of heavenly love, as given by the Lord.

From this it also follows that nothing is more opposed to heavenly love than self-love. See more on this, from experience, in §§450, 452, 952.

Footnotes:

952. One individual felt he had lived a holy life in the world, his purpose being to win public admiration for his piety and in this way earn heaven. He said he had led a devout life and made time for prayer, believing that it was enough for us each to take care of ourselves and our own welfare. He added that he was a sinner and wanted to suffer, even to the point of being trampled underfoot by others (which he called Christian patience), and that he wanted to be the humblest person there was, in order to be the greatest in heaven. Questioned as to whether he had done or wished to do anyone any good — to perform works of charity, in other words — he declared that he had no idea what these were, that he had simply lived a holy life. Because this man's goal was to be better than others, whom he consequently deemed his inferiors, and most of all because he viewed himself as a saint, he appeared at first in a shining white human form that was visible down to the pelvis. Then he turned a dusky shade of blue and finally black. Since he wished to domineer over other people and held them in contempt, he ended up blacker than others.

Concerning those who want to be greatest in heaven, see above at §§450, 452. ¹

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