Father in the Word means what is most interior, and in those things that are following the Lord's order, it means what is good. In the highest sense Father means the Lord Himself, the creator. In the generation of natural children it is the father who provides the soul or the most interior receptacle of life, and an internal heredity, and the mother who provides all of the substance that the soul uses to form its body, plus an external heredity. In this process the soul comes from the Lord through the father, and not from the father, since all life is from the Lord. The wise person calls the Lord his father and the church his mother because his interior loves come from the Lord, but are given form and actuality through the truths taught by the church. Those things thus brought forth are a person's spiritual "children". In the New Testament, when speaking of Jesus and the Father, what is meant is the outward manifestation with the divine itself as the soul inside. Because Jesus was born from a natural mother, He had a natural body and a natural Jewish heredity. Throughout his life as He was tempted by the hells, He slowly put off all he had from His mother and replaced it with what He had from Himself inside, the Father. In doing this he made himself one with the Father that was His inmost so He could truly say, "I and my Father are one".

6314. 光如何, 作为人的生命之热的热也如何。这种生命之热决非源于这个世界的太阳所散发的热; 它源于属灵之热, 属灵之热是爱, 是从主发出的; 天使便拥有这热。因此, 一个人所拥有的生命之热的量取决于他所拥有的爱的量。然而, 他的身体处于尘世之热, 其身体里面的感官意识也是; 不过, 生命之热流入尘世之热, 并赋予它生命。这热在纯度和强度上的不同类似光在清晰度上的不同。在圣言中, 圣火指的就是这生命之热, 所以这些火表示天堂的爱。但就反面意义而言, 地狱之火指的是尘世之热, 所以在圣言中, 这些火表示地狱之爱及其欲望。