403. When the Three Universal Categories of Love Are Prioritized in the Right Way They Improve Us; When They Are Not Prioritized in the Right Way They Damage Us and Turn Us Upside Down

First I will say something about the prioritization of the three universal categories of love: love for heaven, love for the world, and love for ourselves. Then I will talk about the inflow and integration of one into the other. Finally I will discuss the effect of their prioritization on our state.

These three loves relate to each other as do the three areas of the body: the highest is the head; the middle is the chest and abdomen; and our thighs, lower legs, and feet make up the third. When our love for heaven constitutes the head, our love for the world constitutes the chest and abdomen, and our love for ourselves constitutes the lower legs and feet, then we are in the perfect state we were created to be in. In this state the two lower categories of love serve the higher category the way the body and everything in it serves the head.

Therefore when a love for heaven constitutes the head, this love flows into our love for the world, which is chiefly a love for wealth, and takes advantage of that wealth to do useful things; our love for heaven also flows through our love for the world into our love for ourselves, which is chiefly a love for having a high position, and takes advantage of that high position to do useful things. Therefore an inflow from one love into the next allows the three categories of love to join forces in order to do useful things.

[2] Surely everyone realizes that when people intend to do useful things because they are moved by spiritual love coming from the Lord (which is what "love for heaven" means), their earthly self uses its wealth and other goods to achieve those useful things, and their sense-oriented self carries them out as part of its position and derives honor from so doing.

Surely everyone also realizes that all the things we do with our body we do from the state of mind in our head. If our mind has a love for acts of service, our body uses its limbs to perform acts of service. Our body will do this because our will and intellect have their primary structures in our head and the derivations of those primary structures in our body, so that our will is present in what we do and our thinking is present in what we say.

Likewise the reproductive impetus in a seed affects each and every part of a tree and uses those parts to produce pieces of fruit as its acts of service. Or for another example, fire and light inside a clear container make the container hot and bright. In people whose three categories of love have been prioritized in the right and proper way, their mind's spiritual sight and their body's physical sight are translucent to the light that flows in through heaven from the Lord, just as a pomegranate is translucent all the way through to the center where the seeds are stored.

Something comparable is meant by the following words of the Lord: "Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is whole, that is, good, your entire body is full of light" (Matthew 6:22; Luke 11:34).

[3] No one whose reason is sound could condemn wealth. Wealth in the general body politic is like blood in us. No one whose reason is sound could condemn the levels of status that go with different jobs - they are the monarchs hands and the pillars of society, provided a spiritual love for status takes priority over an earthly and sense-oriented love for it. In fact, there are government positions in heaven and there is status that goes with them; but because the people who fill these positions are spiritual, the thing they love the most is to be useful.

262. The fact that the Lord fulfilled everything in the Word is clear from passages where it says that he fulfilled the law and the Scripture, and completed all things. For example,

Jesus said, "Do not think that I came to dissolve the Law and the Prophets. I did not come to dissolve them but to fulfill them. " (Matthew 5:17-18)

Jesus went into the synagogue and stood up to read. He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, "The spirit of Jehovah is upon me; this is why he anointed me. He sent me to preach the good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim release for the bound and sight for the blind, to preach the welcomed year of the Lord. " Afterward he rolled up the scroll and said, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. " (Luke 4:16-21)

To fulfill the Scripture that said, "The one who eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me. " (John 13:18)

Not one of them was lost except the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. (John 17:12)

To fulfill the Word that said, "Of those whom you gave me, I did not lose one. " (John 18:19)

Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword away in its place. How then would the Scripture that this must occur be fulfilled? This has happened in order to fulfill the Scripture. " (Matthew 26:52, 54, 56)

The Son of Humankind is leaving as it was written of him, so that the Scriptures would be fulfilled. (Mark 14:21, 49)

In this way the Scripture was fulfilled that said, "He was reckoned among the unholy. " (Mark 15:28; Luke 22:37)

They divided his clothes among themselves, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: "On my inner garment they cast lots. " (John 19:24)

After this, Jesus knew that all things were now completed so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. (John 19:28)

When Jesus had received the vinegar he said, "It is complete," that is, fulfilled. (John 19:30)

These things happened to fulfill the Scripture that "You will not break a bone in him;" and furthermore another line in Scripture says, "They will see the One whom they pierced. " (John 19:36-37)

Before the Lord left, he taught his disciples that the whole Word was written about him and that he had come into the world to fulfill it, as the following words indicate:

He said to them, "You are foolish and slow at heart to believe all the things that were spoken by the prophets. Was it not fitting for Christ to suffer and enter into glory?" Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted [points] regarding himself in all the Scriptures. (Luke 24:25-27)

Further, Jesus said,

It was right for all the things written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and Psalms to be fulfilled. (Luke 24:44-45)

The following words of the Lord make it clear that in the world he fulfilled everything in the Word down to the least detail:

Truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one little letter or the tip of one letter will pass from the law until all of it is fulfilled. (Matthew 5:18)

From the statements just made you can now clearly see that the Lord's fulfilling everything in the law does not mean that he fulfilled everything in the Ten Commandments; it means that he fulfilled everything in the whole Word. You can see that "the law" means everything in the Word from the following passages: "Jesus said, 'Is it not written in your law, "I said, 'You are gods'"?'" (John 10:34; the passage quoted is written in Psalms 82:6). "The crowd replied, 'We have heard from the law, Christ remains forever'" (John 12:34; the passage quoted is written in Psalms 89:34-37; 110:4; and Daniel 7:14). "To fulfill the Word that is written in their law, 'They hated me for no reason'" (John 15:25; the passage quoted is written in Psalms 35:19). "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for the tip of one letter of the law to fall" (Luke 16:17). The "law" in these passages means the whole of Sacred Scripture, as it does a number of times elsewhere.