2401. And said, Up, get you out of this place. That this signifies that they should not remain in a state of evil, is evident from the signification of “rising up,” and of “getting out,” and also of the “place.” To “rise up” often occurs in the Word, but excites little thought as to what it further signifies, because it is a familiar expression. But in the internal sense this expression involves elevation, as here, from evil to good; for the mind is elevated when it recedes from evil (n. 2388). To “get out” is to recede, or not to remain. And the “place” is a state of evil (n. 2393). Thus the signification is evident.

[2] The quality of those who are in the knowledges of truth, but at the same time in a life of evil, has been repeatedly stated before, namely, that so long as they are in a life of evil they believe nothing; for to will evil and from will to do evil, and at the same time to acknowledge truth in faith, is not possible. This shows also that a man cannot be saved by thinking and speaking what is true, nor even what is good, while he wills nothing else, and from this his will does nothing else, than evil. It is the very will of man that lives after death; not so his thought, except that which flows from his will.

[3] As therefore a man is such as his will is, it is evident what must be his opinion of the truths of faith he has learned, and even taught, seeing that they condemn him. So far is he then from making them the basis of his thoughts, that he feels a positive aversion for them; nay, insofar as he is permitted to do so, he, like the devil’s crew, blasphemes them. They who have not been instructed concerning the life after death may suppose that it will be easy for them to receive faith when they see that the Lord governs the universe, and when they hear that heaven consists in loving the Lord and the neighbor; whereas the truth is that the evil are as far from being able to receive faith, that is, to believe from the will, as hell is from heaven, for they are wholly in evil, and in the falsity thence derived. That such persons are against the Lord and against the neighbor, and therefore against good, and consequently against truth, is known and perceived from their mere approach, or presence. There is a horrible sphere that exhales from the life of their will and of their derivative thought (n. 1048, 1053, 1316, 1504).

[4] If by mere instruction in the other life it were possible that men could be brought to believe and to become good, there would not be a single person in hell; for the Lord desires to raise all without exception to Himself into heaven. For His mercy is infinite, because it is the Divine mercy itself, that is extended toward the whole human race, and therefore toward the evil as well as toward the good.

1316. Behold, the people are one, and they all have one lip. That this signifies that they all had one truth of faith and doctrine, is evident from the signification of “people,” as being the truth of faith, and from the signification of “lip,” as being doctrine. It has been shown before n. 1259), that “people” signifies the truth of faith, that is, those who are in the truth of faith; and that “lip” signifies the doctrine of faith, was shown just above (at verse 1). The people is said to be “one,” and their “lip one,” when all have as their end the common good of society, the common good of the church, and the kingdom of the Lord; for when this is the case the Lord is in the end, and all are a one from Him. But the Lord cannot possibly be present with a man whose end is his own good; the Own itself of man estranges the Lord, because thereby the man twists and turns the common good of society, and that of the church itself, and even the kingdom of the Lord, to himself, insomuch that it is as if it existed for him. He thus takes away from the Lord what is His, and puts himself in His place. When this condition reigns in a man, there is the like of it in every single thought he has, and even in the least particulars of his thoughts; for such is the case with whatever is regnant in any man.

[2] This does not appear so manifestly in the life of the body as it does in the other life, for there whatever is regnant in anyone manifests itself by a certain sphere which is perceived by all around him, and which is of this character because it exhales from every single thing in him. The sphere of him who has regard to himself in everything, appropriates to itself, and, as is said there, absorbs everything that is favorable to itself, and therefore it absorbs all the delight of the surrounding spirits, and destroys all their freedom, so that such a person has to be banished from society. But when the people is one, and the lip one, that is, when the common good of all is regarded, one person never appropriates to himself another’s delight, or destroys another’s freedom, but insofar as he can he promotes and increases it. This is the reason why the heavenly societies are as a one, and this solely through mutual love from the Lord; and the case is the same in the church.