14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. -1 John 3:14 King James Version (KJV)
Spiritual Diary, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1758], tr. by Bush, Smithson and Buss [1883-9] at sacred-texts.com
THAT THE LOVE IS THE LIFE. In conversing with spirits respecting love, it was said that the love is the life and that without love there is no life, and because spirits are of contrary natures, so there are contrary loves, as the love of self and the world, whence arise corresponding delights; and it was perceived by them that unless there be a love of a particular object, or a cupidity, which is the continuation of love, or unless there is some delight peculiar to a certain love, there is no life; which is better perceived in the world of spirits then among men. They then said from apperception, that there was nothing of life, unless there were love and consequent delight, and that they knew not that any degree of life could be given on any other condition; and that as nothing could vegetate without the vernal [spring] and summer heat, so nothing could live in the spiritual world without love. Hence it was made manifest that true love is the alone life, and that there is no other life than that of love. - 1748, December 1.
Divine Love, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1762-3], tr. by John Whitehead [1914], at sacred-texts.com
III. LIFE, WHICH IS THE DIVINE LOVE, IS IN A FORM. The Divine love, which is life itself, is not simply love, but it is the proceeding Divine; and the proceeding Divine is the Lord Himself. The Lord is indeed in the sun which appears to angels in the heavens, and from which proceed love as heat and wisdom as light; yet outside of that sun, love with wisdom is also the Lord. The distance is only in appearance; for the Divine is not in space, but is without distance, as was said above. There is an appearance of distance because the Divine love, such as it is in the Lord, cannot be received by any angel for it would consume them; for in itself it is hotter than the fire in the sun of the world; for this reason it is lessened gradually..., until, tempered and accommodated it reaches the angels, who moreover, are veiled with a thin cloud lest they should be injured by its intensity. This is the cause of the appearance as of distance between the Lord as a sun, and heaven where angels are; nevertheless, the Lord Himself is present in heaven, but in away suited to reception. The Lord's presence is not like the presence of a man who occupies space, but it is a presence apart from space; that is, He is in things greatest and least... It is difficult, I know, for man to comprehend this, because it is difficult for him to remove space from the ideas of his thought; but it can be comprehended by angels, in whose ideas there are no spaces. In this respect spiritual thought differs from natural thought. Since, therefore, love proceeding from the Lord is a sun is the Lord Himself, and this love is life itself, it follows that the love itself which is life, is Man; thus that it contains in infinite form the things that are in man, one and all. These are conclusions from what has been said about the life of all things from the Lord, and about His providence, omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience.
Arcana Coelestia Index #12
Love of self and of the world... They who are in the loves of self and the world have not life in themselves; their life is called death, and they the dead: shown, 7494. They are detained in the other life by evil spirits by means of insinuations into the loves; and then they can never be separated, except by the Lord's Divine aid, 7501...
Arcana Coelestia, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1749-56], tr. by John F. Potts [1905-10], at sacred-texts.com
7493
The loves of self and of the world with man begin to reign when he comes to years of discretion and self-government; for then the man begins to think from himself or from his own, and to appropriate these loves to himself, and this the more as he confirms himself in a life of evil...
7494.
They therefore who either pervert or extinguish or reject in themselves the good of love and the truth of faith, have no life in them; for the life which is from the Divine is to will good and believe truth. But they who do not will good but evil, nor believe truth but falsity, have what is contrary to life. This contrary to life is hell, and is called "death," and they are called "dead." That the life of love and faith is called "life," also "eternal life," and that they who have it in themselves are called "living men;" and that the contrary of life is called "death," also "eternal death," and such men "dead," is evident from many passages in the Word (as in Matt. 4:16; 8:21, 22; 18:8, 9; 19:16, 17, 29; John 3:15, 16, 36; 5:24, 25; 6:33, 35, 47, 48, 50, 51, 53, 57, 58, 63; 8:21, 24, 51; 10:10; 11:25, 26; 14:6, 19; 17:2, 3; 20:31; and elsewhere)...
The loves of self and of the world with man begin to reign when he comes to years of discretion and self-government; for then the man begins to think from himself or from his own, and to appropriate these loves to himself, and this the more as he confirms himself in a life of evil...
7494.
They therefore who either pervert or extinguish or reject in themselves the good of love and the truth of faith, have no life in them; for the life which is from the Divine is to will good and believe truth. But they who do not will good but evil, nor believe truth but falsity, have what is contrary to life. This contrary to life is hell, and is called "death," and they are called "dead." That the life of love and faith is called "life," also "eternal life," and that they who have it in themselves are called "living men;" and that the contrary of life is called "death," also "eternal death," and such men "dead," is evident from many passages in the Word (as in Matt. 4:16; 8:21, 22; 18:8, 9; 19:16, 17, 29; John 3:15, 16, 36; 5:24, 25; 6:33, 35, 47, 48, 50, 51, 53, 57, 58, 63; 8:21, 24, 51; 10:10; 11:25, 26; 14:6, 19; 17:2, 3; 20:31; and elsewhere)...
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