2. Divine love and wisdom radiate from the Lord as a single whole (Continued)

Everything we see with our eyes in this world is this kind of whole, and so is everything we do not see with our eyes, either in the depths of nature or in the spiritual world. An individual is this kind of whole, and so is a human community. Further, the church is this kind of whole, and so is the whole angelic heaven in the Lord’s sight. In short, the created universe is this kind of whole not only in its entirety but also in every detail. If the whole and every part is to be a form, it is necessary that the one who created them all should be form itself and that all the things that have been created in their particular forms should come from that essential form.

That is the reason for a number of statements in Divine Love and Wisdom; for example, the following: Divine love and wisdom is substance and is form (Sections 40–43). Divine love and wisdom are form in and of themselves, and are therefore wholly “itself” and unique (Sections 44–46). Divine love and divine wisdom are a single whole in the Lord (Sections 14–22). They emanate from the Lord as a single whole (Sections 99–102 and elsewhere [Section 125]).

from Divine Providence, Section 4 (Cont’d)

Divine Love and Wisdom:

Sections 14-22: Published 4/14/2018-4/16/2018

Sections 40-46: Published 4/23/2018-4/25/2018

Sections 99-102: Published 6/10/2018-6/11/2018

Sections 125: Published 2/25/2019

2. Divine love and wisdom radiate from the Lord as a single whole (Continued)

No whole occurs apart from a form. Rather, the form itself is what makes the whole. Anyone who thinks with real mental focus will see clearly that no whole occurs apart from a form. If a whole occurs, it is a form. Whatever comes into being derives from its form what we refer to as its quality, attributes, changes of state, relationships, and the like. So anything that is not in some form is of no effect, and anything that is of no effect is of no substance.

The form itself is the source of all these qualities. Further, since all the constituents of a form—if the form is complete—relate to each other like link to link in a chain, it follows that the form itself is what makes the whole and therefore is the object to which we can attribute quality, state, effect, and so on, all depending on the completeness of the form.

from Divine Providence, Section 4 (Cont’d)

2. Divine love and wisdom radiate from the Lord as a single whole.

We can see this from several things that I explained in Divine Love and Wisdom, especially the following. In the Lord, reality and its manifestation are both distinguishable and united (Sections 14–16). In the Lord, infinite things are distinguishably one (Sections17–22). Divine love is a property of divine wisdom, and divine wisdom is a property of divine love (Sections 34–39). Unless it is married to wisdom, love cannot accomplish anything (Sections 401–403). Love or volition does not do anything without wisdom or discernment (Sections 409–410). As spiritual warmth and light radiate from the Lord as the sun, they make a unity the way divine love and divine wisdom make a single whole in the Lord (Sections 99–134).

We can see the truth of the present proposition from what is explained in these passages. However, since people do not know how two things can act in unison if they are different from each other, I should like to show at this point that no unity occurs apart from a form. Rather, the form itself is what makes the whole. Then I should like to show that a form makes a whole more perfectly as its constituents are distinguishably different and yet united.

from Divine Providence, Section 4

Notes:

Divine Love and Wisdom:

Sections 14-22: Published 4/14/2018-4/16/2018

Sections 34-39: Published 4/21/2018-4/22/2018

Sections 99-107: Published 6/10/2018-6/13/2018

Sections 108-134: Published 2/17/2019-2/28/2019

1. The Universe as a Whole and in Every Detail Was Created out of Divine Love, by Means of Divine Wisdom (Continued)

A force is instilled into everything that has been created. However, the force does not do anything on its own; it depends on the one who instilled it. Look at some other subject on our planet. Look at a silkworm or a bee or some little creature and examine it, first physically, then rationally, and finally spiritually. If you can think deeply, you will be stunned at everything. If you listen to the inner voice of wisdom, you will exclaim in amazement, “Can anyone fail to see Divinity here? These are the marks of divine wisdom!”

Beyond this even, if you look at the functions of everything that has been created, you will see how they follow in sequence all the way to humanity and from us to our source, the Creator. You will see how the connectedness of everything depends on the Creator’s union with us; and if you are willing to admit it, the preservation of everything depends on this as well.

In what follows, you will see that divine love created everything, but that it did nothing apart from divine wisdom.

from Divine Providence, Section 3 (Cont’d)

1. The Universe as a Whole and in Every Detail Was Created out of Divine Love, by Means of Divine Wisdom (Continued)

Everything that meets our eyes in this world can serve to convince us that the universe and absolutely everything in it was created out of divine love by means of divine wisdom. Take any particular thing and look at it with some wisdom, and this will be clear. Look at a tree—or its seed, its fruit, its flower, or its leaf. Collect your wits and look through a good microscope and you will see incredible things; and the deeper things that you cannot see are even more incredible. Look at the design of the sequence by which a tree grows from its seed all the way to a new seed, and ask yourself, “In this whole process, is there not a constant effort toward ongoing self-propagation?” The goal it is headed for is a seed that has a new power to reproduce. If you are willing to think spiritually (and you can if you want to), surely you see wisdom in this. Then too, if you are willing to press your spiritual thinking further, surely you see that this power does not come from the seed or from our world’s sun, which is nothing but fire, but that it was put into the seed by a creator God who has infinite wisdom.

This is not just something that happened at its creation; it is something that has been happening constantly ever since. Maintenance is constant creation, just as enduring is a constant coming into being. This is like the way labor ceases if you take the intention out of the activity, the way speech ceases if you take thinking out of it, or the way motion ceases if you take the energy out of it, and so on. In short, if you take the cause away from the effect, the effect ceases.

from Divine Providence, Section 3 (Cont’d)

1. The Universe as a Whole and in Every Detail Was Created out of Divine Love, by Means of Divine Wisdom

I explained in Divine Love and Wisdom that the Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, is essentially divine love and wisdom, and that he himself created the universe and everything in it out of himself [Sections 28–33, 52–60, 282–295]. It then follows that the universe and everything in it was created out of divine love by means of divine wisdom. I also explained in that work that love cannot do anything apart from wisdom and that wisdom cannot do anything apart from love [Section 401].

Love without wisdom (or our volition apart from our discernment) cannot think anything. It cannot actually see, feel, or say anything. This means that love apart from wisdom (or our volition apart from our discernment) cannot do anything. By the same token, wisdom apart from love (or our discernment apart from our volition) cannot think anything, see or sense anything, or even say anything. This means that wisdom apart from love (or our discernment apart from our volition) cannot do anything. If you take the love away, there is no longer any intention, so there is no action. If this is how things work for us when we do something, it was all the more true of the God who is love itself and wisdom itself when he created and made the universe and everything in it.

from Divine Providence, Section 3

Notes:

DIvine Love and Wisdom:

Sections 28-33: Published 4/19/2018-4/20/2018

Sections 52-60: Published 5/22/2018-5/24/2018

Divine Wisdom Is the Form of Government Exercised by the Lord’s Divine Love and Wisdom (Continued)

Further, if we put these propositions together with what I said about creation in that work, it shows that the way the Lord’s divine love and wisdom look after us is what we call divine providence. However, since that book was about creation and not about how the state of things was maintained after creation (which is the way the Lord is looking after us), I need to deal with that now. In this section, though, I will be dealing with the way the oneness of divine love and wisdom (or of what is good and true in divinity) is maintained in what has been created; and I will do so in the following sequence:

1. The universe as a whole and in every detail was created out of divine love, by means of divine wisdom.

2. Divine love and wisdom radiate from the Lord as a single whole.

3. There is some image of this whole in everything that has been created.

4. It is the intent of divine providence that everything created, collectively and in every detail, should be this kind of whole, and that if it is not, it should become one.

5. The good that love does is actually good only to the extent that it is united to the truth that wisdom perceives, and the truth that wisdom perceives is actually true only to the extent that it is united to the good that love does.

6. If the good that love does is not united to the truth that wisdom perceives, it is not really good, but it may seem to be; and if the truth that wisdom perceives is not united to the good that love does, it is not really true, but it may seem to be.

7. The Lord does not let anything remain divided. This means that things must be focused either on what is both good and true or on what is both evil and false.

8. If something is focused on what is both good and true, then it is something; but if it is focused on what is both evil and false, it is not anything at all.

9. The Lord’s divine providence works things out so that what is both evil and false promotes balance, evaluation, and purification, which means that it promotes the union of what is good and true in others.

from Divine Providence, Section 2

Divine Wisdom Is the Form of Government Exercised by the Lord’s Divine Love and Wisdom

To understand what divine providence is–that it is the way the Lord’s divine love and wisdom governs us–it is important to be aware of the following things, which were presented in my book on the subject.

In the Lord, divine love is a property of divine wisdon and divine wisdom is a property of divine love (Divine Love and Wisdom Sections 34-39).

Divine love and wisdom cannot fail to be and to be manifested in others that is has created (Sections 47-51). Everything in the universe was created by divine love and wisdom (Sections 52-54, 151-156). Everything in the created universe is a vessel of divine love and wisdom (Sections 55-60). The Lord look like the sun to angels; its radiating warmth is love and its radiating light is wisdom (Sections 83-98, 296-301). The divine love and wisdom that enamate from the Lord constitute a single whole (Sections 99-102). The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, created the universe and everyting in it from himself and not from nothing (Sections 282-284, 290-295). These propositions may be found in the work entitled Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love and Wisdom.

from Divine Providence, Section 1

Notes:

Divine Love and Wisdom:

Sections 34-39: Published 4/21/2018-4/22/2018

Sections 47-51: Published 5/21/2018

Sections 52-54: Published 5/22/2018

Sections 55-60: Published 5/23/2018-5/24/2018

Sections 83-102: Published 6/3/2018-6/19/2018

Sections 151-156: Published 3/7/2019-3/8/2019

To the Extent That We Turn Our Backs on All Kinds of Killing Because They Are Sins, We Have Love for Our Neighbor (Continued)

The Lord teaches good and loving actions in many passages on the Word.  He teaches such actions in Matthew when he instructs us to be reconciled with our neighbor:

If you bring your gift to the altar and in doing so remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.  First be reconciled with your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.  And be kind and generous to our adversary when you are both on the way [to court], to keep your adversary from turning you over to a judge, keep the judge from turning you over to an officer, and keep you from being thrown in prison.  I tell you in truth, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny. (Matthew 5:23-26)

Being reconciled with our brother or sister is turning our backs on hostility, hatred, and vengefulness.  We can see that this is turning our backs on these evils because they are sins.

The Lord also tells us in Matthew,

Whatever you want people to do for you, you do the same for them.  This is the Law and the prophets. (Matthew 7:12)

[We should do] nothing evil, then; and [this is said] quite often elsewhere.  Then too, the Lord tells us that killing is also being angry with our sister or brother or neighbor for no good reason and harboring hatred against them (see Matthew 5:21-22).

From Life/Faith, Section 73

To the Extent That We Turn Our Backs on All Kinds of Killing Because They Are Sins, We Have Love for Our Neighbor (Continued)

When we are no longer caught up in the evil of killing but are moved by the good we do out of love for our neighbor, then whatever we do is something good that results from that love, so it is a good work. Priests who are engaged in this goodness are doing a good work whenever they teach and lead because it comes from a love for saving souls. People in administrative roles who are engaged in this goodness are doing a good work whenever they make arrangements and decisions because it comes from a love for serving the country, the community, and their fellow citizens.  By the same token, if merchants are engaged in this goodness all of their business is a good work.  There is love for their neighbor within it, and their neighbor is the country, the community, their fellow citizens, and their own households as well, whose well-being concerns them as much a their own does.  Laborers who are devoted to this goodness do their work faithfully because of it, acting as much for others as for themselves, and being as fearful of harming others as of harming themselves.

The reason their actions are good deeds is that to the extent that we turn our backs on anything evil we do something good, in keeping with the general principle presented above in Section 21; and anyone who turns away from something evil as a sin is doing what is good not because of his or her self but because of the Lord (see Sections 18-31).

On the contrary, if we do not regard all kinds of killing—hostility, hatred, vengeance, and the like—as sins, then whether we are priests, administrators, merchants, or laborers, no matter what we do it is not a good deed, because we do shares in the evil that is within it.  It is in fact what is inside that is producing it.  The outside may be good, but only for others, not for ourselves.

From Life/Faith, Section 72

Notes:

Section 21: Published 3/30/2019

Sections 18-30: Published 3/30/2019-4/3/2019