218. If anyone hear my voice, and open the door, signifies he who believes in the Word and lives according to it. "To hear His voice," is to believe in the Word, for the Divine truth of the Word is "the voice of Jehovah" (n. 37, 50); and "to open the door" is to live according to it, because the door is not opened, and the Lord received, by merely hearing the voice, but by living according to it, for the Lord says:
He that hath My commandments, and doeth them, I will manifest Myself to him, and I will come unto him and make an abode with him (John 14:21-24). That man ought to open the door as from himself, by shunning evils as sins, and doing goods, is shown in The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem; and that this is the case, is also evident from the Lord's words here, "If anyone open"; as also from His words in Luke 12:36.
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