64. So many different things in man act as a one, because there is no least thing in him that does not do something for the general welfare and perform some use. The general performs a use for its parts, and the parts for the general, for the general is composed of the parts and the parts constitute the general; therefore they provide for each other, have regard for each other, and are joined together in such a form that each thing and all things have reference to the general and its good; thus it is that they act as one. [2] In the heavens there are like affiliations. Those there are conjoined according to uses in a like form; and consequently those who do not perform uses for the common good are cast out of heaven as something heterogeneous. To perform use is to will well to others for the sake of the common good; but to will well to others not for the sake of the common good but for the sake of self is not to perform use. These latter are such as love themselves supremely, while the former are such as love the Lord supremely. Thence it is that those who are in heaven act as a one; and this they do from the Lord, not from themselves, for they look to Him as the Only One, the source of all things, and they regard His kingdom as the general, the good of which is to be sought. This is what is meant by the Lord's words,
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all things shall be added unto you (Matt. 6:33).
"To seek His righteousness" means to seek His good.# [3] Those who in the world love their country's good more than their own, and their neighbor's good as their own, are they who in the other life love and seek the Lord's kingdom; for there the Lord's kingdom takes the place of country; and those who love doing good to others, not with self as an end but with good as an end, love the neighbor; for in heaven good is the neighbor.## All such are in the Greatest Man, that is, heaven. # In the Wood "righteousness" is predicated of good, and "judgment" of truth; therefore "to do righteousness and judgment" is to do what is good and true (n. 2235, 9857). ## In the highest sense the Lord is the neighbor; consequently to love the Lord is to love that which is from Him, that is to love good and truth because the Lord is in everything that is from Him (n. 2425, 3419, 6706, 6711 6819, 6823, 8123). Therefore all good that is from the Lord is the neighbor, and to will and do that good is to love the neighbor (n. 5028, 10336)
This page is part of 
© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church