One of the most beautiful ideas in Swedenborg is that love is the
source and basis of everything -- not just the “stuff” of the universe, but the very matrix of reality itself. And since the Lord is love itself (and love is the Lord), that means that the Lord’s love (or “Divine Love,” as it is generally expressed in Swedenborg) is everything, the only thing, the all in all, infinite, indivisible and constant.
It can get confusing, then, to encounter a list of the Lord’s aspects: Divine Love, Divine Wisdom, Divine Good, Divine Truth, the Divine Human. If the Lord is infinite and indivisible, why does he seem to have so many parts?
The answer is that we are finite and divisible, and that the various sections of our hearts and minds receive the Lord’s love differently. This is done so that we can be free: We perceive the Lord’s in different ways in different parts of ourselves, and thus have choices we can make in what we value, believe and follow.
So what, then, does “Divine Good” mean?
Consider the love a mother feels for her child. It is a deep, rich, overpowering thing, but it is also rather shapeless and general in and of itself. In order for it to enter her life and the child’s life it has to take form. You don’t just sit there feeling love for your baby; you hold your baby, feed it, touch it, kiss it, sing to it, talk to it, keep it warm and dry and clean and safe. You put your love into action; from your love you do everything good for that child.
And so it is with the Lord. The love he has for us is not a passive thing; it is working with us, working on us, impacting us in every moment, doing all it can to hold us, feed us, touch us, kiss us, sing to us, talk to us and keep us warm and dry and clean and safe. That is what Swedenborg means by Divine Good. “Everything that love does is good,” Swedenborg says in Divine Wisdom No. 9; in Arcana Coelestia No. 3005 it says that “Divine Good is the manifestation of the Lord's love and mercy.”
Of course, parents of teenagers know that as children grow, they tend to get a little funny about how we love them. They’re usually happy to be fed, and generally will let us keep them warm and dry. If we’re lucky they’ll be OK with us talking to them. But all the holding, touching, kissing, singing stuff not so much -- try to imagine giving your 17-year-old a bath the way you did when she was a baby! They want to be themselves, to live their own lives, and have to create some separation to do it.
That’s very much how we tend to be with the Lord. We accept a little bit of love, but tend to be rather fierce in defending our freedom and individuality.
Over time, though, adult children often build new connections with their parents, opening their hearts and minds in new ways, returning their parents’ love in ways they could not do as children. That’s a relationship we can all build with the Lord as well -- accepting the good things he wants to bring to us and returning the love by doing what is good ourselves.
Passages from Swedenborg
Divine Wisdom (Whitehead) n. 9
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IX.
THE DIVINE LOVE IS THE DIVINE GOOD, AND THE DIVINE WISDOM IS THE DIVINE TRUTH.
This is because everything that love does is good, and everything that wisdom teaches is truth. From this it is clear that the Divine love is called the Divine good from its effect, which is use; also that the Divine wisdom is called the Divine truth from its effect, which is use. For effect is doing and also teaching, the former having relation to love and the latter to wisdom; also every effect is a use, and use is what is called good and truth; good being the essence of use, and truth its form. It is needless to explain this further and to enlarge upon it, since anyone can see from reason that love is what does and wisdom is what teaches, and that which love does is good and that which wisdom teaches is truth; also that the good that love does is use, and that the truth that wisdom teaches is likewise use.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3005
The fact that JESUS in the internal sense is Divine Good and CHRIST Divine Truth may be seen from many places in the Word. The reason why Jesus is Divine Good is that it means Safety, Salvation, and Saviour. And as it means these it means Divine Good, for it is from Divine Good, which is the manifestation of the Lord's love and mercy, and so through the reception of that Good, that all salvation springs.
Apocalypse Explained (Tansley) n. 254 (2)
From the Lord as a Sun proceed light and heat: the light which proceeds, because it is spiritual light, is Divine truth; and the heat, because it is spiritual heat, is Divine good. The latter, namely, the Divine good, is meant by the Father in heaven.
Doctrine of Life (Dick) n. 32
There are two universals that proceed from the Lord, Divine Good and Divine Truth: Divine Good is of His Divine Love, and Divine Truth is of His Divine Wisdom. These two in the Lord are one, and consequently proceed from Him as one; but they are not received as one by angels in the heavens and by men on earth. There are angels and men who receive more of Divine Truth than of Divine Good, and there are those who receive more of Divine Good than of Divine Truth. Hence it is that the heavens are distinguished into two kingdoms, one of which is called the celestial kingdom and the other the spiritual kingdom: the heavens that receive more of the Divine Good constitute the celestial kingdom, while those that receive more of the Divine Truth constitute the spiritual kingdom.
Apocalypse Explained (Tansley) n. 466
There are two things that proceed from the Lord, from which are all things in the heavens and in the earths, namely, Divine Truth and Divine Good. Divine Truth is the source of all wisdom and intelligence with angels and men, and Divine Good is the source of all love and charity in them. These two proceed from the Lord in union, so that in their very origin they are one; but they are two with angels and men, who are the recipients of them, because there are two receptacles of life with angels and men, called the understanding and the will.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 8643
The reason why Divine Good is represented at this point by 'Jethro' is that the subject in this chapter is the arranging of truths into order with a member of the spiritual Church, which is done by Divine Good working through Divine Truth. For whenever arrangement into order takes place it is done by good working through truth.
[2] Truths are arranged into order in this way with a member of the spiritual Church when his actions begin to be governed no longer by truth but by good. This state is his second state, which arises after he has undergone temptations. When truth governs his actions he undergoes temptation, to the end that the truths with him may become firmly accepted. Once they have been firmly accepted they are arranged into order by the Lord; and once they have been arranged into order the person enters the second state, in which the truths are in his will and in his actions. As a result of this they become part of his life, and are called forms of good.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3704
Since every single thing in heaven, every single thing with man, and indeed every single thing in the whole natural order has reference to good and truth, the Lord's Divine too is therefore distinguished into Divine Good and Divine Truth - the Lord's Divine Good being called 'the Father', and His Divine Truth 'the Son'. Yet the Lord's Divine is nothing else than Good, indeed it is Good itself; but Divine Truth is the Lord's Divine Good as it presents itself visually in heaven, that is, to angels. In this it is like the sun. Essentially the sun is nothing else than fire; but the light which one sees coming from it is not in the sun but flowing from it.
[2] So essentially the Lord is nothing else than Divine Good, and this applies to both essentials - to the Divine itself and to the Divine Human. Divine Truth however does not exist within Divine Good but flows from it, for as stated above, Divine Truth is the Divine Good presenting itself visually in heaven. Now because Divine Good presents itself as Divine Truth, therefore the Lord's Divine is distinguished, to enable man to grasp it mentally, into Divine Good and Divine Truth, Divine Good being called in the Word 'the Father' and Divine Truth 'the Son'. This is the arcanum that lies behind the Lord Himself on so many occasions speaking of His Father as though He were separate from and so to speak One other than Himself, and yet at other times speaking of His being one with Himself.
Who (or What) is Swedenborg?
The ideas on this site are based on the works of Emanuel Swedenborg, an 18th-century Swedish scientist and theologian. Swedenborg claimed that his religious writings, the sole focus of the last three decades of his life, were done at the behest of the Lord himself, and constituted a revelation for a successor to the Christian Church.
In keeping with Swedenborg’s own statements, modern believers downplay his role as author, attributing the ideas to the Lord instead. For this reason they generally refer to Swedenborg’s theological works as “the Writings,” and some resist the label “Swedenborgian” as placing emphasis on the man rather than the message.
Since “the Writings” would be an unfamiliar term to new readers, we have elected to use the name “Swedenborg” as a label for those theological works, much as we might use “Isaiah” or “Matthew” to refer to books of the Bible. The intent, however, is not to attribute the ideas to Swedenborg, any more than we would attribute the divinity of the Bible to Isaiah the man or Matthew the man.
So when you read “according to Swedenborg” on this site, it’s really shorthand for “according to the theological works from the Lord through Swedenborg.” When you read “Swedenborg says,” it’s really shorthand for “the theological works of Swedenborg say.”