To some degree, Swedenborg really offers no spiritual meaning to the word “love” in the Bible. Why? Because if you truly love another, that is already a spiritual state.
To put it simply, Swedenborg says the Lord is love itself, a perfect and infinite love that is the source of all actual life and substance in the universe. Thus everything we are and everything we experience is a product of the Lord’s love; there is no way for us to have any love from ourselves that is not ultimately the Lord’s love, because the Lord’s love is everything.
So when we feel love, what we’re really doing is opening ourselves to be a conduit for the Lord’s love – truly a spiritual state. This also means that the more we can align our love with the Lord’s love, the stronger our experience of love will be. The Lord’s love is a constant desire to be conjoined with us, to be able to love us fully while protecting our freedom. So the more we try to love that way, the more in harmony with the Lord we will be and the more powerful our feelings of love will be.
In a general sense, then, most uses of “love” in the Bible represent a desire for union, one-ness and connection, powered and enriched by the Lord.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3827
- ‘And they were in his eyes like a few days, because of his love for her’ means a state of love, that is to say, a state without any tedium. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being in his eyes’ as its appearing to be so, from the meaning of ‘days’ as states, dealt with in 893, 2788, 3462, 3785; therefore ‘like a few days, because of his love for her’ means a state of love. When anyone enters a state of love or heavenly affection he enters an angelic state; that is to say, it is as though time does not exist, provided that that affection holds no urge for change. That urge is a bodily affection; and insofar as anyone is subject to it time exists for him, but insofar as he is not subject to it time does not exist. This is reflected somewhat in the delights and glad feelings that go with affection or love. When someone experiences these he is not conscious of time, since he is living within the internal man during such experiences. By means of the affection that is an attribute of genuine love a person is drawn away from bodily and worldly interests, for his mind is lifted up towards heaven, and so he is drawn away from things that belong to time. Indeed it is reflecting on those things which are not the objects of one’s affection or love, and so on things that are tedious, that gives rise to an apparent sense of time. From this one may also see what is meant by the seven years being in his eyes like a few days, because of his love for her.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3865
- ‘For now my husband will love me’ means that from this state would come the good of truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘will love’ as the good coming from this state, for all good is the product of love and is therefore the meaning of ‘love’ at this point; and from the meaning of ‘husband’ (vir) as truth, dealt with in 3134.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3875
[3] In Matthew,
No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will cling to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Matt. 6:24.
Here the celestial form of love is meant by ‘loving’, the spiritual form by ‘clinging to’. Both of these expressions are used because those two forms of love are distinct and separate. Otherwise one expression would have been sufficient.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4434
[3] In Malachi,
Judah has acted faithlessly, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah has profaned the holiness of Jehovah, for he loved and married the daughter of a foreign god. Jehovah was a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have acted faithlessly. Mal. 2:11, 14, 15.
‘Loving and marrying the daughter of a foreign god’ means joining oneself to falsity instead of truth, which is ‘the wife of one’s youth’.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4675
- ‘And Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons’ means a joining of the Divine Spiritual of the Rational to the Divine Spiritual of the Natural. This is clear from the representation of Jacob, when he is called ‘Israel’, as the Divine Spiritual of the Natural, or the celestial manifestation of the spiritual from the natural, dealt with in 4286, 4598; from the representation of ‘Joseph’ as the Divine Spiritual of the Rational, or the celestial manifestation of the spiritual from the rational, dealt with in 4286, 4592; and from the meaning of ‘loving’ as being joined together, for love is a joining together spiritually.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 5807
- ‘And his father loves him’ means that this truth exists joined to spiritual good from the natural. This is clear from the meaning of ‘love’ as a joining together, dealt with below; from the representation of Israel, who here is the one who ‘loves him’, as spiritual good from the natural, dealt with in 4286, 4598; and from the representation of Benjamin, who is the one whom ‘his father loves’, as new truth, dealt with above in 5804, 5806. The existence of this truth joined to that good is what is meant by ‘his father loves him’; and to this truth that good cannot fail to be joined since such truth has its origin in that good. This truth and good exist joined together like father and son, and also like the mental powers of will and understanding since all good has a place in the will and all truth in the understanding. When the will wills what is good this good is implanted in the understanding, where it is given a specific form fashioned according to the essential nature of that good. This form is truth; and as this new truth is born in that manner one can see that it cannot fail to be joined to that good.
[2] As regards love, that it is a joining together, it should be recognized that love is a spiritual joining since it is a joining together of two people’s minds, that is, of their thought and will. From this it is evident that regarded essentially love is something purely spiritual, the natural counterpart of which is the delight that comes with companionship and that kind of togetherness. Essentially love is the harmony that results from changes of state and from variations in the forms or substances from which the human mind is built. If that harmony originates in the heavenly form it is heavenly love. From this one may see that love cannot have its origin in anything other than genuine Divine love, which is received from the Lord. This means that love is the Divine flowing into forms and so arranging them that their changes of state and variations may exist in the harmony of heaven.
[3] But loves contrary to this – self-love and love of the world – are not joinings together but separations. They do, it is true, appear to be joinings together; but this is due to one person considering another to be one with him as long as he co-operates with him in making gain, acquiring important positions, or in taking revenge on and persecuting those who oppose him. But as soon as one ceases to show the other person favour, they separate. Heavenly love is different. This is totally averse to doing good to another for selfish reasons; rather it does it for the sake of the good which resides with that other person and which he receives from the Lord, consequently for the sake of the Lord Himself, the Source of that good.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 8880
- ‘Who love Me’ means who receive the good of love. This is clear from the meaning of ‘those who love Jehovah’, that is, people who love the Lord, as receivers of the good of love; for the love of those who love the Lord does not originate in themselves but comes from the Lord. This is so because all good flows in from Him, and the ones who love Him are those who refrain from evil; for evil stands in the way and repels the inflow of good from the Lord. Consequently once evil has been removed good, which is constantly present from the Lord and trying to enter, is received.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9174
If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what thanks do you have? Rather, love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing from it; then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Highest. Luke 6:34, 35.
[4] Here also ‘lending’ is used to mean being stirred by charity and affection to do good, thus to communicate the good things of heaven, and also to impart the good things of the world, yet to impart them with the good things of heaven in view. Charity and affection are present when good things are communicated without thought of reward, but charity and affection are absent when they are communicated with reward as the end in view, see 2373, 2400, 3816, 3956, 4943, 6388-6390, 6392, 6393, 6478, 8002. ‘Loving enemies’ and ‘doing good’ to bad people are aspects of charity and affection; but enemies are loved and good is done to them when they are given instruction and also when by suitable means they are corrected by them, 8121.