Chapter 7
Goodwill (or Loving Our Neighbor)
and Good Actions
392
H
AVING addressed faith, we now turn to goodwill, because faith and
goodwill are united, just as truth and goodness are united. And
truth and goodness are united like light and heat in springtime. I say this
because spiritual light, which is the light that emanates from the sun in the
spiritual world, is essentially truth. Therefore wherever the truth appears
in that world it shines with a brightness that depends on how pure the
truth is. The spiritual heat that emanates from that sun is essentially good-
ness. I state this because the same things apply to goodwill and faith that
apply to good and truth. Goodwill is all the forms of good that we do for
our neighbor combined. Faith is all the forms of truth that we think about
God and about divine things combined.
[ 2 ] Since the truth that comes from faith is spiritual light and the
goodness that comes from goodwill is spiritual heat, it follows that spiri-
tual heat and light have properties similar to those of physical heat and
light. Just as everything on earth blossoms when heat and light are united
on earth, so everything in the human mind blossoms when heat and
light are united in it. There is a difference, however: on earth the heat
and light that cause blossoming are physical, but in the human mind the
heat and light that cause blossoming are spiritual. Because the latter is a
spiritual blossoming, it leads to wisdom and intelligence.
In addition to a similarity, there is also a correspondence between the
two forms of heat and light. Therefore in the Word a human mind that
contains goodwill united to faith and faith united to goodwill is compared
to a garden. In fact, this is the meaning of the Garden of Eden (the truth
of this has been fully shown in Secrets of Heaven,published in London).
[ 3 ] It is also important to realize that if there were no discussion of
goodwill following the discussion of faith, the true nature of faith would