s the neighbor, in the inmost or third heaven love to the Lord,
in the second or middle heaven love towards the neighbor. They both
go forth from the Lord, and they both make heaven. How these two
loves are distinct and how they are conjoined is seen in heaven in
clear light, but in the world only obscurely. In heaven loving the
Lord does not mean loving Him in respect to His person, but it means
loving the good that is from Him; and to love good is to will and do
good from love; and to love the neighbor does not mean loving a
companion in respect to his person, but loving the truth that is from
the Word; and to love truth is to will and do it. This makes clear
that these two loves are distinct as good and truth are distinct, and
that they are conjoined as good is conjoined with truth.{1} But this
can scarcely be comprehended by men unless it is known what love is,
what good is, and what the neighbor is.{2}

{Footnote 1} To love the Lord and the neighbor is to live
according to the Lord's commandments (n. 10143, 10153, 10310,
10578, 10648).

{Footnote 2} To love the neighbor is not to love the person,
but to love that in him from which he is what he is, that is,
his truth and good (n. 5028. 10336). Those who love the person,
and not that in him from which he is what he is, love evil and
good alike (n. 3820). Charity is willing truths and being
affected by truths for the sake of truths (n. 3876, 3877).
Charity towards the neighbor is doing what is good, just, and
right, in every work and in every function (n. 8120-8122).

16. I have repeatedly talked with angels about this matter. They were
astonished, they said, that men of the church do not know that to
love the Lord and to love the neighbor is to love what is good and
true, and to do this from the will, when they ought to know that one
evinces love by willing and doing what another wishes, and it is this
that brings reciprocal love and conjunction, and not loving another
without doing what he wishes, which in itself is not loving; also
that men should know that the good that goes forth from the Lord is a
likeness of Him, since He is in it; and that those who make good and
truth to belong to their life by willing them and doing them become
likenesses of the Lord and are conjoined to Him. Willing is loving to
do. That this is so the Lord teaches in the Word, saying,

He that hath My commandments and doeth them, he it is that
loveth