09-30

The church is an image of heaven, because it is the Lord’s
kingdom on earth. Heaven is divided into many overall
communities and into smaller subgroups, but goodness
still unifies them. Religious truth there accords
with goodness, because it has goodness as its origin and
its goal. If heaven were divided up along the lines of religious
truth, not of goodness, it would cease to exist.
There would be no unanimity, because the Lord could not
give the inhabitants unity of life, or a unified soul. This
is possible only where there is goodness, which is to say,
where there is love for the Lord and love for one’s neighbor.
After all, love unites everyone, and when each individual
loves what is good and true, it is common ground
received from the Lord that unites them all. Therefore it
is the Lord himself who does so. Love for goodness and
truth is what is called love for one’s neighbor, because
one’s neighbor is a person with goodness and therefore
truth. In an abstract sense, one’s neighbor is goodness itself
and the truth that goes with it.
—Secrets of Heaven 4837:3