SS 63, 64 - Reading the Word; SS 76, 77 - Understanding the Word and the Impact on the Church

SS 63, 64

The literal sense makes possible
an affiliation with angels in heaven
because that sense has in it
a spiritual sense and a celestial sense,
and these are the senses that angels know —
angels in the spiritual kingdom
having the Word’s spiritual sense,
and angels in the celestial kingdom
having its celestial sense.
These senses unfold from the Word’s natural sense,
namely its literal sense,
when a sincere person is intent on it.
The unfolding is instantaneous,
and accordingly also the affiliation.

. . . whenever I have read the Word in its literal sense,
a communication with the heavens has occurred,
now with one society of them, now with another;
and that what I have understood
in accordance with the natural sense,
spiritual angels have understood
in accordance with its spiritual sense,
and celestial angels
in accordance with its celestial sense.
And this in an instant.

SS 76, 77

. . . it is not the Word that forms the church,
but people’s understanding of it,
and that the character of the church is such
as the understanding of the Word
among the people in the church.

The Word is spirit and life
according to a person’s understanding of it,
for the letter without an understanding of it is lifeless.

Since a person possesses truth and life
according to his understanding of the Word,
he possesses faith and love also
in accordance with that understanding;
for truth is connected with faith, and love with life.

Now because the church is formed by faith and love
and in accordance with these, 
it follows that the church is a church
in consequence of its understanding of the Word
and in accordance with that understanding —
a noble church if it possesses genuine truths,
an ignoble one if it is without genuine truths,
and a destroyed one if it possesses falsified truths.