AE 714 - A Great Red Dragon

AE  714 [1, 2]

And behold a great red dragon,
(Revelation 12:3)

means all who are merely natural and sensual
from the love of self,
and yet have more or less knowledge from the Word,
from doctrine therefrom
or from preaching,
and think to be saved
by knowledge alone apart from life.
. . . all who live for the body and the world,
and not for God and heaven,
become merely natural and sensual;
for everyone is inwardly formed according to his life,
and to live for the body and the world
is to live a natural and sensual life,
while to live for God and heaven is to live a spiritual life.

. . . one who knows the things taught in the Word
or in doctrine or by a preacher,
and does not live according to them,
however learned and erudite he may appear,
is nevertheless not spiritual but natural,
and even sensual,
for knowledge and the ability to reason
do not make a person spiritual,
but the life itself. 
This is so because knowledge
and the faculty of reasoning are merely natural,
and can therefore also be with evil people,
even with the worst of people;
but truths from the Word with a life according to them
are what make a person spiritual,
for life is willing truths and doing them
from a love of them;
this is not possible to the natural person alone,
but must come from the spiritual,
and from its influx into the natural;
for to love truths
and from love to will them
and from that will to do them
is from heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord,
and is in its nature celestial and Divine . . ..