218. 'If anyone hears My voice and opens [the door]' signifies he who believes in the Word and lives in accordance with it. 'To hear the voice' is to believe in the Word, for the Divine truth of the Word is 'the voice of Jehovah' (n. 37, so); and 'to open the door (ostium)' is to live in accordance with it, since the door is not opened, nor is the Lord received, by only hearing the voice, but by living in accordance with it, for the Lord says:-
He who has My commandments and does them, I will manifest Myself to him, and come unto him, and make an abode with him John xiv 21-24.
That a man ought to open the door as from himself, by fleeing from evils as sins and by doing goods, has been shown in THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE FOR THE NEW JERUSALEM; and that it is in such a manner is plain also from the Lord's words here, 'If any one opens', and again from His words [in] Luke xii 36.
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