77. The Word is the Word according to a person’s understanding of it, that is, according to how it is understood. If it is not understood, the Word is indeed called the Word, but it is not the Word in the person.
The Word is the truth according to a person’s understanding of it, for the Word [in him] may not be the truth. Indeed, it may be falsified.
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.
