AR 705
"Behold, I am coming as a thief.
Blessed is he who watches,
and preserves his garments.
(Revelation 16:15)
. . . To come as a thief,
when said of the Lord,
symbolizes His advent,
and heaven then for people who have lived a good life,
but hell for those who have lived an evil life . . ..
That person is called blessed who receives eternal life.
To watch means, symbolically, to live spiritually,
that is, to possess truths
and live in accordance with them
and look to the Lord.
And to preserve one's garments means, symbolically,
to remain steadfast in those truths
to the end of one's life.
For garments symbolize truths that clothe,
thus the Lord's precepts in the Word,
because these are truths.
AR 706
"Lest he walk naked and they see his shame."
(Revelation 16:15)
This symbolically means,
so as not to be associated with people
who are without any truths,
and have their hellish loves appear.
. . . This admonition is for people
who will belong to the Lord's New Church,
warning them to learn truths
and remain constant in them,
since without truths people's innate evils,
which are their hellish loves, are not removed.
A person without truths
may indeed be able to live as a Christian,
but he does so in the eyes of men,
but not in the eyes of angels.
The truths which people are to
learn
are truths having to do with the Lord
and with the precepts according to which
they are to live.
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