Verse 7. The Lord has not set His love upon the regenerate nor chosen them because they are more grounded in these external truths and goods derived from education and habit, but because they perceive the utter valuelessness of all these seeming goods and truths derived from themselves:

9158. 'For clothing' means [any harm done to or else loss of] truth on the level of the senses. This is clear from the meaning of 'clothing' as truth, dealt with in 4545, 4763, 5319, 5954, 6914, 6917. In general 'clothing' means more external or lower truth that covers more internal or higher truths, 297, 2576, 5248, 6918; here therefore truth on the level of the senses is meant, this being the most external or lowest level, 5081, 5125, 5767, 6564, 6614. The meaning of 'clothes' as truths has its origin in representatives in the next life; for spirits and angels all appear dressed in clothes that are in keeping with the truths of faith they possess, 165, 5248, 5954.