2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:



Ver. 2. For in this] That is, in this tabernacle of the body. How willingly do soldiers burn their huts, when the siege is ended; being glad that their work is done, and that they may go home and dwell in houses.



We groan earnestly] As that avis Paradisi, which being once caught and engaged, never leaves sighing, they say, till set at liberty. (Macrob.) The Greeks call the body äåìáò , the soul’s bond, and óùìá , quasi óçìá , the soul’s sepulchre.



To be clothed upon] By a sudden change, and not to die at all, as 1Th_4:17; 1Co_15:51-52. Quis enim vult mori? prorsus nemo. For who wishes to die, certainly no man. Death when it comes will have a bout with the best, as it had with Hezekiah, David, Jonah, others. For nature abhors it, and every new man is two men. But when a Christian considers that non nisi per angusta ad angusta perveniatur, that there is no passing into Paradise but under the flaming sword of this angel death that standeth at the porch; that there is no coming to the city of God, but through his strait and heavy lane; no wiping all tears from his eyes, but with his winding sheet, he yields, and is not only content, but full glad of his departure; as in the mean while he accepts life rather than affects it, he endures it rather than desires it, Php_1:23.