Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Corinthians 5:2

"For verily in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven:" — 2 Corinthians 5:2 (ASV)

For in this we groan.—The “groaning” here, and in 2 Corinthians 5:4, may, of course, be a strong way of expressing the burden and the weariness of life. But when considered in connection with what we have already seen in the Epistle, which points to the pressure of disease, we can scarcely fail to find in it the utterance of a personal or special suffering. (See Notes on 2 Corinthians 1:8–9.)

Earnestly desiring to be clothed upon.—These words have suggested the question whether St. Paul spoke of the “spiritual body” to be received at the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:42–49), or of some intermediate stage of being, like that represented in the visions which poets have imagined and schoolmen theorized about—for example, in the visions of the world of the dead in the Odyssey (Book 11), in the Aeneid (Book 6), and throughout Dante’s Divina Commedia.

The answer to that question is found in the clear fact that the intermediate state occupied only a subordinate position in St. Paul’s thoughts. He would not speak too confidently about times and seasons, but his practical belief was that he, and most of those who were then living, would survive until the coming of the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:15).

Therefore, he did not speculate about that state, but was content to rest in the belief that when absent from the body he would, in some more immediate sense, be present with the Lord. But the longing of his soul was, like that of St. John (Revelation 22:20), that the Lord might come quickly—that he might put on the new and glorious body without the pain and struggle of the “dissolution” of the old.

In the words “be clothed upon” (literally, the verb being in the middle voice, to clothe ourselves, to put on) we find a slight change of imagery. The transition from the idea of a dwelling to that of a garment is, however, quite natural, as seen, for example, in Psalms 104:1-3.

Each shelters the person. Each is separable from the person himself. In these respects, each corresponds to the body that clothes the spirit.