On the days when my body is rebelling because the chronic pain has returned, I literally groan.
I cry out through words, or I cry out through tears, as I lose heart over my weakness. Usually, this groaning issues from disappointment, fear, grumbling, and sadness over being laid up on the couch—again. Over canceled plans—again. Over the healthy, strong body I used to have. Groaning can become an end in itself, a wordless expression of a weary body.
But there is another, better, way to groan. In these wonderful verses, Paul tells me that my groaning can also be the overflow of the expectation of a forward-looking heart. This is groaning with a different perspective. We groan when our bodies, minds, and hearts are hurting, yes, but do we understand the deeper reality this groaning points to?
Whether we realize it or not, when “in this tent we groan,” it is because deep down we are “longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.” Our earthly groaning is evidence that we were created for another world, a trouble-free existence where our bodies work, our hearts love, and our minds are clear. The aching in our bodies now does not need to be an end in itself but an indicator of new beginnings. We groan for peace, restoration, healing, and wholeness, which is good and right and full of hope—if we allow our groans to point us forward. Believer, your groaning points to life with Christ when the battle against sin has been won, when relationships with other believers have been reconciled from conflict and confusion, when diseases and pain are healed, and when creation-order is restored.
Your groaning need not be, and should not be, an end in itself, but a forward-looking and forward-leaning hope in what and Who is coming. Your suffering says that something is not right, that there should be more; the gospel confirms that, wonderfully, there is more. There is a coming of Christ to look forward to and there is a heavenly body to anticipate. Don’t waste your groaning. It is a cry for a better future. It is a cry that Christ answers. This mortal body is just your tent. One day, you will have a body that is your home, forever, and you will be home, with Jesus.
“For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.”
2 Corinthians 5:1-5 ESV
