For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
Paul is saying here that we are oppressed by bodily sufferings and death. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened. Being burdened, as the Syriac takes it, through the weight and load of the body. Yet we may say with S. Gregory Nazianzen: "Take from me, 0 Lord, this heavy robe" (this earthly, burdensome, and troublesome body), "but give me another, one that is lighter."
Not for that we would be unclothed but clothed upon. We would not be deprived of the body, but we would be clothed upon with glory, if nevertheless being clothed with a body of flesh we be not found stripped of it by death. The Apostle is in the habit of speaking of the resurrection and the day of judgment as if they were close at hand, and as if he with the others then alive would behold them. Cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:17. Since the Apostle says that we would not be stripped of our body, Plato was wrong in identifying σω̃μα and ση̃μα, as though the body were a tomb. In this he was followed by Origen, who supposed souls to be enclosed in bodies as in prisons in puni...
How is it possible, therefore, that that seed should be after images of the angels, seeing it has obtained a form after the likeness of men? Why, again, since it was of a spiritual nature, had it any need of descending into flesh? For what is carnal stands in need of that which is spiritual, if indeed it is to be saved, that in it it may be sanctified and cleared from all impurity, and that what is mortal may be swallowed up by immortality;.
Still further did He also make it manifest, that we ought, after our calling, to be also adorned with works of righteousness, so that the Spirit of God may rest upon us; for this is the wedding garment, of which also the apostle speaks, "Not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up by immortality.".
This earnest, therefore, thus dwelling in us, renders us spiritual even now, and the mortal is swallowed up by immortality.
He who has perfected us for this very thing is God, who also has given unto us the ...
3. For indeed we that are in this tabernacle do groan , not for that we would be unclothed, but that we would be clothed upon. Here again he has utterly and manifestly stopped the mouths of the heretics, showing that he is not speaking absolutely of a body differing in identity , but of corruption and incorruption: 'For we do not therefore groan,' says he, 'that we may be delivered from the body: for of this we do not wish to be unclothed; but we hasten to be delivered from the corruption that is in it.' Wherefore he says, 'we wish not to be unclothed of the body, but that it should be clothed upon with incorruption.' Then he also interprets it [thus,] That what is mortal may be swallowed up of life. For since putting off the body appeared to many a grievous thing; and he was contradicting the judgments of all, when he said, we groan, not wishing to be set free from it; ('for if,' says one, 'the soul in being separated from it so suffers and laments, how do you say that we groan becaus...
We do not want to be delivered from the body but only from the corruption which is in it. Our body is a burden to us, not because it is a body but because it is corruptible and liable to suffering. But when the new life comes, it will take away this corruption— the corruption, I say, not the body itself.
Will receive our souls; so when this perishable life shall be dissolved, we shall have the habitation which is before the resurrection-that is, our souls shall he with God, until we shall receive the new house which is prepared for us, and which shall never fall. Whence also "we groan ""not for that we would be unclothed "as to the body, "but clothed upon"
With an unwillingness to be unclothed, but (we wish)to be clothed upon.".
It was accordingly not without good reason that he described them as "not wishing indeed to be unclothed "but (rather as wanting) "to be clothed upon; ".
"that this moral (body) might be swallowed up of life".
Lastly, even if everything that is mortal in all the dead shall then be found decayed-at any rate consumed by death, by time, and through age,-is there nothing which will be "swallowed up of life".
Then, again, questions very often are suggested by occasional and isolated terms, just as much as they are by connected sentences. Thus, because of the apostle's expression, "that mortality may be swallowed up of life ".
And as a testimony of (our) faith; as a commendation of this flesh of ours, which is to be sustained for the "garment of immortality"
