Revelation 21:4 (KJV)

What does this mean?

John is writing down a vision of the new heaven and the new earth, the world as God will make it at the end of the story. He pictures God himself drying every tear, and death, sorrow, crying and pain all gone for good, because the old order has passed away. Christians differ on the timing and the details of this new creation, but the plain picture is the same: God ends suffering himself, face to face with his people.

What does this teach us?

The end of the story is not ruin, it is healing. Whatever you are grieving now, this verse says God himself will one day dry the tears and take away the things that cause them, and that hope is meant to carry you through today.

How can we apply this?

If today holds grief or pain, let this picture steady you: the tears you cry now are not the end of the story. Tell God honestly what hurts, and hold on to the promise that he himself will one day make it right.

Related KJV passages

• “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it .”

  Isaiah 25:8

• “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.”

  Revelation 21:1

• “So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”

  1 Corinthians 15:54