What does Revelation 21:4 mean?
Mature Christians know life brings tribulation and trouble as well as blessings and comfort. Pain and sorrow are inevitable in this life. Even Job, a righteous man in God's sight, experienced personal pain and sorrow. Nevertheless, he retained faith in the Lord and the assurance that he would ultimately be resurrected and would see his Redeemer on the earth (Job 19:25–27). Christians, too, look beyond suffering and sorrow to the eternal day, when "what is mortal may be swallowed up by life" (2 Corinthians 5:4).Noticeably absent from the New Jerusalem are tears, death, mourning, crying and pain (Revelation 21:4). Pain, sorrow, mourning, the passing of friends and loved ones, and dying are all harsh realities of this life, but they will be over once and for all when we take up residence in the New Jerusalem. No wonder the apostle Paul regarded his death as gain (Philippians 1:21).
Revelation 20 described the total and complete defeat of all sin and evil. This verse describes the reality which comes about when God has enacted His judgment. All wrongs are made right, all sin is separated, and all suffering of all kinds are gone.