Be Afflicted and Mourn

BY THOMAS SMITH

James 4:9
You no doubt know that if you put a frog into boiling water, it would jump right out. That's because frogs, being cold-blooded animals, react violently to high temperatures. But you can put that frog in cold water and then bring the water gradually to a boil, and that frog would literally be boiled alive without ever realizing it.

This holds true in our Christian life. If we are suddenly exposed to sin, we will and should react vigorously. But if we are exposed to it gradually, we can become quite comfortable with great wickedness. And we can be boiled alive spiritually without ever knowing it.

And this is the thrust of James 4:9: "Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness." I believe Christians need to hear this today more than any other time in the history of the church. So, I want to take this text and hopefully shock us all out of our complacency.

Proper interpretation

Let's begin by considering the concept of this rather strange statement. One of the great blessings of
knowing God in a personal way is that it brings us joy. We rejoice in the Lord. Why then is James telling us here to be afflicted and mourn and weep, and turn our joy to heaviness?

To arrive at the proper interpretation, we need to compare scripture with scripture. Let's go first to I Corinthians 5. This chapter begins with Paul chastening the church for allowing someone to have a sexual relationship with his father's wife. We then read in verse 2: "And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that has done this deed might be taken away from among you."

That gives us a little light. Whatever the mourning is, it is directly related to the issue of sin. In this case, the sin of incest. We now go to II Corinthians 7, where Paul refers to a harsh letter that he previously wrote, a letter that might have caused the Corinthians sorrow. We read in verses 9 and 10:

Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance: for you were made sorry after a godly mannerFor godly sorrow works repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world works death.
Tie in the godly sorrow here with the mourning in I Corinthians 5 and James 4 and you have the key to understanding what James is talking about. When he says: "Be afflicted, weep and mourn" and so on, he is saying that we need to develop a godly sorrow for the sin that we see in our lives.

Pertinent illustration

A good illustration of godly sorrow is demonstrated by David. When the prophet Nathan convicted him of his sins of adultery and murder, he was heart-broken. In repentance, he wrote Psalm 51. He pleaded, for example, in verse 1, "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions." And he confessed in verse 4, "Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight."

Godly sorrow in David brought him to repentance. Likewise, when convicted by the Holy Spirit of the sin in our lives, we ought to be afflicted and mourn and weep. Because godly sorrow brings us to repentance, only then will we be godly men and women.

Sorrow is not always godly, though. It says in II Corinthians 7:10 that "the sorrow of the world works death". That's the kind of sorrow Judas had after his betrayal of Christ. He was seized with remorse and threw the thirty pieces of silver back to the chief priests and elders. But the Scripture makes it clear that Judas went into perdition. The sorrow he felt was not generated by the Spirit of God; it did not lead to true repentance.

Principle implications

The concept presented in James 4:9 has at least two important implications:

(1) Christians can become insensitive to sin. Remember, James is writing to Christians, not unbelievers. The fact that he has to exhort believers to weep and to mourn implies that they don't always do so. Having taken their eyes away from God, they can become unperturbed by their disobedience.

That's what happened to David. There is no doubt that David was a child of God. Yet, until Nathan had brought him to his senses, he had no qualm engaging in adultery with Bathsheba and then scheming to kill her husband.

How can Christians get used to sin? Here's a good illustration. Have you ever gone to one of those restaurants that are very dimly lit? When you first sit down and pick up the menu, you can hardly read it because it is so dark. But after a while, you can see people in the whole room. The darkness has not changed, but you have gotten used to the dark.

That's how it is when we seek to develop a friendship with the world. We begin to adopt its attitude toward sin. We become accustomed to the things that at one time of our Christian experience appalled us. For instance, many of us have become insensitive to being angry, bitter and unforgiving with other believers; we are more involved with our pride and envy. As a result, instead of loving one another, we gossip and have petty fights and think nothing of it.

Unreliable. We are also getting more and more used to not keeping our word. How many times we promised to do something for someone but failed to do it afterwards? And how many times we agreed to serve in the church but never showed any commitment?

Like people of the world, Christian husbands and wives make vows and break them whenever it is convenient to do so. We have couples who claim to love the Lord yet fight like cats and dogs, never making any effort to develop a one-flesh marriage that glorifies and honors the Lord Jesus.

And so, God says to us, "Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep." Have godly sorrow now and repent. We must regain our first love and strive to live a life that is pleasing to God.

(2) Christians can even enjoy the presence of sin. When James says, "Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness," he is talking about the kind of laughter and joy that is generated by wickedness. Again, here is where friendship with the world rears its ugly head. The world finds much fun and pleasure in wickedness and vulgarity, and more and more believers are following its example.

Fornication. We have unmarried people come to the church, hear the word of God, sing praises to Christ and even give testimonies, and then walk out and live in open fornication. As Proverbs 30:20 says, "Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eats, and wipes her mouth, and says, 'I have done no wickedness.'"

Routinely, we Christians let our children watch television shows that are full of cursing, immorality, and violence. We go to movies from which believers a generation ago, if they had seen them, would run out yelling holy horror. Someone said, "if you want to know if a Christian is serious about sin, find out what he laughs about."

Yes, many of us Christians have become so insensitive to wickedness that we actually find enjoyment in worldly and filthy practices. And so, James warns us: Be careful of being boiled alive. We need to turn such laughter to mourning, and such joy to heaviness.

Why then is James telling us here to be afflicted and mourn and weep, and turn our joy to heaviness?

Personal Application

How can I tell if I am mourning and weeping over sin? If you are, you will find an ever increasing awareness of sin in your life. As you study the Bible or hear God's word preached, you will find that it is showing you things you never saw about yourself before. You will have an active conscience that is based on the word of God. My friends, do not despise that. Thank God instead for making you aware of your disobedience so that you can repent.

Concurrently, you will know that your laughter is being turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness when you develop an ever increasing hatred of sin. As a believer, this hatred of sin in you stems from two developments:

Fear of God. For one thing, you become more aware of the steep penalty for sin. The wages of sin is death, which of course is eternal damnation in hell. On Judgment Day every unsaved person will be condemned to everlasting punishment. That goes to show how much God abhors wickedness. True, there is no condemnation to us who are in Christ. But because we are in Christ, we cannot help but develop a hatred for sin as well.

Appreciation. For another, you become more appreciative of the high cost Jesus paid for your redemption. As we look at the cross and see Jehovah God Himself hanging there, we know we were saved only by God and His shed blood. With Christ having to suffer so much because of our sin, how can we not develop a hatred for sin?

Why is all this so important?

Now, we want to consider why it is so important for us to mourn and weep over our sin.

To start with, it is an essential step toward godliness. In verse 4 of this chapter, James warns that if you want to be a friend of the world, then you are an enemy of God. He then gives us a cure for overcoming this desire to love the world. It begins with submitting ourselves to God and resisting the devil (v. 7); then drawing near to God and cleansing our hands and heart from sin (v. 8); and here in verse 9, weeping and mourning over sin. This is a practical and progressive series of steps toward godliness.

Second, it is an essential step toward repentance. If there is no repentance, there will be no ridding ourselves of sin. For the believer, this is really an evidence of salvation. If there is no true repentance in our soul, we will have to wonder if we have been saved at all.

Third, it brings about God's forgiveness. Remember Matthew 5:4: "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." Why are they comforted? They are forgiven. My mourning, you see, causes me to repent; my repentance leads to God forgiving me, and I am comforted.

Finally, it brings true joy and happiness. You say, "Now, wait a moment, that does not make any sense. You are telling me to weep and to mourn, and that when I weep and mourn, there is going to be joy and happiness?" Yes, that is what I am saying.

We read in Luke 6:21: "Blessed are you that weep now: for you shall laugh." You see, true Christians are the only ones that can be joyful, true Christians are the only ones that can experience happiness. They experience joy and happiness because by their weeping and mourning over their sin, they know that they are children of God whom the Lord Jesus loves and will never forsake.

In a very real sense, therefore, if you want joy, you've got to learn to mourn. If you want to laugh, you've got to learn to weep. If you want to be a godly man, you've got to learn to have godly sorrow. Then, you can rest assured that you will not be boiled alive in the heating-up water of the world. o

Rev. Thomas W. Smith is pastor of The Fellowship Church, 3rd and Cromwell Streets, Phillipsburg, NJ 08865.


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