James 4:9

9 Be miserable, mourn, and cry. Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into gloom.

James 4:9 Meaning and Commentary

James 4:9

Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep
Not in a bare external way; not by afflicting the body with fastings and scourgings, by renting of garments, and clothing with sackcloth, and putting ashes on the head, and other such outward methods of humiliation; but afflicting the soul is meant, an inward mourning and weeping over the plague of the heart, the impurity of nature, and the various sins of life; after a godly sort, and because contrary to a God of infinite love and grace; in an evangelical way, looking to Jesus, and being affected with the pardoning grace and love of God in Christ.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness;
meaning their carnal joy, on account of their friendship with the world, and their enjoyment of the things of it, since they consumed them on their lusts, and which betrayed enmity to God.

James 4:9 In-Context

7 So place yourselves under God's authority. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you.

8 Come close to God, and he will come close to you. Clean up your lives, you sinners, and clear your minds, you doubters.

9 Be miserable, mourn, and cry. Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into gloom.

10 Humble yourselves in the Lord's presence. Then he will give you a high position.

11 Brothers and sisters, stop slandering each other. Those who slander and judge other believers slander and judge God's teachings. If you judge God's teachings, you are no longer following them. Instead, you are judging them.