James 4:9

9 Be sad, cry, and weep! Change your laughter into crying and your joy into sadness.

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 give yourselves completely to God. Stand against the devil, and the devil will run from you.

8 Come near to God, and God will come near to you. You sinners, clean sin out of your lives. You who are trying to follow God and the world at the same time, make your thinking pure.

9 Be sad, cry, and weep! Change your laughter into crying and your joy into sadness.

10 Don't be too proud in the Lord's presence, and he will make you great.

11 Brothers and sisters, do not tell evil lies about each other. If you speak against your fellow believers or judge them, you are judging and speaking against the law they follow. And when you are judging the law, you are no longer a follower of the law. You have become a judge.