Be afflicted and mourn and weep: let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into sorrow.
ταλαιπωρησατε και πενθησατε και κλαυσατε ο γελως υμων εις πενθος μεταστραφητω και η χαρα εις κατηφειαν
5 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Do not love enrichment, James implores, and do not rejoice in this age. Remember the shameful deeds you have committed. Strive rather, through the poverty of this brief life and passing sorrow, to attain the heavenly joy of the eternal kingdom. Do this rather than, through the joy of passing wealth acquired by unrighteous labor, to be deprived of the eternal good and pay for that wealth with weeping and torments.
Since the brother of the Lord proclaimed to Christians that they should humble themselves and submit to God, and encouraged them to resist the devil and draw near to God by a virtuous life, he now tells them to cleanse their hands from former sins.
The sins of the hands are these: plunder, covetousness, theft, murder, shameful gains, and everything else by which a man defiles his hands.
The hands are cleansed from these sins by the opposite virtues. These are the return of stolen things, the return of things taken by violence and acquired through usury, the avoidance of shameful gains, and especially alms to the poor.
God commands this when He says: "You shall not shut your hand against your brother who is in need; but you shall open your hand to him" (Deut 15:7-8).
Divine Chrysostom says that many Christians have the custom of washing their hands before going to church. This is a good custom. Yet it is more preferable that they wash and cleanse their hands not from bodily dirt, but from spiritual filth, which is sins, as was said above.
Since the heart is the beginning and root of all outward actions performed by the hands, Saint James next says that the double-minded should cleanse their hearts. These are Christians who have two opinions, are two-faced, and are irresolute.
For according to the Lord's word, "out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies; these are what defile a man" (Mt 15:19). That is, all these passions proceed from the heart and defile and make the whole man unclean.
Saint James then proclaims the manner in which a man's heart is cleansed. He says: be afflicted, O Christians. That is, willingly embrace hardship and choose to walk the narrow and difficult path of the virtues, which will bring you into eternal life, as the Lord said.
Leave the broad path of pleasures and sin, which will cast you down into destruction. "Mourn and weep," because tears, grief according to God, and certainly mourning greatly help a man to cleanse the filth of the heart and receive forgiveness of his sins.
Since tears are drawn from the pure living water that is around the heart, Saint Augustine called them the sweat of the heart.
Tears of contrition from the heart crush the passions and impurities of the heart, as divine Gregory of Thessalonica says: "This wine is broken compunction, which by mourning crushes the passions" (Discourse to Xenia).
Know also, brother, that the heart is like a spring. The more often a spring is drawn from, the purer the water it gathers. So also the more often the heart is drawn out by tears, the more it shines and becomes still purer.
The heart is cleansed most of all by the prayer ceaselessly active within it: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me," with moderate restraint of the breath. For the warmth born from the activity of holy prayer consumes and dissolves the impurities of the heart.
The prophet David used these cleansing remedies to find forgiveness of his sins and to cleanse his heart. Therefore, repenting of the sins he had committed, he said: "I am afflicted and utterly bowed down; all the day long I went mourning" (Ps 37:7).
And again: "I am weary with my groaning; every night I wash my bed and water my couch with my tears" (Ps 6:7). At another time: "My heart grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire was kindled" (Ps 38:4).
Having sinned once, he wept always. His heart was warmed by prayer all the days of his life.
The Apostle Paul teaches almost the same thing with the brother of the Lord. He says that the time of the present life is short and passes unnoticed, and that those who rejoice should be as though they did not rejoice, and those who have wives as though they had none.
"The time is shortened; from now on, those who have wives should be as though they had none; those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice; and those who use this world, as though they did not use it; for the form of this world is passing away" (1 Cor 7:29-31).
The brother of God adds that the laughter of Christians should be changed into mourning, and their joys into sorrow. For this world in which they live is called a valley of weeping, according to David (Ps 83:6), because it is a place of exile and not the fatherland.
It is not fitting for Christians in exile to laugh and rejoice. Rather, it is fitting and proper for them to weep and grieve, remembering what sweetest fatherland, Paradise, they have lost, and to what exile, this world, they have been condemned.
Therefore the Lord pronounces woe upon those who laugh now, because they shall weep: "Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep" (Lk 6:25).
But He blesses those who weep, because they shall rejoice: "Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh" (Lk 6:21). David also said that those who sow here with tears will reap there with joy: "Those who sow with tears shall reap with joy" (Ps 125:5).
The words of divine Chrysostom are these: "We wash our hands when we enter the church; why then do we not wash the heart? Do the hands utter a voice? The soul speaks the words. God looks upon it; and when it is unclean, bodily cleanliness is of no use. What benefit is there if you wash your outward hands, but leave the inward ones in uncleanness? This is the evil, and from this everything among us is perverted. While we take extreme care for what is small, we neglect what is great. To pray with unwashed hands is indifferent; but to pray with an unclean soul is the greatest of all evils" (Commentary on the Gospel of John, Homily 73).
And again: "Therefore, just as vessels filled with water stand before the church doors so that you may wash your hands, so also the poor sit outside the church so that you may wash the hands of the soul. Have you washed your sensible hands with water? Wash the hands of the soul with almsgiving" (Third Homily on Repentance).
Mourning and tears are not the same thing. Mourning is sorrowful reflection, either on one's own sins, on the judgment of God, or on torments. When it expands in due measure as a certain heaviness and sorrow in the heart of the penitent, it causes him to bring forth groans.
Tears are the result and fruit of mourning. When the sorrowful reflection just mentioned exceeds a certain measure and wounds the heart with compunction according to God, it causes the penitent to bring forth and pour out tears from the eyes.
Every kind of laughter must be far from Christians, especially passionate and loud laughter. Such laughter is the mark of a fool. Ecclesiastes said: "As the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of fools" (Eccl 7:7).
Sirach also says: "A fool raises his voice in laughter" (Sir 21:23). Gregory the Theologian said: "For sober-minded men, all laughter is laughable, and still more lustful laughter" (Thoughts Written in Quatrains).
Divine Chrysostom also says: "The present time is a time of sorrow and grief, contrition and humility, contest and struggles; and do you laugh?" (Commentary on Hebrews, Homily 15).
The outpouring and joy of a Christian heart should reach only a quiet smile, as Sirach says: "A man of understanding will scarcely smile quietly" (Sir 21:23).
Taking from this, Basil the Great says: "It is not improper, but fitting, to show joy of soul by a bright smile, because only this is expressed in what is written: 'When the heart is glad, the face blossoms'" (Longer Rules).
Let us add that the Lord Himself never laughed, but wept four times. Imitate Him, brother, as a disciple of Christ.
We note that divine James appears to take this saying, "Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, double-minded," from the prophet Jeremiah, who says: "Wash your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts remain within you?" (Jer 4:14).
Citing this saying, divine Chrysostom says: "Let us also wash ourselves, that is, the heart, not with filth but with pure water, with almsgiving and not with greed" (Commentary on John, Homily 73).
Gregory the Theologian also speaks in agreement with the above: "Sometimes sorrow is preferable to joy, mourning more profitable than feasting, and praiseworthy tears better than evil laughter" (Oration on Love for the Poor).
Having shown believers the importance of humility, the Apostle also teaches them how to become humble. He considers the best means to be weeping and contrition over sins (Jas 4:7-8).
In general, he teaches patient endurance of every kind of misfortune and suffering, and withdrawal from worldly joys and pleasures.
On self-confidence. Already in man's tendency to judge others one can see vainglory and self-assurance in his own powers and understanding.
Yet this self-confidence appears still more in those who engage in trade or own lands. Instead of subjecting themselves in everything to God's will, they speak of their undertakings with proud self-assurance and hope for success.
Such arrogance is sin, and all the greater because man knows well his dependence upon God (Jas 4:13-17).
To incline Christians still more toward submission to God, the Apostle points to the instability of wealth, which for the most part serves as the basis of man's self-confidence.
It will perish and will also destroy those who possess it, because its acquisition was unjust and was accompanied by offenses and violence against the righteous man (Jas 5:1-6).
An exhortation to repentance and humility. Pride, which is opposed to God and hated by God, must be transformed into the sorrow of true repentance before God.
Precisely what until now they have considered the happiness and joy of their life must become the object of their lamentation and weeping. This follows from a correct view of things and a truly good direction of life.
Be afflicted over the unhappy and perverse direction of your moral life and activity. Weep and wail, an intensified expression, over your spiritually disastrous condition.
"Let your laughter," the cheerful disposition of the soul that comes from satisfying desires (Jas 4:1), "be turned to mourning." This comes from recognizing the whole destructiveness of such a disposition and arrangement of life opposed to God.
"And your joy to sorrow": this strengthens the same thought.
Concluding a series of moral counsels, the Apostle, with the authority of an archpastor and guide of souls, invites Christians to submit to God and resist the devil.
The Apostle calls Christians to God as a divinely inspired Old Testament teacher, almost in the exact words of the prophets.
Thus, for example, the holy prophet Zechariah spoke in God's name: "Return to Me, says the Lord of Sabaoth, and I will return to you" (Zech 1:3; cf. Sir 38:10).
The next appeal of the Apostle James sounds especially heartfelt and living: "Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to sorrow."
How strongly this recalls the Lord's words: "Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn" (Lk 6:25).
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 16 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS