“Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? …Therefore submit to God. … Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” – James 4:4, 7-10, NKJV

Cyprian:

"Do we believe that a man is lamenting with his whole heart, that he is entreating the Lord with fasting, weeping, and mourning—if from the first day of his sin he daily frequents the bathing places with women? … Is he lamenting if he does not forego his meat and drink in order to help the needs of the poor?… Does she lament if she receives valuable jewelry… instead of bewailing the loss of divine and heavenly adornment?"

Tertullian

"As for you, you are a foreigner in this world, a citizen of Jerusalem, the city above. Our citizenship, the apostle says, is in heaven. You have your own registers, your own calendar. You have nothing to do with the joys of this world. In fact, you are called to the very opposite—for ‘the world will rejoice, but you will mourn.’"

Clement of Alexandria:

"Likewise he, that weeps and mourns for righteousness’ sake, testifies to the best law that it is beautiful."

Question for Today

We are called not to delight in sin as the world does, but to mourn over it. 

What has hindered you from mourning over sin—whether your own or others’?
The Historic Faith