John Calvin Commentary James 4:9

"Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness." — James 4:9 (ASV)

Be afflicted and mourn. Christ proclaims that mourning will come as a curse upon those who laugh now (Luke 6:25), and James, in what follows shortly, alluding to the same words, threatens the rich with mourning. But here he speaks of that salutary mourning or sorrow which leads us to repentance.

He addresses those who, being inebriated in their minds, did not perceive God’s judgment. Consequently, they flattered themselves in their vices. To shake this deadly torpor from them, he admonishes them to learn to mourn, so that, being touched with sorrow of conscience, they might cease to flatter themselves and to exult on the verge of destruction. Then laughter, in this context, is to be understood as signifying the self-flattery with which the ungodly deceive themselves, while they are infatuated by the sweetness of their sins and forget God’s judgment.