“Lament [know your need] and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.” V. 9. This is what James wrote according to the light he had. The ones he wrote to were laughing and rejoicing, but he saw that they should rather be mourning and weeping. He exhorts them to become aware of their need. When a person does not know what his need is he is in a very bad state. When someone has been knocked unconscious, he does not know the need he is in. But when he regains consciousness, he becomes aware of his pain. It was at this point that the prodigal son came to himself when he made the decision to go home. Luke 15:17. People are intoxicated by sin; that is why they can rejoice in the midst of their misery. If they had been sober and enlightened they would have wept over their need. People—and this includes believers— play with sin. Jesus came with the true light. Let us now hear what He had to say about it. “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.” Matt. 5:27-30. Who would not give everything to save his eye or his right hand? A person would give everything he owned. There is mourning and weeping if an eye or a right hand cannot be saved. Nevertheless, Jesus says that it is not as dangerous to lose an eye or a hand as it is to sin. Sinning is much worse, because then the whole body is cast into hell. I wonder if there aren’t many who need to wake up and become aware of the need they are in? The danger consists not only in committing the deed, but in letting the lust into your heart. Many people complain over the fact that they do not have victory over sin, but I am certain that if sinning were to cost them an eye or a hand, it would not take them long to come to victory. James says these things in connection with the wars and fights that were among them, that they prayed in order to spend it on their pleasures, and that to be a friend of the world is to be an enemy of God. This is nothing other than ending up in hell! James says, “Know your need, and mourn and weep.” This needs to be proclaimed in these days so that people can come to their senses.Sigurd Bratlie