“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4)

This second characteristic develops in us the honestly to see sin in ourselves and in the world as it really is. Christians are to be unlike the people of the world who try to shun mourning. Think of all the energy and money spent by the world system to blind people from this spiritual quality. As mourning becomes a part of our being, it causes us to see not only what sin does to people, but how it must stab God in the heart. I have heard it said that just sin of using God’s name in vain takes place more than one billion times every day in our country.

There has been a defection in the church from teaching on the doctrine of sin. This shows how much the world has influenced us. In most any other aspect of life, we concentrate on those areas where we are weakest. If we have a health problem, we try to resolve it. If we play sports, we focus on those areas where our performance is poor. The same is true in business.

Spiritually, mankind’s weakness is sin! Why do we get so uptight talking about it? It doesn’t’ have to be in a negative condemning way, but for positive solutions. We have a spiritual problem because we are born with a sinful nature. That is who we are! We need to face this truth and talk about it! Otherwise we will not let God deal with those areas where we are weak.

Paul mourned over the sinful condition of his flesh and looked forward to that day when it would be redeemed. “But we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23).

Mourning applies not only to our own sins, but also to the sins of others and the state of society and the world. When this characteristic is developed, we will mourn over the immorality, the suffering and the evil deeds of mankind. True happiness and joy can only come after mourning. That is one of the paradoxes of the Christian Life.

Stay tuned to the Blog as we focus our next post on characteristic number three: Blessed are the Meek!