Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.
The woe upon laughing now is upon trifling and irreverent laughter, including teasing or chaffing, mirth, levity, vanity of spirit, frivolity, and excessive lightness springing from a shallow, cheap experience with no real solid foundation in the love of God and belief of the truth. It also applies to laughing at and scorning Christ's followers in the present.
It does not forbid Christian cheerfulness and rejoicing in the hope set before them in the gospel. That cheerfulness is created by considering the great blessings of being children of God, reconciliation with God, hope of everlasting life through Christ, and the pleasure of blessing others, and it brings no sorrow with it. Those who spend their brief passing time near the end in giddy, heedless, gay, jovial frivolity fail to lay up a good foundation to lay hold on everlasting life. By indulging habits of lightness and cheap talk they dissipate serious reflection, grieve the Holy Spirit, and unfit themselves for contemplation of heaven.
Those condemned will mourn and lament in the future because they are not prepared for the elevated joys of heaven and are banished from the presence of God, while the righteous enlightened by His presence are made supremely happy. Those who now laugh and scorn Christ's followers will afterward mourn and weep, crying out when no one answers.
The woe upon laughing now is upon trifling and irreverent laughter, including teasing or chaffing, mirth, levity, vanity of spirit, frivolity, and excessive lightness springing from a shallow, cheap experience with no real solid foundation in the love of God and belief of the truth. It also applies to laughing at and scorning Christ's followers in the present.
It does not forbid Christian cheerfulness and rejoicing in the hope set before them in the gospel. That cheerfulness is created by considering the great blessings of being children of God, reconciliation with God, hope of everlasting life through Christ, and the pleasure of blessing others, and it brings no sorrow with it. Those who spend their brief passing time near the end in giddy, heedless, gay, jovial frivolity fail to lay up a good foundation to lay hold on everlasting life. By indulging habits of lightness and cheap talk they dissipate serious reflection, grieve the Holy Spirit, and unfit themselves for contemplation of heaven.
Those condemned will mourn and lament in the future because they are not prepared for the elevated joys of heaven and are banished from the presence of God, while the righteous enlightened by His presence are made supremely happy. Those who now laugh and scorn Christ's followers will afterward mourn and weep, crying out when no one answers.