Matthew 5:4 (KJV)

What does this mean?

Jesus is beginning his great sermon on the mountain, and his second blessing is for those who mourn. He says they are blessed, favored by God, and that they will be comforted. Christians understand the mourning here in more than one way: grief over loss, sorrow over the world's brokenness, and sorrow over our own sin, and the promise covers them all.

What does this teach us?

Grief is not a sign that God has turned away. In Jesus' upside-down kingdom, those who grieve are called blessed, because their grief is met by God's own comfort, not by being told to move on, but by being held.

How can we apply this?

If you are mourning today, let yourself grieve without rushing to fix it, and let one person know you are hurting. If someone near you is mourning, do not offer explanations, offer presence, and be the comfort God promises.

Related KJV passages

• “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”

  Psalm 34:18

• “To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD , and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;”

  Isaiah 61:2

• “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”

  2 Corinthians 1:3-4