If you have not read "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, I would highly recommend that you do so. The book is Gold just about anywhere you touch it. In reading through his writing on Matt 5:4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted," he had some very good insights on the state of the Church and the world concerning Spiritual mourning and gauging out maturity in the faith. This is an extended quote, but like I said the whole book is gold, so extended quotes are sometimes in order.
"We come not to a consideration of the second Beatitude- "blessed (or happy) are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted." This, like the first, stands out at once, and marks off the Christian as being quite unlike the man who is not a Christian and belongs to the world. Indeed the world would, and does, regard a statement like this as utterly ridiculous- Happy are those who mourn! The one thing the world tries to shun is mourning; its whole organization is based on the supposition that that is something to avoid. The philosophy of the world is, Forget your troubles, turn your back upon them, do everything you can not to face them. Things are bad enough as they are without your going to look for troubles, says the world; therefore be as happy as you can. The whole organization of life, the pleasure mania, the money, energy, and enthusiasm that are expended in entertaining people, are all just an expression of the great aim of the world to get away from this idea, of mourning and this spirit of morning. But the gospel says, "Happy are they that mourn." Indeed they are the only ones who are happy! If you turn to the parallel passage in Luke 6 you will find it is put in a still more striking manner, because there is the negative employed. "Woe unto you that laugh now!” our Lord says, “for ye shall mourn and weep.” This saying condemns the apparent laughter, joviality and happiness of the world by pronouncing a woe upon it. But it promises blessing and happiness, joy and peace to those who mourn. These preliminary statements, then, concerning the Christian are obviously of primary importance.
Once more it is clear, that we have here something which is entirely spiritual in its meaning. Our Lord did not say that those who mourn in a natural sense are happy, meaning by “mourning,” the sorrow experienced because of the death of someone. No, this is a spiritual mourning. As we saw that poverty of spirit was not something financial, but something essentially spiritual, so this again is something entirely spiritual and has nothing to do with our natural life in this world. All these Beatitudes have reference to a spiritual condition and to a spiritual attitude. Those who are commended are those who morning in spirit; They, says the Lord, are happy people.
This, as we have seen is something which is never found in the world, and it presents a striking contrast to what is found there. But, again, I am constrained to say that this is something which is not evident in the Church today as it once was and as it is in the New Testament. In a sense, as I said earlier, that is really our main reason for considering this Sermon on the Mount. We are concerned about the state and life of the Church at the present time. I have not hesitation again in asserting that the failure of the Church to have a greater impact upon the life of men and women in the world today is due entirely to the fact that her own life is not in order. To me there is nothing more tragic or shortsighted or lacking in insight than the assumption, made by so many, that the Church herself is all right and all she has to do is to evangelize the world outside. Every revival proves clearly that men who are outside the Church always become attracted when the Church herself begins to function truly as the Christian Church, and as individual Christians approximate to the description here given in these beatitudes. So we must start with ourselves, and see why, unfortunately, this description of the Christian as one who “mourns” is one that makes us feel that somehow or another is not as evident in the Church today as it once was.
The explanation of this is fairly obvious. It is partly a reaction against the kind of false Puritanism (I say false Puritanism, not Puritanism) which, let us be frank, was too much in evidence towards the end of the last century and the beginning of the present one. It often manifested itself in an assumed piety. It was not natural; it did not come from within; but people affected and assumed a pious appearance. It almost gave the impression that to be religions was to be miserable; it turned its back upon many things that are perfectly natural and legitimate. In that way a picture was given of the Christian man that was not attractive, and, I think, there has been a violent reaction against it, a reaction so violent that it has gone to the other extreme.
But I also think that another explanation of this is the idea which has gained currency that if we as Christians are to attract those who are not Christian we must deliberately affect an appearance of brightness and joviality. Thus many try to assume a kind of joy and happiness which is not something that rises from within, but is something which is put on. Now probably that is the main explanation of the absence of this characteristic of mourning in the life of the Church today. It is this superficiality, this glibness of joviality that is almost unintelligent. It is this endeavor to appear to be something and to cut a certain figure, instead of a life arising from within, which controls and determines the whole of our appearance and behavior.
I sometimes think, however, that the ultimate explanation of it all is something still deeper and still more serious. I cannot help feeling that the final explanation of the state of the Church today is a defective sense of sin and a defective doctrine of sin. Coupled with that, of course, is a failure to understand the true nature of Christian joy. There is the double failure. There is not the real deep conviction of sin as was once the case; and on the other hand there is this superficial conception of joy and happiness which is very different indeed from that which we find in the New Testament. Thus the defective doctrine of sin and the shallow idea of joy, working together, of necessity produce a superficial kind of person and a very inadequate kind of Christian life.
Now this is obviously extremely important, especially as regards the matter of evangelism. It is not surprising that the Church is failing in her mission if her dual conception of sin and joy are thus defective and inadequate. And, therefore, it comes to pass that so much evangelism, whether organized on a large or a small scale (in spite of all that is claimed for it in figures and results), is obviously not affecting the life of the Church deeply. Indeed, the very statistics prove the failure in this respect. For this reason it is surly a very fundamental subject for us to consider. That is why it is so important that we should approach it all in terms of this Sermon on the Mount, which starts with negatives. We have to be poor in spirit before we can be filled with the Holy Spirit. Negative, before positive. And here again is another example of exactly the same thing- conviction must of necessity precede conversion, a real sense of sin must come before there can be a true joy of salvation. Now that is the whole essence of the gospel. So many people spend all their lives in trying to find this Christian Joy. They say that would give the whole world if they could only find it, or could be like some other person who has it. Well, I suggest that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred this is the explanation. They have failed to see that they must be convicted of sin before they can ever experience joy. They do not like the doctrine of sin. They dislike it intensely and they object to its being preached. They want joy apart from the conviction of sin. But that is impossible; it can never be obtained. Those who are going to be converted and who which to be truly happy and blessed are those who first of all mourn. Conviction is an essential preliminary to true conversion.”
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