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It is an unusual and a distressing thing to see a man weep. Women may not be ashamed of their tears, nor seek to hide them; and when we see them weep, we do not turn away, but hasten to their side, saying, "Woman, why weepest thou?" But men are ashamed to weep. They brush the failing tear from their eye to hide it, or when they cannot restrain their grief, like Peter, they go from the presence of men to weep bitterly in private. There is something so sacred and so solemn, or else so ludicrous, in the tears of men, that friends feel it kindly not to notice when they fall, or, like the friends of Job, to pause awhile in silence ere they ask, Man, why weepest thou? As a rule, man cannot bear to speak of, nor to be spoken to about, their tears. How strange, then, is the contrast in our text, where Paul is not only seen weeping privately in his prison at Rome, but writing to the distant Church at Philippi to tell them of his tears! Similar examples we find among the prophets. There were times when they did not try to repress nor to hide their tears, but desired, and proclaimed aloud that they desired, to weep, saying, "Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night!" Now, why was it thus? Why was it that strong men desired to weep, and not to hide their tears? The answer is plain and striking. They thus wept, and proclaimed their weeping, not when they wept for themselves, but over others. When they wept for themselves, like Peter, they went out to a secret place to weep alone before their God. But when they saw how evil men ran on in sin, they did not hide, but showed the rivers of tears that ran down their cheeks. There was no shame nor weakness in tears like these.

(W. Grant.)

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KJV: (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:

WEB: For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ,