In these verses, Alma called his people to repentance. They needed to be stripped of pride, stripped of envy. The main physical manifestation of pride in this world was costly apparel, and so that needed to be stripped off. However, this admonition was also figurative, because if you also need to rid yourself of the emotions of pride and envy.
In verse 30, Alma asked, "Is there one among you that doth make a mock of his brother, or that heapeth upon him persecutions?" This was and is a real problem. We must be very careful never to belittle anyone. How hard that is! We live in a world where most of the elementary school students do a lot of teasing, if not bullying, and our children grow up with it. We have to strip ourselves of this, and we have to be really careful as parents and in our families to be sure that we do not ever tear anyone down.
Why is mocking or belittling so problematic? Have you ever been mocked? Been laughed at? I remember my professor Robert K. Thomas once saying, "The reason that mocking and laughter is so pernicious is because there is no answer for it." When so attacked, you cannot rationally reply. And of course, you cannot laugh or even mock back. That just makes matters worse. Maybe we can laugh at ourselves, and deflect the mocking a little bit, but laughter is something that you cannot respond to, it stops the conversation, and people who mock know that. Once the damage is done, there is no way to recover from it, so we must be really careful. It can be so devastating. People feel belittled or mocked, even over something small or silly, and they leave the Church over that. They feel like they are not valued. There is no way they can redeem their self-esteem, let alone themselves, except, of course, with the help of the Savior.
These words and questions of Alma bring to our hearts and minds a lot of things for us to think about—things that are sad, things that show us the way things should not be, but also other things that help us to be strong and that help us to know that we are on the right path. That is the spirit of Alma here!
Ed J. Pinegar and John W. Welch, Experiencing a Mighty Change of Heart: Alma’s Guide to a Deep, Lasting Conversion (American Fork, UT: Covenant Communications, 2020), 75: "Having received Christ’s image in our countenance, and having been delivered from captivity and bondage, we want nothing more than to be received by Him, to go and be where He is. The Lord has made that possible through His infinite Atonement. But it is up to us to take advantage of His ultimate sacrifice by repenting."