TEACHING

Daryl Wood

(Daryl is a teacher based in Ohio.)

THE SCOURGE OF SHAME

One of my early childhood recollections involves personally raiding my sister’s piggy bank.  Being a toddler, she had no awareness that she was being victimized.  Since no one else was present when I pried the plug from the belly of the ceramic pig and poured change out onto my mattress, the operation seemed, at first, like a flawless heist.   Soon afterward, however, the recognition of my guilt, followed by a wave of shame, flooded my consciousness.  Under the deluge of it, I broke down in tears.  I began stuffing coins back into the bank until I was certain that I had more than replaced its original contents.

My slice of life captures the dynamic link between guilt and shame.  While common use of these two words might lead one to believe that they are interchangeable, these concepts are actually distinct.  Guilt, at least in terms of its biblical usage, is not emotive.  Instead, in the strict and proper sense, guilt is tied exclusively to the responsibility for wrongdoing.  Shame, on the other hand, is consistently connected to the realm of the feelings.  In many instances, though not all, it has to do with feelings of disgrace, embarrassment, or regret over something for which one is guilty.  In other words, shame is often a natural result of guilt.  So, though these ideas address two different phenomena, they are closely connected in life experience and frequently linked by cause-and-effect.

Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt, and on account of our iniquities we, our kings and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity and to plunder and to open shame, as it is this day (Ez. 9:7, NASB).

In the absence of repentance, shame is a well deserved, experiential consequence of guilt. 

Shame, as an innate by-product of guilt, is hard-wired into the fallen human frame.  An exception exists in cases where people have defiled their consciences to the point where they no longer feel shame, even after committing heinous crimes.  (See Eph. 4: 17-19.)  Society deems these individuals sociopaths; the Scriptures refer to them as reprobate, or those with seared consciences (1 Tim. 4: 1, 2; Rom. 1: 24-32).

The remedy for both guilt and shame is God’s forgiveness.  Through repentance and faith in Christ, we are reconciled to God, cancelling our guilt and paving the way for the removal of our shame as well.  Unless and until there is repentance, shame, not to mention guilt, will remain.  An excerpt of Daniel’s intercessory petition on behalf of the exiled nation underscores this point:

“O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.  O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You (Dan. 9: 7, 8, NKJV).”

While faith empowers the righteous with boldness, shame neutralizes the life of God in His people.  Tentative and suppressed, those with unresolved shame are not released to experience the reign in freedom that comes from walking after the Spirit.  They are dogged by self-consciousness, which robs them of enjoying the abiding presence of Christ. 

The remedy for this disability involves pressing into His heart until all manner of self-seeking is dissolved, and one’s eyes become fixed upon the Author and Finisher of our faith.  Shame will then be replaced by boldness.

And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming (1 Jn. 2:28, NKJV).

Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world (1 Jn. 4:17, NKJV).

From confinement in a prison cell, Paul experienced great boldness in the Lord.

For I know that this will turn out for my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.  For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Phil. 1: 19-21, NKJV).

There are instances where shame is a necessary tool for the restoration of the wayward.

In extreme cases, the community of faith is directed to utilize shame as a means to spur repentance in those who have become emboldened in rebellion and flagrant sin.  A case in point involved the unrepentant man in Corinth who had entered into an immoral relationship with his step-mother, under the full awareness (and therefore passive sanction) of the Corinthian church   Due to their refusal to address the leavening in their midst, brothers and sisters in Christ were themselves behaving shamefully!

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not ever named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife!  And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you . . . . Your glorying is not good.  Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump (1 Cor. 5: 1, 2, 6, NKJV)?

Those in Thessalonica were similarly instructed regarding the undisciplined in their midst, who refused to work:

And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed.  Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother (2 Thess. 3: 14, 15, NKJV).

Again, Paul gives parallel instruction to Titus:

Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you (Titus 2: 6-8, NKJV).

In each of these examples, it was God’s intention that shame would become a motivational incentive to stir the hearts of those who were unresponsive to Him toward repentance.  With regard to the man mentioned in 1 Corinthians, he was restored, as evidenced through a subsequent letter by Paul.  Having served its purpose for the time, the shaming that he received from others was then to be expunged, and the offender was to be forgiven, received, and comforted (2 Cor. 2: 6-8).

Many shame issues are phantom in nature.

While I have carefully noted the legitimacy of shameful feelings that result from shameful behavior, it is equally important to emphasize that most, if not all, of the shame that saints experience has nothing to do with their present standing before God.  For one who has been forgiven from past sins and is currently walking in right relationship with the Lord, the past should remain the past.  Any humiliation or disgrace to which he might be tempted to hold should be renounced and cast aside with as much vigor as he would exercise toward a charge of guilt over his past sins, long since forgiven.  Indeed, enduring feelings of shame—persisting even a good while after repentance—are residual from a spirit of condemnation.  This is definitely not of Christ (Rom. 8: 1, 2)!

Bringing proper feeling into the realm of one’s experience requires an exercise of faith.  This is practically achieved through effectively renewing one’s mind by the Word of God.  Since feelings are largely a function of that to which one gives himself in meditation, one must agree with God in his heart (will) and in his mind first, before his sensibilities will have any chance of catching up.  Fortunately, the psalmists have provided us with a substantial trail, marking the pathway to freedom in this regard.

To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul.

O my God, I trust in You;

Let me not be ashamed;

Let not my enemies triumph over me.

Indeed, let no one who waits on you be ashamed;

Let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause (Ps. 25:1, 2 NKJV).

Look on my affliction and my pain,

And forgive all my sins.

Consider my enemies, for they are many;

And they hate me with cruel hatred.

Oh, keep my soul, and deliver me;

Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You (v. 18-20, NKJV).

In You, O LORD, I put my trust;

Let me never be ashamed;

Deliver me in Your righteousness (Ps. 31:1, NKJV). 

Do not let me be ashamed, O LORD, for I have called upon You;

Let the wicked be ashamed;

Let them be silent in the grave (v. 17, NKJV).

Note the progression of faith that David professes in Psalm 119:

Oh, that my ways were directed

To keep your statutes!

Then I would not be ashamed,

When I look into all your commandments (Ps. 119: 5, 6, NKJV).

And I will walk at liberty,

For I seek Your precepts.

I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings,

And will not be ashamed (v. 45, 46, NKJV).

Let my heart be blameless regarding Your statutes,

That I may not be ashamed (v. 80, NKJV).

It is the will of God that His own be brought to complete freedom from shame.

From the least to the greatest in the Kingdom of God, the Lord desires to deliver each one from shame.  It is not His ambition to rub anyone’s face in his precedent failures, or to have another do so.  In fact, His nature of love takes the exact, opposite course:

And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins (1 Pet. 4:8, NKJV).”

For those who are destitute, defiled, shamed, and/or blind, He offers an antidote sufficient for the removal of every one of these curses:

“I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you maybe clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.  Therefore, be zealous and repent (Rev. 3: 18, 19, NKJV).”

Our Sanctifier has declared that we, who are being sanctified, are one with Him.  For that reason He is not ashamed to call us His brothers (Heb. 2:11), just as we are not to be ashamed to bear reproach for His name’s sake (Matt. 10:32, 33; Rom. 1:16; 2 Tim. 1:8, 12; Acts 5:41).

The One who is not ashamed to be called our God has a promised land for us that exceeds well beyond what any of us is able to imagine (Heb. 11:16).  The territorial boundaries of it extend far past mere legal justification through the atoning work of Christ, as essential and valuable as that is.  It carries us to a place that is more glorious than even the Garden of Eden before the fall.

“You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,

And praise the name of the LORD your God,

Who has dealt wondrously with you;

And My people shall never be put to shame.

Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,

And that I am the LORD your God

And there is no other.

My people shall never be put to shame.

And it shall come to pass afterward

That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;

Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

Your old men shall dream dreams,

Your young men shall see visions;

And also on My menservants and on My maidservants

I will pour out My Spirit in those days (Joel 2: 26-29, NKJV).

Prior to sinning, our first parents were both unashamed and naked (Gen. 2: 25).  It is God’s design that we now live unashamed and clothed—with power from on high (Luke 24:49, NASB).  The life of freedom in the Spirit that He has made available to us allows not only for the removal of our guilt, but also for our release from the scourge of shame.  Experiencing less than this is to live below His full provision.