Have you ever taken a moment to consider, when you choose something wrong, what your predominant feelings are? Or what your first reaction is? Perhaps you're like me and you feel regret, self-reproach (why can't I seem to do better?!", fear (what if someone knew?!), and finally... deep set shame (I can't tell anyone, they would judge me/think less of me/hate me/etc). My first reaction stemming from these feelings is to hide what I have done. I would say this is accurate for all humans from the time they are little until they die. I see this play out even in my toddler, when she does something she knows she isn't supposed to, she tries to hide it or feels upset and ashamed of her choice.
As I've been thinking, studying my Bible and thinking even more, I have discovered an interesting trend woven throughout scripture of human's continuing reaction to sinful choices in their own lives and I would even argue it as one of the key ways that sin continues to hold hostage the true freedom Christ offers.
Let's start at the beginning- the garden narrative.
Genesis 2:25 "And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed."
Okay... naked and unashamed! How humans were before sin. Then we get into the crafty serpent, the temptation of more knowledge and ability to be like God as humans, the doubt of God's goodness and plans and finally, the entering of sin. Then came the realization of nakedness... and finally...
Genesis 3:8-10 "And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”"
Shame. Hiding. With the realization of good and evil that the fruit gave them, Adam and Eve became what we are now... ashamed and afraid of being found out, so they went into hiding because of their sin.
Throughout the rest of the Old Testament we see God's people try to hide their sin, live in shame and finally come to repentance only to slip back into sin-hiding-shame cycle yet again. Then in the New Testament we find hope and true freedom from the shame of sin. Jesus comes to set us free!
In the culture of the present church, I find there to be a stigma against confessing sin. That there is so much SHAME in the fact we struggle in so many ways with so many parts of our sinful nature. Certain types of sin even are more "shamed" so we don't feel we can confess them to one another and seek repentance and help to change. We tend to be a bit like Adam and Eve, who feeling afraid and ashamed, hide away from God and from eachother, trying to cover up our sin. Our exposed brokenness causes us to try to weave together lies, to put on a façade, to burry that problem away from the rest of the eyes of those we fellowship with. And this, this shame culture of sin, is what holds our sin nature in darkness. Hidden sin is easier to keep. When sin is exposed, when others know of it, it is a lot harder to justify continuing to sin but because of shame we hide our struggle with sin. If anything is left in the darkness it cannot be exposed to the Light, and we lack true fellowship with God.
1st John 1:5-10 "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us."
So to conclude this wordy Wednesday post, the shame culture around sin holds believers hostage from the freedom that accountability and genuine friendships among believers can provide. Shame makes it easy to believe that our sin is too great for others, and therefor too great for God. That we must be unworthy, unwelcome and unforgivable if we continue to struggle. Yet, we know that "Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." Romans 8:1-2
There is no sin too great to not be able to come and lay it down at the foot of the cross. And having the encouragement of fellow believers to continue to lay it down at Jesus' feet makes it a much more encouraging journey, even when its hard. Don't let shame hold you back from the true freedom that Christ offers. And don't let shame hold you away from genuine fellowship with your friends. Both are incredible gifts from God.
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