Shame is a word that is often thrown around today in different groups and settings. Persons are ashamed of their past, their present, and their possible future. The definition of this word is very powerful and evokes strong images; shame is defined as a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior.
This emotion is one that we should embrace if we are guilty of something shameful. If we have committed a falsehood against our call as Christians, then we need to be ashamed of that action. Rev. Charles Spurgeon said, “Our sin is our shame.” So there it is, we are sinners and we need to be ashamed, end of story.
Well, not quite.
Everyone is indeed a sinner in need of redemption, and the emotion of shame allows us to realize the moment in which we need to repent or ask God for forgiveness. Shame may also show us when we need to apologize and make amends in a Christ Like manner out of love for others. The problem with today’s worldview of shame is that many believe that others should walk in a constant state of ashamedness, and this is not of God. This mindset of perpetual shame goes against the Gospel, it goes against Christ, it goes against the very nature of the Trinity.
Anyone who expects themselves or others to live perpetually ashamed knows nothing of Christ’s message.
Let me complete the quote by Rev. Charles Spurgeon: the full statement was, “Our sin is our shame, and it is well that our Lord has found a complete covering for it.” So yes, we must be ashamed of our sins, all of them. But we must also be willing to accept that Christ Jesus covered this shame by the forgiveness of our sins. Shame leads to humility, humility leads to repentance, and repentance leads to forgiveness.
Jesus calls us to live humbly and walk alongside him in ministry. He doesn’t call us to constantly beat ourselves over the past, because it incapacitates us for the future Gospel work. We must repent of sin, that is without question, but once repentance has occurred one must move forward as a redeemed person. Living unashamed of the Gospel!
Pauls writes in the Romans, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
We are no longer slaves to sin brothers and sisters, so we must live as unashamed witnesses of the Gospel.
In Christian Peace,
Pastor Mike McVey
Minister – First United Methodist Church, Fairfield TX
ACS Chaplain – United States Coast Guard, Station Galveston TX
Chaplain – Texas Game Warden Service
Cell: 919-935-2513
Email: pastormike@fumcfairfield.org
