Shame

I’ve been talking about how I believe that shame could actually be identified as hell. Let me see if I can explain my reasoning and what I believe God is revealing to me.

First, God, the Creator, designed us with emotions. So, if He built us with emotions, there must be a reason for each one.

There are a lot more emotions than what I first thought, however Wikipedia lists only six primary emotions; Love, Joy, Surprise, Anger, Sadness, and Fear. For reasons of trying to explain things here, I want to talk about the last two, the Shame part of Sadness and Fear.

Wikipedia breaks down the primaries further.

Primary emotion	Secondary emotion	Tertiary emotion
Sadness	Suffering	Agony · Anguish · Hurt
	Sadness	Depression · Despair · Gloom · Glumness · Unhappy · Grief · Sorrow · Woe · Misery · Melancholy'
	Disappointment	Dismay · Displeasure
	Shame	Guilt · Regret · Remorse
	Neglect	Alienation · Defeatism · Dejection · Embarrassment · Homesickness · Humiliation · Insecurity · Insult · Isolation · Loneliness · Rejection
	Sympathy	Pity · Sympathy
Fear	Horror	Alarm · Shock · Fear · Fright · Horror · Terror · Panic · Hysteria · Mortification
	Nervousness	Anxiety · Suspense · Uneasiness · Apprehension (fear) · Worry · Distress · Dread

Shame is the only emotion having to do with sin where you regret ever doing it and wished you could take it back; live that part of life over and don’t do that on your second try.

In the book of Genesis of the Bible, it says this about Adam and Eve:

Genesis 2:25

New International Version (NIV)

²⁵ Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

They had no shame before their fall. I wondered if they experienced shame afterwards but I don’t see that they did.

Genesis 3

New International Version (NIV)

The Fall

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

¹¹ And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

¹² The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

I see no evidence of them having shame; they were afraid but didn’t seem to have shame. Instead of accepting their guilt and repenting of it, they blamed the other.

When I looked at the story of Cain and Abel, I saw no shame in Cain either; for killing his brother. Even after the Lord told Cain that Abel’s blood cried out to Him from the ground and the Lord announced the curse, he still had no shame. He was concerned about his well being and said the punishment was more than he could bear.

Throughout the Old Testament, there are many references of God reducing the wicked to shame and keeping shame from those who trusted in Him.

Shame seems to lead to repentance. I have also noticed that those who were shamed leading to repentance wore sackcloth and ashes. Doing this was the same as saying, “I am shamed to the point of death;” or “I am as good as dead.” We also see references of going down to the pit. I believe the pit is another word that is used for grave or death. Sometimes it’s used in a way as saying, “I am so bogged down in my sins;” like being in quicksand.

In the New Testament, there are many warnings for the believer to stay in Christ and Christ in the believer; to avoid being put to shame at judgment time.

Why is it that so many people of today that do such terrible things don’t seem to experience shame? It looks to me like shame has to come from God. God has to open the eyes of our heart to see the sin and how depraved we’ve become.

When I was very young, my family went to visit the family of one of my cousins. My cousin and I were playing along in one of the bedrooms. I had this desire to see what a girl looked like down where we boys don’t get to see. I made up a game called PDP and convinced her to play. We went into the bedroom closet where she pulled down her paints and I got to see her. We weren’t caught in the act but somehow both our parents found out what we did. I was questioned repeatedly if we did that and every time I denied it. I think I went so far as to call my cousin a liar. (I just recently asked forgiveness of those I lied to, the ones still alive.)

I was afraid, probably like Adam was when God asked him. I really don’t know exactly what I was afraid of; I guess it was afraid of being found out. I wasn’t ashamed; I was afraid. Shame didn’t come until many years later after repenting of my sins and asking Jesus to come into my life and take control. I finally felt the need to go to my cousin and ask for her forgiveness. She didn’t remember anything about it but she offered her forgiveness because I asked.

This brings me to another point. When Jesus was with His disciples, He asked them who the people say He was; they gave Him many answers. Then He asked the disciples, “Who do you say I am?” Peter was the only one to speak up and he said. “You are the Christ; the Son of the Living God.” Jesus told him that no flesh and blood had revealed that to him. In other words, it was God who had revealed it. Jesus goes on to call Peter a rock and He said. “Upon this rock I will build my church.”

This was also the time when Jesus explained to His disciples what was about to happen; that He would suffer much and be put to death but would rise to life again on the third day. He also said that they would all run away and desert Him. Peter was puffed up with pride and said that the others might all run away but he would never leave Jesus’ side. Jesus revealed to Peter that before the cock crowed he was going to deny even knowing Jesus three times.

Peter tried to be strong. As Jesus was being lead away as prisoner, Peter followed at a distance but never close by. Three times someone in the various groups he sat with recognized him as being with Jesus and all three times he denied it. After his third denial, he heard the cock crow and remembered what Jesus revealed to him. The Bible says that Peter’s shame was so great that he went outside and wept bitterly.

What Jesus is revealing to us is that it is God who reveals sin to us in such a way as to bring shame which leads to repentance; this is how Jesus’ church is being built.

I would like to say something to you who belong to God’s church. None of us are exempt from sinning once we are a member. There is a daily battle going on but we now have help to overcome it. All sin starts with a thought. God sees that thought just as soon as it enters your mind. I have found that just as soon as I have a wrong thought, I tell the Lord, “I know you see this too and it is not a good thought. Please take this thought away and clean up my thinking so I don’t get these kinds of thoughts so easily.” The faster you can get rid of the thought the better.