Do not be ashamed to bear witness to our Lord.
Thus Paul recommended Timothy not to be ashamed to bear witness to the Gospel. And we Christians are set to be a living testimony of ALL God's works, so shame does not help much.
“A light is not turned on and placed under a bushel, but on the lampstand, and it illuminates all who are at home.” (Matthew 5:15)
Something that seems too strange to me is the omissions that we, as Christians, have made in instructing about this bad feeling called "shame." There will even be those who say that shame is a positive feeling, and what evil do those who are not ashamed.
What is shame?
First, it is a very powerful feeling. It looks like fear, but it is something else. It is mentioned for the first time in the book of Genesis 2:25: "Both the man and his wife were naked, but neither was ashamed to be like this." I don't know about you, but it seems to me that it must have been nice to be without shame. But this ideal state did not remain much ... because:
“The snake was more cunning than all the wild animals that God the Lord had created, and asked the woman:
"So God has told you not to eat the fruit of any garden tree?"
And the woman replied:
—We can eat the fruit of any tree, except the tree in the middle of the garden. God has told us that we should not eat or touch the fruit of that tree, because if we do, we will die.
But the snake said to the woman:
-It is not true. They will not die. God knows very well that when you eat the fruit of that tree you will know what is good and what is bad, and then you will be like God. ”
As we can see, the snake was interested in misleading, and thus moving away, the perfect work that had just been created by God. What a subtle way to cheat! In fact, everything said by the snake was true, but also by saying truths the right can be perverted, specially when the truths are told with bias. It is important to explain that Adam and Eve could not distinguish between good and evil before eating the fruit of the forbidden tree for a very simple cause: Before that there was no evil. But after disobeying evil already existed, and it was so easy to distinguish it from good. They were already like God, but not in the sense that they imagined it (I guess). They could already distinguish good and evil.
Knowing that they had done wrong, paradise turned for them in a terrifying place. There was nowhere to hide and they fled, ashamed before God, but they couldn't go far enough to escape God's voice. They could hear him calling: "Where are you?"
The essential question is: who taught you that you were naked?
Taking the question again: Were Adam and Eve naked?
I say no. They were not.
Are the fish of the sea naked? And the birds of the sky are naked? Are the horses and dogs naked? Are insects and bacteria naked?
Don't you realize that the snake tricked us? In this scheme he entangled the perfect foundation with which we had been created. There is no such thing as "being naked." If it is absurd to use the concept in sea fish, it is also for humans. We are confused; In many cases we do not know how to distinguish good from evil. We have been deceived!
Someone may not have clothes, but that does not make him naked. The concept of naked as something to be ashamed of is foreign to human nature. We are not naked! We can't be. God's work is perfect as it was created.
To be ashamed of the human body is to be ashamed of the most exquisite of God's works. It is to be ashamed of the true image and likeness of God: ourselves.
Let us discard that feeling of shame right away: it was Satan's deceit that caused it!
Thus Paul recommended Timothy not to be ashamed to bear witness to the Gospel. And we Christians are set to be a living testimony of ALL God's works, so shame does not help much.
“A light is not turned on and placed under a bushel, but on the lampstand, and it illuminates all who are at home.” (Matthew 5:15)
Something that seems too strange to me is the omissions that we, as Christians, have made in instructing about this bad feeling called "shame." There will even be those who say that shame is a positive feeling, and what evil do those who are not ashamed.
What is shame?
First, it is a very powerful feeling. It looks like fear, but it is something else. It is mentioned for the first time in the book of Genesis 2:25: "Both the man and his wife were naked, but neither was ashamed to be like this." I don't know about you, but it seems to me that it must have been nice to be without shame. But this ideal state did not remain much ... because:
“The snake was more cunning than all the wild animals that God the Lord had created, and asked the woman:
"So God has told you not to eat the fruit of any garden tree?"
And the woman replied:
—We can eat the fruit of any tree, except the tree in the middle of the garden. God has told us that we should not eat or touch the fruit of that tree, because if we do, we will die.
But the snake said to the woman:
-It is not true. They will not die. God knows very well that when you eat the fruit of that tree you will know what is good and what is bad, and then you will be like God. ”
As we can see, the snake was interested in misleading, and thus moving away, the perfect work that had just been created by God. What a subtle way to cheat! In fact, everything said by the snake was true, but also by saying truths the right can be perverted, specially when the truths are told with bias. It is important to explain that Adam and Eve could not distinguish between good and evil before eating the fruit of the forbidden tree for a very simple cause: Before that there was no evil. But after disobeying evil already existed, and it was so easy to distinguish it from good. They were already like God, but not in the sense that they imagined it (I guess). They could already distinguish good and evil.
Knowing that they had done wrong, paradise turned for them in a terrifying place. There was nowhere to hide and they fled, ashamed before God, but they couldn't go far enough to escape God's voice. They could hear him calling: "Where are you?"
The essential question is: who taught you that you were naked?
Taking the question again: Were Adam and Eve naked?
I say no. They were not.
Are the fish of the sea naked? And the birds of the sky are naked? Are the horses and dogs naked? Are insects and bacteria naked?
Don't you realize that the snake tricked us? In this scheme he entangled the perfect foundation with which we had been created. There is no such thing as "being naked." If it is absurd to use the concept in sea fish, it is also for humans. We are confused; In many cases we do not know how to distinguish good from evil. We have been deceived!
Someone may not have clothes, but that does not make him naked. The concept of naked as something to be ashamed of is foreign to human nature. We are not naked! We can't be. God's work is perfect as it was created.
To be ashamed of the human body is to be ashamed of the most exquisite of God's works. It is to be ashamed of the true image and likeness of God: ourselves.
Let us discard that feeling of shame right away: it was Satan's deceit that caused it!
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