Wednesday | 17 December 2025

The symptoms of shame

Disappointment, discouragement, discontent and distrust, when our good endeavours founder or are not affirmed by others, indicate our shame. In this condition, we are being weighed down by our unfulfilled expectations and are vulnerable to the snare of sin. Although we may feel ‘poorly’ or ‘low’, this is not the bearing of a person who is ‘poor in spirit’. Rather, ‘poor in spirit’ is the demeanour of a person who is accepting Christ’s yoke and is learning from Him. In contrast, shame motivates us to recover ourselves through penance. These are the actions that we take to affirm our religious self‑image and to assure ourselves of our acceptability before God. These actions, whether self‑prescribed or defined in a pastoral encounter, are an attempt to obtain this acceptability on our own terms.

Penance is not repentance and, therefore, cannot lead to faith obedience and rest. The only answer is for us to turn again to the Lord and embrace our participation in His offering and sufferings as a member of His body. With this in mind, Paul exhorted us, writing, ‘Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God’. Heb 12:1‑2.

Unless we find deliverance from the way of shame, we will become increasingly weak and sick, and will fall spiritually asleep under the judgement of God. This is because we are unable to participate in the agape meal in a worthy manner, ‘not discerning the Lord’s body’. 1Co 11:29. This means that we cannot discriminate between the obedience that is defined by the word, and our self‑righteous ‘good’.