Rev. Claudia & Dr. Timothy Emerick
Missionaries of the Cross
I Corinthians 1:18
Spiritual Shame!
Against You, you only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight— That You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. Psalms 51:4.
I must live so as never to be ashamed before Hm first John 2:28. Certainly this refers to a second coming and are assembling before Him, but it also refers to the kind of life we should live before he comes.
To be ashamed before him means that I have forced him to view my sin Paul makes it clear; shall I take the members of Christ or make them members of a prostitute? 1st Corinthians 6:15. A preacher’s son trampled his father’s marigolds, but his father caught him in the act. The boy cried, don’t look at me, he was ashamed because his father was forced to see his disobedience.
Shame is the realization of a contrast. The greater the contrast, the greater the sense of shame. If I have a sense of discomfort in the presence of the Lord, it is always because of some sin. Dead people have no such discomfort; but spiritually alive people can become acutely pained by the presence of even the smallest sin.
To be ashamed before Him, therefore, is a mark of spiritual life, even as a pinpricking of the doctor hurts because the patient is alive. To be ashamed before him means that Christ is really with me, but something has happened in our relationship. I must try, with His help, to live in clouded relationship with him so they will never feel ashamed. It is a life that has never has to cry out to him don’t look at me the life in which God and His disciple walk together because they are perfectly agreed. (Amos 3:3).