It seems, more and more, that our culture is moving away from the feeling of shame. No one should ever have to feel bad for anything they’ve said or done.

While I agree that we should not be going around pointing fingers at each other, there is a reason and even a benefit to shame. There are reasons why some win and some lose.

Let’s first look at what shame really is.

SHAME: a painful sensation excited by a consciousness of guilt, or of having done something which injures reputation; or by of that which nature or modesty prompts us to conceal.

In other words, shame is something you should feel when you’ve done something wrong. Even Christians have somehow taken this twisted world view expressing that we shouldn’t feel bad.

Like pain is an indicator that something is wrong with us physically, shame is an indicator that something is wrong spiritually. If we do things that we know are contrary to the life of Christ that we’ve been brought into, we should feel a measure of guilt and shame. What we should not feel, though, is condemned.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

Romans 8:1-2 (ESV)

If you’ve sinned, you’re guilty. There’s no reason to hide from that fact, but the truth that we can run toward is this – that God does not condemn us when we come to Him in repentance.

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit… But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through is Spirit who dwells in you.

Romans 8:3-4, 9-11 (ESV)

Though sin leads to death, those who are in Christ have been set free from it. What better reason is there to run from the bondage of sin than to run towards the freedom life?

Daily Bible reading: Psalm 79-81; Romans 8:1-18