Thursday | 23 July 2026

We have renounced the hidden things of shame

The apostle Paul continued to describe our ministry by saying that ‘we have renounced the hidden things of shame’. 2Co 4:2. We must be delivered from our self-righteous shame before we are able to be a minister of the New Covenant. It is appropriate to be ashamed about our sin when it is the outcome of the conviction of the Holy Spirit that causes us to look upon Jesus Christ whom we have pierced. However, there is another form of shame that is only the manifestation of our own judgement upon ourselves. It becomes the fear of being exposed that motivates us to hide our sin by maintaining a projection that we have created for ourselves. If our sin is exposed, it is the same shame that motivates us towards the recovery of our projection through self-righteous acts of penance.

Prior to the Fall in the garden of Eden, Adam and his wife did not know any form of shame. They walked in the light of fellowship with the Lord at the tree of life each day. However, immediately after they exchanged the truth of God for the lie of Satan, and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they became deeply ashamed of their actions and their fallen human condition. Rather than seeking fellowship with the Lord, their shame motivated them to make coverings for themselves with fig leaves. We can liken the fig leaves to the projections that we make for ourselves. In addition to this, when they heard the voice of the Lord calling them for fellowship, they tried to hide themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees in the garden.

Jesus described the motivation of shame that causes us to maintain a projection and hide ourselves from fellowship, by saying, ‘The light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.’ Joh 3:19. The self-righteous shame that causes us to love the darkness, rather than the light, is a bigger problem than our evil deeds.