Scripture gives three reasons why we fear other people:
- They can expose and humiliate us (ch 2-3)
- They can reject, ridicule or despise us (ch 4)
- They can attack, oppress or threaten us (ch 5)
Thinking in this chapter about fearing people exposing and humiliating us. Look at shame is trying to hide ourselves from gaze of God and other people.
1. Shame from sin. Because of sin still present within us, we experience embarrassment, shame, the feeling of being exposed and vulnerable. As a result we try to protect ourselves and avoid the gaze of others. The ultimate problem appears to be the gaze of others but in reality the problem is within us and between God and ourselves. Peer pressure is therefore not the right word because the ultimate problem is not the gaze of others, call it more accurately the fear of other people. The presence of others leaves us feeling exposed because they trigger the shame within us at sin.
When Christ returns, those who are naked will prefer being covered by the boulders of Jerusalem’s mountains to being exposed before the holy gaze of God. (Luke 23: 28-30)
2. Shame from being victimised or sinned against.
‘Shame and low self-esteem are both rooted in Adam’s sin. They both are goverened by the perceived opinions of others, and they both involve "not feeling good about ourselves." The only difference is that our word "shame" still retains the idea that we are ashamed before God as well as before other people, while self-esteem is sen as strictly a problem between ourselves and other people, or a problem just within ourselves. Low self-esteem is a pop version of biblical shame or nakedness. It is secularised shame.’ p.28
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