In 1 Cor 6:5 Paul tells the church, “I say this to shame you”.  I am surprised that shame plays any role at all in the Christian life since Jesus bore our shame upon the cross (Heb 12:2).  And yet a careful examination of First and Second Corinthians shows that there are some things which are a cause for Christian shame.  It is helpful to be clear about the place of shame in the Christian life, what we have no need to be ashamed of and what a rightful reason for shame is.

Let’s begin in the beginning.  Human beings were not created to feel shame.  “Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame” (Gen 2:25).  When Adam and Eve were innocent before God and before one another in the Garden of Eden, there was no cause for shame.  They were naked and vulnerable to one another and to God.  They had nothing to hide.  But after they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, things changed.  “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.  Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.  But the LORD God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’  He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid’” (Gen 3:7-10).

The immediate result of sin was shame, manifesting in the need to cover up and to hide.  There was nothing intrinsically wrong with the nakedness of Adam and his wife.  But sin makes us want to hide away from other people, make sure we are not vulnerable in any way, and hide our sinfulness from God.  Yet the latter is impossible.

The New Testament promises, “As it is written: ‘See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame’” (Rom 9:33).  Unbelief causes people to be far from God, cast out like Adam from the Garden.  But trust in Christ results in righteousness, not shame.  Salvation is the reversal of shame.  “As Scripture says, ‘Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.’  For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him” (Rom 10:11-12).  The difference between Adam and the “anyone” mentioned here is that Adam hid from God in his sin and those who trust in Christ “call on him”.  We can come in faith with the assurance that shame is never the result.  The shame that kept Adam far from God is reversed because our sins are covered by the blood of Christ (Eph 2:13) and we are being sanctified by the Spirit.  Repentance means no cause for shame (Rom 6:19-22).  “And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming” (1 John 2:28).  Shame is thus not a normal part of the Christian life because we have been freed from it.

Nor is there need for shame regarding the gospel (Rom 1:16) and the suffering which accompanies standing for Christ in this sinful world.  Jesus said, “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38).  If we do not want to be associated with Jesus, then he does not want to be associated with us.  But Jesus is not ashamed to be associated with those who love him (Heb 2:11).  God is not ashamed to be called the God of those who trust him (Heb 11:6).  It is not shameful to suffer for Jesus and we should not be ashamed of those who do suffer for him (2 Tim 1:8, 12, 16; 1 Pet 4:16).

And yet, despite the many passages which suggest that Christians need not be ashamed, there are some reasons for shame as a Christian.  We need to pay attention to these.

It appears that the Corinthian church had forgotten the nature of their identity in Christ.  This is a cause for shame.  In the first instance the church were disputing with one another, but not merely within the confines of the church.

“If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people?  Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world?  And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?  Do you not know that we will judge angels?  How much more the things of this life!  Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned in the church?  I say this to shame you.  Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?  But instead, one brother takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers!” (1 Cor 6:1-6).

The church had forgotten who they are.  They imagined that the Christian church is just like the unbelieving world and therefore should act the same as unbelievers.  If you have a problem with a fellow believer then take them to court!  But this denies the very nature of who we are as the Lord’s people.  The church is a people set apart, cleansed by the blood of Christ, and sanctified by the Spirit (1 Cor 6:11).  We are not like unbelievers.  There is a fundamental divide between believer and unbeliever.  “What harmony is there between Christ and Belial?  Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?” (2 Cor 6:15).  We must not be fooled by the external similarities.  Although on the outside Christians and non-Christians look the same, we are totally different in the sight of God.

In the passage at hand the difference between believers and unbelievers is that believers will judge the world and judge angels.  Because we are in Christ, we will participate in the final judgement, separating good from evil.  This will surely be as people “under Christ”, who is judge of the living and the dead (2 Tim 4:1).  However, the unbeliever will always be the object of God’s wrath (Eph 2:3) and never able to stand in the judgement (Ps 1:5).  The result of the divide between believer and unbeliever is that believers must act differently.  We must not take church disputes and have these judged in secular court rooms.  And yet the Corinthians had failed to grasp this fundamental divide and were running off to court.

Paul says, “I say this to shame you” (1 Cor 6:5).  So it is a cause for shame when Christians forget who they are in Christ and begin to act in ways that are indistinguishable from the world.  A similar issue is mentioned in 1 Cor 15.

First Corinthians 15 is the most concentrated discussion on the resurrection of the dead in the New Testament.  The Corinthian church seems to have had some wrong views on the resurrection, even believing that there is no resurrection.  The doctrine of the resurrection is not simply academic.  Their wrong view had an effect on their behaviour.  In the middle of chapter Paul exhorts them, “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.’  Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame” (1 Cor 15:33-34).

The reason why there should be shame is that “there are some who are ignorant of God.”  The church should not be ignorant of God.  We should realise that what we believe is not arbitrary.  When the church does not know God and therefore acts like the world, there is something very wrong.  Even our culture expects the church to act differently to the world.

There are moments when Paul seems to use shame as part of his exhortation to the church.  However, we should exercise caution in the use of shame.  It is not always an appropriate means of motivating Christians to do what is right.  When Paul explained to the Corinthians what the life of an apostle is like in contrast to their expectation that the Christian life is one of honour (1 Cor 4:8-13), he did not use their naive foolishness to shame them.  “I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children” (1 Cor 4:14).  Rather he exhorted them to learn from his way of life (1 Cor 4:15-17).  Perhaps they should have known that the Christian life involves suffering for Christ, and yet they were not shamed because of their foolishness.  They were simply warned.

There are other words for shame in 1 and 2 Corinthians.  Early on, Paul tells the church, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor 1:27).  The Corinthian church had forgotten the significance of the cross to the Christian life.  They were concerned to appear wise by human standards.  But the wisdom of God is demonstrated in the foolishness of the cross (1 Cor 1:21-25).  The church did not consist in many educated people.  Given the emphasis on wisdom of a philosophical kind in Greek society, the believers were perhaps feeling shame over being uneducated and weak.  But Paul tells them that this shame is reversed in the gospel.  God uses the foolish to shame the wise and the weak to shame the strong.  In this way shame is actually part of proclaiming the gospel.  He is not telling the church to shame people over their sins, but simply that the fact that they appear foolish and weak because of the cross is the means by which God shames those who refuse to acknowledge the significance of Christ and his cross.

The other instances where this word for shame appears in 1 Corinthians might be better translated as humiliate or dishonour.  Both are found in chapter 11.  First the way people dress may bring dishonour (or shame) to their head (1 Cor 11:4-5).  Head here is referring to a person.  “But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God” (1 Cor 11:3).  A better translation might be “the head of every woman is [her] husband”.  If we fail to act like men or women, then this brings shame or dishonour to others.  Shame is not intended to be part of the life of a Christian and our behaviour should not bring shame to another.

Later in the chapter, Paul has another rebuke for the church.  “Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in?  Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing?  What shall I say to you?  Shall I praise you?  Certainly not in this matter!” (1 Cor 11:22).  The Corinthian church would come together for a “love feast” and then humiliate the poor people in the church by feasting without them.  This behaviour brought shame on the poor.  As with the example above, the shame here is not placed on the person who behaves inappropriately but on another.  Whatever we do as believers it should not bring shame to others.  So it is important to consider the implications of what we are doing.  If it will result in dishonour or humiliation of another member of Christ’s body, it is best to avoid it.

In 2 Corinthians the same word for shame applies to behaviour that may shame others.  In the two instances that appear there, the result is more positive.  “I had boasted to him [Titus] about you, and you have not embarrassed [shamed] me.  But just as everything we said to you was true, so our boasting about you to Titus has proved to be true as well” (2 Cor 7:14).  Paul was pleased because he had not boasted about the church in vain.  They had lived up to his expectations and had not shamed him.  I suppose that if he had boasted about them and they failed to live up to expectations then Titus would have seen this and Paul would have been embarrassed.  Instead, he was pleased that they had done right.  Like a parent, he did not want to be shamed by their behaviour.

Similarly, Paul was pleased that the Corinthian church was organised in their giving.  “For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—not to say anything about you—would be ashamed of having been so confident” (2 Cor 9:4).  He was confident about what they would do and he was not disappointed or ashamed by the result.  If they had failed to live up to his good expectations then shame would have resulted.  This is not a reason to place outrageous expectations on people and try to shame them into meeting those expectations.  Instead, Paul was encouraged by their generosity and deliberate preparedness to give.  He expresses this by saying that he was not ashamed of his confidence in them.

The last word for shame in the Corinthian letters is used here: “Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God.  On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Cor 4:2).  There are right and wrong ways to proclaim the gospel.  Secrets and shame are not helpful.  So no pretending or luring people into church by deception or by distorting God’s word.  These are shameful practices that do not belong in the proclamation of the gospel.

Conclusion

So what part should shame play in the Christian life?  In regard to our past sins, shame should not haunt us.  We have been forgiven; Jesus has born our shame.  It would never be appropriate to return to those past sins.  Ongoing shame over sin is prevented by the sanctification of the Holy Spirit.  He enables us to appropriate the work of Christ and become slaves to righteousness.  Then there is no sin to be ashamed of.

However, Christians are to be rightly ashamed of failing to understand who they are in Christ.  We must not forget who we are.  This means that an ongoing love of God’s word and diligence in reading it, while listening to the Holy Spirit, is what we need.  This way we will be continually reminded of the work of Christ and what he is making us to be.  We should be ashamed of being ignorant of God.  Get to know him.  Deliberately spend time with God and seek to obey him.  If we forget who we are as people in Christ or fail to know God in an ongoing way, then this will be reflected in the way we behave.  Christian behaviour that does not honour God is an outworking of these issues.  This is a cause for shame.

There is no shame in being weak or uneducated.  This is one way that God shames those who do not believe in the name of Christ.  By the same token, don’t be the person who fails to understand the significance of the cross.  Misguided enthusiasm is also not a cause for shame.  But be prepared to be corrected.

Don’t be the cause of shame and humiliation for others.  Make sure that your behaviour honours God and others.  This involves thinking through the consequences of your actions.  There are many warnings in the Bible that we must heed.  Do what is right and meet the hopeful expectations of righteousness that fellow believers have of you.  Then others will not be ashamed of holding such expectations and boasting of you to others.