Joy When Being Shamed
“The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.”
Paul says he rejoices twice here, “Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice”. When he wrote “I will rejoice” (the second rejoice), is he moving on to another thing he rejoices in? Or is he staying in the same flow of thought? This is an important question for understanding, what on earth he means when he wrote, he ‘will not be ashamed’.
So, let’s take a step back and think about it. There is all important connective word, directly after he wrote, “yes, and I will rejoice”, the connective word is ‘for’. This means he is saying, ‘I will rejoice even though preachers are trying to afflict me because Christ is proclaimed, and I will continue to rejoice, ‘for’; and then he gives his reason for continuing to rejoice. So, I think it is one continuous thought which means this word ‘for’ has glorious implications.
Other preachers are rivalling against him, trying to shame him, for being in prison, they are out there preaching the gospel and he is in prison, they probably thought God’s favour rested upon them and not on Paul, they might have thought Paul was being punished by the Lord. But Paul had done nothing wrong in the eyes of the Lord, he was not being shamed by the Lord, but was being shamed by men.
I am brought to Psalm 4 as I think about this shaming; King David wrote this Psalm when his son Absalom was rivalling against him for the throne.
“O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame?
How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?
But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself;
the Lord hears when I call to him.”
And our Lord Jesus is the chief example of this, as he was shamed by the religious leaders day by day, and ultimately he was sentenced to death on a cross when he had done no wrong, and there he was shamed and mocked by men as he hung on a cross like a crook. But the Lord Jesus, despised the shame - Hebrews 12:2,
“Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Jesus looked past the shame that was being brought upon his name by humans, to his exaltation from God. If we put God’s favour and people’s favour on a seesaw, surely the weight and value of God’s favour would fling any humans favour into space. We aim to please God, not man.
So what does Paul, David and Jesus have in common? Their conscience was clear. They knew that this shaming was false, it had no ground in reality, they knew they shouldn’t be ashamed because they did nothing wrong, they were being wrongly accused. So, Paul rested and rejoiced in the sovereignty of God when he was being put to shame by men, because it was enough for him to know that God knows the truth, just because others were shaming him, didn’t mean he should feel ashamed, he knew the truth, and God knew the truth, so his conscience was clear. And so with a clear conscience he knew that, Christ will be honoured in his body whether he is set free or put to death. This is the joy of a conscience that is cleansed and pure.
A massive theme in the Bible is being wrongly accused by somebody, and this happens a lot in life, but when we are wrongly accused the truth sets us free. We shouldn’t be ashamed, if we know we haven’t done anything wrong, we should rejoice, for the Lord knows, and we aim to please the Lord. However, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that we actually have done wrong when we are accused, and that requires us to truly repent. So, weigh up those accusations, place them before the Lord in prayer, read and know the law of God, be honest with yourself and if you are not in the wrong, then rejoice, for the Lord knows the truth and let your conscience be clear. To have a good conscience was something the puritans held dear, JI Packer in his book, ‘A Quest For Godliness’ said the puritans taught that “A good conscience is the greatest blessing that there is.”
Let us strive to live in the light of truth, so that might live happy.
I’ll end on this quote from William Fenner - the language is a bit archaic, but I find it to be quite poetic; it’s about having a conscience that is at peace with God,
“It sweetneth evils to a man, as trouble, crosses, sorrows, afflications. If a man have true peace in his conscience, it comforteth him in them all. When things abroad do disquiet us, how comfortable it is to have something at home to chear us? so when troubles and afflictions without turmoil and vex us and adde sorrow to sorrow, then to have peace within, the peace of conscience, to allay all and unquiet all, what happiness is this? When sicknesse and death cometh, what will a good conscience be worth then? Sure, more than all the world besides… The conscience is God’s echo of peace to the soul: in life, and death, and judgement it is unspeakable comfort.”
