Guilt vs. shame

Much that is wrong with humankind can be summed up in the observation that we have divorced guilt from shame.

The terms can be defined in various ways. For simplicity, I will define guilt as a fact, and shame as a feeling. I am guilty if I have done something wrong; I am ashamed if I feel as though I have done something wrong.

The two should go hand in hand. If I have neither guilt nor shame, then all is well. If I have both guilt and shame at once, then this is as it should be; for my shame should propel me to seek forgiveness for my guilt, and make amends where possible.

One should never exist without the other. Where I have shame without guilt, I am defeated; where I have guilt without shame, I am evil.

We see both conditions immediately following the Fall. Adam has just broken the only commandment, for which he has been told the punishment is death. He hides from God. Why? Because he is naked. He is not guilty (not for being naked, anyway), but he is ashamed.

And yet, when God reminds him of his sin, he seeks to excuse himself. "The woman who you gave me, she made me do it." Where he is guilty, he has no shame.

We in the Church are just as bad today. We seek to impose shame where there is no guilt: for wearing jeans to church, or working on Sunday, or choosing time with our family over Wednesday night prayer meeting. Yet where we are truly guilty, we feel no shame: for gossip and slander, or gluttony, or judging our fellow believer.

The world is no better, of course. The Church of the Politically Correct would have us feel shame where there is no guilt: for being white, or being male, or worshiping our Creator in public. But where there is guilt that leads to death, the Spirit of the Age would have us feel no shame: for sexual sin, or divorcing our spouse, or murdering our children.

The Spirit of God reveals guilt and our shame, if we will listen to him. The Son of God removes our guilt and our shame, if we will trust him. The Church has nothing to teach the world if we do not first humble ourselves.