What We Call Exposure God Calls Freedom

The Bible makes the point that the fear of man is a snare. In other words our fear, or if you prefer our concern, over what others think about us can end up entrapping us. In the case of trying to deal effectively with and defeat our sin addictions, or again if you prefer sin habits or besetting sins, our fear of what others think about us will entrap us in our shame to the point that we will not pursue the only real and lasting means of freedom which, is confession or what we often think of as exposure. No one and I mean no one wants to be exposed for who they really know themselves to be and what they know themselves to have done or be doing. In fact, if I were a gambling man, I would be quite confident wagering a couple month’s salary that one of the biggest fears most Christians have is the fear of exposure—that being the fear of having their past as well as their present hidden thoughts, motives, attitudes, actions, words, and besetting sins made public for anyone and everyone to see. And if you don’t think we’re all that concerned about what others think about us—what’s the first thing we do when we find out someone has hacked our Facebook account and posted something morally questionable or ridiculously stupid in our name? Well, obviously, we get rid of the post ASAP and then write up an apology making sure we get the point across several times that “it wasn’t us” never-minding the fact that the only real thing bothering us about the post was that it had been attributed to us. All of us myself included, are very much concerned with how others perceive us, actually see us, or know about us and especially our failures. We basically don’t want others, especially our peers, to think less of the image of ourselves we project before them every day because if they do think less of us we are made to feel ashamed and this is not an enjoyable feeling for anyone. The problem with all this however, is that we are projecting an image of ourselves that is not real thus forcing us to live and perpetuate a lie all because we value the opinion of others more than we do the truth and the only opinion which really matters—God’s. This devaluation of God and over-evaluation of man leads us to run from the one thing that can free us from this trap of shame that keeps us from experiencing eventual freedom from our sin issues and that one thing is exposure in which, we expose ourselves before God and man for who we really are—sinners, what we are really struggling with—sin, and what we really need forgiveness for—our sin. The Bible puts it this way in Proverbs 28:13: “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses [exposes] and forsakes [repentance] them will find compassion.” In other words, what we call exposure God calls freedom.