RELIGION: Can you blush?

Can you blush? When I was in high school, I attended an academic meet where I was surrounded by unfamiliar faces. My sister joined a conversation I was having with several other students, including some girls, who as a young man, I hoped to impress. Pointing to me, she announced, “He’s, my boyfriend.” My face immediately turned red. My sister of course was not my girlfriend. She is my sister and friend—but my blush, much to the delight of my sister, both exposed my embarrassment and my interest in the girls that I was talking to.

Blushing is an involuntary response. Our faces can reveal shame or embarrassment before we have time to hide it. Scripture uses that familiar reaction to describe a serious spiritual condition: a people who had become unable to blush.

In Jeremiah’s day, Judah faced enemies, famine, and national brokenness. Yet the people would not turn back to God. Jeremiah 6:15 says, “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed; nor did they know how to blush.” Their problem was not merely that they had sinned. They had rejected God’s Word so thoroughly that sin no longer troubled their consciences.

God had spoken clearly. Jeremiah 6:19 explains that judgment was coming “because they have not heeded My words nor My law, but rejected it.” The people reinterpreted God’s commands to suit their desires. They maintained the appearance of worship while their hearts remained far from Him.

That warning speaks to us today. Words are often redefined, and God’s teaching is sometimes reshaped to mean what people wish it meant. But God does not need us to improve His message or speak for Him. He communicates truth so that we may know Him and understand how to live.

In Jeremiah 7, the people trusted in the temple and their religious routine while continuing to steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, and worship other gods. They assumed that standing in a sacred place would protect them from the consequences of rejecting God. But the Lord called them to “amend your ways and your doings” and to practice justice, protect the vulnerable, and turn from idolatry.

Religion without repentance cannot make us right with God. Outward worship does not erase inward rebellion. Jeremiah 7:19 asks, “Do they provoke Me to anger? … Do they not provoke themselves, to the shame of their own faces?” Rejecting God’s instruction ultimately leaves us with shame, hurt, and destruction.

Jesus Christ came to bear witness to the truth. Standing before Him, Pilate asked, “What is truth?” That question still echoes through a world that prefers self-made truth to God’s revealed Word. Jeremiah 8:9 asks of those who rejected the Lord’s Word, “So what wisdom do they have?”

Have we lost the ability to blush? When sin no longer grieves us, when we excuse what God condemns, or when we reshape His words to protect our choices, our consciences become dangerously dull. God’s warning is not given merely to condemn us, but to call us back.

Romans 6:23 declares, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Christ offers forgiveness and abundant, everlasting life. Will you acknowledge that your sin is against God, turn from it, and place your faith in Jesus Christ? A tender conscience is not a weakness. It is evidence that we still hear God’s gracious call to repentance. 

For help or more information, please call 970-596-6478 or email [email protected]. All Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version (NKJV). The author, Mr. Shannon Siedschlag, is a pastor in Montrose.