Fear of Exposure

The Christian life is a walk not a sprint. It is a life-long walk; steady, long, sometimes lonely, sometimes discouraging, other times joyous and exuberant. Sometimes we trudge, other times we walk with purpose and vision.

In 1 John 1:6 it says: “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.”

If we profess to be Christians yet walk in darkness, we are living a lie. If our “Christian walk” consists of name and habit only, we are living a lie. Are we Christian in name only or do we “walk” (or trudge) in the light?

The reason we are reluctant to walk in the light is the fear of exposure. Light reveals truth; it exposes us for who we really are—sinners in need of a savior.

In John 3:20-21 it says: “Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."  This “exposure fear” is our fear of other people really seeing us as we truly are; as Luther said, “We are all beggars at the foot of the cross.” We work hard to keep our puffed up image before the world; we live in fear of being found out by the world. If we live by the Light, the world will see that our good deeds are all the result of a transformed life. Walking in the Light transforms us. All this is a gift of God.

The Good News is this: God knows who we are. In His light we are fully exposed yet He is willing and able to forgive and forget our sins. Isaiah 43:25 says, "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”

We should have no fear of walking in the light fully exposed. God knows all our sins; He is able and willing to forgive and forget. As for other people seeing us walking fully exposed in the light, it renders us transparent and approachable by a hurting world. Keeping up our inflated image of ourselves distances us from others. Step fully into the light for the time is short. A hurting world needs the Savior and we are His “fully exposed” witnesses.