[Joseph’s ten brothers] said to one another, Surely we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen; that’s why this distress has come on us.
Reuben replied, Didn’t I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you wouldn’t listen! Now we must give an accounting for his blood. They did not realize that Joseph could understand them, since he was using an interpreter.
He turned away from them and began to weep. Genesis 42:21-24
The story of Joseph’s brothers selling him into slavery and then lying about it to their father is one of the best known stories in the Bible. It’s a story of jealousy, hatred, practical fratricide, deceit, and hypocritical living. Imagine what it must have been like for Joseph’s brothers to live a lie in front of their father for decades, seeing him grieve the death of his son and knowing all the time that they were responsible.
It was only when God forced them to openly admit to what they had done, – to himself, to each other, to Joseph, and to their father – that healing could happen.
The main principle of this story applies to all Christians: hiding our sin from others behind a wall of guilt, shame and fear leads to inauthentic living, continued pain and suffering, and delayed healing. Transparency is what God is looking for from us: “This is who I am and this is what I’ve done.”
One of the great blessings I have experienced from being in men’s ministry is witnessing men’s ministry speakers exemplify transparency by naming their sin in front of the men they were speaking to, sin such as wife abuse, gambling addiction, pornography addiction, racism. They courageously and boldly talked about their besetting sin and how God had delivered them from it.
This past weekend I had the privilege of seeing one more men’s ministry speaker demonstrate courageous transparency. He described in graphic detail how he had struggled with severe depression as a young man. And while being depressed isn’t a sin, it was still very courageous for him to be so open and honest. I know there were men present who could identify with what he was saying.
Men, God is calling each one of us to be transparent with our sin and other personal struggles. We all need someone we can talk to and be completely honest with. Then and only then can healing happen in our lives.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
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