Saving Face
While living in Iran there was one aspect of their culture that I had a hard time understanding. It was the concept of saving face. They would avoid embarrassment or humiliation at all costs. If you asked someone for directions and they didn’t know the way, rather than just admit they didn’t know they would give you false directions to avoid the embarrassment of not knowing. They had to “save face.”
We are not free from the need to “save face.” When we catch our children in a lie, they often don’t own up to it right away. We teach them honesty is the best policy. How often don’t we hear that this person or that person was forced to resign. Why? They want to avoid losing standing in the eyes of others. We sin and don’t confess our sins to God right away because we are embarrassed by what we did. We think we can hide them from God. Prominent Pastors have hidden their sins for years to save face and avoid embarrassment.
Saving face is a powerful emotion closely tied to shame and guilt. The way to “save face” is to first learn to “lose face.” We need to be honest with God, admit to Him, we sin and seek His forgiveness. That restores a right relationship with God, just as when we came “clean” with our parents, and they gave us that hug of forgiveness. Jesus put it like this.
“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” Matthew 16:25 NIV
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