God’s Word for You

Genesis 2:25 They were not ashamed

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, September 3, 2026

25 The two of them were naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed toward one another at any time.

The translation is certainly longer than many, but it comes from the same Hebrew words. The last phrase, “not ashamed,” involves a Hebrew conjugation called the hithpolel. This conjugation (or stem) has a back-and-forth or reciprocal activity, which is why I have said “toward one another.” Also, in the imperfect tense, “at any time” is also the meaning. As Luther said to his students in class, “This is Hebrew grammar, and those who do not know it should learn it” (LW 12:324).

This verse is one of many in chapter 2 that prepares us for what is coming in chapter 3, the fall into sin. The man and his wife were naked, but there was no shame in it; they felt nothing sinful toward one another nor any embarrassment about themselves.

This is no longer true since the fall. Sadly there are many people who try to fight against their own conscience. Some do this completely apart from faith in order to flaunt themselves and virtually to dare anyone to say anything about their exposed bodies, whether naked or in whatever form of immodesty. But their “consciences have been seared as with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:2). They do not flaunt themselves for anyone’s good or salvation, but to put their own shamelessness (not a godly shamelessness at all) on display.

There are also those who expose their bodies for money, because the sinfulness of others will cause them to pay to try to alleviate their own lusts and loneliness. Such people, prostitutes and models and so on, should be pitied, especially if their work brings them shame. They can be shown forgiveness, and they should be led in every way to more godly work. Jesus shows compassion to them, pointing out to his critics: “John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him” (Matthew 21:32).

But there were once those within the church who chose to strip naked, as adults, in order to be baptized. John Chrysostom (347-407) defended this practice in the Eastern Church: “After stripping you of your robe, the priest himself leads you down into the flowing waters. Why naked? He reminds you of your former nakedness, when you were in paradise and you were not ashamed. For Holy Scripture says, ‘Adam and Eve were naked and were not ashamed’ until they took up the garment of sin, a garment heavy with abundant shame” (“Baptismal Instructions”). The church does not do this today, since the practice of “naked baptism” was (1) never recorded in Scripture, and (2) it was nothing but an invitation for sin and covetousness, and if something we do in freedom might lead another Christian into sin, “I will never do it again, so that I will not cause him to fall” (1 Corinthians 8:13).

What is the theological definition of shame? It is surely this, that shame arises from the consciousness that sinful, and especially sexual impulses are asserting themselves in disharmony with God’s will. Therefore this is a form of selfishness rather than the perfect love and harmony that was the original status of the two sexes.

Luther says, “Now it would be regarded as the utmost madness if anyone walked about naked. Therefore what would have been our greatest glory at that time is now extreme shame. It would have been something glorious for man that, though all the animals needed hair, feathers, and scales to cover up their ugliness, he alone was created with such prestige and beauty of body that he could walk about with a hairless and naked skin. This glory has perished. For we must cover our bodies with greater effort and care than the rest of the animals—not only because of necessity but rather to avoid disgrace. The rest of the animals have been covered by nature” (LW 1:140).

When someone has sinned in any way, we must call their conscience away from the law (that is, the law of Moses, which has broken their heart and left them drowning in their sin) and turn them to the Gospel, which means that we must urge them to stop trusting in their own flawed works and ruined righteousness, and to trust in Christ for his forgiveness, given freely on account of his grace. For we know that God will judge the adulterer and the sexually immoral person (Hebrews 13:4), but we must be reminded that Jesus forgives. When a woman who had lived “a sinful life in the town” (Luke 7:37) came and anointed the Lord’s feet, wiped them with her hair, and kissed his feet and poured perfume on them, a Pharisee thought, “If this man were a prophet, he would know that a sinner is touching him, and what kind of woman she is.” So Jesus told him the little parable about a man who forgave two debts, one of five hundred denarii, and one of fifty, and asked, “Which one will love him more?” For it is not the severity of the sin that we should consider, since Christ forgives the sins of all who love him and believe in him. It is the grandness and overwhelming flood of his grace that amazes us.

For he forgives so many sins, ancient and recent, remembered and forgotten, infamous and unnoticed, and above all, he has forgiven me. Me! He only asks that I believe this, and that I believe in him. And he lifts away my shame forever.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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