“But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid iton both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces wereturned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.” Genesis 9:23

Cover-Up

I have recently become keenly aware of a way I have been protecting my reputation. When someone does or says something that I feel will cause me some harm, I complain to my husband about that person’s faults, taking the “righteous high road” by implying that I would NEVER sin like that. I am careful to keep this behavior in a box labeled “sharing with my husband,” never calling it what it is—backbiting. Gossip. Slander.

We should be able to share everything with our spouse, but there is a spirit behind our words, a motivation for telling it the way we tell it. Too often, my desire is to protect my reputation—to justify my own actions. The “sharing” is truly merely my own interpretation of events, and my own beliefs about the motivations of others.

I confess God’s Spirit has convicted me. I have begun to see that my husband takes on my views, affecting his opinion of others. My complaint of “look at what this person did or said” easily becomes “this person ALWAYS does or says this,” which easily becomes “who they are”—it becomes their identification, their label. I begin to expect them to behave this way, and interpret everything they do in light of my opinion, thus fulfilling my expectations. And this is the “protection” it provides: “He is this kind of person—unlike myself.” Implication: I am not like that. I am… better.

I so clearly see the splinter in your eye, but not the beam in my own.

I am mistaken if I think I am innocent of passing judgment. While I am never to cover my own sin (“He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy”—Proverbs 28:13), I am always to cover the sins of others (“He who covers a transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates friends”—Proverbs 17:9).

Noah’s son, who saw his father drunk and naked, hurried to tell his brothers. We aren’t told his motivation in this, but we are told what the other two sons did—walked into the cave backwards with a blanket over their shoulders, then laid that blanket—that covering—over their father’s naked body. They didn’t want anyone else to peek in and see Noah’s shame.

When I tell the wrongdoings of others, it allows people to peek in and see shame. When I listen to reports of others’ wrongdoings, then I am peeking in and seeing shame. “And above all things have fervent love for one another, for ‘love will cover a multitude of sins’” (1 Peter 4:8).

Avert your eyes and ears, and cover the sins of others. Don’t give an evil report, and don’t listen to one, for we all have sinned.

“Father, we seek Your forgiveness for uncovering the shame of others. Teach us to confess our own sins, and cover the sins of others. We want to love like You do. Amen.”