Keynote Address on Being Unashamed: Courage, Commitment, and Faith

This keynote address explores the concept of being unashamed, drawing on the verse Roman 1:16. The address begins with a relatable anecdote and then defines being unashamed as acting without embarrassment or guilt, highlighting its connection to morality and personal beliefs. The essay then delves into the significance of being unashamed of the gospel, as presented in Roman 1:16, emphasizing courage and commitment in the face of adversity. The author uses the example of Paul's experiences to illustrate the courage required to preach the gospel despite facing hatred and persecution. The address also highlights the importance of commitment to one's beliefs, drawing parallels between Paul and Jesus. Finally, the address discusses the importance of taking a stand for one's beliefs, emphasizing the need for neutrality and unbiased support. The conclusion reinforces the idea that being unashamed involves courage and commitment to one's values. The essay concludes by referencing the importance of standing up for what you believe in.

KEYNOTE ADDRESS
ON
BEING UNASHAMED
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Introduction
‘Be willing to be unliked and ridiculed in order to speak the words of the One who matters
most.’
-Dillon Burroughs
This beautiful quote by Dillon Burrough is very much relatable to us in various contexts. Many
occasions come when we cannot decide whom or what to stand for. Sometimes we decide
something to do and then we feel ashamed for doing so. For example, once I was walking down
the streets and I saw one beggar there who was having a hard time walking on bare foot for a
very long time. I got close and asked her if I could help but I realized that it is not only money
that could help her at that moment. That is why I stood there for a moment and then removed my
shoes and gave that to her. My house was at a little distance from where this happened and when
I was coming back to my house almost everyone on the street was looking at my feet and some
people were gossiping about it too. At that moment I could do two things. I could either run to
my home to avoid any further glances or I could proudly walk knowing the why I was walking
without shoes even though others do not know it. This is what I call being unashamed. You can
also face similar situations in your life when you struggle to either be ashamed of what you do or
you just carry the responsibility of your decisions and move forward with them. So, I can say
that being unashamed is about acting apologetically without felling embarrassed or guilty about
the act. Morality is attached with this notion. I mean that we cannot do unethical things and then
pledge to do them being unashamed. Yes, it can happen that our sense of morality or our beliefs
do not match with beliefs or morals of others. So, in that case, it is not shameful to follow our
faiths if we have our own valid reasons for doing so. Here, I will speak about what it means to be
unashamed in the context of the verse Roman 1.16 that explains how to be unashamed for the
gospel of Christ.
Significances of being unashamed of gospel
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For in it is the righteousness of
God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith.”
-Roman 1.16, Paul.
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The above mentioned lines from Roman 1.16 verse remind us how it feels to be truthful and
responsible towards our individual faith and beliefs (desiringgod.org, 2019). The context of this
verse is that Paul has been interested to preach his faith that is the gospel of Christ to others
because he is unashamed of the gospel and thus he is unashamed to preach the same. Now, it is
important to understand what is meant by being ashamed of something. Recall your school life
memories when some of you used to bully other students. Now imagine that you were bullying a
new boy in school who could not answer the questions asked by your teacher in the class and
then when the examination results came, you got to know that he got the first position. This is
when you can feel shame or embarrassment.
Courage
When we go through the what Paul said in the verse, we can think that Paul is trying to tell his
own self that he is not ashamed of preaching the gospel by repeating that to others and to
himself. We can think that until we get to know the context of the verse. In reality, Paul was
condemned for preaching the gospel in Rome and he used to get a high amount of hatred from
people for doing so (Gorman, 2013). This implies that there were many instances that were more
than enough to make him feel ashamed but he did not feel ashamed. Why is that? It is because he
had the courage to follow his faith and to spread his faith to others as well without being
ashamed. In order to understand this, you have to be aware of what happened to Paul in the
ministry of gospel. He said that he used to get beaten by the Jews and sometimes he used to be
on the verge of death (Fitch III, 2016). He suffered from imprisonments and torture and yet he
continued preaching the gospel because he had the courage to do so.
Commitment
Apart from courage, another thing that kept him going was his uncompromising commitment to
his faith in the gospel. A deep rooted belief is needed in order to continue to be consistent with
one’s own beliefs against all odds that come in the way. There is a similarity between him and
Jesus himself. We all know that Jesus was betrayed by his own friends and his apparent friends
accused him of being blasphemer. In addition, he was striped and tortured and these things had
been done to him to make him feel ashamed. Despite facing this tremendous amount of hatred,
Jesus never showed hatred in return because he was true to his own beliefs just as Paul was
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(Warfield, 2016). Both of them did that because they were committed to their beliefs. They
believed that preaching the actual truth about salvation was the most adorable thing to do in the
whole world. Thus, he continued preaching the gospel to fools and to the wise human beings and
also to the unbelievers because he was unflinchingly committed to his beliefs. Moreover, he
never forced others to believe what he used to belief and he never hated those who used to shame
him for having such beliefs because that is what a true believer does.
Taking stands
So, now we understand that being ashamed in not only about being apologetic about our actions
without feeling any kind of guilt or embarrassment. In fact, being unashamed is also about taking
stand for what we believe in. taking stand for something or someone means to be committed to
that thing or that person not temporarily but for a lifetime. It is not about supporting the bad
behaviors of a good person but is about supporting the god behaviors of even a bad person. I
mean that when we take stands we have to be neutral and unbiased and only that can make us
consistent with our stands. For example, I once saw a girl getting hateful comments on social
media on the basis of her choice of cloths and there were many who started shaming her for that.
I felt that I needed to protest against that and I put my comment over there showing what I
believe about those hateful remarks and I got similar hateful remarks from them too. The
interesting thing is that I did not feel ashamed at all because I knew what I was doing and I knew
why I was doing that. So, I did it being unashamed.
Conclusion
Here, I have talked about the significance of being unashamed in the context of the verse Roman
1.16. So, now we know that being unashamed is about taking stand for what he thinks is right.
This gives us the courage to always do what our heart commands. The path of doing that is not
easy and it can never be easy because many will come to strip us off our faiths but all we can do
is to make them realize that we are committed enough to overthrow shame and be unashamed.
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Reference list
desiringgod.org, 2019, Not Ashamed of the Gospel, Available at:
https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/not-ashamed-of-the-gospel [Accessed on: 20/2/2019]
Fitch III, J., 2016. Archetypes on screen: Odysseus, St. Paul, Christ and the American cinematic
hero and anti-hero. Journal of Religion & Film, 9(1), p.1.
Gorman, M.J., 2013. Paul and the Cruciform Way of God in Christ. Journal of Moral
Theology, 2(1), pp.64-83.
Warfield, B.B., 2016. The Christ That Paul Preached. nd Accessed January, 26(1), pp.90-110.
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