Do You Know How to Blush?

When was the last time you blushed?  

It’s fascinating how our bodies react to emotions like embarrassment, nervousness, shyness,  anxiety, attraction or awkwardness at being put on the spot—many of us blush.  

This automatic, involuntary reaction often takes over when you’d rather hide your emotions than display them. It’s a uniquely human trait. No animal is known to blush. Even Charles Darwin called it “the most peculiar and most human of all expressions.”

It’s linked to the “fight or flight” response, during which your nervous system releases adrenaline to prepare your body for action. This surge increases your heart rate, dilates your pupils and relaxes the blood vessels in your face. This allows more blood to flow and results in the skin turning a rosy hue.  

Physical blushing might be fascinating. But a more important subject is spiritual blushing. When was the last time you blushed spiritually? 

Spiritual blushing in the Bible

After the Jews returned from Babylonian captivity, Ezra also returned to teach them God’s law and restore the priesthood and temple service (Ezra 7:11-26). However, while in Judah, he encountered a serious problem.

Many people, including even priests and Levites, had married women from pagan nations (Ezra 9:1-2; see also Exodus 23:32; 34:15-16; Deuteronomy 7:1-4; Judges 2:2). 

The problem in Ezra’s time was that these wives continued practicing the pagan customs from their native lands. Unlike Rahab and Ruth, who embraced the God of Israel and rejected idolatry, these women held to their pagan beliefs, which Ezra knew would lead the people into spiritual compromise.

So, Ezra sought God in prayer and fasting for his nation’s sins (Ezra 9:5). He was so ashamed that he blushed before God (verse 6, King James Version) and could not lift his face toward Him. 

Ezra was spiritually blushing—deeply convicted by his people’s wrongdoing.

Physical vs. spiritual blushing

What is spiritual blushing?

Spiritually blushing is, in many ways, the opposite of its physical counterpart. Consider the following differences:

Cause: When we physically blush, our attention turns inward, driven by self-consciousness and the fear of being judged by others. We feel embarrassed and worried about how we appear in the eyes of people.

However, when we spiritually blush, our attention is directed toward God. Our focus shifts to our sins against Him, creating a deep awareness of our standing before Him. Ezra reflected on his people’s sins and their broken covenant, acknowledging that God’s justice had led to their captivity (Ezra 9:7-15). Yet he humbly appealed for God’s mercy.

Reaction: Physical blushing is an involuntary, automatic response. Spiritual blushing, however, is something we do when we acknowledge that we’ve fallen short of God’s standard. 

Response: When we blush, we experience a sudden sense of urgency. Physically, we might feel the urge to escape, hide or disappear from the moment. Spiritually, we feel the urge to take action. 

However, the most important difference is the result. 

Spiritual blushing should lead to repentance

Both physical and spiritual blushing result in avoiding the situation that caused it. However, their effects are very different.

When we physically blush, it can trigger anxiety about the situation, making us want to avoid it in the future to prevent further embarrassment.

Spiritual blushing prompts us to reflect, repent and renew our relationship with God. It motivates us to change our behavior so we don’t fall into the same sin again. For example, a negative experience with public speaking can lead to anxiety, causing us to go to great lengths to avoid speaking in public again.

On the other hand, spiritual blushing prompts us to reflect, repent and renew our relationship with God. It motivates us to change our behavior so we don’t fall into the same sin again.

When Ezra prayed before God, the people gathered, wept for their sins and renewed their covenant with God (Ezra 10:1-3).

The end result is key: Physical blushing often leads to fear and avoidance, while spiritual blushing leads to repentance and transformation, which is exactly what God desires.

But what if you don’t know how to blush? Is that even possible?

Unable to blush

Physically, blushing is an involuntary reaction, and most of us have experienced moments that caused us to blush. However, we must also learn to blush spiritually—in other words, develop a deep awareness of sin and a heartfelt response to it.

Before Judah fell to Babylon, God lamented to the prophet Jeremiah about the people’s lack of shame for their sins. “They were not at all ashamed; nor did they know how to blush” (Jeremiah 6:15; 8:12). They had lost all sense of shame for their sins, even when those sins were open for all to see. 

What about you and me? Do we blush over our sins and the sins of our nation? Or have we become so desensitized that we no longer blush at all?

Consider the last time you read or saw something that shocked you—something unusually awful.

Sin and evil have become so commonplace that we’re becoming increasingly desensitized to it. 

Jesus warned that the end times would be like the days of Noah and Lot, when people were oblivious to the evil and danger around them, carrying on with life as usual—eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting and building (Luke 17:26-28).

This is what happens when we become desensitized to sin. We go about our normal routines, hardly noticing or considering the sins around us.

Why don’t these things shock us anymore?

We’ve grown accustomed to the blatant immodesty of celebrities, the public mockery of God, the misuse of His name, the foul language in everyday speech, and even the acceptance and celebration of such immoral lifestyles as homosexuality, polyamory and cohabitation.

God’s description of Judah losing the ability to blush applies directly to our time. We have become so desensitized to sin that little shocks us anymore.

Sin has simply become normal.

Take sin seriously

The Bible provides much insight into the horribleness of sin. The key to learning how to blush is to try to view sin with the same level of seriousness and intensity that God does.

We should remember that sin severs a relationship with our Creator (Isaiah 59:2) and ultimately results in death (Romans 6:23). Instead of being unfazed by it, we should learn to hate it and flee from it (Proverbs 8:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:22; 1 Corinthians 10:14). 

What does it take to shock you?

What about you and me?

What will it take for us to wake up and recognize the sins in our nations and our own lives? Will it take a shocking event to get our attention? After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, many flocked to churches seeking answers. But they soon returned to complacency—a complacency that continues to this day.

For the world, it will take God’s direct intervention in human affairs to make them see. But for those who seek to follow Christ, it shouldn’t take a cataclysmic event to wake us up.

We must remain sensitive to sin in our lives. When we see it in society, we should “sigh and cry” over its consequences (Ezekiel 9:4).

Do you know how to blush?

Photo credit: iStock.com/DjelicS

Date Posted: February 24, 2025