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“...
Gentiles ... uncircumcision ... separate ... excluded
... strangers ... no hope ... without God ... far off
..."
~ Ephesians 2:11-13 (NASB)
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Living the
Label
Labels
are helpful on canned goods but generally harmful on us. Yet, long
before calories, ingredients, and FDA approvals showed up on our
grocery items, we assigned labels to each other.
A friend
of mine likes to describe me (jokingly, I hope) as a
"left-wing pinko Commie-rat Bible-soft bleeding-heart liberal
woosie." Many labels stick like glue throughout our lives. And even
if they're not constantly re-spoken by others we regularly replay them
within our own hearts.
My
dictionary separates the word "label" from the word
"libel" with 23 pages of other words, but the two words often
belong side-by-side. Which of us has not been wounded by a label? Who
among us has not been scarred by a painful sticker?
Some
labels puff us up; most beat us down. War
and racism rely on labels to dehumanize people and make it
easier to vilify, hate, or even kill them. Labels produce a
"convenient distance."
So,
we live in the world at arm's length.
The
labels create an exclusion zone around us that allows us to disregard
or even hurt others. Labels detract from the reality and humanity
of those around us. Us and them.
But
the gospel won't letus live in such isolation. It demands that we treat
others as people, not products.
To
perpetuate destructive labels is to deny and defy the gospel, the good
news, that Christ breaks down all the barriers and restores us again to
the Father, and to each other. Indeed, the labels are often the lies
that keep us from entering the doors of freedom and intimacy with
Christ.
When
the apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesian Christians, he spelled out a
number of wounding and distancing labels. And then he highlighted that
the work of Christ brings us all near, into one body, into
fellow-citizenship, and into a single family (God's household).
The
label that defines us truest and best is simply "the beloved
children of God." It opens the door to life at a new level. Today,
may we find the conviction and courage to discard the painful labels
that we speak to ourselves and to others.
In
HOPE –
David
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