Labels: God's Opinion of You Does Matter

By SCOTT REEVE

We live in a world of labels. There are warning labels on things we purchase. There are labels on food with the ingredients. Labels are everywhere. We label people. Loser, fool, dumb. We have heard these words stamped on people. Or gracious, kind, nice. Words that describe someone in a positive way.

Have you ever thought about how God views us? How He labels us, if we can use that word? We are His masterpiece. We are a new creation if we have a relationship with Jesus Christ. We have been adopted into His family. Believe it or not, God's opinion of us does matter.

As you read through this book, spend time thinking about how God sees us. We will also discuss practical advice on how to respond to people who label others negatively. Jesus gives us some good practical help on how to handle this type of individual. Enjoy and be encouraged. - Scott Reeve

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Aug 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9781387663354

Book preview

Chapter 1

Labels – The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

We live in a world of labels.  Think about it.  We have warning labels.  We have labels telling us what the ingredients are in a box, can, or container.  Everywhere we look we see labels.  Not all of these are necessarily bad.  I must admit, though, that some of them make you scratch your head.  Some seem silly, as the following illustrate,

Safety goggles recommended.  This was a warning label for a letter opener.

Do not iron while wearing shirt.  Makes sense.

Do not hold the wrong end of the chainsaw.  Enough said.

Do not use while sleeping.  Ready for this.  It is the warning label on a hairdryer.

Do not drive while sun shield in place.  That would be challenging.

Yes, these are seemingly dumb but funny warning labels.  What is not so amusing is how we label people and in doing so we can allow these words and phrases to control and mold our thinking about someone.  Labels such as loser, failure, hopeless, stupid, on and on.  These are negative words that we stamp on people.

The old adage, Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me is not necessarily true.  Words can hurt.  They do sting, and sadly, they mark people.  Unfortunately, those who are labeled with painful phrases and words, unless they are willing to forgive those who spoke such unkindness, sometimes allow what was said to affect how they live and see themselves.

The flipside to this is that there are those who do not care what you call them.  They wear it as a badge of honor to be told they are rude, mean, unkind, etc.  Sadly, how they are known often fits with how they choose to live.  In this case, they could care less what someone may label them as.  They are extremely self-centered and are callous enough to not care about how they have treated others or what someone thinks of them.

We are not focused in this chapter on those who wear those labels proudly.  We are talking about the fact that labels or the words we say do affect people, and in many cases, can hurt or, when used in a positive way, lift someone up.

It is also true that there are people who, having been labeled in a negative way, and we will discuss this further, are never re-labeled when things change in their life for the better.  People refuse to see how they are now, instead focusing on what the person was like before their life was transformed by Jesus.  These individuals reject the idea that someone can change, or they simply enjoy putting or keeping others down by stamping them with destructive labels.

On the other hand, there are people, positively speaking, that we identify as kind, compassionate, caring, honest, trustworthy, etc.  These qualities are evident in their life.  If we were to be labeled, these should be words that we should want to be known by.  The fact is we live in a world that labels and stamps people.  We all do it.  Culture does it.

Even in the sports world labeling happens.  For example, the Buffalo Bills played in four straight Super Bowls from 1990-1993.  They are not given any credit for having played in four championship games in a row.  You know what they are remembered for – they lost them all.  So, somehow, they were viewed as losers, not able to win the big one.  How about the Chicago Cubs?  Until they won the World Series in 2016, they were known as the lovable losers.

It is something we do in our world.  We label.  A Google search will reveal all kinds of thoughts on the reasons behind why we do it.  The Psychology Today website tells us that researchers began studying the effects of folks labeling others back in the 1930’s.  I never knew nor gave much thought to it being a problem in our world decades ago.  As we know, the issue has not gone away.

Where Are We Headed

This book zeroes in on two areas.  One is the negative side of labeling.  That will be the short part of the book, one chapter only.  We will look at why people label others along with some thoughts on how we can deal with those who are inclined to do so.

The second part of the book, where we will spend most of our time, looks at how God views us as it relates to our relationship with Him.  Understanding how God sees us can be life changing if we are one who struggles with our self-identity or has been labeled negatively at some point in our life.

The Bible, believe it or not, talks about labeling.  The Scripture tells us that if we know Jesus as Lord and Savior there are certain things that are true of us as individuals.  These are words, or labels, that describe how God views us. 

We are, for example, loved, forgiven, chosen, adopted, His masterpiece, a new creation, redeemed, just to note some of the labels we have placed on us because of our relationship with God.  The Book of Acts tells us we belong to the Way and that we are Christians. 

Keep in mind that we are not saying that every label is wrong, per se.  When we speak of labeling or marking others early in the book, we are specifically dealing with the negative, destructive tags that people use in describing individuals.

The point here is that not all labels have to be seen as negative.  We label people based on preferences they have, for example, in sports.  We call them fans.  That can be good, or in some cases, not so good depending upon the individual.  Being a fan is not necessarily a bad thing.

People who belong to a church may be labeled based on the beliefs of their church – Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist.  This does not have to be seen as a negative.  It may simply describe the theological leanings or the name of the place someone attends. 

There can be a detrimental side to labeling people based on their church affiliation because we may see all Baptists or Pentecostals in a certain light and overlook the fact that churches are made up of individuals and that even within churches with names in their title (e.g., Grace Baptist Church) they may have different values and doctrine.

Usually, people are tied to a church because of beliefs, community feel, or upbringing, so we must be careful about labeling individuals based on the name of their church.  This is just an example to keep in mind.  We will spend a chapter at the end of the book on how churches need to guard against labeling and how it can hurt our communicating with the world their need for Christ.

Getting back to the gist of the book, we will explore in detail some of those labels that God gives us as His followers and show how from a practical side these can make a positive difference in our life.

Since this book is written from a Christian perspective, we must also honestly state that if we do not know Christ as Lord and Savior, we are, get ready, under judgment, enemies of God, sinners (we are all born that way), naming just a few of the labels that distinguish those who do not know Christ as Savior from those who do.

We must not see these phrases or words as some misrepresented labels put on us by an insecure God Who needs to build Himself up while putting us down.  These simply speak to our spiritual condition without Christ in our life.  These disappear the moment we become a follower of Jesus.  They are not the words of a cosmic bully intent on oppressing our freewill or reminding us of how unworthy we are.

These, as noted, are descriptive of a world without Christ.  God does not use these for character assassination but as reminders of a spiritually broken humanity in need of a life changing encounter with Jesus Christ.  God is not on a mission to put us down by any of the words noted above. 

In fact, God loved the world so much that Jesus came to this earth to die for our sins and to bring us into a relationship with Him.  As we shall see in later chapters, God’s view of us can transform our thinking towards others and ourselves.  The labels God gives His children, if we can use the word that way, are refreshing and life changing.

So, instead of seeing these just noted labels as reasons for getting angry at God because of the words themselves, remember that these are simply statements of fact about who we are without a personal relationship with Christ.  When we come to faith in Jesus to save us, everything changes.  We will cover this in more detail.

What a difference it makes when we see how God views us as compared to how society sees those around them.  Labeling people is a problem in our culture when it is used to tear somebody down, put someone in