Stop Calling Me That!

I’ve been trying (unsuccessfully) to come up with one redeeming value of labels; I mean, other than the obvious utility of being able to communicate using nouns during proper speech (it is, after all, convenient to refer to an object, place, or person by name rather than point to it and grunt like a baby). I’m thinking about how we humans like to label each other. As a general rule, I don’t like it.

Labels imply definitions. Definitions have origins. What if the author(s) were riddled with evil? Humans are born depraved with a flesh that wants to dominate others. Labels become quite a useful instrument when wielded for achieving this primitive goal. So that’s my first thought.

Labels also imply, by definition, boundary conditions. In other words, to label someone is to put a type of palisade around them, their persona. It has the twofold effect of constraining who they are and precluding them from further consideration beyond the label. If a person chooses to accept said label, they are conceding a certain imposition upon their character.

I dislike most labels because there are always casualties to a person, once accepted.

For example, if someone says to you, “Oh, you’re such a brainiac,” you might, at first, experience a boost to your ego (pride comes before the fall, just sayin’) and, for a time, you focus on being recognized positively by another human being. During that time, you may even begin to self-identify with the label, deriving a bit of self-worth from it. However, to actively accept the label, you are passively conceding exclusion from other circles. That’s how our society works – we’re forced to make choices.

I don’t want to be bound by labels, they damage my ability to express myself fully. In most circumstances, I choose to reject them, even when someone tries to impose them on me favorably. I encourage you to do the same.

Here’s a question for you: Do you like being called a “Christian”? Did you know that the origin of this term was actually derisive?




To be labeled a “Christian” meant you were a social pariah. In a Jewish theocracy, this label caused much grief for believers. The label wasn’t given by believers to themselves, necessarily; rather, it was given as a proclamation that ‘these Christians are like a disease’! “So be it” from a believer’s perspective, right? Well, that kind of bravery is easy when you’re two thousand years removed from the suffering in view. My point is that labels, once applied and universally accepted by others, sever the owner from others. It may even frustrate our ability to share the Gospel with them.

Our world is obsessed with labels. I suspect Satan loves this!

People destroy their competition by labeling them. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book. Remember high school and all the cliques? What do you think that was all about? The “haves” habitually labeled the “have nots” to oppress them, to maintain “superiority”. Right-brainers labeled left-brainers repressed. Left-brainers labeled right-brainers “you want fries with that?” Jocks labeled the brainiacs nerds. Nerds responded with, “That’s OK, someday you and your kids will be working for me!” I realize I’m in the bowels of social casting right now but that’s the whole point. All I did was rattle off some recognizable fruit of evil. Is labeling even necessary? It’s certainly not fruitful, except to the human flesh (from its perspective, anyway).

As a pastor, I still experience this kind of awfulness. People are constantly trying to label me either “Catholic” or “Protestant”. Folks, I’m neither. I reject the presupposition that I must be one or the other. I believe the Bible – end of story. I don’t need a label. Or, when digging into doctrines core to soteriology (the study of salvation), people want to label me an “Arminian” or a “Calvinist”. Folks, I’m neither (why in the world would I ever want to be labeled after some theologian???). Again, I reject the presupposition that I must be one or the other. I believe the Bible – end of story. And so on, and so forth – you get the picture.

As convenient and attractive as labels are sometimes, learn to question them, especially when they originate from the world.


“Stop calling me that,” I say! Even when someone pays me a compliment, I’m suspicious of what presuppositions I’m having to swallow, or what a person’s ulterior motive might be. It sounds like I live a tortured, hyper-analytical life – I don’t, I promise. I’ve learned to let all labels fly past me like the wind unless they originate from God.


Don’t accept labels from the world – they are traps – how can something so evil properly assess/characterize a child of God? Refuse to give anyone that power over you. Drop whatever worldly labels you’ve accepted in the past, even the so-called good ones, for you are in bondage to them. Instead, heed God’s Word:


Love in Christ,

Ed Collins