What would we do without labels? On clothes they tell us the size of the shirt, blouse, pants, dress or coat. They also tell us what material the clothing is made of, and whether to wash or dry clean it.
Labels on food products can tell us what each item is, what its ingredients are, how to prepare it for meals, its nutritional value and how many calories it contains. We have labels for many other things as well, ranging from cars and electronics to mattresses and bathmats.
But we don’t stop there with labeling. We find labels for people equally useful. We label by vocation – doctor, lawyer, CPA, architect. They must be smart, and wealthy, right? There are tradespeople too, folks like carpenters, electricians, plumbers, roofers. Society doesn’t label them with as high esteem, but if you have a leaky roof, who’d you rather come right away – a lawyer or a roofer?
The thing about labels, we find them handy for evaluating and judging people. We label by gender, race, ethnicity, religious beliefs (or none), education, political preference, sports team allegiance, even the places where they shop and organizations they belong to. You see someone with tattoos or piercings? Why take the time and effort to get to know someone when you can label them?
Hey, if I’m pointing a finger that means three others are pointing back at me. I’ve been guilty of people-labeling more times than I’d like to admit. The problem is, if we do go to the bother of really getting to know someone, often we discover our labels are entirely wrong.
Imagine a can of food in your pantry that’s somehow lost its label. How can you know what’s in it? Most of the time the only way is to open it up and find out whether it’s a can of corn, green beans, or pie filling.
Apply that principle to our often-faulty habit of labeling people we’re not acquainted with or barely know. We can judge solely by what we see on the outside – or we can try to engage with them so we can truly determine who they are and what they’re like.
We find an excellent example in the Bible’s Old Testament. King Saul of Israel had proved himself unworthy of leading God’s chosen people, so the Lord instructed the prophet Samuel to locate Saul’s successor. The Lord’s choice was one of the sons of a man named Jesse, so the prophet went to his home to give the sons a once-over.
We’re told in 1 Samuel 16 that Samuel started with the oldest, Eliab, and thought, “Surely the Lord’s exalted stands here before the Lord” (1 Samuel 16:6). But God told him, “Nope, not him.” The prophet checked out each of the seven sons Jesse had brought to him, but not one of them was God’s choice despite their passing the eye test.
The reason was simple: “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). Kind of like having to open an unlabeled can to find out what kind of food is inside, God was saying He doesn’t choose His servants based on how they look outwardly.
Finally, Jesse’s youngest son, David, a lowly shepherd boy – not a highly esteemed vocation back then – was brought to Samuel. Speaking through the prophet, God’s choice was clear: “Rise and anoint him; he is the one” (1 Samuel 16:12). David went on to have an oft-tumultuous 40-year reign over Israel, even writing many of the beloved Psalms in his spare time.
We find many other examples in the Scriptures that warn us against labeling – judging people based on their outward appearances. People who were lame, blind, mute, deaf, suffering from various diseases, despised Samaritans, women of ill repute, and many others. Foremost was Jesus Christ, whom the Jewish rulers and religious leaders dismissed as a troublemaker and deceiver. We know He was anything but that.
One time Jesus had been teaching in the temple. The leaders stirred up the crowd, getting many to shout in opposition. Undeterred, He responded, “Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment” (John 7:24).
We’d be wise to take this to heart. We live in a time of labeling gone amok. Liberals shouting at conservatives, conservatives arguing with liberals, none of them making an effort to engage in calm, reasonable discourse. People from different generations speaking in derogatory terms toward each other. Even within the Church, members of different congregations and different denominations exchanging accusations. Most of the time, based on the labels assigned to them.
Just as we can’t look at a building and know what’s inside without actually going into it, the Scriptures warn we’re in danger of serious error by relying on labels to assess who people really are. Society tells us to save time by giving folks labels and then judging based on stereotypes. However, especially for those of us who claim to follow Christ, we don’t have that option.
As the apostle Paul asserts in 2 Corinthians 5:16, “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.” Through the power of Christ, we can avoid the trap of labeling and judging people solely on how they seem on the outside. Instead, we can choose to withhold judgment until we’ve made the effort to get to know them for who they truly are.
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