I remember in the late 1980′s, televangelist James Robison (before he became a mega-vitamin peddler) once said something like this:

Labels mean something while at the same time mean nothing at all.

It is very intriguing at how we react at the concept of labels. On one hand, we proudly proclaim that we despise being labeled and stereotyped while the next minute, we proudly go to holy war to preserve a proud Christian label. We hate it when the secular news media labels us as nutjobs when one extremist blows up an abortion clinic but will defend to our death the pride of being called a fundamentalist, a Presbyterian, a Charismatic, a third waver, etc…

In the Rush song entitled You Bet Your Life, there are some pretty interesting labels being spoken out such as:

Anarchist reactionary running-dog revisionist
Hindu muslim catholic creation evolutionist
Rational romantic mystic cynical idealist
Minimal expressionist post-modern neo-symbolist

Armchair rocket scientist graffiti existentialist
Deconstruction primitive performance photo-realist
Be-bop or a one-drop or a hip-hop lite-pop-metallist
Gold adult contemporary urban country capitalist

A mentality of not really knowing who one is but wanting to be identified with everything prevails in the modern church today. It seems to me when analyzing the labels in reference to movements, I also see a very confusing mentality here of a body of believers who in one sense love their label much like the Pharisee did in Luke 18:10-12 but at the same time despise being labeled by people who disagree with them (viewed as ‘the enemy’). I also see another confusing mentality here of a body of believers who want to wear all the labels they can to make sure that they are on the right path (in their own eyes) when the labels themselves reveal a double-mindedness and a willingness to compromise to be more like the ‘label of the day’ when the circumstance sees fit. It seems to be that they want to be a:

Emergent, post-protestant, rebel, postmodern, revolutionary, spiritual, mystic, comtemplative, romantic, minimalistic, communistic, spiritually-sensitive, diversified, cynical follower of Jesus.

When selective and situational labelling takes precedent over a firm and defined system of belief, what we have here is a people who want to embrace the name of the label to be in the ‘cool crowd’ but do not want to adopt, live out and implement the prevailing philosophy, mentality, and costs associated with that label.

The disciple Peter did the very same thing in the scriptures. In fact he did it three times in one day.

In Luke 22:31-34, we see a zealous Peter who at this stage is willing to go to prison and willing to die for his belief in Christ. Later on that same day, we see Peter under pressure of not wanting to be publically associated with ‘the rebel and troublemaker’ (Pharisee viewpoint) named Jesus and in Luke 22:54-61 when he denied Jesus three times when other people had accurately seen him with Jesus.

In fact, this started in verse 54 when the scripture states that Peter followed Jesus from a distance. Where Peter had walked with Christ side by side through all the miracles, parables, and rebukes of the church leaders of the day, we see the transition from being side by side to still being affiliated but at the same time maintaining a distance away from Jesus. Over time as Jesus was being tried, this eventually led to the first, second, and third denial at the point of the rooster crowing. We even notice that in verse 61 that the Lord turned and looked at Peter face to face and it was at the moment of the face-to-face eye contact with Jesus (and not the sound of the rooster crowing) that Peter suddenly remembered the words Jesus had spoken earlier that day.

What I also find more amazing is that in verse 61, we clearly see that there is a change in how Jesus is being named. Jesus goes from being called “Jesus” in verse 52 to “Lord” in verse 61. What is so amazing about this is that we see the very beginning of the end of the Old Covenant and the ushering in of the New Covenant. We see Jesus showing us in the midst of ‘the religious authorities’ of the day who the real authority is because the word for “Lord” used here is the Greek word “kurios” which is defined by Strongs as “Supreme in authority”.

Related Posts

1. The Life Driven Purpose, part II
2. Question of The Day 07-02-09
3. Are “Church Covenant Contracts” Scriptural?
4. Deep Calls Unto Deep Part 3
5. The Difference Between Experience and Glory

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