“You judge me by human standards, but I do not judge anyone.” (John 8:15, NLT)
Labels are not unique to our culture or game of affinity, but I have noticed that we do give and receive labels quite often in golf.
We just named Bubba Watson “Masters Champion” again, which is a label I’m sure he’s quite fine having. But what if you’re tagged with “sandbagger,” “short-knocker,” “cheater,” or “choker”? Those are labels we’d rather avoid amongst our golf buddies. Fortunately for many of us, the labels we’ve received on the golf course have not defined the rest of our lives, but it is interesting how a label given to us by others can eventually influence our games because of the way we start to see ourselves with these labels.
Phil Mickelson lived for a long time with the label “best golfer never to have won a major.” That’s a tough one. When Mickelson finally won the Masters in 2004 though, he left that label behind and the floodgates opened; he continued to win more majors. Others, however, have found the expectations behind the label “major champion” to be too great. After winning their first major, their careers never flourished—or even fell apart.
Now, what about the labels we get in life? They too can define us and greatly influence some of the choices we make. Have you ever noticed that they also carry over to the way we live out our faith? I’ve had discussions with men who really want to grow closer in their relationship with Jesus, but because they felt so closely attached to the “fun guy” label by which they were known, not living up to that label was the hardest thing they faced in their entire walk with the Lord.
It works the other way as well. For example, here in the South you might be referred to as a “good Christian” by some simply because you don’t curse, drink, or smoke. But once you’ve received a label like this it’s easy to let it define you. Keeping the label and satisfying your onlookers becomes more important to you than pleasing God through living out Christ-likeness with a loving heart toward God and others. A seemingly good label may even work adversely on your heart as it did mine for years. When I was an adolescent and younger man, I had a lot of pride in my good moral behavior that led to me also having a very judgmental heart. That didn’t keep “religious” people from praising my actions, and I got to thinking too highly of myself in those circles despite not really spending much time trying to grow in my faith and personal walk with God.
Now as I read the accounts of Jesus’ life in the Gospels, I realize that labels, whether good or bad, were something that Jesus looked right past. Maybe I should too. Though he obeyed his heavenly Father’s commands and laws perfectly, he did not judge. In fact, he was even labeled by some of the religious leaders as a “glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners” (Luke 7:34)! Instead of throwing names back, Jesus called out these religious people for the state of their hearts, and then turned around and invited the “sinners” to follow him and dine with him.
Christ didn’t see people with adjectives and labels, but rather as individuals who needed him. So if everybody is somebody for whom Jesus died and needs his grace, then despite our labels we’re no better or worse than the next guy. Some of you may need to work on seeing yourself less critically and others of you may need to look on yourselves less favorably (Romans 12:3). Humble self-examination is a good thing. But when we use labels to define each other, we might possibly be guilty of the very sin that drove Jesus crazy!
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Josh Nelson
April 15, 2014
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