Labels are descriptions that we attach to our lives. They can define a function, a season, or the memory of a person. No label offers an all-inclusive definition of someone’s life. I sat down and reviewed the various labels that have been attached to my life.
Labels in my family: son, brother, grandson, nephew, husband, father, dad, papa, and uncle.
Labels from my previous line of work: cop, officer, deputy, detective, investigator, agent, lawman, and peace officer.
Labels in my life of faith: disciple, pastor, preacher, teacher, prophet, elder, leader, reverend, and writer.
Reading through my list of labels might have prompted you to investigate and define the labels that have been attached to your life. To honor God and align our lives with the calling and purpose He has for each of us requires that every life label be submitted to a greater label, a label described by Jesus when He defined for His first disciples the kind of relationship He wants with His followers.
“You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15: 14-15). Jesus upset the religious apple cart when He told His disciples how He wanted to relate to His followers.
The label “Friend of God” is a label that defines intimacy, obedience, and the kind of revelation not thought possible when people choose to live as slaves and have resigned themselves to live in religious slave quarters.
A way to determine if the labels attached to our lives are healthy and functioning in their intended purpose is to run them through the interpretive filter of what it means to be a friend of God. The filter of friendship will screen out a slave-master relationship used by religion to keep us uptight and fearful of God. The labels that define our different life assignments and relationships are accurate at face value, but they can only be lived to their fullest potential when they are applied with the never-failing adhesive of God’s love for His friends.
Nicely expressed Garris and true! It is comforting and brings one internal and eternal peace in knowing that the Alpha and Omega, the architect of our Being,
is also friend to he who is His and follows His statutes, callings and commands.
Blessings