Destiny Christian Magazine, Volume 1/Issue 2

What's in A Name

Dedicated to @pandagirl052

What's in a name? This quote from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet can have many applicable meanings. In Romeo and Juliet, the question is asked by Juliet, her telling Romeo it doesn't matter that he's from Montague—she loves him anyway.

Labels, names, stereotypes. Three things society loves to give everything. From high school to the everyday life, nearly everyone and everything could fit into one of the names society has given them.

What does God say about labels?

1 Samuel 16:7 ESV

But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart."

Matthew 7:1-2 ESV

"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

James 4:11-12 ESV

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

The Bible makes it clear it is not good to judge people by their looks or by your own standards. We should not label people and treat them a certain way because of that label. Instead, we should get to know them as individuals—after all, everyone is different and unique.

But what about labels given to us from others? What should we do about that? It's easy to let other people's judgements on us affect how we act—whether that's by acting the way they expect us to, or by acting the exact opposite way in order to get rid of that label.

In the long run, it really doesn't matter what the world thinks about us. After all, the world has been defeated along with its ruler the devil. What does matter is God's view on us. But what does God think about his children?

1 Peter 2:9 ESV

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Galatians 3:27-28 ESV

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

1 John 3:1-2 ESV

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

We are children of God! He loves us, and that's all that matters! Think of these verses when you are called names or feel worthless. We Christians need to live confident in our true identities—loved children of the Creator of the Universe. We need to live lives mirroring this by loving everyone, and not labeling people just by their looks or our personal standards.

Remember your true identity this school year when you are bombarded once again by labels and judgements from your fellow schoolmates. Don't let them get to you, because it doesn't matter what they think of you. All that matters if what you think of yourself and what your Father thinks of you. You are a child of God!

Psalm 136:26 ESV

Give thanks to the God of heaven,

for his steadfast love endures forever.