Sunday, July 16, 2006 · no responses · comments closed

Over at kendallball.net, Greg has taken John Donne’s “No man is an island” concept and pushed the issue of self- and group definition to consider how the Christian sees himself in relation to the rest of humanity:

In Jesus we are called to be new creations, and perhaps part of this new creation is the cultivation (through certain practices) of the idea that I am a part of the continent of humanity… Maybe then we will shift our focus from ourselves and become builders of peace, seekers of justice, and lovers of all mankind. Those sorts of things just don’t seem possible as long as we’re deriving our self-identity from a source other than our status as children of God and followers of Christ.

I think the Apostle Paul’s teaching about new creation is worth considering here. Look at what Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

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. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. (2 Corinthians 5:16–20, NIV)

First, look at how Paul begins this paragraph: he’s saying we have to change how we view everybody. I love the way the Amplified phrases this: “Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a [purely] human point of view [in terms of natural standards of value].” That’s where we start, then — with a godly point of view. Second, we see ourselves differently. It would seem that part of being a new creation is that I no longer regard myself by “natural standards of value.” I’m something new, and I have a new approach to other people: I’m an ambassador.

But what does that mean practically? After all, that’s what Greg was after in his post. For me, It means that within the Christian world, I won’t consider denominational labels as a particularly useful tool. I’m discovering that “Baptist,” “Catholic,” and “Church of Christ” tell me only where someone goes on Sunday and not necessarily much about their beliefs. And I’m not going to lump folks by who they listen to or read: the “Joel Osteen crowd” or “those McLaren/Generous Orthodoxy folks.”

And outside Christian “circles” (see, it’s hard to get away from group identifiers), I’m not going to use labels that identify someone by political or ideological bent; how useful is it, really, to know that someone is a liberal, environmentalist, conservative, whatever? Back when I was in grad school at LSU, I realized that I had an easier time dealing with a particular faculty member when I stopped thinking of her as “rabid feminist” and saw her instead as a generally nice person with a different perspective from mine. Could that be what Paul means when he says, “So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them” (NLT)?

Some of you may be thinking: “but what about error? Don’t we have to label people in error?” (I grew up with that mindset.) A complete answer will have to come another day in another post, but the short answer is “no.” Though I’ve not studied this out completely, my sense is that Jesus didn’t spend His time separating the “right” from the “wrong” and the “doctrinally correct” from the heretics. He spent time interacting with people — individuals. Along the way, He pointed out some problems that individuals had. The only kind of label I can think of that He used was “Pharisee” — and for them, he had little positive to say (notice that the Pharisees liked to divide into groups and apply labels). But when He dealt with them individually, Jesus treated them as, you guessed it, individuals (take Nicodemus, for example). Another quick example: Jesus and the woman at the well. Jesus makes no issue of the fact that she is a Samaritan until it relates to her beliefs and spiritual condition; in fact, His willingness to talk with her shocks her (and that’s before He tells her about her life!).

So, this may be an instance in which WWJD is actually fairly easy to figure out: treat people like people and drop the labels, assumptions, and circles. Be kind. Show respect. Don’t try to pigeon-hole. Look for a way to show love and share truth.