5 Reasons We’re So Obsessed with Labels and Identities
- Cindi McMenamin Crosswalk.com Contributing Writer
- Updated Jul 05, 2023
Years ago, we despised having labels. They were synonymous with a reputation or an image we got when a label was slapped on us during childhood by a bully, or during high school as a result of our mistakes or failures. A couple of decades ago, labels were something we desperately wanted to lose or avoid.
Yet today, we tend to gravitate toward them. We’ve learned to identify ourselves by our achievements, our position or title at work, our strengths and abilities, or maybe even our failures, and therefore these labels make us feel more significant, accomplished, or even diagnosed.
God apparently knew identity would be a huge deal to us. He knew our feelings of significance and self-worth would be wrapped up in who we believe we are. He also knew our identities would be vulnerable to Satan’s attacks, and the cause of much grief to us personally if we weren’t convinced of our significance. Perhaps that’s why there are so many descriptions in His Word reminding us, affirming us, and re-confirming to us who—and Whose—we really are.
You and I are far more than the labels we have adopted for ourselves or received by others. Here are five reasons we are so obsessed with labels and identities:
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1. We don’t fully understand who we are in Christ.
Scripture tells us when we are trusting in Jesus alone for our salvation we are His child (John 1:12), bought with a price, and therefore belong to God (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). In John 15, Jesus said we are the light of the earth (verses 1, 5), His friend (verse 15), and a branch on His Father’s vine (verse 16). If that weren’t enough of a stellar identity, we are also labeled saints (Ephesians 1:1), and we are redeemed, forgiven, and seen as brand new in God’s eyes, regardless of our past sins, mistakes, and failures (Colossians 1:4). The New Testament writers confirmed all this when they wrote that you are complete in Him (Colossians 2:10), God’s dwelling place (1 Corinthians 3:16), and His work of art (Ephesians 2:10).
Your true identity is not based upon how you feel, or what you do, or what your harsh inner critic is telling you. It isn’t based upon what condition you struggle with or what you may choose to identify with either. Your true identity is recorded in Scripture so that you and I won’t have identity issues or seek out labels other than the ones He has already lovingly placed upon us. Deep wounds from our past can cause us to struggle with understanding and applying these healing labels God has given us, but that doesn’t make them less real. Once you and I properly understand who God is and who He says we are, our questions of identity, significance, purpose, and worth are replaced with a confidence in who we are by His strength, His righteousness, and His love. Our need to be something more than what we are fades in light of the beautiful realization that we are enough because Christ—and what He has done for us—is enough.
2. We haven’t yet discovered Christ is our treasure and reward.
Our search for significance, accomplishment, or uniqueness through labels and identities indicates we don’t yet see Jesus as our ultimate treasure. Psalm 16:11 tells us, “in [His] presence is fullness of joy” (NASB). That doesn’t mean we must wait for heaven to experience that joy. That assurance of joy and fulfillment is available to us now. When we acknowledge God’s presence, and live in obedient relationship with our heavenly Father, we are loved children, heirs of God while here on earth as well as one day in heaven. Ephesians 1 says when we are “in Christ”—meaning when we are in a saving relationship with Him—He “identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him” (verses 13-14, NLT).
Why would a loved child of God—who has been sealed with God’s Holy Spirit and given an inheritance and the ability to accomplish the impossible through prayer and faith—wander aimlessly, identifying himself with helpless orphans? Those of us who have truly found Christ as our treasure need seek no longer. Jesus said “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things [that you seek] will be provided to you” (Matthew 6:33 NASB). When we delight ourselves in Him, we find that we have all that we desire (Psalm 37:4), and there is no need to search for more about who we are, what we’re like, what our purpose is, and who really loves us.
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3. We long for a sense of purpose, but don’t realize we have it in Christ.
We sometimes believe we can find a sense of purpose and significance in a label, a title, or a new identity. But the new identity Christ gave us at salvation clearly defines our purpose as well.
Scripture tells us “We are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10, NLT). Now there’s a label with purpose! It means we are on a mission from God—an assignment for the Almighty, as a work of art or unique expression of who God is so He can showcase Himself to an unbelieving world. What label could be more significant and purposeful than that one?
4. Labels allow us excuses like: “That’s just the way I am.”
When we can put a therapeutic, psychological, or trendy label on something, it can cause us to feel no responsibility for our condition or behavior. Obviously, there are certain disabilities people struggle with to no fault of their own. But if your label is something that allows you to not accept responsibility for your mindset or behavior, and to not exercise self-discipline and apply God’s transforming power to change your behavior, that label has become your enabler and your excuse.
Do you believe you are more susceptible to addiction because you came from a family of alcoholics or drug addicts? Perhaps that’s a label or an identity you have embraced, and therefore, you believe that’s just the way you are. But Jesus bore our afflictions on the cross and healed us of our spiritual diseases, and gave us a new identity in Him. That new identity includes the ability to break the cycle of sin and the undisciplined nature of self, and say no to the lure of temptation. In essence, through the power of the Holy Spirit that we’ve been given in our new identity, you and I have the ability to no longer be “just that way” but to now be “just like Him.” Second Corinthians 5:17 says when we are in Christ we are a new creation and we are no longer tied to the dysfunction of our past. When I find myself excusing my behavior by saying “That’s just the way I am,” conviction grabs my heart, and I’m reminded, once again, that Christ died to redeem the way I am so He can make me just like Him.
5. Labels let us ignore possible causes of our condition.
A friend of mine was initially relieved when she got a diagnosis of “anxiety disorder” because it explained to her why she experienced panic attacks. Yet, her medical label began to cause a conflict in her heart about what she believed about God. Unwilling to resign herself to that label, she began to ask God if that disorder is what He wanted for His precious child. She then realized that, according to Philippians 4:6-7, God wants her to be anxious for nothing, and to pray about everything with thanksgiving, and allow His peace to penetrate and guard her heart and mind. She took a Scriptural treatment to her problem by living out that passage of Scripture and thereby was able to get at the root of her anxiety disorder—she had not been trusting God, through prayer, but taking on the burden of anxiety instead. Be willing to ask God if your diagnosis is His best for you or the result of believing something about Him that isn’t true.
Through the years, I’ve mentored many women who had accepted their labels and disorders as their identities, only to discover later, after much time in God’s Word, that they ultimately believed something about God that wasn’t true, which was at the root of their “disorder.” When we understand that God is loving, just, good, and all-powerful, and that He suffers with us through the pain that touches our lives, we can better understand that He is the Gentle and Compassionate Healer who is aware of every detail of our lives. He is not a passive god who lets whatever circumstance come your way and doesn’t want to get involved. He wants good things for His children (Matthew 7:11), and therefore He is more concerned about your eternal well-being than your temporary comfort. Surrender your fears and failures into His capable hands and realize your identity is not about the labels you have accepted, but about your new life in Him. He will help you become the person He ultimately created you to be.
What About You?
What labels have you placed on yourself or let others place on you? I’ve been told I’m an adult child of an alcoholic. Yet, God’s Word tells me I’m a redeemed child of the King. I’ve also been told I’m an enabler and a co-dependent from a dysfunctional upbringing. Yet Scripture tells me I am the bride of Christ, a new creation in which I have, through the Holy Spirit’s power, more potential to be like my heavenly Father than my own earthly parents!
When we, through faith in Jesus, allow God’s Holy Spirit to transform our lives, God puts shiny new labels on us that tell our redemption story. Rather than chase the labels and identities this world offers, start embracing the ones God has already given you—they are so much better than anything this world has to offer.
For more on your true identity and seeing yourself as God sees you, see Cindi’s books, Letting God Meet Your Emotional Needs, Women on the Edge, and When a Woman Overcomes Life’s Hurts.
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