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It’s so easy to look at someone and make a snap judgement based on what we see, or perhaps what we smell. For example, if we smell a super expensive perfume, we may well label that person as “wealthy and important”. But if they smell as though they haven’t had a wash for a few weeks, we might assign a label of “dirty and homeless”.

Both labels may be true, but they don’t help us at all when it comes to how we should be towards them. Because the person with money is just as valuable as the person without. And, actually, if we read how Jesus treated those two types of people, we’d realise that the person with less is actually the person Jesus would be drawn towards much more. What a world we could live in if we valued people as God valued them, rather than what they can do for us?

We really do love to assign labels don’t we? The happy family. The sad widow. The goth.

If we give someone a label, then we feel like we’re more likely to understand who they are and how we should respond.

Using those first two examples I gave, anybody can wear expensive perfume – especially if they have stolen it. And the person who hasn’t washed for a weeks could have had their money stolen and be unable to pay for heating for their home or to wash their clothes.

So, let’s not be quick to assign labels to the people we meet, and let’s make sound judgements about the people who we do come into contact with, be it frequently, or simply occasionally.

It takes a year for us to see the fruit on a fruit tree, so why not give the next person you meet for the first time the same amount of time before you judge who, or what, they are.

But the bible does tell us to make judgements, and what to look for when doing so. What it doesn’t do is ever tell us to be judgemental. That’s never something we should entertain, and that’s where labelling people can go, oh, so, wrong!

Just a thought…

Andy B

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