I get why people use labels, but that doesn’t make it right to use them. When we label someone, we dehumanize them and absolve ourselves of the need to show them Christ’s love. In Matthew 9:11, the Pharisees tried to avoid having to love others they weren’t comfortable around by labeling them as “tax collectors” and “sinners.” Jesus responded forcefully, saying, On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners (Matthew 9:12-13). Like “tax collectors” and “sinners,” here are six types of labels Christians should avoid in today’s world:

1. Religious labels. Does it lessen our responsibility to love someone if they’re Muslim? How about an atheist? It doesn’t matter if a guy’s first name is Mohammed. Jesus died for him, and our task as Christians is to show Jesus’ love to him.

2. Racial labels. Don’t think that you’re off the hook showing Jesus’ love if the other person is of a different race. Living in the South, the black/white racial labels are used quite often as to why certain people are to be avoided. Jesus died for all races. (By the way, Jesus wasn’t white with straight brown hair and blue eyes. As a Middle Easterner, he was most likely olive-skinned).

3. Political labels. Are we off the hook from having to love someone if they’re on the opposite end of the political spectrum? If they’re a ‘left-wing liberal,’ does that give us permission to degrade and dehumanize them? Nope. So stop doing it.

4. Socio-economic labels. We can decry the rich or the poor, but Jesus died for all of them. If someone is poor, it’s easy to dismiss them and label them as lazy with no morals, living off the government. But would Jesus have dismissed them in such a cavalier manner? I don’t think so.

5. Generational labels. It’s to our shame to write off entire generations as outdated (senior adults) or entitled (millennials). Jesus died for all generations, and some of our greatest opportunities to show Christ’s love will be to those of another generation.

6. Sexual orientation labels. Did Jesus just die for heterosexuals? If a person self-identifies as gay, does that give a Christian the right to belittle him and dehumanize him? Absolutely not.

When we label others and leverage those labels as a reason why we don’t have to love them, we’re actually more in line with the Pharisees and the system that Jesus came to rebel against than Jesus himself.