Labels. I think labels get a bad rap, actually. Rightly so at times because we use them to pigeonhole things we shouldn’t. But we can’t help ourselves when we label because that is what is necessary in the vocabulary of the mind. So the labeling is necessary, but not what we do with it in all cases.

“one body with many parts to become many parts with no body.” I like the way that identifies the problem… not hard for Christians to see the many examples of that.

I still like labels for theology, for sorting ideology, for making a type of shorthand for a set of doctrinal convictions… but…

I’m seeing that the “body” is what it always was. “Christ”. Then the sorting makes sense, and it revolves around a body to outline the method by which the parts work. If I have a core relationship with Jesus Christ, if I love Him… then the sorting process is along the lines of what is essential or nonessential to that core.

What others think, how they interpret this process, is another problem. At that point comes the need for patience and humility in explaining and waiting for understanding (which may not come). That is why I think we struggle so much with it- it is hard for *us* to wait in that misunderstood, lonely place.

Ok- maybe this is all just a bunch of jabber- but thought I’d throw it by you.