We live in an age of labels. Political. Racial. Sexual. Generational. Economic. Every day, someone is sorting us into categories. And we’re often sorting ourselves. The divisions feel permanent, like walls with no doors.

But in Galatians 3, Apostle Paul had a word for first-century people who were doing the same thing.

Before Christ came, Paul says, we were held captive, locked up under the law, waiting for the time when faith would come to set us free. The law wasn’t the villain. It was a guardian, a schoolmaster, protecting us and pointing us toward something better. And that something better is Jesus.

Here’s the revolution in thinking the world needs to hear, all of us need to hear: “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith,” (Gal 3:26). Not sons by tribe. Not sons by bloodline or status. Sons and daughters by faith.

He goes on to say, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise,” (Gal 3:28-29). It’s not that those categories don’t exist. Male and female will always exist. It just that none of those labels divide us any longer. Those walls of division have been torn down by Christ. All who are in Christ are together in Christ.

We are no longer defined by those old labels. You are clothed in Christ. That’s your identity now. So, the only labels that matter now are Christian or non-Christian. And even then, all are invited into Christ.

Beloved, the labels this world gives you are at best secondary and often meaningless. The identity Christ gives you is supreme and will be the only thing that matters in the end. Live in that identity!

Change begins in you!