I'm a Christian - no more and no less

Over nearly 40 years of being a Christian, I've belonged to Methodist, United Reformed, Baptist, interdenominational and Anglican churches; some have been charismatic, some evangelical and some somewhere in between.  I've only changed churches when a new job took me to another part of the country and then had to find a new church home.

I've met people from all these and other Christian denominations who seem to me to be Godly people, and others who don't look at all Godly to me; but I'm not the authority on their Christian standing, and I know that I often look like the un-Godly ones myself.  (What grace that our standing in Christ is NOT dependent on whether we look Godly!)

But I'm struck by how often Christians identify themselves first by their denominational membership or theological stance: 'I'm a Methodist', 'I'm an evangelical', or 'I'm a charismatic'.  And frequently it's clear that even such labels are insufficient and so become: 'I'm a Strict and Particular Baptist', or 'I'm a conservative evangelical'.

I'm afraid these labels have always left me puzzled.

Are the labels intended to indicate which personal preferences one has as a Christian: 'I'm a Christian and prefer organ music and stained glass to guitars and choruses'?  But in which case the latter is trivial and our shared identity as children of God must encompass those who have very different preferences to ourselves!

More likely they are used as a shortcut to indicate which specific belief-set one holds as true, so that we can find others of like mind.  But even here I have a problem.  If we are in effect saying 'I believe these particular beliefs and, though I accept you are Christian, I disagree with some of your beliefs', then this is only a cause for discussion in brotherly/sisterly love, recognising that we may still end up disagreeing - but the bond between us as brothers and sisters in Christ far outweighs any such disagreements, which are trivial by comparison.  Hence the label is really of very little consequence.

Or are we actually saying through our denominational and theological labels, that 'I am right and you are wrong; I therefore do not accept you are a Christian'?  Well, you may have privileged (though 'read-only') access to the Book of Life, but I know that I do not. And dividing up people as 'in' or 'out' based on their labels - for example, evangelicals are 'in', but catholics are 'out' - absolutely must be wrong.  If you do that you're bound to end up surprised at how many evangelicals end up 'out' and how many catholics end up 'in'.

You may feel strongly that your particular set of beliefs are 'right', but from where I stand it looks more like one set of imperfect beliefs being compared with another set of imperfect beliefs; one forgiven sinner feeling superior to another forgiven sinner.  Isn't that arrogance and a sin?  (Of course, if you do have a perfect understanding of the perfect Word of God, then you ARE right and this doesn't apply to you.)

You cannot add anything to one's position as a Christian.  How can you sub-divide Christians by anything that actually matters?  And if we hold more dear the particular label that appeals to us than our position as Christians, then this begins to look rather like idolatry...

You can keep your labels if they matter that much to you.  But me?  I'm a Christian - no more and no less.