Everyone must be labelled, eh? :-)
Are you Republican or Democrat?
Libertarian, Conservative, or Liberal?
Capitalist or Communist?
Catholic or Protestant?
Baptist or Methodist?
It’s a quick way to identify those with whom we agree, I suppose. But then how will we ever settle our disagreements?
You can’t read the Bible without seeing case after case after case of MEN coming up with their own ideas about how to serve God. Whether it’s Nadab and Abihu offering “strange fire”, or false teachers forbidding people to marry. And often such men draw away many followers with them into disobedience.
Jesus promised His apostles that the Spirit would come, and would guide them into all truth. And those who want to know this truth can read what God’s inspired prophets have written for us. In his second epistle, Peter explains that this is how we can ensure our salvation.
So perhaps we don’t need labels after all, but will unite on our willingness to submit to the will of God found in the Scriptures, and abandon the divisions brought about by disobedient men. Then we can be labelled simply as saints, disciples, believers, Christians.
The surest way to get your own church started is to claim that there is special knowledge that the disciples dared not write down, and that only the select few can understand and interpret that knowledge.
You’ll have a huge following in no time at all.