Bearing the name

The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. — Acts 11:26

Hans Geiger, Marie Curie, Rudolf Diesel, Samuel Morse, and Louis Braille share something in common. They all invented or discovered something significant that bears their name. Their names, along with many others, appear in the “Encyclopedia Britannica’s Greatest Inventions,” a list of “325 innovations that have had profound effects on human life.”

We who follow Christ bear His name. In Luke’s record of the early church, he said: “The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch” (Acts 11:26). Later, Peter urged the early believers not to be ashamed of suffering as “a Christian” (1 Peter 4:16). The term Christian, once directed at Jesus’ followers in scorn, was embraced by them as a badge of honor, a mark of allegiance to Him.

E. M. Blaiklock, former Chair of Classics at the University of Auckland, wrote that in the first century the term Christian had “a certain appropriateness, for it implied loyalty and acceptance of a person, and that person, the Messiah (Christ) . . . The true modern use of the word follows the same tradition . . . The Christian is one who accepts, with all its implications, the lordship of Jesus Christ.”

As followers of Christ today, we gladly bear His name as our Savior, Lord, and Friend.             — David McCasland

Just what do Christians look like?

What sets their lives apart?

They’re ordinary people

Who love God from the heart.   — D. De Haan

READ: Acts 11:19-26

Don’t be a Christian in name only.

The Bible in one year:

• Job 22-24

• Acts 11