Our Name Matters 

What does being a Christian really mean?

My full name is Elizabeth Bramstedt. It is unique enough that I have never been confused with anyone else. That is until my son married an Elizabeth. Now there are two of us! Thankfully, I go by Beth, and she goes by Liz, but that does not really matter when the bank still gets our accounts mixed up or the pharmacy switches our prescriptions! 

Our names describe us. They communicate who we are and where we belong. When Liz married my son, she took on the name Bramstedt. She became part of our family. 

The same was true for the early followers of Christ. Those who followed Jesus were known as believers or saints. Until Antioch, that is. Acts 11:26 tells us, “In Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians.” 

What is interesting is that Jesus did not give them that name. And they didn’t give themselves that name. Those around them, those interacting and relating with the believers, gave them the name Christians. 

Why? What made them different? 

Antioch was a unique place, and it allowed the citizens to observe something different about these believers. An article in Relevant magazine explains it like this: 

“Antioch was referred to as ‘all the world in one city,’ where you could see all the world’s richness and diversity in one place. And the marketplace was its hub. Antioch was designed like most cities of that day: A circular wall on the outside, a marketplace in the center, with the interior of the city walled in way that divided different people groups from one another.  

The Church came to Antioch and began breaking down the dividing barriers in a way that upset society’s existing categories. People from all parts of the city — Jews and Gentiles alike — were suddenly coming together. This group of people was redefining community in a radical and unprecedented way, so much so that a new word was needed to categorize what was happening.” 

And so, they began calling the early believers Christians. 

The word Christian means “little Christs” or “belonging to the party of Christ.” The name denotes that something new was going on. Society could not identify these people by the things that set them apart or divided them from each other. They had to create an innovative word that described what they had in common. 

The word Christian is used two more times in the New Testament. In both cases, outsiders use it to recognize these believers as a distinct group. A group set apart by their commitment to follow the person of Jesus Christ. 

A commitment to follow the person who fed the poor, healed the sick, received the children, forgave sin, and counted everyone as equal and welcome in his presence. The person who perfectly modeled living in both love and truth. The person who gave his life so others could live. 

And today, the outside world is still using the name “Christian” to refer to those who follow Christ. Only they often use it in a derogatory manner because those claiming to be Christians are not modeling their lives after Christ. Some use the guise of love to cover actions that dismiss truth. Others use truth as a club and spew hate. Neither of these responses is the Jesus way. 

Are we living up to our given name? Do our cities look like Antioch? Do our hearts? How can we be a community in which there is no social, economic, racial, or gender divide? 

According to John 13:35, Jesus says the world gets a vote as to how they will know we are his followers: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” 

Let’s own our name. 

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Beth Bramstedt is the Church Life Pastor at Christian Fellowship.