When Walter P. Paepeke started a carton company and called it the Container Corporation of America, his attorney said it was “a big name for such a small company.” Mr. Paepeke’s reply was, “We’ll take the name and grow into it.”
That’s the task we have before us. We have taken a big name—the name of Christ. Now we must grow into it.
There was a wonderful promise given in Isaiah 62:2: “Thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.” Think of it. A new name. Given by the Lord! We see the fulfillment of that promise in Acts 11:26: “And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.”
Under the name Christian we are to glorify God (1 Peter 4:16), but we know that the name is too big for us. We are an unfinished product, slowly growing into that name. The Bible constantly calls upon us to become more and more like Christ, to “grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).
Are we making progress? Do others recognize Christ in me? Do they find some grace, or receive a kind thought when in contact with me? Am I concerned about the welfare of all those about me? Am I ready to love all people without partiality? Do I show compassion, tenderness, and concern? Am I willing to step out of selfishness into selflessness? Am I kind and gentle to those who are in distress? —John Gipson
Good name! We are in the Body of Christ which is His Church, we aren’t called Church of Christ but simply ‘Christians’. We are as one in Christ, we are the Church that belongs to Christ.