A New Name

READ: ISAIAH 56:5; ACTS 11:26; 1 PETER 4:16

Do you know what your name means? Across cultures, names have meanings, and when we give names to babies, those meanings can be a beautiful way to communicate love and care for the newest members of our families.

Proverbs 22:1 says, “A good name is more desirable than great riches.” But here’s the thing: we don’t choose our own names. We receive them when we’re born into our families.

Similarly, there is another name we can receive, separate from the one given to us at birth. When we trust Jesus as our Savior, we become part of His family and receive His name: we are called “Christian,” which means “little Christ.” This name means that He has made us new people and we belong to Him. God has poured out His great love on us through Jesus’s death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. Now, He invites us to imitate Him as dearly loved children imitate their parents, by loving others as He loves us (Ephesians 5:1-2).

Sometimes, when God called people to follow Him in the Bible, He literally renamed them. Abram became Abraham, Sarai became Sarah, Jacob became Israel, and Simon became Peter (Genesis 17:5, 15-16; 32:28; John 1:42). Their new names were a sign to others that God had made them new people and they were now part of His family.

Today, God does the same with us as Christians. When we put our trust in Jesus, He makes us new and adopts us into His family (John 1:12; Colossians 1:13-14). As we rest in His great love, He is shaping all of us to become more and more like Him so we can point others toward His good name. • A. W. Smith

• Do you know what your name means or why your family chose it for you? Do you like your name?

• The name Christian means that you belong to Jesus’s family. As Christians, how can this truth comfort us when we feel unloved or rejected?

• To learn more about what it means to have a new name in Jesus—to become God’s child—check out our “Know Jesus” page.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! 1 John 3:1a (NIV)