What’s in a Name?

Read I Peter 2:9-12

“…they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” (I Peter 2:12)

Growing up with a little brother afforded me the “rights and privileges” of being the big brother. To my shame, I remember calling my little brother names—names that were meant to hurt, belittle, or provoke, not to build up. Names wound and names marginalize. Sometimes words and names are used to cause the target of those words to question WHO they are—their very identity.   

The apostle Peter writes to the church in Asia Minor knowing his hearers are living under the fire of an oppressive society. These Christ-followers are needing to be reminded of WHO they are. Peter addresses his audience with identifying descriptors: “chosen people,” “royal priesthood,” “holy nation,” “God’s special possession,” “dear friends,” and “foreigners and exiles.” He uses collective nouns to underscore the corporate identity of his listeners.  

Seen often as social misfits, early Christians (known as “people of the name”) faced daunting living insecurities including slander, boycott, character defamation, mob-violence, and even death. Peter calls his readers to live circumspect and holy lives that refute the false accusations (name calling?) hurled at them as they live as foreigners and exiles in the Roman Empire. For first century believers, a Christ-honoring lifestyle flows from a Christocentric identity as “God’s special possession.”

In 2003 my wife and I completed 10 years living in Mali, West Africa. At that time church leaders came to us requesting that we greet the church in the West on their behalf. For the small Mali church, making up 2% of the country’s population, its identity was that of being grafted into a wider relational connection with the holy nation of Christ’s global church.  To live such good lives (v. 12) as a minority Christian community in Mali necessitated the church knowing its true identity as God’s chosen people in spite of being foreigners and exiles in their religious context.  

For Reflection:  How are we—corporately as Eastbrook Church and as individuals—seen by our world in these polarized days? Are we living such good lives that reflect our true identity as God’s holy nation (GRK – “ethnos”) (v. 9)?

by Paul Sinclair