Acts 11:26 And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
What does it mean to be a Christian?
Did you ponder that question before you moved on to this paragraph? Do you consider it to be a family name? Do you consider yourself to be a member of the family of Christ? Some time ago I pointed out that whomsoever is betrothed to the Son is treated as a daughter. That is family. We are of the adoption, that is family. Don’t you feel like family?
Being in a family, especially a large family, can be a complicated affair. It is different being the oldest child than it is being the last born. Every position within a family brings about a different set of attitudes and adjustments. Being born again into the family of Christ is not any different.
Do you have family members that just never seem to grow up? You know what I mean, maturity has nothing to do with age, it is about accepting responsibility and acting responsibly. If you think about being born in the spirit in the same way, then someone who just came to the family at the age of forty is a baby. No one of that age likes to be called a baby. In the spirit they are babes.
1 Corinthians 3:1-3 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
Paul is calling out the Corinthian Christians for their failure to grow in Christ. There actions, while mature in a worldly sense did not glorify God and showed a great deal of disrespect for the family name, Christian. Envy, strife and division were named here as example but there are many actions that can be called out indicating there is no growth in any babe in Christ.