Romans 8:14 (NIV) For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
My family is fond of nicknames. My great-grandfather gave his children and grandchildren nicknames. It was a physical characteristic that they had or their personality. His granddaughter was Bugs and one of his son’s was called Spic-N-Span. I do it too. Nicknames for pets and relatives. Spic-N-Span. I do it too. Nicknames for pets and relatives.
Jesus was fully man and fully God. Since he was fully man, he embraced some of the things that humans do. Giving nicknames was one of them. He called James and John “Boanerges”.
Mark 3:17 (NIV)
“James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means ‘sons of thunder’).
Here’s a verse that shows their temper:
Luke 9:54 (NIV) “When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, ‘Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?’ But Jesus turned and rebuked them. Then he and his disciples went to another village.
I find it interesting that they thought they could call down the fire from heaven. “Just sit back Jesus, we’ve got this.”
Here’s some verses where they want to start a riot among the disciples.
Mark 10:35-41 (NIV)
“Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. ‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘we want you to do for us whatever we ask.’
‘What do you want me to do for you?’ he asked.
They replied, ‘Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.’ ‘You don’t know what you are asking,’ Jesus said. ‘Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?’
‘We can,’ they answered.
Jesus said to them, ‘You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.’
When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John.”
Jesus must have done a lot of face palming around these guys and shook his head a lot.
Jesus also renamed Simon.
John 1: 41-42 (NIV) “The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas’ (which, when translated, is Peter).” Cephas means rock.
What about you? Do you think he has a nickname for you? I’d like to think so. I couldn’t imagine what it would be.
The verse above in Romans says we are “children of God”.
It says it again in 1 John.
1 John 3:1 (NIV)
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”
If He gives us a name based on how we act, we should strive to behave. You wouldn’t want your nickname to be “Nosy”, “Grumpy”, “Son of Firecracker”, “Snobby” and so on. The fruit of the spirit would be a good nickname
Galatians 5:22 (NIV)” But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,”
Whatever our nickname is, let us keep in mind the day when we will see him face to face and he calls us by our name, his special name.
Proverbs 22:1 (NIV)
“A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.
