When the people of Antioch (now in modern-day Turkey) thought they were mocking the followers of the new Faith System headed up by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, by calling them "Christians", they did not know how right they were!
In Acts 11:26, we are told the following: "when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch". When the unsaved locals called them "Christians" as Dr. Luke records in this book of Acts, it was not an endearing term meant to honor these new disciples of Jesus. They called them, in a snarky and sarcastic way "Christianos"....or "Little Christs". In other words, just like today, these people looked down on these saints and basically said "bless their hearts, look at them....they believe in a Man nailed to a Cross Who lived in an outpost across the Mediterrean Sea, years ago. They can't even see Him."
Christianos - Little Christian.
It is now 2000 years later. Many of us are not just little Christians, in the form of being mini-Jesus's but too many are little in mind, thought, word, deed and Bible knowledge. We can fix that now. The Bible exhorts us to the following: "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:5-8).
Do you want to be a "Little Christ"? Then the Bible tells us to do the following:
1 - Have the same mindset of Christ, Who KNEW the Father and what the Father's Will was.
2 - The Father's Will can be found in all Scripture, from Cover to Cover. Therefore, KNOW the Word of God through reading the entire Bible, no matter how long it takes, then asking the Holy Spirit to reveal everything through our reading and study of the Word.
3 - Be Humble (Jesus existed in the Form of God...because He was God, yet He did not hold on to His Throne in Heaven while yelling "this is Mine...and I am the King". He never did that. Jesus humbled Himself and died on a dirty Cross, killed by filthy and evil men - to do the Will of God the Father.
4 - Be Obedient. verse 8 above tells us that Jesus became "obedient to the point of death even death on a cross". We must become obedient to the Will of God to the point of dying to ourselves in the sense of giving up our fleshly desires, lusts, ways and more.
So you want to be called a "Little Christ", let us be resolved to do ALL four of these items above in order, as laid out in Philippians 2:5-8 so that when we are accused by an unsaved world of being like Jesus, the verdict will be - YES I AM!
