Living in the Name Of The Lord Jesus!

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.  Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.  And be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.  And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through [H]im. Colossians 3: 12-17, NIV. 

Dear Lord, in the name of Your Son Jesus we come before You, willing to be led according to Your will; to live, according to Your name; for Christ’s sake.  Amen.

Our Scripture for today is a bit lengthy.  That is because I have selected what I call – a summarized form of the standard of living, for the people of God; as our study for today.  For this purpose, I have entitled it:  “Living in the name of the Lord Jesus.”  We often pray, “in the name of Jesus.”  That is, we end our prayers with these words; but as I analyzed what it means to pray in the name of Jesus, I asked the question, is that all it entails, repeating these words at the close of every prayer?  If that was all there is to it, we would be justified in saying, that the phrase is nothing more than a mantra. 

But a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, assures us that there must be much more than just repeating these words.  These words were meant to encourage us to, walk the talk!  That is, live what we pray.  If, in His name we pray for patience, then let us live patience!  If, in His name we pray for forgiveness, then let us live forgiveness!  If, in His name we pray for peace, then let us be “instruments of His peace!”  Then, I believe we can truly say that we are praying, “in the name of Jesus!”

This makes all the sense in the world to me, as I think of what names meant in Jesus’ day, and what they still mean in our day, in certain parts of the world.  I am sure you have heard me say this before, a person’s name was representative of his or her character.   Jesus called James and John, “sons of thunder” (Mark 3: 17), because of their flaring temperaments!  Shall we call fire down from heaven and burn up these heathen (Luke 9: 54)?  Jesus was called Savior, because He came to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1: 21)!  “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch” (Acts 11: 20-26), because of the lives they lived!  And when we pray in the name of Jesus this ought to mean something more than just a phrase!

I pray that it will mean that we are clothed with virtues “as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. “

May others looking at us see that, we “bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances [we] may have against one another.  [That we] forgive as the Lord forgave [us].  And over all these virtues [that we have] put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”   

Finally, may “the peace of Christ rule in [our] hearts, since as members of one body [we] were called to peace. And be thankful… And whatever [we] do, whether in word or deed, [may we] do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”