Spending hours searching through old dusty archives, researching ancient church registers or stomping through graveyards may not be your thing. Tracking down your ancestors isn’t a priority for you. However, those who are into genealogies occasionally uncover a notorious relative who disgraced the family name: a murderer, a shyster, a fraudulent scoundrel, a compulsive liar. Family-tree findings are not always flattering. Some have dishonoured the family name.

You can lose a lot of things in life, but when you lose your good name – you’ve lost everything.

There is one Name that transcends all others. James put it this way:

Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honourable (worthy, noble, beautiful) name by which you were called? James 2:7

The Apostle James would remember when he didn’t value the honourable Name. He grew up in the same home as Jesus. But a split came into the family as James and his siblings rejected Jesus as the Christ. They joined those who opposed Him.

But everything changed after the Resurrection. James bowed his heart to the Resurrected Christ and owned Jesus of Nazareth as Lord. Now, he writes to fellow believers and strongly encourages them to live for Christ at any cost. The standard for Christian living was the beautiful behaviour of Christ Himself. No hypocrisy, discrimination, favouritism, and a life full of good works. After all, that’s what James saw every day in his own home growing up in Nazareth.

James writes that we should never show favouritism to the rich and mighty – or kowtow to people of influence. Why would ‘assembly ushers’ scurry around to get these people comfortable seats while relegating people experiencing poverty to the hard old benches against the back wall? To cater to the rich and to shun the poor is an actual sin against God, who is no respecter of persons. James points out that the rich often strongly oppose and blaspheme the lovely Name – that noble Name.

What is the worthy name to which James was referring? More than likely, that Name was ‘Jesus’! Or it could have been the beautiful name of ‘Christian.’ The word ‘honourable’ also means noble, beautiful and excellent. Many of these Christian Jews of the 1st century suffered intensely for being identified with the beautiful name ‘Jesus’ or a follower of ‘Christ.’ But they were thrilled to be identified with Him. They took His Name publicly when they obeyed the Lord in baptism. They became marked people by the persecutors – people who loved the Name of Jesus.

The New English Bible puts James 2:7 this way: “…that honoured Name by which God has claimed you.”  If the persecutors demanded that they renounce their Christian faith in blasphemy by spitting on the ground at the mention of His lovely Name, they would refuse.

Are you glad to be linked to the noble and honourable Name? The Epistle that James penned is about our Christian testimony and witness in a world where Christ is despised and rejected. The authentic mark of a Christian is their Christlikeness and how they represent the noble, beautiful, honourable and excellent Name of Jesus

Naturally, we’re offended if someone whispers a nasty allegation about us behind our backs. But what if they’re snickering and whispering something like this:

"Shhhh….yeah…that girl right over there. She belongs to Jesus. She says she loves Him. She lives for Him. She walks with Him. I see her putting her head down – I think she even talks to Him. Weird, eh?!!" 

Dear Christian, if that’s what’s going on behind your back, thank the Lord that someone is noticing your love for that lovely Man – Jesus.

We should walk very carefully today to ensure we do nothing to bring dishonour to that worthy Name. 

Don’t hesitate to share a thought from your personal experience or a verse that has blessed you in the comment section below. If you would like to reach out privately, click below.