You would think that after 16 years of walking with God I wouldn't get upset about a bag of groceries. But you'd be wrong. Yesterday, after a long day at work, the clerk at the supermarket put my bag of groceries in someone else's cart. What was worse was that I didn't find out until I got back home. I was furious. The 15-minute drive back to the store was all it took for my Christian behavior to vanish. Instead of responding in love and forgiveness, I wanted vengeance. Not only did I want my groceries back, but I also wanted the manager to know I had been wronged.

Fortunately, the drive gave me time to think: are five pouches of tuna, two bananas and a red onion worth it? 

I did end up getting my groceries back, but I had time to cool down before I got to the store. It turned out to be no big deal. And yet, something as mundane as misplaced groceries made me wonder--how could my heart be so angry over something so unimportant? How is it that someone who has been purchased by the blood of Christ still struggles with stuff like this? 

The answer? We're not home yet. Although we are part of God's family once we put our trust in Jesus' death on our behalf and in His resurrection, we've still got to live out our faith day after day. The same was true for believers in the early church. The apostle Paul reminds the believers in Thessalonica of God's choice of them (1 Thess. 1:4), but also points out that the calling God has given is "(not) to be impure, but to live a holy life" (4:7). The same thing applies to us today. The calling we've been given isn't just to be saved, it's also to be scrubbed up.

What that means for us is that our faith isn't just about eating prime rib and getting foot massages while we wait for the return of our Lord. It means that we need to be honest with ourselves as we look at our conduct and see where we need improvement. If we were all to get mid-term report cards from Jesus about how we're walking out our faith, how would we do? 

In the fourth chapter of 1 Thessalonians, Paul gives the church a bit of a report card to let them know where they stand. They get an "A" in brotherly love (4:10), but less than favorable marks in sexual purity (4:3-6) and in leading productive lives (4:11). In many cases, what Paul notices is how the believers in Thessalonica contrast with their unbelieving neighbors. In regard to sexual purity, the believers are to be different than those "who do not know God" (4:5). The work ethic that the believers  have should be so different from unbelievers that it "may win the respect of outsiders" (4:12). And Paul reminds the Thessalonians that Christians are different in their hope of eternal life after death "not like the rest of men, who have no hope" (4:13). In short, there should be a noticeable difference in how a follower of Christ lives in contrast with someone who has not put his or her faith in Christ. If our lives look like a TV sitcom, something has gone wrong. 

We're a lot like those Thessalonians: we find some things in our Christian walk to be easy (like maybe reading the Bible every day), but other things we find downright tough (maybe forgiveness). In either category, there's still room for improvement. We are not saved by the things we do, but we are ambassadors for Jesus to a world that needs to know Him. Let's represent Him well in all the areas of our lives, not just in some.

"Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" 2 Peter 1:5-8