I had been busted for stealing—again. I sat there, speechless, as the question was asked of me again. In response, I shrugged my shoulders and looking down, mumbled under my breath, “I don’t know…”

My voice trailed. I attended a Christian school and my middle school principal looked me dead in the eye and told me something that made me feel like somebody punched me in the stomach. He said, “There are students who attend here who aren’t Christians, and when you say that you are a Christian and don’t act like one, you give God a black eye!”

Someone who calls himself a “Christian” reflects that reality in the way that he lives. Because the way we live each day makes a difference, when we treat others and ourselves with respect and compassion we honor God as our Creator and recognize Jesus’ sacrifice for us. But more importantly, by claiming that Jesus is our Savior from sin, we must also claim and accept Jesus as Lord of our lives. A Christian needs to live a life that looks different from someone who lives their life to serve self. The Bible makes this clear distinction:

“Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever” (1 John 2:15-17, NLT).

As Christians, we put away the self-focused behavior of the world and replace it with humble Christian behavior that glorifies God (Colossians 3:1-17).

Perfection is the ultimate standard and goal of every Christian. Sadly, none of us reaches that perfection as we struggle with sin. How, then, can we make sure our behavior consistently reflects the character of God? The Bible gives us eternal guidance on what kinds of intentions, behaviors, and attitudes create a beneficial openness to the workings of God.

The first step involves inviting the Holy Spirit into your heart and accepting God’s grace and the salvation He offers freely. Then, and only then, will you have both the interest and motivation, and more importantly, the consistent power to act like Jesus. Your actions will give ample evidence, beyond a shadow of a doubt, to convict you of being a Christian. The verdict: “Guilty!”

I looked down, sucking my teeth and rolling my eyes, at my father’s solemn warning to me and my two brothers as he dropped us all off at summer camp.

My father’s warning carried his quiet frustration with the phone calls and reports of how my two brothers and I fought amongst ourselves. We were legends! We had reputations—and not very good ones—thus my father’s “You are Mirandas!” talk.

God also has the same expectation for His children, the church. He tells the church the same exact thing: “Remember kids: You are Christians! Act like it!” The sad fact is that the church is a family of sorts. Like all families, it’s comprised of all sorts of people at all sorts of ages and stages—physically, emotionally, but most importantly, spiritually.

The Bible uses the metaphor of the body to describe how we should move and work together (1 Corinthians 12: 12-26, NLT):

“The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit. Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. If the foot says, ‘I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,’ that does not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, ‘I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,’ would that make it any less a part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?”

But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where He wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part! Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. The eye can never say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you.’ The head can’t say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you.’

In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.”

God wants us all, as members of His church, to do different things but to do them all within the confines of the church—all for the good of the church—and, by extension, the world.

When we are part of God’s family, we shouldn’t look at ourselves and think that just because we don’t have the spiritual gifts or skills someone else has, we don’t belong in the church. Nor can we be so caught up with ourselves that we believe everything ends with us and we don’t need other people.

God designed us to need each other. He desires us to work together, and through that work grow closer together rather than trying to isolate ourselves. Just like Paul’s example of the body, the only way God’s church can be truly unified is if we recognize we are all in this together, we are all different, we all need each other, and it is only God’s grace that is the bond—the superglue—that holds us all together.

Today, make a decision to not give God a black eye, and to be a functioning and healthy part of God’s body!