Reverence

Please read 1 Corinthians chapter 11.

My generation is one of the champions of "come as you are."  I myself prefer this notion of church going (mostly because I dress up all week long for work) and I also can be disgusted at the way some people make a church service into a fashion show.

That being said, many people dress nicely for church services because they want to bring their best before God.  I find this to be completely unnecessary and commendable at the same time.  I'm sure that God couldn't care less what clothes I'm wearing, but I think the attitude that the "Sunday best" folks bring to church can be better than we "come as you are" folks.

Here's what the "Sunday best" folks get right: reverence.  I'm not saying that wearing jeans makes you irreverent, but I am saying that the attitude of the "Sunday best" folks errors on the side of reverence.  Now, I can be completely reverent in a T-shirt, but what one wears isn't the point.

I'm not talking about clothes, or rather I'm not trying to talk about clothes.  The point of this post is not to convince you to start wearing slacks and a button-up shirt.  What I want is for you to examine how reverent you are in your church service.

There is something special, something different about our church services.  For some reason we treat them differently than our potlucks or even Bible studies.  Something about our communal worship is different and begs to be treated with reverence.  In 1 Corinthians chapter 11 the church at Corinth was not treating their church service and the Lord's Supper with reverence.  For this reason Paul gives them instruction on public worship that error on the side of reverence.

So, we must ask ourselves: "How do we practice proper reverence in public worship?"  I'm not instructing you necessarily to change your dress code.  I'm not necessarily suggesting you should make a rule about hats in your local church.  What I do want is for you personally to examine how much reverence you exercise in the public worship of our holy God.

Don't start rule making, and for goodness sake don't start judging the reverence of others unless you've been appointed leader of them.  Examine yourself.  Approach God with reverence today.