God has never turned anyone away at the door over their shoes. A few greeters have come close.
For many Adventists, dressing up is an act of love. In many congregations across Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, Sabbath clothes are the best a family owns, pressed on Friday and worn with joy. Plenty of our grandparents did the same. Ellen White urged that “all should be taught to be neat, clean, and orderly in their dress,” and in the same passage warned against “display of the apparel,” because it pulls attention away from God. Her concern cuts both ways. Sloppy can distract. So can showy.
Then there is the young man who slips into the back row in jeans because a friend finally talked him into coming. Scripture has a word for the deacon tempted to frown. James describes a church that gives the well dressed visitor a good seat and tells the poor man to stand, and he calls that partiality. God told Samuel, “man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”
So yes, bring your best if you can. Your best might be a suit. It might be the clean shirt you ironed this morning. We can honor both, and we can stop keeping score.
The One we come to worship once let a woman wash His feet with her tears and dry them with her hair while her host silently judged her. He noticed her heart. He still does. Come as you are, come as well as you can, and come to meet Him.
Photo: “Victory Baptist Church, Ayigya worship service” by Kingdom of Light 1, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped, text added. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Victory_Baptist_Church,_Ayigya_worship_service.jpg
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