A few weeks ago I traveled to the Atlanta area to visit my son’s family and watch Grandson Sam play in a couple of high school golf tournaments. A few days before the trip I heard on the news that President Trump was going to be speaking in Atlanta that weekend, so I scurried around and procured some tickets for the event. [If you are one of the #notmypresident folks, I guess you can stop reading now, but I thought my grandkids ought to get a chance to see a President.] A few days before the event, I got an email from the Secret Service laying out some rules that they felt I should be aware of. Actually it was a rather lengthy list of things that I would NOT be allowed to bring into the venue. I figured I couldn’t get explosives or pepper spray past TSA anyway, so it didn’t affect me much. Actually, it seemed like a fairly reasonable list to me – although I might have considered taking a selfie stick if I owned one – so I was good to go. We arrived plenty early and queued up in a pretty long line. It didn’t take long to calculate that the line was moving really sloooow, and we finally got close enough to see why. I’ve been through security checks before, but these boys were serious. I’m talking empty your pockets / walk through the metal detector / get wanded /wait for the agent to test your cell phone and go through your wallet kind of serious. I felt confident that The Donald was pretty safe that day.
(Notice: Now we switch from exciting travelogue to bulletin article application.) Suppose we had a security check to get into Sunday worship – a spiritual security check. What would be on the list of prohibited items? We have been given a list of “things” Christians should not carry. Ephesians 4:31 prohibits “bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander.” Matthew 5:23,24 says, in essence, if there is “something between you and a brother” or sister, you can’t get past the security check until you’ve taken care of the problem. I John 4:20 specifies that claiming to love God while “not loving your brother or sister” will cause the spiritual metal detector to ring “liar, liar!”
I can foresee a few problems with implementing such a security check. It might even affect attendance. But maybe you and I should be a little more serious about “examining ourselves” at a big event like coming into the presence of The King of Kings. Think about it.