Thousand Oaks Baptist Church

 

Music in God’s Work

Chapter 2

The Bible's commands and examples

regarding the PLACE of music:

New Testament Passages

 

The title of this study is Music in God's Work. We are dealing with the place, nature, influence, and importance of good Christian music in our lives, in our families, and in our church.

 

In the last chapter, we examined what the Old Testament says about music.  In this chapter, we'll move on to what the New Testament says about music.

 

II.      The New Testament has at least a dozen significant references to music.

 

A.      Mark 6:22 - King Herod's stepdaughter danced a seductive dance to wicked music, and thus persuaded Herod to cut off the head of John the Baptist.  This first example of music in the New Testament is of the wicked, depraved, debased use of music and dancing for evil purposes.

 

B.      Mark 14:26 - After the Lord's Supper was instituted and concluded, Jesus and His apostles sang a hymn and went out to the Garden of Gethsemane.  Here we discover that Jesus Himself sang hymns.

 

C.      Acts 16:25 - At midnight in the prison at Philippi, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God.  And the prisoners heard them.  The context later shows the power of that musical testimony in the preservation and salvation of the jailer and his family.

 

D.      Romans 15:9 - The context of this verse shows that the divinely-intended purpose of the songs of God's people is to let the Gentiles (the non-Jewish nations) know of God's salvation in Christ.

 

E.      1 Corinthians 14:15 - Right in the middle of his discussion of spiritual gifts, the Apostle Paul gives two criteria for good Christian music:  First, sing with the Spirit.  This is, sing as you are led and controlled by the Holy Spirit.  Second, sing with the understanding.  That is, know what you are singing, and know what the music does to and for you and those who hear you sing.  Understand the content of both the words and the music.

 

F.      Ephesians 6:19 - In this verse, the Apostle Paul gives us the initial manifestations of being filled with (i.e.:  controlled and led by) the Holy Spirit:  Speaking to ourselves (literally:  to each other) in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord.  In other words, when we surrender our lives to the Lord, and allow God the Holy Spirit to direct our hearts and lives, the first evidence of it is that God puts a song in our hearts and in our mouths!

 

G.      Colossians 3:16 - Likewise, the primary manifestations of allowing the Word of Christ to dwell in us richly in all wisdom are twofold:  First, we begin to teach and admonish each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs; these are practical musical ministries of education and exhortation.  Second, we begin to sing with grace in our hearts to the Lord; these are holy musical expressions of worship and praise.  And remember, grace teaches us not to continue in sin, not to allow sin to rule in our bodies, and not to surrender our members (minds, hands, feet, etc.) as the weapons of unrighteousness unto sin (Rom. 6:1-16).  Instead, grace teaches us to become the servants of righteousness and to surrender our members to righteousness, which leads to holiness (Rom. 6:17-19).  Therefore, singing with grace in our hearts should properly lead us away from sin and unto holiness of heart, mind, and body.

 

H.      Hebrews 2:12 - This verse is really the Lord Jesus Christ talking.  He sings praise to the Father in the midst of the church. He does this by singing through us.  Our Spirit-filled singing is Christ's expression of praise through us to His Father.  What kind of music does Jesus Christ sing?

 

I.       James 5:13 - In this verse we are given instructions concerning one of the uses of music.  Those who are merry (encouraged and in good spirits) are instructed to sing psalms.  By doing this, we properly direct our joy to the Lord in the words which the Holy Spirit inspired the psalmists to write.

 

J.       Revelation 18:22 - The fall of Babylon during the Great Tribulation will signal the end of the blasphemous, godless music capital of the world in that day, for music and song shall no longer be heard there.

 

K.      The New Testament gives us some examples of the words of Christian songs sung during the Apostolic Era:

 

1.       Ephesians 5:14 - "Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."  This is a short chorus.

 

2.       1 Timothy 3:16 - "God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory."  Here is a longer chorus, very similar to the chorus of the song, "One Day," that we often sing.

 

3.       2 Timothy 2:11-13 - "For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:  If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself."  This is a beautiful series of four "if-then" conditions in song.

 

From these examples and admonitions in the New Testament, I think we can rather easily discern God's will in the proper MOTIVES for Christian music, the holy and practical PURPOSES for Christian music, and the TYPES of music most suitable for obedient Christians in this Age of Grace.

 

The proper Scriptural MOTIVES are two-fold:  Grace and joy.

 

The grace of God is a powerful first motive, because God loved us and saved us when we didn't even deserve to be loved or saved.  And so the grace of God involves both our intellects and our wills in our music.

 

The second motive is the joy of the Lord.  Joy is the second element of the fruit of the Spirit.  This deeply involves our emotions in our music.

 

The intellect, the will, and the emotions thus are profoundly involved in our music.  The Bible teaches that human personality consists of the intellect, the will, and the emotions.  And so, our personality is reflected in our music, whether we write music, compose lyrics, sing the songs, or just listen to our favorite music.

 

If our motives in music are Scriptural, then our music, lyrics, singing, and listening should come rather close to God's grace and the joy of salvation.

 

Very good Christian music has indeed been written and sung and enjoyed from other godly motives, such as God's love, His providence, His peace, etc., but I can only trace the motives of grace and joy back to the New Testament's direct teaching.

 

I have also found four New Testament PURPOSES for Christian music.  The first is to praise the Lord.  The second purpose is to teach and admonish one another.  The third is to testify to sinners.  And the fourth purpose is to encourage the saints.

 

To me, these purposes seem to both define and direct and place definite bounds on how we are to use Christian music.  The New Testament never sees Christian music as a means of making a living or as a form of entertainment.  The pastor and any other ministers of the Word in the local church may and certainly should include the use of good Christian music in their ministries, but their primary work before the Lord is that of ministering the Word of God.

 

I have also found three TYPES of Christian music mentioned in the New Testament. 

 

The first type of Christian music is the psalm. A psalm is a song that uses the words of a phrase, verse, or passage of the Bible, and puts those words to music, possibly with some rearranging and use of synonyms for proper meter and rhyme.

 

The second type of Christian music mentioned in the New Testament is the hymn.  A hymn is a song that is written in the uninspired words of men (as opposed to a psalm, which uses the inspired words of the Bible) and is directed to God in prayer or praise.

 

The third type of New Testament music is the spiritual song. A spiritual song is a song written using the words of men and/or the Bible, which is specifically directed to others, whether saved or unsaved.  The spiritual song is written and performed for spiritual, godly purposes, which usually include testimony, encouragement, exhortation, etc.

 

The example of music in Mark 6:22 involving Herod shows clearly that ungodly, worldly music and the suggestive, lewd dancing that often accompanies it serve only evil purposes.  This type of music should have no place in our lives or in our churches.

 

In the next chapter, we'll examine the essential nature of music.  This will allow us to make a clear distinction between good Christian music and the ungodly music of this world.  I think you'll find our next study to be very revealing.

 

Please click here to proceed to Chapter 3.