• I Corinthians 14:40 “Let all things be done decently and in order.”
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Some people complain about America’s highway laws, but after traveling overseas to various countries, I am very grateful for our order. You might see people overseas avoid the heavy traffic by driving on the sidewalks or motorbikes and bicycles squeeze tightly through each other with no consequence. I’ve been in the taxis of Peru where some drive up a hill, turn off the engine with the taxi in neutral, and speedily coast downhill through crosswalks and cross streets just to save a little fuel. 🙂 There is a reason for speed limits, safety belts, etc… in America. The rules bring order.

Our God is a God of order, and He expects order in everything we do, including music. Like our highway system, in order to have order, one must have rules and boundaries. God’s music has boundaries, and following these boundaries protects God’s children from being deceived by the devil’s music. So what are some of these boundaries?

• Eph. 5:19 “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;”
• Col. 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
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–Lyrics “Speaking to yourselves” Not every song has words, but many songs do. What are the words in your music? We already learned in the article “Music is not Amoral” that every word is judged by God. What words should be in music? Eph. 5:19 says, “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs….” Col. 3:16 likewise emphasizes the exact same three: “in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs”. Music shouldn’t just be the same 3 words over and over again: “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus”. Good music has depth and compels you live for Jesus just like a sermon from a preacher. Col. 3:16 adds more to this area of speech in music: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…” Are the words in your songs “richly” full of “the word of Christ”?

Note: The first word in Col. 3:16 is “let”. Whatever music you use and listen to was allowed into your heart and life by you. God wants His children to “let” His Word and His music into their heart and life.

–Participants (everyone involved: writer, performer, and listener) From Eph. 5:19, “yourselves” indicates multiple people, and “your heart” indicates one person. Likewise in Col. 3:16, “you” indicates the individual and “one another” and “your hearts” indicates a corporate setting. So, both verses’ commands about music apply to both public and private settings; the local church and your personal life.

Note: This is important to point out for those who try to skirt the moral issue of music by teaching that God only requires godly music and high standards at church, not one’s home. God never gives permission for moral inconsistency. The “beauty of holiness” (I Chron. 16:29; Ps. 29:2, 96:9) and Spirit-fulness is supposed to be continuous, not just at church or at home.

• –Must be saved (Col. 3:16 “singing with grace”) God only accepts faith (Heb. 11:6) and grace (Heb. 12:28). The works of the lost, even music, is not accepted by God nor should a believer allow it into his life. Even one’s best efforts of writing a righteous song while having an unrighteous soul is as filthy rags (Is. 64:6).  The demon-possessed girl in Acts 16:16-18 followed Paul and Silas everywhere saying the right words about the men’s message of salvation.  Yet, Paul was grieved and cast the demons out of her.
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• Pro. 15:8 “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
• 9 The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the LORD: but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness.”
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Note: Many churches use music to create an atmosphere and stir something in their listeners like excitement and worship. Using music as a work to manipulate believers is wrong. We are to sing with grace. Believers are commanded individually to intentionally choose to sing correctly and in a correct spirit to the Lord. Since God’s Spirit gives life (II Cor. 3:6) and liberty (II Cor. 3:17), the atmosphere is taken care of by God when his people are filled with the Spirit. This, then, leads to:

• –Must be Spirit-filled “…be filled with the Spirit” Eph. 5:19, is only part of a longer sentence which starts in verse 18 and ends in vs. 21. “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;” We learn from passages like Pro. 4:23 and Lk. 6:45 that whatever is allowed into our hearts comes out. Who we are and what we produce comes from what we have in our hearts. Spirit-fulness is necessary to fulfill the musical requirements in vs. 19, the thanksgiving requirements in vs. 20, and the submission requirements in vs. 21. Music must be written, performed, and heard by Spirit-filled believers. The one who wrote the music must be Spirit-filled at the time they wrote the song. Those who play or sing the song must also be filled with the Spirit.
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Note: II Pet. 1:21 “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” God’s Word written by holy men who were inspired and filled with God’s Holy Spirit.

Note: It is true that all of those who wrote the Bible were sinners (Rom. 3:23). Moses murdered a man. David murdered a man and committed adultery with that man’s wife. The list goes on. However, it is crucial to notice that not one portion of God’s Word was written when those men were in the midst of their sins. For instance, there is not one psalm from when David was in the midst of unrepented sin. Ps. 51:1 reveals that it was written after David confessed his murder and adultery to Nathan and God.

Note: A Christian song writer, performer, etc… may backslide and fall into sin. (again like the example of David) However, believers must carefully search for when the believer fell away from grace. For example, Edward Caswall wrote the classic hymn “See, Amid the Winter’s Snow” shortly after converting from the Church of England to the Roman Catholic Church and joining the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri. The hymn was published earliest in 1858 as part of The Masque of Mary and Other Poems by Caswall. Therefore, no believer should sing “See, Amid the Winter’s Snow”. As revealed by God’s own Book, God only sanctions the works of holy men and women of God.

–Purpose “to the Lord.”

• –not self-pleasure, self-amusement, and self-entertainment – “teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs”
• Although there are examples of music meant for entertainment, pleasure, and amusement in Scripture, God does not put it in a positive light nor does God bless it. Rev. 4:11 reveals that God created all things, which would include music, for God’s pleasure, not ours. Music should serve God, not entertain us. The music bought and sold through the GMA (CCM and Southern Gospel) is meant to entertain and make money. This is the reason why most of it is owned by secular companies. However, their music would not sell if it was filled “richly” with “the word of Christ”, if it taught Bible doctrine, and if it admonished its listeners when they were in sin, although, that is exactly what God commands in Col. 3:16 and Eph. 5:19. So they (companies, performers, etc…) because of “covetousness” to make money and/or to make it big in the singing industry “with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.” (II Pet. 2:3)
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Note: “Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” rules out any of the lost’s songs or the world’s music. There is not one single passage in Scripture that gives believers permission to hear or sing “the song of fools” (Eccl. 7:5).

• -not self-promotion and self-glorification I Cor. 10:31 “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
• I Cor. 1:29 “That no flesh should glory in his presence.”
• I Cor. 1:31 “That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”
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• How one sings either pleases God or pleases the flesh. The voice either glorifies the performer or it glorifies God. The attention and focus of one’s performance either points others to Jesus or to self. Eph. 5:19 and Col. 3:16 require your music to be sung “to the Lord”. Most modern believers scoop their notes, sing huskily and sensually into the microphone, and show off by twirling and whirling their notes or instrumental parts. Whether intentionally or not, the focus shifts onto the singer and God’s glory is stolen. If your singing and playing is to please God, your every word will be clear and your voice will just simply sing the written notes without additional twirls and scoops.
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• Jn. 3:30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
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–Structure “ singing and making melody” Notice that Eph. 5:19 emphasizes that the melody is what is to be sung. To God, melody is what makes a song music. Today in our fallen culture, man thinks that rhythm is what makes a song. (You can imagine a teen drumming the table with their hands or pen and boom-booming with their mouth having fun making “music”.) However, God’s music is melody. Is your music melody or rhythm? Is there a rock-beat (soft or heavy syncopation, it doesn’t matter) in your music? If so, your music is rhythm. God commands melody, not rhythm, to be sung. (See Tri-part God, Man, and Music.)

These truths are the boundaries to music laid out in Eph. 5:19, Col. 3:16, and throughout the Bible. If the reader follows these commands closely, you will easily be able to eliminate Satan’s music from your life and know assuredly what is God’s music.

(This article is from the “Music” series.)