Most “churches” today use musical instruments in their worship services. In fact, there are some “churches of Christ” that have incorporated instrumental music into their worship assemblies. What’s that about? Are we just a small group that can’t afford a band? Do we lack musical talent? Or, perhaps worse, are we legalistic, and have we created a law that is not found in the Bible?
We know from Scripture that the Pharisees created additional laws and went beyond God’s word to protect people from breaking the law. The intention was sincere, and the slippery slope is real. But there is also a slippery slope in becoming legalistic. By the time Jesus arrived in the first century, Israel’s religious leaders had put a heavy burden on the backs of God’s people. Their rules became their God. Is that what we have done by preventing the use of musical instruments?
These are valid questions. While many of our lessons are focused on practicing what we preach (and rightly so) there are times when we need to “preach what we practice” and that is the purpose of today’s lesson. Many are adamant about no musical instruments in worship, others feel pressure to conform to the ways others worship.
Let’s start with the issue of conforming. Remember, the Bible tells us not to conform to the ways of the world (Romans 12:2). What was Israel’s major issue in the Old Testament? They sought to conform to the people around them and it led to disaster. Most of the arguments I have heard from congregations that wished to incorporate musical instruments into worship services were not rooted in Scripture (though they did use Scripture to support the argument) but rather in conforming. “We need to attract younger people”; “we can’t grow if we don’t get with the times.” That is conforming to the world not being set apart.
Now, we need to be careful that we don’t get so focused on being set apart that all we do is focus on being different. Our focus must not be on conforming or being set apart but simply on what God wants, on His good, pleasing, and perfect will (Romans 12:2).
And this is true regarding the use of instruments in our worship assemblies. Why do most congregations that call themselves “churches of Christ” not use musical instruments? The reason for not using musical instruments in worship is not tradition nor is it preference, it is because we do not have Biblical authority to do it. What about all the times musical instruments are used throughout the Bible? Do we really think they are evil? Is God not okay with us using them? Let’s start by looking at the two passages often cited as the reasons we do not use musical instruments.
- Ephesians 5:19-20 (NIV) speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- Colossians 3:16 (NIV) Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
Biblical Authority. Before we dive into the discussion on musical instruments, we need to look at the idea of Biblical Authority. What is Biblical Authority, and why is it important? Remember, one key to interpreting Scripture is to understand the context. If we are going to use Ephesians 5:19-20, for example, as our reason for not using musical instruments in worship, then we need to understand the context of these two verses. So let’s look at a couple of passages from Ephesians chapter 5, beginning with verses 6-10.
Ephesians 5:6-10 (NASB) See that no one deceives you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 as you try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Elaborate and discuss.
Now let’s look at Ephesians 5:15-17: (NASB) So then, be careful how you walk, not as unwise people but as wise, 16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Elaborate and discuss.
Now let’s look at Romans 12:2 (NIV): Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Searching for Biblical authority to do something simply means that we are trying to discern what is pleasing to God; his good, pleasing and perfect will. It means that we care about doing what God wants more than about doing what we want. We search the Bible for commands, examples, and ideas to discover what God wants, and we try to apply it to ourselves in a reasonable way.
The Old Testament is full of tragedies when people failed to care about what God wants. One tragic example is found in 2 Samuel 6 when a man by the name of Uzzah reached out and touched the Ark of the Covenant and God killed him (see 2 Samuel 6:1-7).
Another notable event and one often cited in the debate over musical instruments is found in Leviticus 10. Here we read about Nadab and Abihu creating an incense that they wanted to worship God with. God had previously specified the recipe for incense and commanded the priests not to offer any other fire. But listen to what happened.
- Leviticus 10:1-2:(NIV) Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. 2 So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Elaborate and discuss.
Some might think that this was the God of the Old Testament. He is much more forgiving today. But Malachi 3:6 reminds us that God does not change (I the Lord do not change) as does James 1:17 (who does not change like shifting shadows).
God does not change; He is patient with His people today and He was patient with His people back then. There are countless times he forgave them and refused to destroy them. But these two instances were different. He explains, “Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified” (Leviticus 10:3). God is not sanctified or set apart as the one true God of the universe, nor is he glorified when we treat him like “a god” we make up for ourselves. If we make up our own god, we can worship that god with whatever we like. But “the God”, the God of all creation should not be treated that way. If we are going to draw near to God, we must seek to do what he wants us to do. In other words, it’s not okay for us to do whatever we want.
We understand this, don’t we? This is the reason why we don’t use cheeseburgers and Coke for the Lord’s Supper. Jesus specified how to take the Lord’s Supper, and we want to honor his command. Well, what about music? Where do we find commands, examples, or ideas about musical instruments in the New Testament? We don’t.
We see them in Revelation, but much of Revelation is symbolic and nothing about the context of that book gives authority for the use of instruments in our worship assemblies. In fact, there doesn’t seem to be a single command or example in the first-century church of those early Christians using musical instruments. We have examples and commands to sing, preach, teach, give, and partake of the Lord’s Supper, but nothing on instrumental worship. Should we take silence as permission? Should we do what we want to do because it seems that “everyone else” is doing it?
What about the Old Testament? Many will point to the Old Testament as justification for using instruments in worship today.What about David for example? Much of the religious world uses the fact that David played musical instruments and even wrote Psalms to be played with musical instruments to signify that God is okay with it today. Is that true? In fact, both Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 mention the psalms and the psalms were set to music. Let’s do a brief overview of the use of musical instruments in the Old Testament.
Tabernacle Worship. The first use of musical instruments in congregational worship was in Numbers 10. God commanded Moses to make and use trumpets (see Numbers 10:1-10).
Notice a few things about this passage. First, notice the amount of detail that was given about the trumpets. God describes how to make the trumpets, when to blow them, where to blow them, how many, and who was supposed to blow them. They were blown as a warning, to assemble the people, and as part of the feasts. God does not condemn using musical instruments, but he does specify how they are used when worshiping him. Nothing else is described. All of this is in connection with the Tabernacle worship of God’s people.
Temple Worship. For 600 years, that’s all we heard about musical instruments. We assume that nothing changed in their worship, but we don’t really know because nothing is recorded. Then, David comes along. David was a talented musician, and he eventually used his musical skills to worship God. But did he decide to do that on his own, or did God instruct him on how to worship like he did Moses?
The answer to this question is found throughout the books of 1&2 Chronicles. These books give us a historical record of Israel’s kings, specifically the kings of Judah, and we learn about David establishing musical instruments in worship. The interesting part is that he doesn’t claim to make this form of worship up. He tells us that God gave him instructions to establish musical instruments in the worship that will take place at the temple.
1 Chronicles 28:19 (NKJ) “All this,” said David, “the Lord made me understand in writing, by His hand upon me, all the works of these plans.” 1 Chronicles 28 is about David’s plans for the temple. In verses 11-19 David was giving these instructions to his son Solomon, who would oversee building this temple. And all the instructions that David was giving to Solomon were from the Lord. David didn’t come up with a new way to worship God apart from God’s commands. He wasn’t treating God like a god he created for himself.
This becomes even clearer as we progress through Israel’s history (Judah). Every good king or leader tried to restore the temple worship set up by David as given to him by God. They weren’t looking to set up their own worship. For example, Jehoiada a priest that served many of the kings of Judah, tried to put all the priesthood back together as David had instructed (2 Chronicles 23:18). King Hezekiah wanted to bring back the temple worship just like David had set up.
2 Chronicles 29:25 (NIV) He stationed the Levites in the temple of the Lord with cymbals, harps and lyres in the way prescribed by David and Gad the king’s seer and Nathan the prophet; this was commanded by the Lord through his prophets.
We also see King Josiah doing the same thing. 2 Chronicles 35:4 (NASB) Prepare yourselves by your fathers’ households in your divisions, according to the writing of David king of Israel and according to the writing of his son Solomon.
Notice that these men are trying to restore what God had commanded through David and the prophets. They were not trying to establish their own way of worshiping God. Nor wee they convinced that David’s changes were his own idea. They knew that God had instructed David to set up temple worship in this way, and they wanted to restore that.
The Second Temple. After the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, Zerubabbel, Ezra, and Nehemiah tried to do the same thing. Ezra 3:10 (NIV) When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord, as prescribed by David king of Israel.
Nehemiah 12:24 (NKJ) And the heads of the Levites were Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua the son of Kadmiel, with their brothers across from them, to praise and give thanks, group alternating with group, according to the command of David the man of God.
Nehemiah 12:45-46 (NIV) They performed the service of their God and the service of purification, as did also the musicians and gatekeepers, according to the commands of David and his son Solomon. 46 For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there had been directors for the musicians and for the songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.
All their worship was according to the direction of God because they were seeking His will, not their own.
Another thing to consider concerning Old Testament worship is that it was given specifically to old covenant Israel. Romans 9:4 (NIV) the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. The worship we read about in the Old Testament was specifically for old covenant Israel. We, as Christians are part of the new covenant and nowhere are we told to use instruments in our worship assemblies, nor do we have any examples of the 1st century church using them.
What About Us? Where is the authority for us to use musical instruments? There is all this instruction given in the establishment of the Tabernacle and Temple worship. What about our Temple? Do the instructions in the Old Testament give us the authority to use instruments in our worship today?
The truth is that we don’t have any specific instructions aside from what we read in Ephesians 5:19-20 and Colossians 3:16. We have examples of people preaching, praying, partaking of the Lord’s Supper, and singing, but there is no mention of playing musical instruments. There are spiritual gifts given to the early church for their up-building (prophecy, tongues, knowledge, etc.), but never was playing instruments mentioned. We have descriptions of traditions that apostles have handed down in the early church letters. They don’t have any information on playing instruments either. So, should we assume that all Christians worshiped every Sunday as the Israelites worshiped in the Old Testament?
It’s important to remember that we have a new Temple and that we are part of a new Priesthood (1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 1 Peter 2:9-10). New Testament books like Hebrews and Galatians tell us not to go back to the old system of worshiping God. Jesus has made the old way of sacrificing and worshiping obsolete. If we want to keep part of the Old Law, we will be obligated to keep it all (Galatians 5:3). The instructions from the Old Testament do not work for us because they were offering sacrifices while playing music. Plus, God commanded only a small group of Levites to play. It wasn’t people from every tribe. We are here to follow the New Testament pattern and worship as those who enjoy the sacrifice of Christ. The O.T. method is no longer sufficient.
The fact that there is no authority, detail, or prescription for how or when we worship with music in the NT makes it a bad idea. We want to honor God and set him apart because he is not a god we create and worship however we want. He is holy and deserves glory. If he wanted music, he would have commanded it through the Holy Spirit. He would have gifted his people to play in the New Testament. But he didn’t.
Ephesians 5 tells us to sing and make a melody in our hearts. God wants us to praise him and build up one another in our songs. Then, he wants us to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ (Ephesians 5:21) and be what God has called us to be. We have no church record of any musical instrument in any historical writings until 600 years after Christ. A pope brought a musical instrument into Rome, and most rejected it. Musical instruments did not really become a part of church services until around 1600 AD. But even then, there was broad-scale rejection. It’s only recently that people have assumed music is acceptable to God without fighting against it. Here are some historical quotes.
- Thomas Aquinas 1260AD – “The church does not use musical instruments such as the harp or lyre in praising God, in case she should seem to fall back into Judaism. Instruments usually move the soul to more pleasure than create inner moral goodness.”
- Erasmus 1520AD – “Modern church music is so constructed that the congregation cannot hear one distinct word. The choristers themselves do not understand what they are singing, but to priests and monks it constitutes the whole of religion. Why will they not listen to Paul? There was no such music in Paul’s time.”
- John Calvin, “Musical instruments in celebrating the praises of God would be no more suitable than the burning of incense, the lighting up of lamps, and the restoration of the other shadows of the law.”
These three men all criticized the idea of bringing music into worship because it was rapidly spreading throughout the churches. It was different from what they were used to and all about enjoyment. The church did not sanctify God by finding a verse that says God wants men to play music. This was not about doing what God wanted. It was all about doing what felt good at the time.
Conclusion. When people ask me “why doesn’t your church use instruments?”, my response is simple. Because we do not believe we have biblical authority to use them in our worship assemblies. It is not because of preference or tradition; it is because of what we believe the Bible teaches. Pure and simple.