I FINALLY GET IT!

I accepted Christ in an instrumental church of Christ back in 1977. I always felt there scripture was not clear about whether the instrument can be played during worship. After all, make melody in your heart does not mean lungs only, doesn't it? Even though I attended mainline churches, went to schools that believed in non-instrumental worship, and heard all the arguments from both sides of the issue, I still felt that it did not matter either way. I could see that each side had its valid points.

I decided over twenty years ago to answer that question so that I could feel confident in my belief about instrumental music in worship. I wanted to feel secure in what I believed, whether it was pro or con on the subject. I realized through my study, that there was clear and compelling direction from the scripture as to how we worship God and it had nothing to do with pointing out the evil that has been done with musical instruments playing at the same time. It had nothing to do with the fact musical instruments were used in Old Testament times and that God instructed them to use them for worship. In addition, the argument over hearts, lungs and other organs we have did not have anything to do with the matter either. We worship in the spirit. We don't have a temple building, but we are a temple for God's Spirit. Our sacrifices are spiritual. In many scriptures, we read that our worship is spiritual now and not the physical methods of worship that were required in the Old Testament. That is why I believe we are not allowed to use the instrument in worship.

OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD IS IN SPIRIT

In scripture, our spirit is how we relate to God. Paul served in the spirit (Romans 1:8) and said that our circumcision is of the heart (Romans 2:29; 7:6) and not a physical act as in the Old Testament. James told us that without the spirit, the body is dead (James 2:26). Peter said that we are made alive and live in the spirit (1 Peter 3:18; 4:6). Now, we are in a spiritual kingdom (John 8:16) that contains spiritual temples for God's Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19) and our worship is spiritual as Jesus said, "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers." (John 4:23).

In the New Testament, the heart is used to describe our spirit in some scriptures. Consider this passage, "who also sealed us, and gave us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." (2 Corinthians 1:22). Here, God's Spirit is in our heart. Also in Galatians 4:6, we see that the Spirit is put in our hearts. The heart is a symbol of our spirit in some scriptures just as in others it represents our soul, intellect, will, feelings, emotions and of course, the organ itself.

Until I realized that, I was confused about this issue. The Old Testament emphasized physical acts of service and sacrifice. The New Testament emphasizes the spiritual. God wants our worship to come from our heart, our spiritually circumcised heart. That is why we make melody in our hearts, as the heart represents our spirit. I understand that better than I understood the heart=lungs argument (Ephesians 5:19) or any other argument.

THE NEW DOES NOT USE THE OLD NOR DOES IT BORROW FROM ETERNITY

Circumcision was required in the Old Testament along with organized rituals and sacrifices. No one except for the judaizers demands that we incorporate these practices into our worship today. God tolerated divorce (Matthew 5:22), but that is not allowed today save for the proper reason. The whole book of Hebrews was written to address that issue. It is a mistake to go to the practices of the Old Testament to justify including or changing something in the Kingdom we live in today.

God required the Jew to be circumcised. No one argues that it was an unnecessary act in order to worship God. We would never question that God demanded that of the Jews, why do we question what He wants us to do today. The instrument cannot be brought over into the new covenant any more than circumcision can be brought over and performed today.

Some will say there will be instruments in Heaven. We are also going to have new bodies and a whole lot of other things that we don't have here. We will also worship differently than we do here, but that does not allow us to take from eternity what will be there any more than we can choose things from the Old Testament that we want to have in the present.

 WILL YOU DISOBEY GOD?

God has never taken disobedience lightly. God punished Satan's rebellion, Adam and Eve's eating of the forbidden fruit, Moses striking the rock instead of speaking to it, Nadab and Abihu's strange fire, and many others for their disobedience. I hope that these events would get your attention and cause you to realize that we have to obey God. If we do not obey, He will be displeased and punish us. Disobedience, or not doing what God commands us to do is central to the understanding of our problem and the need for our salvation through Christ. Rationalizing that the scriptures are not prohibiting the use of instruments because we like to hear them is dangerous and many in the Bible made rationalizations and were punished by God.

THE SCRIPTURE IN QUESTION

That brings us back to Ephesians 5:19. Let us look at it in light of our requirement to worship in the spirit and that scripture uses the heart as a symbol of our spirit in some passages. Ephesians 5:19 states that we are to speak to one another and sing. The tricky part for some is the making melody in the heart phrase. The word, translated melody is the Greek (psallo) which means to pluck, rub or cause to vibrate. Many use this to say that the instrument is being discussed here. We know that our vocal chords have to vibrate in order to produce sounds. Therefore, the scripture cannot be speaking of only an instrument being made to vibrate. More importantly, if our heart represents our spirit, then it is our spirit that we are strumming, vibrating and rubbing. Paul is telling us not to merely go through the motions of singing, but that the singing should cause our spirits to sing. Our whole being is in worship to God. Instead of heart=lungs, it would be better to say that heart=spirit. The scripture here can only mean two things. That it is our vocal chords that should vibrate and thus sing, or that our spirits should sing also. I think that Paul is referring to our spirits as he already stated that we should sing and speak to one another. In no way can it be taken to mean a musical instrument. That is an assumption based upon the word melody taken out of context.

Jesus said that if we love Him, we have to obey his commands (John 14:15; 15:10). All of us want to obey Jesus' commands as spoken by Him and His apostles. We have a clear call to worship in spirit as we live in a spiritual kingdom with our spiritual temples of God. That explains Paul's call in Ephesians 5:19 to make melody in your heart/spirit. The melody is not strumming, plucking or vibrating an instrument. That would take the emphasis away from spiritual worship. Paul wants our spirit to sing, not only our voices.

As one who once believed that it was all right to use the instrument in worship, this is what convinced me there is a clear reason for not using the instrument. It would also become difficult to make the summation that they did not use instrument in the early church because they did not have musicians and instruments available for some reason. Additionally, it would also eliminate the excuse that because of persecution, they were limited in their ability to worship as they wanted to in those days. I find it easier to make the case for acappella worship once the person you are discussing the subject with follows the concept of spiritual worship and reconsiders what making melody in the heart means. Not everyone will want to understand, but that is also true of sharing your faith with others. I hope that if you were wavering on this matter before reading this that you are now certain of how we should worship God.

Kenneth Morvant

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Listen to the Introduction of my book "Going To Hell In A Handbasket And Loving It!"

Soon to be published by Choate Publishing.

Kenneth Morvant

Minister