We must remember that worship is not something to please us, but something in which we seek to please God. He does not have to specify everything he doesn’t want us to do. When he specifies what he wants us to do, we show our respect for God by doing that and nothing else.<\/p>\n
Colossians 3:16-17<\/p>\n
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. 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.<\/p>\n
The singing that God commands is done with the voice. Although the practice of using various instruments other than the voice can be found in the Old Testament, it was not authorized nor taught for the worship of Christians in the New Testament. We should avoid adding practices that are not established by God in the New Testament, which is the law for the church that Christ established.<\/p>\n
God will not tolerate men adding or taking away from what He has commanded. Although other instruments that are not the human voice may please people, we have no indication that they please God. To the contrary, since He has established what is best for us, we cannot presume to add what He has not established.<\/p>\n
God’s purpose has been made clear in Colossians 3:16-17 \u2013 that by the words we sing we should teach and exhort one another. Other instruments invented by people do not do that. Actually, looking closely we see that there are two instruments mentioned in these verses: the heart and the voice. One serves to express ourselves to God and the other to help one another. They are sufficient for everything that God desires. Anything more than these will only serve as to obstruct and distract from the purpose that God has planned for our well-being, and the use of such things shows our lack of respect for what God has commanded and a lack of confidence that what God has commanded is really sufficient. Let us do then what our Lord has commanded, because in that we can have complete confidence!<\/p>\n
Unity among Christians can only be reached by obeying what God commands. To introduce other practices that the Lord has not commanded destroys unity, because there cannot be any conviction in such things. As God says in Colossians 3:17, we must do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. We cannot do in his name that which He never commanded.<\/p>\n
For those who love God and want do do His will, what has been said here will be sufficient. For those who want what they prefer and have determined that they will do what they like, volumes of information would not be adequate to change their opinion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We must remember that worship is not something to please us, but something in which we seek to please God. He does not have to specify everything he doesn’t want us to do. When he specifies what he wants us … Continue reading