“I don’t see anything wrong with instrumental music in Christian worship, and I like it,” is the sentiment sometimes expressed. Well, I like instrumental music, too, and if God had asked me for my input, I would have recommended it. However, God stipulated, a long time before I or anyone else who has lived in the last nearly 2,000 years was born, precisely how we in the Christian Age are authorized to worship Him musically. Specifically and exclusively, Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 authorize “singing.” Note that singing is not only distinguishable from instrumental music, but it is also distinguishable from vocal expressions other than singing (e.g., humming, whistling, extraneous noises, etc.).
The very next verse following Colossians 3:16 pertains to authority in religion. While the passage applies generally to the authority of God’s Word, in its context, Colossians 3:17 applies first to singing being authorized for Christian worship. “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 [by the authority of] the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Colossians 3:16-17 NKJV).
Some Old Testament Bible characters could have said that they, too, didn’t see anything wrong with doing something in an alternative way to what God stipulated or authorized. For instance, Nadab and Abihu—sons of Aaron and priests themselves—could have reasoned and verbalized, “I don’t see anything wrong with using an alternative fire-source to burn incense with which to worship God.” On that occasion, God reacted miraculously and immediately to demonstrate clearly His displeasure. “Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane [“strange” KJV] fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord” (Leviticus 10:1-2). God Himself had been the initial source of authorized fire as He sent forth fire to ignite the animal sacrifice (Leviticus 9:24). We read about that just a few verses prior to the event chronicled in Leviticus 10:1-2. Censors were to be ignited with coals from the altar (Leviticus 16:12), rather than from an alternative, unspecified source.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:21-23). Truly, God said, through the Holy Spirit to the inspired New Testament penmen, what He meant, and as assuredly, He meant what He said! Everything else is “lawlessness.”
