Proving music's Acceptability to God

Many Christian musicians act as if the Lord doesn’t really care about music philosophy or music making.  Some Christian musicians believe that all forms of music making and all music philosophies are acceptable unto the Lord and, furthermore, that there are no absolutes in music philosophy or music making. 

 

  The musical discourse in Ephesians 5:9-10 is prefaced by the very important statement, “Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.  And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”  So we know from Scripture that a Christian musician has the responsibility to prove what is or  is not  acceptable to the Lord.  This responsibility includes musicing.  Nevertheless, in spite of this fact,  many Christian musicians still believe that, in church music, all forms and styles of music making are acceptable unto the Lord.  Since they are free to pursue their philosophical  music journey by themselves, they are autonomous musicians.

So now in the twenty-first century, an increasing number of Christian musicians have come to the conclusion that there are no “musts” or “absolutes” in our religious journey  since God only watches us from a distance through rose tinted glasses. Are there any “musts” or “absolutes” in our walk with the Lord?  Christ said in St. John 3:7 “marvel not that I say unto thee, ye must be born again.”  In Matthew 5:20, Christ stated, “For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of Heaven.”  This list of absolutes could be multiplied by many, many verses, all of which sound very absolute to me. 

 Since there are absolutes in all other areas of our Christian journey, we are drawn to the conclusion that there are also absolutes in music.  As I have said before, all philosophical thought concerning music and all music making comes under the absolute authority of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Church music not only matters, but it matters to God. Based on the musical discourse found in the fifth chapter of Ephesians,  we can most assuredly gather that the how, why, when, where and to whom of Church Music Matters to God. The monkey, so to speak, is not on God's back since we must prove that the way me music is acceptable unto God.