Musicing about God, for God with God’s Grace

Musicing about God, for God with God’s Grace

          Colossians 3:16-17 teaches, “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.  And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”  Many speakers and writers miss the lessons taught in these  verses.  Also many Bible expositors skip these verses in their comments or at least they make little or no mention of the music lesson taught here.  I suspect they were so intent on getting to the eighteenth verse so that they could once again tell women to submit!  There is also another companion passage found in Ephesians 5:19-21, “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.”

          I would like to take a brief moment to remind Christian musicians of the main reasons that we music.  First, we must always music “in the name of the Lord Jesus”.  The Greek word used here is kurios (2962) which connotes supreme authority, or the one who is the Christian’s Savior, Lord and Master.  Christian musicians often tend to get lost in the fact that they are giving a music performance or that they work for and represent a particular church or Christian organization. All of the above may be true, but a Christian musician’s supreme authority is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  Second, the Christian musician who is performing the psalms, hymn, and spiritual songs does so as a vehicle for giving thanks to God the Father by the mediatorial agency of God the Son.  Third, a musician who performs or leads others in sacred music must have the grace (charis 5485) God in his or her heart.  This Scripture is not referring to a performer’s  charisma, singing gracefully, or singing with gratitude but rather God’s grace applied to the performer’s heart.