Why No Instruments? (Ephesians 5:19-20)

Have you noticed how every other church has musical instruments? There are very few churches around without musical instruments. What's that about? Are we just a small group that can't afford a band? Do we lack musical talent? Or, perhaps worse, are we legalistic, and have we created a law that is not found in the Bible? Last week we studied the second greatest commandment, to love our neighbors as ourselves. In that study, I said that the Pharisees have created additional laws and have gone beyond God's word to protect people from breaking the law. They put a heavy burden on the backs of God's people. Is that what we have done by preventing the use of musical instruments?

The question has hit me harder than most. I grew up with someone playing piano at church services. I'm used to that. Plus, my grandfather was the music director at Presbyterian and Baptist churches. My family is fond of music at church services. So I feel pressure to conform to that.

Why do churches of Christ not use musical instruments? Our text in Ephesians 5:19-20 is often used to say that we are supposed to sing only. Maybe that's the only explanation for why we don't use musical instruments you have been given, and you think it's a bad one. What about all the times musical instruments are used throughout the Bible? Do we really think they are evil? Is God really not okay with us using them?

Biblical Authority

Before we dive into the discussion on musical instruments, we need to look at the idea of Bible authority. What is Bible authority, and why is it important? While some might consider Bible authority to be made up by men. It's actually tied into what we have been studying in Ephesians.

Ephesians 5:6--10 (ESV) --- 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

Ephesians 5:15--17 (ESV) --- 15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Searching for Bible-based authority to do something simply means that we are trying to discern what is pleasing to God. It means that we care about doing what God wants more than about doing what we want. We search the Bible's commands, examples, and ideas to discover what God wants, and we try to apply it to ourselves in a reasonable way.

The Old Testament is full of tragedies when people failed to care about what God wants. One of the most notable events is found in Lev 10. Here we read about Nadab and Abihu creating an incense that they wanted to worship God with. God had previously specified the recipe for incense and commanded the priests not to offer any other fire. But listen to what happened.

Leviticus 10:1--3 (ESV) --- 1 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’ ” And Aaron held his peace.

Some might think that this was the God of the Old Testament. He is much more forgiving today. But he was very patient with his people back then. There are countless times he forgave them and refused to destroy them. But this time is different. He explains, "Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified." God is not sanctified or set apart as the one true God of the universe, nor is he glorified when we treat him like a god we make up for ourselves. If we make up our own god, we can worship that god with whatever we like. But the God of all creation should not be treated that way. If men are going to draw near to him, they must seek to do what he wants them to do. In other words, It's not okay for us to do whatever we want.

We understand this, don't we? This is the reason why we don't use cheeseburgers and Coke for the Lord's Supper. Jesus specified how to take the Lord's Supper, and we want to honor his command. Well, what about music? Where do we find commands, examples, or ideas about musical instruments in the New Testament? There isn't much information about them. We see them in Revelation, but there doesn't seem to be a single command or example in the first-century church. Should we take silence as permission? Should we do what we want to do?

The Old Testament

Some people here have probably had this conversation with people about musical instruments, and you might have used the idea that there aren't any commands in the New Testament. Have you ever heard someone say, what about David? Much of the denominational world uses the fact that David played musical instruments and even wrote Psalms to be played with musical instruments to signify that God is okay with it. Is that true?

Let's do a brief overview of the use of musical instruments in the Old Testament.

Tabernacle

The first use of musical instruments in congregational worship was in Numbers 10. God commanded Moses to make and use trumpets.

Numbers 10:1--10 (ESV) --- 1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Make two silver trumpets. Of hammered work you shall make them, and you shall use them for summoning the congregation and for breaking camp. 3 And when both are blown, all the congregation shall gather themselves to you at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 4 But if they blow only one, then the chiefs, the heads of the tribes of Israel, shall gather themselves to you. 5 When you blow an alarm, the camps that are on the east side shall set out. 6 And when you blow an alarm the second time, the camps that are on the south side shall set out. An alarm is to be blown whenever they are to set out. 7 But when the assembly is to be gathered together, you shall blow a long blast, but you shall not sound an alarm. 8 And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow the trumpets. The trumpets shall be to you for a perpetual statute throughout your generations. 9 And when you go to war in your land against the adversary who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, that you may be remembered before the Lord your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies. 10 On the day of your gladness also, and at your appointed feasts and at the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings. They shall be a reminder of you before your God: I am the Lord your God.”

Notice a few things about this passage. First, notice the amount of detail that has been given about the trumpets. God describes how to make the trumpets, when to blow them, where to blow them, how many, and who was supposed to blow them. They were blown for a warning, to assemble the people, and as part of the feasts. God does not condemn using musical instruments, but he does specify how they are used when worshiping him. Nothing else is described. All of this is in connection with the Tabernacle worship of God's people.

Temple

For 600 years, that's all that we have heard about musical instruments. We assume that nothing changed in their worship, but we don't really know because nothing is recorded. We know that God didn't change his commands. Then, David comes along. David was a talented musician, and he eventually used his musical skills to worship God. But did he decide to do that on his own, or did God instruct him on how to worship like he did Moses?

The answer to this question is found throughout the book of Chronicles. Many of you may not have studied the book of Chronicles very much. But this book is all about the kings of Judah, and it tells us about David establishing musical instruments in worship. The interesting part is that he doesn't claim to make this form of worship up. He tells us that God gave him instructions to establish musical instruments in the worship that will take place at the temple.

1 Chronicles 28:19 (ESV) --- 19 “All this he made clear to me in writing from the hand of the Lord, all the work to be done according to the plan.”

All of the instructions that David was giving to Solomon (11-19) were from the hand of the Lord. David didn't come up with a new way to worship God apart from God's commands. He wasn't treating God like a god he created for himself. He still regarded God as a holy and sanctified God in his heart.

This is even more clear as we progress through time. Every good king or leader tries to restore the temple worship set up by David. They aren't looking to set up their own worship. Jehoida tried to put all of the priesthood back together as David had instructed (because God instructed David). Hezekiah wanted to bring back the temple worship just like David had set up.

2 Chronicles 29:25--27 (ESV) --- 25 And he stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, harps, and lyres, according to the commandment of David and of Gad the king’s seer and of Nathan the prophet, for the commandment was from the Lord through his prophets. 26 The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets. 27 Then Hezekiah commanded that the burnt offering be offered on the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song to the Lord began also, and the trumpets, accompanied by the instruments of David king of Israel.

We also see Josiah doing the same thing.

2 Chronicles 35:4--5 (ESV) --- 4 Prepare yourselves according to your fathers’ houses by your divisions, as prescribed in the writing of David king of Israel and the document of Solomon his son. 5 And stand in the Holy Place according to the groupings of the fathers’ houses of your brothers the lay people, and according to the division of the Levites by fathers’ household.

Notice that these men are trying to restore what God had commanded David. They aren't trying to establish their own way of worshiping God. Nor are they convinced that David's changes were his own idea. They knew that God had instructed David to set up temple worship in this way, and they wanted to restore that.

Second Temple

After the destruction of Jerusalem, Zerubabbel and Nehemiah do the same thing.

Ezra 3:10 (ESV) --- 10 And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, according to the directions of David king of Israel.

Nehemiah 12:24 (ESV) --- 24 And the chiefs of the Levites: Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua the son of Kadmiel, with their brothers who stood opposite them, to praise and to give thanks, according to the commandment of David the man of God, watch by watch.

Nehemiah 12:35 (ESV) --- 35 and certain of the priests’ sons with trumpets: Zechariah the son of Jonathan, son of Shemaiah, son of Mattaniah, son of Micaiah, son of Zaccur, son of Asaph;

Nehemiah 12:45--46 (ESV) --- 45 And they performed the service of their God and the service of purification, as did the singers and the gatekeepers, according to the command of David and his son Solomon. 46 For long ago in the days of David and Asaph there were directors of the singers, and there were songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.

All of their worship was according to the direction of God because they were seeking to please him.

What About Us?

Where is the authority for us to use musical instruments? There is all of this instruction given in the establishment of the Tabernacle and Temple. What about our Temple? The truth is that we don't have any specific instructions aside from what we read in Ephesians 5:19-20. We have examples of people preaching, praying, eating the Lord's Supper, and singing, but there is no mention of playing musical instruments. There are spiritual gifts given to the early church for their upbuilding (prophecy, tongues, knowledge, etc.), but never is playing instruments on those lists. We have descriptions of traditions that apostles have handed down in the early church letters. They don't have any information on playing music either. So should we assume that all Christians worshipped every Sunday as the Jews worshipped in the Temple during their feasts? Do we really believe that Christians everywhere did that on the first day of every week?

It's important to remember that we have a new Temple and that we are part of a new Priesthood. New Testament books like Hebrews and Galatians tell us not to go back to the old system of worshipping God. Jesus has made the old way of sacrificing and worshipping obsolete. If we want to keep part of the Old Law, we will be obligated to keep it all. Their instructions do not work for us because they were offering sacrifices while playing music. Plus, God commanded only a small group of Levites to play. It wasn't people from every tribe. We are here to follow the New Testament pattern and worship as those who enjoy the sacrifice of Christ. So David's method is not sufficient.

The fact that there is no authority, detail, or prescription for how or when we worship with music in the NT makes it a horrible idea. We want to honor God and set him apart because he is not a god we create and worship however we want. He is holy and deserves the glory. If he wanted music, he would have commanded it through the Holy Spirit. He would have gifted his people to play in the New Testament. But he didn't. If we are going to break out musical instruments, let's go ahead and grab some cheeseburgers and Coke.

Heart Strings

Ephesians 5 tells us to sing and make a melody in our hearts. God wants us to praise him and build up one another in our songs. Then, he wants us to submit to one another and be what God has called us to be. We have no church record of any musical instrument in any historical writings until 600 years after Christ. A pope brought a musical instrument into Rome, and it most rejected it. Musical instruments did not really become a part of church services until around 1600 AD. But even then, there was broad-scale rejection. It's only recently that the churches have assumed music is acceptable to God without fighting against it. Listen to a few quotes.

• Thomas Aquinas 1260AD - "The church does not use musical instruments such as the harp or lyre in praising God, in case she should seem to fall back into Judaism. Instruments usually move the soul to more pleasure than create inner moral goodness."
• Erasmus 1520AD - "Modern church music is so constructed that the congregation cannot hear one distinct word. The choristers themselves do not understand what they are singing, but to priests and monks it constitutes the whole of religion. Why will they not listen to Paul? There was no such music in Paul's time."
• John Calvin, "Musical instruments in celebrating the praises of God would be no more suitable than the burning of incense, the lighting up of lamps, and the restoration of the other shadows of the law."

These three men all criticized the idea of bringing music into worship because it was rapidly spreading throughout the churches. It was different from what they were used to and all about enjoyment. The church did not sanctify God by finding a verse that says God wants men to play music. This was not about doing what God wanted. It was all about doing what felt good at the time.

Conclusion

I say all of this with sadness in my heart. I enjoy Christian music, and I see nothing wrong with listening to it recreationally. Some may disagree with that, and that's fine as long as you love those who don't share that opinion. I think it helps me to focus more on God and fulfill other commands. However, we must make a distinction between listening to music about God in our cars, offices, and homes and playing musical instruments when we gather together as God's temple for congregational worship. This time is all about honoring and glorifying God. We want to discern what is pleasing to him and do that. For 1600 years, Christians believed that singing only was pleasing to God. I agree. We have commands on worshiping God when we come together using our tongues and hearts, but musical instruments are not a part of that worship.

If you want to ask me how God will judge those who do not share this practice, I will not act like I know. But I pray for mercy for them because I believe they are sinning. We aren't saved because we live a sin-free life. We are saved because of the grace of God in Jesus. The only way we lose that salvation is if we know the truth and refuse to do it. Please don't focus on others and worry yourselves about their condition concerning musical instruments until you make sure that you are doing what is pleasing to the Lord. Also, stay humble. We have to recognize that we are adding things up to determine what pleases God, and there could be an error in our math. I pray for God's mercy toward us for whatever we are failing in.