What about Ephesians 5:19?
(April 16, 2002)

There has been a tremendous amount of controversy surrounding Ephsians 5:19. Several intepretations ofthis verse have held that, by the use of the phrase "speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody on yoru heart to the Lord," the apostle Paul is advocating the omission of instruments in worship. One American church has made it the centerpiece of their very doctrines. But making a work - that is, something that we ourselves DO (or don't do), either a means to salvation, or a means of losing it, is scripturally unsound. We cannot change God's free gift turn salvation into something which we can earn, or lose. This isjsut not true. The utter simplicity of Christ's True Gospel, the really Good News, is, "...whoever calls upon the name of the LORD shall be saved." (Acts 2:21) Our salvation therefore cannot be obtained by bloodline, by sheer force of will, or determination.  Neither is salvation determined by how good we are, what church we attend, or how often we worship. Salvation comes by God's own grace, through faith; sola fide, or faith alone, as it is written, "...lest any one should boast." (see Ephsians 2:8)

A friend once cited Aaron's sons' deaths (in the Old Testament) as justification for his own fear of going to a certain church that used a piano and guitar during hymn singing. He feared that church (or he, or both) would incur God's wrath because of its mode of worship. He was afraid of God's wrath on himself, based on Aaron's sons' experiences, concerning that church's worship policy.  He believed an inclusion of musical instruments during worship was unscriptural, hence, adding to scripture which is forbidden, citing 5:19's lack of instrument endorsement as supporting his position.

This has now disturbed me for two and a half years. Could the inclusion of musical instruments in worship be truly construed as disobedience to God by "adding to" His word -- strictly forbidden in both the Old and New Testaments -- since, as far as I could find, no literal specific provision was made for the inclusion of instruments in worship (in the New Testament)? Or was it...

I wanted to examine this more....

The aforementioned incident concerning Aaron's sons, God's first anointed priests in His temple (where He condescended to be with His people), is found in the book of Leviticus, chapter 9, and occurs when those sons offered profane sacrifice to God (either through omission, uncleanness, or drunkenness) -- thus violating God's commands re: holiness -- and God killed them.  Aaron's sons were the first humans to be ordained as priests in God's first temple on earth. God's very specific law had been laid out for them, and all the Israelites whom God had delivered from Egypt, and whom He had deigned to favor with His presence among them, though in the temple only. For in the temple, only, could God's annointed priests, by PROPER sacrifice and thus atonement, be made for man's sinfulness and uncleanness/unholiness. Only by strict adherence to God's temple rules could one be made CLEAN enough to commune with a holy God.  Aaron's son were given direct sacred instructions concerning approaching a holy God in a holy manner as His anointed priests, and about exactly how the ritual of cleansing worshippers from sin should go, according to a perfect and holy God. If those rules were altered in any way, unholiness/uncleanness was the result, their sacrifices were profaned, and God's wrath could be expected. This was specifically spelled out for them by God in His covenant through Moses. And under the old Covenant, for God's anointed priests the burden was greater even than for worshippers, for priests were to SEPARATE themselves from (common) people, per God's law. And strict adherence to His law was required, instituted by a holy God who tolerated nothing less than perfect adherence to the rules, with disobedience carrying the weighty penalty of death.

Aaron's son had DISOBEYED God's orders. They profaned His sacrifice, thus disobeying God.

Well, since creation itself, no man has ever been able to follow God's rules completely, ecept One.  And it was through all of God's rules and His law which God demonstrated His own intolerance for anything less than His own standard of perfect holiness. But no human could be perfect.  How then were they to attain salvation? The Law -- seemingly impossible to fully attain -- had originally been given as the terms of God's contract (covenant) with the Israelites for the purpose of forcing the Israelites over time to realize their utter dependence upon God for His mercy and salvation and deliverance when their own efforts would prove insufficient. Paul writes how the Law was "given as a turtor" to enable man to see his own inablility to live a whiolly righteous life.  Once God established His Law,though, it acted like a newly erected speed limit sign, and Israel, like humans today, rebelled against it, in effect turning away from God. There was no way then for salvation to be effected through the Law, for all were "under (the curse of) sin and all fell short of His glory". Jesus would later teach that man had failed to understand the HEART of the law. The heart of God's law was mercy.  As in, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice." (Matthew 9:13) He further illustrates our inability to fulfill the law within His explanations of how deep the heart of the law reaches and how even the merest thought of sinning violates it, in Matthew 5:27-28, making both the sinful act and the thought of acting sinful, equal in God's eyes.

For it was the HEART of the law which God desired to write on men's hearts, not the letter of it. That is, that part which causes man to sin--the heart--had to be changed, before the sin itself could stop.

For example, in the New Testament, Christ gives us the two greatest commandments (Matthew 21:37) --

(1) to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind
(2) to love your neighbor as yourself
Then later, He added, (3) "Love one another as I have loved you."

He says that in following those commandments lies the fulfillment of all the other (610 additional) commandments from the Old Testament.

(Actually, it has been my experience, that if a person is busy fulfilling those three, he or she doesn't really have time to break the 610 others. But even that is not the point to all of this, nor the answer to the original question about the inclusion of instruments in worship.)

The good news is, Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest of all time, came to rescue us from God's wrath (death), as a result of our inability to achieve salvation through the law.  He, our subsititute, became the fulfillment of the law, Himself, and was without sin or blemish; therefore, while acting as BOTH high priest and as God's perfect blemishless SACRIFICE, He offered Himself on behalf of all who believe on Him; He--one sacrifice--His death on the cross--was sufficient to cover sins past, present and future, to all those who "believe on" Him -- Jesus, our propitiation, taking GOD'S WRATH upon Himself, for our sins--once and for all time. Indeed, God sacrificed Himself that day for us, so that all who "call upon the name of the Lord" may be saved. We are, therefore, no longer under the "yoke of the law", for now it is our BELIEF (Greek: PISTEUO=trust, faith) which is rewarded and not our deeds (Galatians 3:23-25). "For just as faith (trusting God) was accounted to Abraham as righteousness, so did the righteousness of One Man, poured out for many, impute therefore to us His OWN righteousness, making all who believe, heirs to His kingdom; sons and daughters, brothers and sisters of the Most High God." (Galatians 3:29, Acts 13:38-39)

For our brother, Jesus Christ, through HIS OWN perfect obedience and death, took God's wrath for many, and "has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin." (Colossians 1:13)

How then does this address the issue of instruments, or righteousness attained via "works"? Let me say this; God did not go to the trouble of making it easier for man to achieve a relationship with Him by killing Himself for us, only to jerk away our salvation over some interpretive infraction of a law we are no longer burdened with.

"You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified (declared just) by the law; you have fallen from grace." (Galatians 5:4)

Since His death and resurrection He no longer resides in a temple with rules for sacrifices and behavior; the final sufficient BIG SACRIFICE was made on Calvary, 2000 years ago. When the temple veil was rent (torn) in two, He gave us His One Big Sign that the physical temple was no longer where God would be appearing -- that our future relationship with Him would no longer be mediated through potentially profanable acts by unholy, self-righteous priests and their profane sacrifices--but instead through the final act of One Holy Man, Jesus Christ, God Himself, whose fulfillment of His Law and sacrifice was sufficient to please God's wrath, until His final judgement.

Through our belief in Christ we get the assurance of His (ongoing) FORGIVENESS for our sins, as we truly repent of them (again, Colossians 1:13). The wrath which God will execute against man in the final judgement (death, Hades) will be for refusing to accept sufficient His sacrifice on the cross. That should feel especially dreadful to those churches or individauls who have misled others that Christ's death alone was not quite enough, and that He needs us to add our pitiful deeds to His suffering to complete God's requirement for sin. To believe we could add more slaps God in the face and says His own death was not enough. It says us mere mortals must add something our own to His holy act. NOT!. God's wrath I expect will be awful against any who would lead that person seeking God, astray, by telling them He is available.... but only after they do a few things....first they had to dot every "i" and cross every "t," genuflect, offer indulgences for sin, do penance, pray for the dead, self-flagellate, recite the rosary, venerate Mary, kill Christ repeatedly through ongoing communion mass, remove all musical instruments from services in order to keep worship "holy," etc.,etc. Such is dangerous teaching -- false, because it gives us any role in our salvation, glorifying us by giving us power to effect an outcome-- the power to bargain with God, to earn our relationship. AND that is totally against scripture (Ephesians 2:8, 1 Peter 1:18-19), totally against Christ's teaching. (Just try using mere logic on an unbeliever sometime, though, and you will see. Until God is ready for that person's eyes and ears to be opened to His truth, no matter what you show or tell them in the Bible, they will NOT agree with you. ) No, belief or unbelief is within God's authority and power, only; we are merely his messengers. By a mighty act indeed, through favor we not not deserve (His grace), He alone puts the desire for the truth in our hearts, so that we are capable of belief.  Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me." (John 14:6)

More importantly and to this point He also said, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent me DRAWS him; and I will raise him up on the last day." (John 6:44)

Not contingient upon what we do; FAITH therefore is initiated by God (via grace), and maintaining our salvation is not contingent upon what we do or don't do -- it is contingent only upon our FAITH. That, too, is the, "gift of God, not works, so that no one should boast." (Ephesians 2:8)

No, the Good News just wouldn't be such good news if it was the same legalism as the Old Testament. In fact it wouldn't really be "news" at all. It would just be business as usual -- rules, rules, rules. Further, any religion which glorifies man at all through his deeds, is counterfeit and not God-breathed. There are denominations which glorify man -- "deciding for Christ" -- making salvation OUR decision. That too is UNSCRIPTURAL. Read Romans chapters 3-10. "For whom God forknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son..." (Romans 8:29)  It is NOT possible, then, to "decide for Christ" without His first awakening our hearts from sin to faith through the Holy Spirit (new birht form above), so that we desire to know Him and turn toward Him (repent), away from sin and death, and toward life.  To teach that we can choose on our own with God's help, results in false 'conversions.' The Lutheran Church, which was once the very seat of reformation, still believes that God's grace (favor) is only dispensed through sacraments--baptism, prayer, and communion. This is not scriptural. God's grace is imparted only at His will (see Romans 9:14). We can neither bargain with Him, force His hand through our good works, nor nor "earn" His grace. We can only humble ourselves and beg God in His mercy to save us by changing our sinful hearts, so that we may believe on Him.

"For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.'  So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy."
(Romans 9:15-16)

The good news for those who believe is that true peace comes in our knowing that despite our own flawed, sinful lives, our Representative made the appropriate sacrifice on our behalf, per God's Holy requirements, so that we need fear no more. And our own life's accounts will be changed, marked "paid in full on the cross," by our sufficient  substitute, Christ. If believers trust in His sacrifice as complete and sufficient, God will credit their faith in Him as if it were their own righteousness, no matter what denomination they belong to; no matter what building they worship in. Faith in God's completed work on the cross on our behalf is the only means by which a person can be declared as righteous in God's eyes. Period. Just faith alone. Sola Fide. That's the Good News. No longer made holy by our own our works, but by our trust (PISTEUO). No longer condemned, but saved for all time, irrevocably, by grace, through faith. One may indeed fall from grace, but not from a promised, secured salvation. God just simply did not offer salvation to us in this way, only to revoke it if we fail. He knew we'd fail. So he has insured all who BELIEVE against failure, by that faith (trust) which we possess, and Another's inputed righteousness. And to make sure our faith in Him does not fail, He gives us HIS faithfulness as a deposit; His own gift to us (Ephesians 2:8, Romans 11:5-6) and not ours to bargain for; it is a FAITH both supernatural in that it comes from God, not man -- and it is infallible. Unfailing. For it is faith in Jesus Christ, Himself, who alone has the power to change our sinful hearts and make us truly desire Him, and who, alone, must lead us to understanding of this -- to understanding, and not confusion -- and it is the same He who guarantees that all (of us) whom the Father has given Him, shall never be snatched from His hand (John 10:29,30).

Now, as this pertains to that music thing...

Jesus describes joy abounding at the home of the Father of the Prodigal Son upon his return, in a parable He tells in LUKE 15:11-32---

"Now his older son (not the prodigal son, but the good son who later complains) was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house (his father's house), he heard MUSIC AND DANCING..."

Jesus goes on to tell how that good older son complains about how he had been good all along and yet his father never gave him a party or pig roast for all his goodness. But the father explains that his good older son would always be with him because he WAS good, but that the younger son had misbehaved and had been declared DEAD, LOST, but now had come home, sorry for what he had done. Therefore a celebration was in order for him; for he once was lost, but was lost no longer.

Sounds like a mirror of heaven to me. Why would Christ picture such rejoicing at the redemption of one sinner in such vivid terms for all to hear (and later read), as with "music and dancing," if he were going to execute wrath against us for praising the very God who saves us today, with our instruments and voices and dancing? Why shouldn't we all give thanks for our own lives and our lost ones who have been found "with music and dancing?" What then is the purpose for worship? If Christ Himself uses this to illustrate His most loved story mirroring our own return to Him as prodigal sinners, how can we say that instruments are nowhere advocated in worship in the New Testament.

Christ did NOT say the good son "heard singing without musical accompaniment." He says "he heard music and dancing."

Because Our Holy God no longer appears in the temple, but inside each of the hearts of those who desire a relationship with Him, the strict rules of early worship are no longer enforced. It is no longer our deeds which will be rewarded or punished, but rather, our FAITH -- an act of the heart, and not a deed. I believe that is the entire point to Him coming here to die for us. It was His righteousness which was sufficient, not ours. He wrote through His servants, exhorting us to,

"Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands!" (Psalm 100)

He also wrote,

The Lord Himself wrote such Psalms as #150 , using his servants' hands and hearts to create praise, hope, and encouragement in the spirits of all who would read/sing those psalms. Psalm 150, like others, includes exhortations for musical instruments. Psalms exhorting the use of a multitude of instruments comprise one of the largest books of the Bible.

In regard to the literal meaning of Ephesians 5:19, I must ask, would God have permitted the phrase "speaking to one another in psalms..." to be used in Paul's long list of activities endorsed for church members, just to trick unsuspecting readers regarding its use?

Would God truly permit such an instruction in the use of psalms to exist for strengthening individual faith, only to leave unclear the details of HOW regarding performance of them -- whether or not one should OMIT the instruments which those psalms specify, in order that one's recital be deemed appropriate by God, the very author of those same psalms who inspired the instruction for instruments in the first place??? Would the Lord God truly, after killing His own Son to save all who believe on Him, be surreptitiously hiding behind the proverbial bushes of such scripture like a lion, waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting worshipper, waiting to devour he or she in the Final Judgement, for a scriptural exhortation taken out of context and applied narrowly to create fear?

If "yes," what then is the real purpose and benefit of a New Covenant?

Did the Lord, for His own pleasure, simply author a bunch of psalms in the Old Testament, just to dilute their very purpose and design in the New Testament, in order to TRAP unsuspecting church members? Does this sound like a reasonable expectation from a God who sacrificed himself on behalf of believers, who claims to account our faith in Him as if it were our righteousness? Would He REALLY revoke one's salvation because of the use of an instrument in the singing of praise to Him? Are we to still cower in fear of the law as the old Israelites did?  Despite the delivery of Christ's Gospel to us, are we still back at square one with God, back to the Old Testament rules and regulations -- under the yoke of an impossible law? (Insufficient to save) What then is the purpose of His "Gospel" ?  What constitutes "Good News"?

Where is my God who came to earth in the flesh (as a man), who came to die so that even a murderer hanging on the cross next to Him could be taken to heaven--BASED ON TRUST ("LORD, remember me..."), and not his deeds (murderer, thief)?

I ask again, what then is the meaning of His NEW COVENANT?

In the very verse which one church uses to exemplify their belief regarding Paul's literal instruction regarding such instruments during worship, we read (in Ephesians 5:18)…"and do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation (orgiastic celebration and drunkeness); but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord."

Why is the term 'psalms' even used by Paul in Ephesians 5:19? How can one obey the verse, literally disregarding the instruction of the psalm itself; psalms which were originally authored by God almighty? Is this some kind of contradiction? It is not. In order to understand the nature of such writing in Ephesians, it is also helpful to understand the historical basis for the letter. Paul is writing to his beloved young church in Ephesus, the capital of the Roman province of Asia on the west coast of Asia Minor. Ephesus lay in the middle of the Roman Empire and was among the top five cities of the Empire in the first century. However, it also was a city which previously was known as one of the greatest pagan centers of all time, and the residence of the temple of the pagan goddess Diana. It was also customary a pagan ritual for the very popular cult of Dionysis to have orgies, dancing and drinking wildly to drunkenness, for the purpose of invoking the pagan god Dionysis to enter the bodies of the cult members. Paul's instruction in 5:18-19 encourages the new Christian church against those previously accepted pagan practices, customs and behaviors, specifically in the aforementioned verse concerning the act of "drinking into drunkenness," offering church members a list of preferable activities which would be beneficial to their spiritual growth. By his use of the phrase 'speaking to one another', he connotes behavior of individuals, not excluding daily living, perhaps even literally meaning 'in conversation.' He does not write 'speak TOGETHER' as in an organized worshipping context, but rather, " speak to ONE ANOTHER..." as in a more personal, possibly even less formal context than worship.

The implication certainly seems strong concerning their not blending pagan practices with Christian worship, with little clarification given concerning the literal omission of instruments in his use of the word "psalms.' Omitting instruments can only be deduced by the word "speaking" in the phrase. But perhaps he is instead encouraging church members not just to SING those psalms only, but to incorporate those psalms' words into daily conversations with one another for purposes of encouragement. On the other hand, he may have used "speaking" hoping to include those church members who could NOT play musical instruments, using the exhortation in 'speaking psalms' and 'making melody in your heart' in order to offer non-musicians a way to fulfill the original purpose of the psalm. It is not clear. But it is certain that he does not want them to knowingly blend customs of paganism with Christian worship, at all. It is also noteworthy that the single noun "heart" is written in this passage by Paul, and not the plural "hearts"-- further underscoring Paul's apparent appeal to the INDIVIDUAL as well as collective church members. And Paul piles up his terms to demonstrate ALL the possible activities that one may fill one's life with as an appropriate alternative to being "drunk with wine," which, at the time of his letter, was a running in diametric opposition to Christian moderation, threatening to adversely affect worship. Remenber, drinking wasn't discouraged. Drunken orgies were.

How to live one's whole life as a Christian seems more to be the theme of his letter to Ephesus, altogether. It was less specifically dealing with the inclusion or exclusion of instruments; more specifically dealing with drinking. Paul writes, encouraging the members of the church in Ephesus to fill their lives with Godly things rather than their bodies with intoxication. This makes for a particularly appropriate instruction, not just for Paul's beloved church at Ephesus, but for all future church bodies and their members -- individually and collectively. To single out such a passage, however, removing it from its context, skewing it in relationship to its original purpose so as to justify a narrowly interpreted doctrinal policy, is tantamount to slight-of-hand legalism, the very thing which Christ fought against angrily with Pharisee priests who set themselves up as the only ordained authority on the true meaning of scripture. Christ angrily called such Pharisee legalists a "brood of vipers," "whitewashed tombs," who shut up the gates of heaven against the very people they should be ushering into those gates without restriction; the very people HE came to save. (Matthew 23 1-39)

Don't let those who would appear to sit in authority make you fearful of worshipping nor determine your course of worship. Don't let them make difficult that which God went to great lengths for, to make attainable for us. Read His book for yourself. Read it continuously. Pray about what you find there. If you desire to know God's will and earnestly seek it, Christ Himself will open your heart to HIS truth so that you may accept and trust (have faith in) the simplicity of the Gospel, a gospel He went to the cross for, so "that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:8)
...regardless of how you recite your psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.

In the book of James, chapter 5 verse 13, James writes, "Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms." The Greek word for "sing" as it is written in the ancient Septuagint Text in this verse is PSALLO, translated "to sing to accompaniment of stringed instrument," that word which gave us the word PSALM.

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord! Rejoice!

Amen.

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