Tuesday, February 19, 2013

 

So what about singing?

Scripture is really pretty vague on the details of worship.  In talking about What Matters and how it applies to worship, Phil and I spent some time working thru what Scripture says about singing.  Let me share some of what is said about singing.

Christians sing songs of praise when happy.  This seems to be an individual discipline (James 5:13).

Christians sing in groups.  Paul and Silas did in prison and it served as a witness to the gospel when the other prisoners listened (Acts 16:25

Gentiles will hear Christians praising God and will get to join in (Romans 15:9,11).  This would appear to be an evangelism reference.

There are some communal worship references:

Jesus and the apostles sang together at the Passover meal.  Matt. 26:30

I Corinthians 14:15 singing mentioned.  the emphasis of the passage seems to be that it is to be with spirit and understanding, it is to edify each other, we all participate (everyone has a hymn), and it convicts the unbeliever.

Ephesians 5:19  it is a Spirit filled activity.  We speak to each other.  It must be from the heart.  It is done with thanksgiving.

Colossians 3:16  context of the kind of people we are to be:  forgiving grievances against each other (like God forgives us), putting on love witch binds us in unity, let peace rule from the heart.  Word of Christ in us as we teach each other in our singing.  Whatever we do must be done in the name of the Lord while giving thanks

We will sing in heaven.  Revelation 5:9, 5:12 (the Revelation song), 14:3, 15:3

Not a lot about the mechanics.  A lot about the attitude.  So a lot about loving God and loving each other.

Be glad you can't hear... but I just got happy and sang the Revelation song from Revelation 5:12.  :)

Comments:
VERY interesting topic. In looking at Revelation 5 again, I was surprised to see that "we" don't even DO most of the singing. In vv.8-9 it's the "four living creatures and the twenty-four elders" and in vv.11-12 it's a big bunch of angels. In V. 13 the word used ("ktisma") sometimes refers to humans, sometimes not (I'm not scholar enough to be sure which John of Patmos means here). I'm just looking forward to being there to hear it all. --- Dave Wright, San Jose, CA
 
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