Throughout the New Testament, musical instruments are only mentioned a few times. These verses reveal some interesting spiritual truths about musical instruments.
Musical instruments are never mentioned in the New Testament in the context of worshiping God in church. There are no instructions or examples of using musical instruments to worship God in the New Testament. Jesus never told his disciples to use musical instruments. The apostles never told Christians to use musical instruments. There is no record in the Bible of musical instruments ever being used in church.
This is not because Christians did not have access to musical instruments. Musical instruments were widely available in the first century. They were used in Jewish synagogues and in pagan temples. Some early Christians had musical instruments and knew how to play them. But they didn’t play musical instruments in church or use them to worship God.
The first Christians didn’t reject music. They often sang together.
Jesus sang hymns with his disciples (Matthew 26:30). The New Testament commands Christians to sing in church (Ephesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16).
From the beginning, singing has been an important part of Christianity. For many centuries, music in churches was strictly a cappella. “A cappella” means to sing without instruments. A capella literally means “in church.” In church for centuries, instruments were not used.
Although musical instruments weren’t used in church, the New Testament does refer to musical instruments a few times. These few verses reveal hidden truths.
Musical instruments – Things Without Life
Even things without life, whether flute or harp, when they make a sound, unless they make a distinction in the sounds, how will it be known what is piped or played?
1 Corinthians 14:7
In this verse, musical instruments like the flute and harp are called things without life.
Musical instruments do not have life in them. They do not have natural life or spiritual life.
Spiritual life comes from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells inside born again people, and he can flow through us to give life to others. Christians are a channel of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit flows among the members in church when Christians speak the word of God to each other.
The power of life and death is in the tongue.
Proverbs 18:21
Spiritual life is released when Christians speak or sing the word of God (1 Corinthians 14:15). Singing can be spiritually uplifting because the Spirit of God can be released through a person who is singing. Singing in church is commanded, and it can be spiritually powerful.
Musical instruments are not channels of the Holy Spirit, because they are things without life. They produce sounds, but these sounds do not contain or carry spiritual life.
Musical Instruments Same as Loveless Tongues
There is another verse from the New Testament that gives insight into musical instruments.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
1 Corinthians 13:1
This verse refers to brass instruments and cymbals. It compares these musical instruments to speaking in tongues without love.
When a person speaks in tongues without love, he is not ministering the Holy Spirit, but he is just making noise. Sounds are produced, but spiritual life is not released. The dead noise of tongues without love does not edify others spiritually.
According to the New Testament, the spiritual effect of such sounds is similar to the sounds produced by musical instruments. This is because musical instruments do not have life in them, they cannot produce spiritual life, and their sounds are lifeless.
Musical instruments produce lifeless sounds that cannot edify people spiritually.
Effect of Musical Instruments on the Emotions
Although musical instruments do not minister the Holy Spirit, they can have a powerful effect on our emotions. They can make us feel afraid, relaxed, tense, happy, or sad.
In modern churches, musical instruments are used to get people emotionally involved. They can make us feel relaxed, reverential, or excited. By stimulating our emotions, musical instruments can set a mood, create a religious atmosphere, and elicit a response from the congregation (whether happy or sad).
Many Christians today have become accustomed to worshiping under the influence of musical instruments. Some Christians rely on musical instruments so much so that they equate the emotional feeling they get when listening to musical instruments in church to the Holy Spirit.
In church or in private worship, the emotional stimulation of musical instruments can be used as a substitute for the working of the Holy Spirit. This can make it hard to discern the true moving of the Holy Spirit.
Musical Instruments in Revelation
In the book of Revelation, musical instruments are mentioned, but this does not authorize us to use them in church.
This use of musical instruments in Revelation is symbolic. In Revelation, angels play harps and blow trumpets, and they also wear holy white clothes, serve at an altar, and burn incense. These activities are symbolic, and they represent spiritual truth. This symbolic use of musical instruments, vestments, and incense in Revelation does not authorize the use of these things in church today.
We need to stick to the word of God. We must worship God in Spirit and in truth, according to the pattern given by Christ and his apostles in the New Testament. All worship that is outside the confines of the word of God is man-made or vain worship. These vain forms of worship must be rejected.
The use of musical instruments in church has no New Testament authorization. Although musical instruments were used in the Old Testament, they are not used in the New Testament. Like other Old Testament worship forms, musical instruments are symbolic. For Christians, musical instruments represent the moving of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.
Bethel Cornerstone 