Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16 ESV)
Music
Some of you like, or prefer, some pretty odd music. And it might appear that this verse sets some pretty tight boundaries on the music we choose.
“Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” does not seem to leave room for a lot of the music streaming these days.
But rather than feel hemmed in by what might feel like a restrictive command, notice the way Paul develops his musical description.
If we start with the Word of Christ as our philosophical, mental, emotional, and even physical foundation, our musical choices (exactly like EVERY choice, in fact) becomes an expression of our Christ-centeredness, rather than an expression of our own tastes, experience, traditions, and likes.
And that Word of Christ is rich. For Christians it is nothing less than our repaired heart, our delighted worldview, and our reason for everything.
Christ’s Word is the motivation for our song.
Paul describes our options for Christ-Word music as being available in Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs. Psalms references truths found specifically in Scripture. Hymns references music written specifically for teaching and admonishing.
And Spiritual Songs, despite what we tend to think, does not simply refer to shallow choruses played on Christian Radio, or sung around campfires.
Just as God reveals Himself through Special AND General Revelation, the Word of Christ can be found in music MUCH broader than what we sing in Worship on Sunday Morning.
It takes discernment, finding the Spiritual truths in music. It takes purpose, finding the Spiritual truths in music. It takes awareness, finding the Spiritual truths in music.
The Word of Christ can be found in the Beatles, Chopin, MC Hammer, and Merle Haggard. But we will not find it if we choose our music based merely on our own tastes, our own preferences, our own skill-sets.
Rather, every song we sing (or hear, or play, or perform) is a wonderful opportunity to find the Word of Christ. But determine whether the music IS Spiritual. Determine what it teaches about Christ, perhaps hidden, perhaps obvious.
And if Christ is not present, then do music somewhere else.
But when the Word of Christ dwells in your motivation, your desires, you reasons, then the Word of Christ can be found in all sorts of Spiritual Songs.
Then we can make a joyful noise!