Bruce Morton mentioned this 2003 essay in a comment. I found the full text on the internet, read it, and found it excellent. I thanked Bruce for mentioning it, and then decided it was a valuable enough contribution to the discussion that I should give the citation to the entire readership so all may read, reflect, and discuss. It’s not very long and WELL worth the time to read.
Here are some key quotations —
Finally, it is at the climax of these warnings and exhortations [in Ephesians 4 and 5] that Paul writes: “Be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord” (5:18?19). In other words, to a Christian community surrounded by ignorance and immorality; to a people who themselves were prone to the blindness and indulgence of their former way of life; at the conclusion of a passage warning against irrationality and sins of the flesh—Paul urges singing and music making. . . . Paul shares the same broad concerns as Augustine and Calvin, but the recommendation emerging from those concerns is entirely different. To put it very crudely, Augustine says: “Irrationality is bad. Sensuality is bad. Therefore, be careful about music.” Paul on the other hand says, “Foolishness is bad. Sensuality is bad. Therefore, you had better sing.”
–Stephen R. Guthrie, “Singing, in the Body and in the Spirit,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 46/4 (December 2003), 638.
Most of Ephesians 4 and all of Ephesians 5 address what it means to live as children of light, or more conventionally, what it means to live holy lives. Paul gives many commands and instructions, but ultimately men and women are made holy by the Spirit who is called Holy. Therefore Paul’s command in Eph. 5:18—“Be filled with the Holy Spirit”—is the culmination of these chapters, both rhetorically and theologically. The passive imperative—“be filled”—is followed by four subordinate participial clauses: (1) speaking to one another in songs, hymns, and spiritual songs; (2) singing and making music in your hearts; (3) giving thanks to the Lord; (4) submitting to one another. These participles are grammatically dependent upon the verb, and they give substance and content to the command to be filled with the Spirit. And remarkably, two of the four clauses—three of the five participles—have to do with making music.
–Guthrie, 639.
Sensuality, according to Paul and contrary to Augustine, does not arise from over-active, but from deadened senses. The sensual have, both literally and metaphorically, lost their senses. It is the alcoholic who is least able to appreciate the wine he drinks. It is the lecher, the playboy, who is least able to perceive and respond to the beauty of his lovers. The work of the Spirit, then, is to remake us from sensual people into sensible people.
–Guthrie, 641-42.
It may make sense to argue that words are more important than music. It does not make sense to argue that the reason Christians should sing is because words are more important than music.
Drawing on the context of Paul’s exhortation to sing in Ephesians 5, I have argued that music makes its own distinctive contribution to Christian life and worship. Whatever support music may offer words, however it may highlight, reinforce or enhance the text, music itself—the music of music—is used in the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Music is a suitable resource in this work, not despite, but because it engages women and men at the level of body and sense.
–Guthrie, 644-45.
Now, Guthrie is not discussing a cappella vs. instrumental music per se, but he is certainly considering a viewpoint that the Churches of Christ inherited from Augustine and Calvin, and I think Guthrie nails the theology of Ephesians.
He offers at least these important correctives:
* It’s about the Spirit. The command to sing hangs on the command to be filled with the Spirit.
* Singing is about much more than the words, or else Paul would have said to read lyrics to each other. What Paul commends is the singing and the making of music — not just lyrics but lyrics that are sung. And therefore the singing to a melody does something extraordinary by which the Spirit brings both our minds and bodies into closer communion with himself.
Enjoy a good read.
This sure does display a different concept than I was taught and as I have studied my way out of the teachings that you are sinning if you use instruments while singing. This is showing a much deeper value to the use of instruments to carry the messages being sung to others. Most of all people living get more in tune with messages of songs that are using music and groups singing without instruments still are not as widely excepted as those that do. So is it the tunes or the messages that get the most attention?
Larry,
Thanks for commenting. I was beginning to worry that I might have forgotten to post this!
Music helps drive the message home, but it also carries its own message. The message won't be propositional so much as emotional – and emotions matter a lot. Indeed, you can have all the right doctrine and knowledge and if you don't have the right emotions, you're worse than useless.
In John 4 Jesus says that worship must be IN SPIRIT as a place as opposed to in Samaria or Jerusalem temples as Places. Paul said they worshipped IN THE SPIRIT as opposed to IN THE FLESH. God gives US A holy spirit or A good conscience at baptism which is cleansing the only "temple" where God seeks our worship.
The direct command in Ephesians 5 is to SPEAK Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs: ALL of these are types of the Book of Psalms.
Rather than being filled up with the "spirit" of Wine, they were to be filled with the Spirit.
John 6:62 What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?
John 6:63 It is the SPIRIT that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing:
the WORDS that I speak unto you, they are SPIRIT, and they are life.
Eph. 5:17 Wherefore be ye not unwise,
……but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
Eph 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess;
….but be filled with the SPIRIT; [The Word of Christ John 6:63; Col 3:16]
We are commanded to save ourselves from the CROOKED race of skolion singers: this and Paul speaks of the Symposia where Christians can no longer go.
kat-auleô , A. charm by flute-playing, tinos Pl.Lg.790e, cf. R.411a; tina Alciphr.2.1: metaph., se . . -êsô phobôi I will flute to you on a ghastly flute, E.HF871 (troch.):–Pass., of persons, methuôn kai katauloumenos drinking wine to the strains of the flute, Pl.R.561c; k. pros chelônidos psophon to be played to on the flute with lyre accompaniment, Posidon.10 J., cf. Call.Fr.10.3 P., Phld.Mus.p.49 K.
Peter says the same:
….1 Pet. 4:1 FORASMUCH then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh,
…….. arm yourselves likewise with the same mind:
…….. for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;
….1 Pet. 4:2 That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh
……..to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
….1 Pet. 4:3 For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles,
……..when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:
The command is to SPEAK in an external sense: that's what teachers and disciples do.
Eph 5:19 SPEAKING to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
……This is "that which is written for our learning" Romans 15
…….singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
Latin: LOQUOR I. inf. loquier, Naev. ap. Gell. 1, 24, 2), v. dep. n. and a. [Sanscr. lap-, to talk, whisper; Gr. lak-, elakon, laskô], to speak, talk, say (in the lang. of common life, in the tone of conversation; cf. Quint. 9, 4, 10; 11, 3, 45).
1. To speak out, to say, tell, talk about, mention, utter, name: A. To speak, declare, show, indicate or express clearly:
G3050 logikos log-ik-os' From G3056 [WORD] ; rational (“logical”):–reasonable, of the word. II. possessed of reason, intellectual, when we speak A. of or for speaking or speech,
-logik-os [logos] ) Speech 3. suited for prose, II. possessed of reason, intellectual, sullogismoi, [syllogisms] reasoning, putting togetehr of facts, DIALEKTIKOS conversation, discussion by question and answer,
….OPPOSITE -megaloprepes, [great person]
….OPPOSITE to -mousik?,, musical, poetic, Lyric as opposed to Epic. elegant, delicate, effeminate. -Mousa music, lyre, Sokratous: that was Socrate's way 😉
….OPPOSITE to -rh?torikoi, ,
….OPPOSITE to to Epagogue Epagoge bringing in to aid, 4. allurement, enticement, b. incantation, spell, 7. leading away into captivity LXX Isa 14:17
The Spirit in Ephesians 5 is the Word of Christ in Colossians 3
Col 3:15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
Col 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom;
……teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
…..singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Both "melody" and "Grace" are qualities of speech. When you go to Bible Class as Disciples of Christ you use the WOORD OF CHRIST to Teach and admonish. Romans 15 demands "that which is written for our learning."
Augustine Against the Manichaeans:
46. As for motion, and tossing, and rubbing (melody), if these give the divine nature the opportunity of escaping from these substances, many things of the same kind are against you, which are improved by motion. In some grains the juice resembles wine, and is excellent when moved about.
"Indeed, as must not be overlooked, this kind of drink produces intoxication rapidly; and yet you never called the juice of grain the poison of the princes of darkness. There is a preparation of water, thickened with a little meal, which is the better of being shaken, and, strange to say, is lighter in color when the light is gone. The pastry cook stirs honey for a long time to give it this light color, and to make its sweetness milder and less unwholesome: you must explain how this can come from the loss of good.
Again, if you prefer to test the presence of God by the agreeable effects on the hearing, and not sight, or smell, or taste, harps get their strings and pipes their bones from animals; and these become musical by being dried, and rubbed, and twisted.
So the pleasures of music, which you hold to have come from the divine kingdom, are obtained from the refuse of dead animals, and that, too, when they are dried by time, and lessened by rubbing, and stretched by twisting. Such rough treatment, according to you, drives the divine substance from living objects; even cooking them, you say, does this. Why then are boiled thistles not unwholesome? Is it because God, or part of God, leaves them when they are cooked?
Paul used the term "lifeless instruments" and "Carnal weapons."
Ken says….."Music shuts down the rational or spiritual hemisphere so that it cannot judge between right and wrong."
Really ? I'm not seminary trained theologian but this sounds absurd on its face.. Am I really to believe that when we sing in church that all of a sudden no one in the building can understand right from wrong..
Having searched all of the musical terms in the ancient texts, beginning with Babylonian tablets some 3,000 years old when Moses told the story to warn Israel after they fell back into musical idolatry, I have found nothing which did not attribute to music the power to make the unbelievable believable. John called the singers, instrument players and religious craftsmen sorcerers in Revelation 18:23 and said that they HAD deceived the whole world. When the Levites "prophesied" with instruments the effect was called soothsaying.
A Time magazine article revealing what you can read on clay tablets.
As for music's emotional impact, there is some indication that music can affect levels of various hormones, including cortisol (involved in arousal and stress),
also called Hydrocortisone, an organic compound belonging to the steroid family, the principal hormone secreted by the adrenal glands. It is a potent anti-inflammatory agent and is also used for the palliative treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Use of cortisol in therapy produces the same undesirable side effects as cortisone. Both drugs have been largely superseded by such synthetic steroids as prednisolone testosterone (aggression and arousal) and
an organic compound belonging to the steroid family and occurring as the androgenic, or masculinizing, hormone produced by the testis. Testosterone is responsible for development of the male sex organs and such masculine characteristics as facial hair and deepening of the voice. Testosterone can be manufactured by chemical and microbiological modification of inexpensive steroids, such as diosgenin. It is used clinically for treatment of testicular insufficiency, the suppression of lactation, the therapy of certain types of breast cancer, and the treatment of frigidity in women.
oxytocin (nurturing behavior) as well as
Natural oxytocin is secreted by the posterior pituitary gland, which holds and secretes oxytocin produced by the hypothalamus. Oxytocin causes milk to be ejected from the breasts during lactation;
the amount of oxytocin produced naturally,
however, has little effect on uterine contractions and does not stimulate labour.When synthetic oxytocin is infused in larger amounts, however, it causes smooth muscle in the wall of the uterus to contract and initiate the process of labour.any of a group of opiate proteins with pain-relieving properties that are found naturally in the brain.
Endorphins have been found to be clearly involved in the regulation of pain; even the analgesic effects of acupuncture treatments may be attributable to them. Such substances are also believed to have some relation to appetite control,
the release of sex hormones through the pituitary, and the adverse effects of shock.
There is strong evidence that endorphins are connected with "pleasure centres" in the brain. Using PET scanners, Zatorre has shown that
the parts of the brain involved in processing emotion seem to light up with activity when a subject hears music.
Endorphins may serve in modulating the release of other peptides from endocrine cells in the digestive system.
Opiates achieve their effect on the brain because their structure closely resembles that of certain molecules called endorphins, which are naturally produced in the body. Endorphins suppress pain and enhance mood by occupying certain receptor sites on specific neurons (nerve cells) that are involved in the transmission of nervous impulses.
Ken..thanks for clearing that up…Now I understand that as a result of singing music in church we will all catch a buzz and have increased amounts of sex hormones dumped into our blood stream… Cool… I bet if you put that on the marquee out front you'd find a sudden increase in visitor attendance…
WE need a shot of some harmones at most services.
Better to err on the side of being happy and enjoying the service sharing with others of like faith than to be still as a stick and afraid to move for fear of criticism.
God will do the judging and I believe He will like us enjoying and showing we love being close to Him at services and His being there among us.
Wouldn't be surprised if God didn't tap his toe or snap His fingers to the beat along with us.
@ Alabama John… you just caused me to envision Jesus in the Temple tapping his foot to the sounds of harp and song…what a great thought !! Thanks…
Anonymous seems to have taken the psalming out of the psalms we are to use – according to Paul. Anon, your choice of words to take out and unpack is rather revealing and confusing…kind of like most of the arguments I have heard about the subject of singing with and without accompaniment.
By the way, the ONLY command in this immediate context is two-fold:
1 – do not get drunk on wine, and
2 – be filled with the spirit.
I guess you appreciate Stephen G. about as much as you appreciate psalming the psalms. Is that about right?
Jay,
Thanks for sharing.
Grizz