Is playing an instrument for a person’s own enjoyment scriptural?<\/a> and I too am one who enjoys making music outside of worship. Although I don’t play the instrument, I just record vocals over instrumental music. You told the man who sent in this question to go ahead and enjoy playing and writing music, my question is this: Is it okay to record the music as a song and post it online and put it on CDs for others to enjoy as well?<\/p>\nI know recording music should by no means be a substitution for preaching, and in fact, within the next year or two, I plan to attend a preaching school to become a minister of the Gospel for the saints. I’ve been seeking help with this question and am willing to go either way to walk in accordance with God’s will.<\/p>\n
May God bless your guidance and counsel!<\/p>\n\t
Answer:<\/h2>\n
As I mentioned before, God states that in the New Testament He wants to be worshiped with vocal singing (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16). No authorization is given for the use of instrumental music in the worship of God — unlike the worship commanded under the Old Testament, which did include instrumental music. This restriction does not cover situations where a person is not worshiping God.<\/p>\n
Therefore recording music (assuming you have the proper copyright permissions) and distributing them is fine in situations where the music is not intended for worship. I’m not certain what kind of music you are thinking of recording. You seem to hint that it might supplement preaching. If that is the case, then it would not be appropriate.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I am a member of the Lord’s church (Acts 2:41) and am fully aware and fine with the fact that instruments in worship toward God are unauthorized by Scripture (Acts 17:25), and thereby unacceptable (II John 9). However, I read your article Is playing an instrument for a person’s own enjoyment scriptural? and I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[759,292],"class_list":["post-50350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-entertainment","tag-instrumental-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16846,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-i-go-to-a-show-and-sing-along-with-the-hymns-that-are-being-sung-with-instrumental-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":50350,"position":0},"title":"Can I go to a show and sing along with the hymns that are being sung with instrumental music?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can I go to a bluegrass show and sing along with hymns that are being sung with instrumental music? Can I play and sing hymns at home with instruments? Answer: When something is offered up to God, then it ought to be done in the manner in which God\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35677,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-church-started-meeting-in-the-temple-and-the-temple-had-instrumental-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":50350,"position":1},"title":"The church started meeting in the Temple and the Temple had instrumental music","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 14, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 are used out of context. Neither verse is dealing with worship services. The context of Ephesians 5:19 goes back to Ephesians 4:1. It's about your life as a believer. The same with Colossians 3. When the Israelites were baptized in Acts 2, they went\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4191,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-musical-instruments-be-used-to-worship-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":50350,"position":2},"title":"Can Musical Instruments be Used to Worship God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One of the distinguishing marks of our worship is the fact that we do not use instrumental music in our worship. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is certainly different among the denominations where almost all use instruments. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Lately, I been hearing of numerous congregations deciding to add instrumental music to their worship. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The reasoning\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36613,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-didnt-reverse-his-position-on-using-instrumental-music-so-why-cant-we-use-them-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":50350,"position":3},"title":"God didn’t reverse His position on using instrumental music, so why can’t we use them today?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: It is funny that in your condemnation of musical instruments in \"worship\" you fail to address that while the use of them was clearly permitted in the Old Testament, there is no clear reversal of this in the New Testament. If I was going to change my position it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90633,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/instrumental-music-to-worship-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":50350,"position":4},"title":"Instrumental Music to Worship of God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Gary Colley The following reasons, concerning why churches of Christ do not use mechanical instruments of music in worship to God, were given recently in our Denominational Doctrines class. It has been requested that they be in our bulletin for the help of all. It can be stated without\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14963,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-playing-an-instrument-for-a-persons-own-enjoyment-scriptural\/","url_meta":{"origin":50350,"position":5},"title":"Is playing an instrument for a person’s own enjoyment scriptural?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is playing an instrument for a person's own enjoyment scriptural? For example, can I play the guitar and piano, and write my own songs -- not in worship to God, but for my own enjoyment? I feel somewhat at odds because I think about how we are to give\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50350\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}