by Roger D. Campbell<\/p>\n
When it comes to singing songs of praise to the Lord God, our concepts of such need to be based on the teaching of the New Testament. Sometimes, though, when it comes to singing spiritual songs, Christians accept ideas that simply are not true. Since such fallacies often influence others’ mindsets and actions, we need to be aware of their danger.<\/p>\n
A common fallacy about spiritual songs is that it does not matter what we sing, as long as we are sincere when we sing it. While it is true that our worship must come from a sincere heart (John 4:23-24), the Bible also says that when we sing, we teach others (Colossians 3:16). It is just as wrong to sing a falsehood as it is to preach one. The content of every song we sing must harmonize with the Bible.<\/p>\n
A second fallacy about singing is that if I am convinced that I do not have what humans would count as “a good singing voice,” then I am relieved of my responsibility to sing. The message of Ephesians 5:19 is for every child of God: “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.<\/em>” Those members of the church who refuse to sing should seriously consider what the Master said: “Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?<\/em>” (Luke 6:46).<\/p>\n A third fallacy some hold is that it is cool to sing without a songbook, even if you do not know the song’s words. All saints of God are instructed to sing, and by such singing we admonish one another (Colossians 3:16). When I do not sing along because I do not know the words, obviously, I am not doing any admonishing, am I? What if everyone in the entire congregation followed the same practice of not looking at the songbook during the singing? We would surely have some “dead time” in the middle of certain songs – that would not be much admonition, would it? If one thinks it is childish to use a songbook, he needs to be reminded that singing praises is a spiritual activity that should come from a heart that wants to honor the Creator, not to look macho in the eyes of our peers.<\/p>\n A fourth fallacy about singing is that if the song leader leads more than one verse of a closing song (or all the verses of a “regular” song), it makes worship too long and infringes on my personal free time. Bless your heart, unless the elders decide otherwise, it is the song leader’s prerogative to decide how many verses of each song will be sung. I personally love singing the “extra” verses.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Roger D. Campbell When it comes to singing songs of praise to the Lord God, our concepts of such need to be based on the teaching of the New Testament. Sometimes, though, when it comes to singing spiritual songs, Christians accept ideas that simply are not true. Since such fallacies often influence others’ mindsets…<\/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,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[520,573],"class_list":["post-94303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-music","tag-singing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":66630,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-a-head-covering-be-worn-while-singing\/","url_meta":{"origin":94303,"position":0},"title":"Should a head covering be worn while singing?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question regarding the head covering. My current practice is to cover my head whenever praying, in or out of the worship. And I generally wear it throughout the worship period. But I do not normally cover it for singing outside of the worship. However, the question\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":14716,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-sing\/","url_meta":{"origin":94303,"position":1},"title":"Why Sing?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker \"I will praise You, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing to You among the nations\" (Psalm 57:9). The Hebrew name for the book of Psalms is \"Tehellim\" meaning \"praises.\" Our English word \"psalm,\" which translates the Hebrew word \"mizmor,\" comes from the Greek term\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/music.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":42460,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/singing-to-the-lord-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":94303,"position":2},"title":"Singing to the Lord (Hickox)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Michael Hickox via The Sincere Milk of God's Word \"Speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord\" (Ephesians 5:19). \"Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with\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":69307,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-it-matter-how-well-we-sing\/","url_meta":{"origin":94303,"position":3},"title":"Does it matter how well we sing?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 16, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello Jeffrey, I hope you're doing well by the grace of God. You have been of tremendous help to me. God richly bless you. Please, I have some questions that I want your help with. What I know: God is the audience of our worship. But when we teach\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":20698,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-use-of-parts-justify-the-use-of-choirs-and-solos\/","url_meta":{"origin":94303,"position":4},"title":"Does the use of parts justify the use of choirs and solos?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Choirs and solo supporters say that the entire congregation must sing every word simultaneously. They say \"If we can not have choirs and solos, you can not sing in four-part harmony.\" How can I respond to them? Answer: Given the simple fact that men and women do not sing\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":2840,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-want-to-sing-but-im-afraid-of-being-in-front-of-others-what-do-i-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":94303,"position":5},"title":"I want to sing, but I’m afraid of being in front of others. What do I do?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 30, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a feeling that I really need to sing, but I just can't get the nerve to get up in front of everybody. Is this a sin? I'm a shy person and I've been getting feelings that God wants me to sing in church, but I just can't\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\/94303","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=94303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94303\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}