When I was in high school, I brought a friend to services one Sunday night. For the longest time, he strained his neck looking from one side of the auditorium to the other, then front to back. Finally, he popped the question; “where’s the piano?” I don’t remember how I answered him, but, as I recall, I didn’t defend the Lord very well.

Peter challenges us to be “ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you” (1 Pet. 3:15). When we answer one of the most frequently asked questions about our worship with “it just sounds pretty” or “that’s the way we’ve always done it,” we don’t do the Scriptures or the cause they represent any justice. In fact, that makes our singing something practiced out of convenience instead of conviction.

I offer these suggestions to help ready your defense about singing without instruments in the worship service.  Chances are, you’ll hear one of these arguments.

“Y’all don’t believe in music.” These sentiments of a staff writer for the Houston Chronicle summarize the misconceptions of many. “I grew up down the street from a church of Christ in Odessa where it was said they didn’t have an organ, and music of any kind was forbidden. My friends and I thought this particularly weird since we could not fathom a church without music” (Stephen Hogner, 3/5/83). Some actually think that members of the church of Christ don’t listen to the radio, buy CD’s, or play the guitar or piano.

God is not opposed to music. Neither are His people. But the only instrument He has commanded us to pluck in our worship to Him is the heart. “Speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord” (Eph. 5:19). Anything more is both indecent and out of order.

“They used instruments to worship God in the Old Testament.” That’s true. Just a few examples are found in 2 Chron. 5:11-14, 29:25-29, and Psalm 150. But they also burned incense, sacrificed animals, celebrated the Passover Feast and kept the Sabbath Day. How can you choose one element of O.T. worship without the others? If you want to play the harp because that’s what David did, you are “bound to keep the whole Law” of Moses (Gal. 5:3).  Like the Lamb of God, the Old Law was nailed to the cross (Col. 2:14), paving the way for a better covenant (Heb. 8:6). And nowhere in this new covenant does our Great High Priest command us to sing and play. Just to sing (Col. 3:16, James 5:13).

“God gave me the ability to play an instrument. What better way to glorify Him than to worship Him with it?” Well, what about the man who has been blessed with great basketball skills? Does that mean that He can dribble the ball up and down the aisle during the prayers? Or maybe you could have a dentist do some fillings after the Lord’s Supper and then the preacher could give a lesson on “truth decay.”

Just because you possess abilities from God doesn’t mean He approves of you using them in His house. If it’s not in His book, then you probably don’t have His blessing.

“They play instruments in heaven.” First of all, you can’t prove that. “And I heard a voice from heaven…and the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps” (Rev. 14:2). The book of Revelation was written in signs, symbols, and other forms of imagery and figurative language. John heard a voice. And the voice sounded like rushing waters, thunder, and harps.

Second, even if Revelation 14:2 is literal, what John heard and saw in heaven doesn’t change what we’ve been commanded to do on earth. If you really respect what’s going on in the spiritual world, you’ll respect the word of God which furnishes your way to get there.

“God didn’t say NOT to play instruments in the worship.” It is true that there is no book, chapter, or verse that says, “Thou shalt not play the piano when you assemble.” But show me the passage where the Lord told Noah NOT to use pine, oak, or cedar when he built the ark. He specified gopher wood (Gen. 6:14), and that eliminated all other building materials.

God’s silence is not our license to speculate. He designated “singing” as the type of music for teaching and admonishing one another and for praising Him. More or less than that is to offer Him what He did not ask for and assume He will accept it. Nadab and Abihu tried that and got burned (Lev. 10:1-3).

Respect God’s right to be worshiped in His own way. Giving Him anything else centers worship around our desires, not His. And that could mean a heap of treble.

By Bubba Garner  From the Southside Sunday, Vol. 4, Issue 1, August 26, 2001, Southside church of Christ, Pasadena, TX.