Paul speaks about singing in several places. It is striking that he does not emphasize the music itself, but rather the content of what is being sung. For him, singing is a means of teaching one another and drawing attention to the truth of God’s Word.
Colossians 3
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God.
dwelling within
This is a magnificent verse with much to be said about it. For this blog post, I want to focus on a single aspect. Paul says that the word of Christ should dwell richly within us; His word should have a permanent place in our lives.
teaching
But notice what he says next. We are to “teach and admonish one another in all wisdom with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” Here, Paul points to a function of the songs we sing. Of course, we honor and praise God when we sing, but Paul emphasizes here that spiritual songs also serve a teaching purpose.
At the same time, there is a danger in this. It is often said: “You can get people to sing almost anything, provided the melody is beautiful enough.” Or: “A good melody ensures that people sing words they would never agree to if you simply read them aloud.”
To put it positively: music is a universal language that speaks directly to the heart and transcends the boundaries of human languages. That is precisely why it is so important to sing what aligns with God’s Word.
It is not without reason, then, that Paul says we should teach one another “in all wisdom.”
singing about hell?
I am sometimes amazed by what is sung in gatherings. Recently, I was in a group where “Opwekking 400” was sung. It contains the following lines:
Ride as Ruler through the fields,
Jesus, in Your mighty power.
Nothing, nothing can hold You back,
not even hell with all its might.
It is just one example; I could name many more. Yet this particular example touches the very heart of the Gospel.
The myth of hell is perhaps the greatest error within Christianity. If hell truly exists, then God is ultimately not the Savior of all; instead, the majority of His creatures are lost forever. In that case, God is not truly the God of love who reconciles all things to Himself, and the Gospel is ultimately not good news for His entire creation.
That is precisely why it is remarkable that such words are sung as a spiritual song. For Paul says that we should instruct one another through our songs. It is not without reason that he speaks of instructing one another “in all wisdom.” Precisely because music speaks so directly to the heart, we ought to think carefully about what we sing.
A song that celebrates the doctrine of hell can hardly serve as the kind of instruction Paul speaks of in Colossians 3.
Let us, therefore, reflect carefully on what we sing. A beautiful melody is no guarantee of biblical content. And when a melody is beautiful but the lyrics do not align with Scripture, why not adjust the lyrics?
Then we truly let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, and we instruct and admonish one another in all wisdom with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.