MAR 20

2 Timothy 4:3-4
Memorise 2 Timothy 3:14
“And they shall turn away their ears from the truth…”

In 2 Timothy 4:2, the Apostle Paul charges Timothy to preach the Word of God and to be ever ready to teach the people using it. It is God’s Word that will sanctify the people and help them to guard against false doctrines and corrupted practices that are not pleasing in God’s sight. Without God’s Word to convict us, we will be led away by our own lusts.

Music is meant to be an aid in our worship and contemplation of God. However, contemporary music serves many other purposes instead. How often do people listen to music as a way to relax, with it serving as a distraction or to simply provide the ‘mood’ for something? Music has also become a way for people to vent all manner of emotions, from sadness to anger. Music has even become a means for man to venerate himself, as evidenced by the emergence of innumerable pop idols.

In this present age, this attitude of contemporary music has also crept into music used to worship God. Contemporary music mingled with worship has produced worship services today that are more like concerts, with tunes that are hardly distinguishable from those found in the rock genre, or which sound more like sentimental love songs than reverent praise and worship. While emotions have their place in worship, we must remember that ultimately worship is for God – therefore even our emotions in worship must be pleasing in God’s sight.

The warning in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 is even more pertinent today, and it is as relevant to the topic of music as it is to any area of Christian life. Do we not see, those who no longer want to sing hymns of old filled with sound doctrinal emphasis, but instead seek after shallow contemporary choruses that contain just the same few cliché lines? Do we not see them, with their itching ears, just wanting to sing the same few heart-warming themes to revel in the sentimental nature of God’s love without exploring any other aspect of God in their worship? They have turned their ears from the truth!

We must ask ourselves, is our understanding of music in line with what God’s Word has revealed to us concerning its proper use, or is it instead conformed to the world’s ideas of what music ought to be?

Thought: Can contemporary music ever be pleasing in God’s sight?
Prayer: Lord, teach me to take pleasure only in what pleases Thee.