One of the first questions about the church of Christ is, “Why don’t you have instruments?” Even though our worship does not involve instruments that can be seen, we do have instruments of praise. It all revolves around faith! Faith is a strong conviction of religious truth based on what God has revealed (Heb. 11:1-6). It extends to the way that we live and the way that we worship as we listen to the commands of God. The only way that faith comes to us is by hearing the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). So, when God issues a command, we have the authority by faith to carry out that command without adding or subtracting anything from it (Rev. 22:18,19).
As far as worship goes, God specifically commands each person to sing with one instrument of praise: the heart. The heart is the only instrument that can be offered to God by faith: “…singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Eph.5:19). The phrase, “Making melody in your heart” is the same thing as “singing with grace in your hearts” (Col.3:16). Or, you might say, “singing and playing the heart strings.” Every Christian should be an “instrument of righteousness” (Rom. 6:13) as we surrender ourselves to God. In the worship assembly, each person surrenders himself to “offer the sacrifice of praise to God…the fruit of our lips” (Heb.13:15) as even Jesus is pictured as saying, “in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee” (Heb. 2:12).
The church of our Lord has wonderful music and that music comes simply through singing. God expects each person to teach and admonish with his own instrument of praise (Col.3:16). Every person has a voice and every person can fulfill God’s command (1John5:3). Our goal is to live and worship by the authority of Christ (Col.3:17).
Derrick Coble
West Sparta church of Christ
Sparta, TN