For fuller discussion of the following point see the article on New Testament Christianity.
A Fellowship Issue
The upcoming issue of House to House will feature a lead article on the sin of mechanical instruments of music in worship. We normally send H2H to 2,500 families six times a year but this specific issue will go to an additional 500+ families because the elders believe the matter is that important. Why?
First, let’s define “fellowship.” Webster’s defines the English word as “companionship; friendly association; a mutual sharing, as of experience, activity, interest, etc.” The Greek word, koinonia, is defined similarly, “communion, participation, sharing.” We should, we ought to have fellowship or communion with all those who have fellowship or communion with God. That’s what unity is all about.
But why do mechanical instruments of music break fellowship with God and, therefore, break fellowship among believers in God? The answer to this question goes back to the nature and purpose of worship.
Worship involves acts through which we honor God. They are specific actions by which we praise God. When Moses struck the rock at Meribah to give the Israelites water, he failed to treat God as holy in the sight of Israel (Numbers 20:12). Consequently, he missed out on entering the promised land. He could not participate in that blessing.
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It is a sin to approach God in worship through some avenue which He has not authorized. Nadab and Abihu learned that lesson the hard way in Leviticus 10:1-2.
We would not have the right to sing to God if He had not authorized us to so do (Colossians 3:16). But He has. Through the inspired apostles, we know that the first-century Christians were commanded to sing “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody” in their hearts (Ephesians 5:19). That is what is authorized by God – vocal, verbal singing which teaches and admonishes.
To fall short of that (and not sing at all) or to go beyond that (and add some other action to the command) is to commit sin, either by omission or comission. Sinning breaks fellowship with God and ruptures fellowship among His children (Ephesians 5:11).
That’s why mechanical instruments of music in worship is a “fellowship issue.”
Paul Holland
