Should We Sing To One Another In Worship

Mike Leake

“We should stop singing to one another and singing to God.”

Oddly enough, I’ve heard a critique leveled against both hymns and contemporary music. And it’s true that both styles of music will on occasion sing songs more to one another than to (or about) Almighty God. The idea—from whichever side of the fence you are on—is that the music part of our worship time is designed for an individual to focus on God alone. The conclusion,then, is that any music which is horizontal and not vertical is inappropriate.

I get the logic of this but there is one massive thing which causes me to disagree. That massive thing is the Bible. I’ll ignore for a moment the nature of the Psalms—the singing to one another component to them—and just focus on one particular verse in the New Testament:

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, (Ephesians 5:18-19 ESV, emphasis mine)

Read more: http://www.mikeleake.net/2016/10/should-we-sing-to-one-another-in-worship.html