My Theology of Music

     What IS music? Music, according to World Book Encyclopedia is "Sound, arranged into interesting or pleasing patterns." Knowing also that the Bible says, among many other things, "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord," I have concluded that,
1. Music is amoral when it is without lyrics; that is, neither moral nor immoral. 
      a. There are not genres of music that God loves more than others. Someday, All the nations will be praising Him in heaven, and I highly doubt that we will sing only hymns and Christian Contemporary.
      b. All genres of music and all instruments are acceptable for worship of God, but not all are helpful for worship in the current church setting. 

"All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful." 1 Corinthians 10:23

2. Lyrics Matter!
     a. If the song has lyrics, We tend to get them stuck in our heads. If that isn't meditation, I don't know what is. If Jesus was standing next to you, would you be listening to that song?

"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, 

be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer." Psalm 19:14

     b. Lyrics of a song show where the writers treasure is, for good or evil. We should be very careful what songs we choose to sing. Not that it is necessarily a sin to sing a "secular" song, but the songs we sing show other Christians and the world where our treasure is.  

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:21 

 "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." Luke 6:45 

At the very least, we should avoid songs that have explicit sexual language or profanity. 

" Neither abusive language, neither worthless words, nor of disgrace, nor of nonsense- these things that are unnecessary, but in place of these, thanksgiving." Ephesians 5:4

(Aramaic Bible in Plain English)

     I feel like this post should include something about artists, but I have only come up with more questions than answers. Do the artists we listen to need to be Christians? If so, do they need to be "perfect" role models? Be in total agreement with our beliefs about God? Never appear in a "secular" artist's song?

I know that some of you may wonder what I listen to, so here is a small sampling by genre.
Christian (Worship): Crowder, Matt Papa, Keith and Kristyn Getty
Classical(ish)/Composers: Bach, ThePianoGuys, Hans Zimmer

Guitarists: Jason Vieaux, Tommy Emmanuel, Igor Presnyakov
Jazz: John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk
Dubstep: Avicii, Daft Punk, Steve Aoki 
Rap: Lecrae, Andy Mineo, Tedashii
Etc: Pomplamoose, Jackie Evancho, Skillet