The Lord God, Our Song

A.W. Tozer once wrote,

"Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship."

We in the Church often think in this way - our focus is being in tune. How do I get my biblical doctrine right? How do I ensure I’m doing what’s right? But did you ever wonder if being in tune was the purpose of music? This perspective of being in tune, connected to God first, is important, even necessary, but at the same time, using the same analogy, being in tune is not sufficient for good music.

Before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed, “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:20-21, NASB). As Jesus prayed, we are called to be in Christ, but also to be one with one another. We do so, “so that the world may believe that” the Father sent Jesus (John 17:21b).

In a world that feels more and more polarized, how can the Church reveal Christ to the world? As the U.S. election day approaches, we wanted to put together some resources on differences, from seeing different sides and ultimately, how to love one another and serve together.

If we think of the body of Christ as a group making music together, then how do we go beyond being in tune? This edition will be a little different than the usual one, by offering linked sections followed with questions and thoughts for reflection and practice. Our hope is that you would be equipped with tools on how to play music together with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, even if you might be very different in how you see the world.

And what better place to start than at the very beginning?

The Lies We Believe

In the garden of Eden, the serpent tempted Eve by telling her, “You certainly will not die! For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4b-5, NASB). As Andy Crouch describes it in his book Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power, Adam and Eve faced the temptation of their own path to eternal life and becoming like God (gaining power).

This temptation continues today. We want to do what we want without consequence and to become significant in ourselves. We think like soloists. While called to play music as God created it, as He intends it, we seek to play on our own, in our own way, for our own benefit.

It’s easy to focus on your own part in a song and not listen to others, to not do the work of deciphering what the song’s composer intended and it’s easy to want to be recognized and celebrated by your audience. In the same way, the temptation to live forever and gain power are two lies we often choose to follow in how we orient our lives.

Living Forever - The Temptations of Becoming Soloists

As Jesus reveals in His life, death and resurrection, the abundant life comes through suffering. To go the way of Jesus is to suffer in this world. There’s no way around it. We may visualize life as a sprout growing from the earth, but truly, life for the sprout starts with the death of the structure of a seed, not when it breaks forth from the soil.

In the case of Adam and Eve, there was a desire for something through a way God did not prescribe. Was it easier to listen to the serpent? Yes. But his words were the opposite of life. The fact that Adam and Eve chose to simply listen to the serpent, rather than do the harder work of discerning what was actually true and what God had actually said, exemplifies our own natural tendency to desire the easier path. Imagine a group of people playing music where everyone just wants to play their own part, without paying attention to one another and without paying attention to the intentions of the song’s composer. This is one temptation we face, to live the way we want to, thinking the purpose of life is what we want it to be and ignoring the consequences of our actions.

Secondly, Scripture makes it clear the story of life is more than our own lives.

In this world, we think life is only about this life. We need to maximize life now and force our ways to get what we want. We need our lives to be significant in the eyes of the world because it’s about our own story.

If life ended at death and if life was only about my story, this would make sense, but we know it doesn’t. So then, how should we live? The best place to look is Jesus.

Jesus is God and He had the power to rule right from the start, but He didn’t. We see in Matthew 26:53 that Jesus could have called down legions of angels to save Him from death, but He didn’t. Why? Because He obeyed God. He lived within His calling. Of everyone who existed on earth then until now, Jesus had every right to make Himself the center of the story, but He didn’t. He obeyed the Father and made it about the story the Father was telling. Metaphorically, Jesus played in tune, but He didn’t only play in tune, He also played for the Father’s glory which called for His own suffering. This is very countercultural.

In the United States and many wealthy countries, we are used to getting what we want when we want it. Our lives revolve around "me". Amazon, Netflix, Uber…these are all designed to meet our needs. We have a desire, and this desire can be satisfied as quickly as possible. Want something delivered to your home? With a few clicks, your order can be delivered the next day or even the same day. Where do you want to go? Enter your address and a car will pick you up.

This also applies to different opinions. Don’t like what you see on X (formerly Twitter)? Block the person or mark as not interested. Don’t like what you see on Fox News? Go to MSNBC or CNN.

Everything around us tells us the song is about us and that we are the soloists.

In the past, you had a limited selection of TV channels and commercials were unavoidable. You even had limited news options. But now, you can choose what you watch and when you watch it. The music becomes about you. You can shape the information and views you’re exposed to and put yourself in environments where there is only one opinion. For Christians, you might tune only into Christian media, helping you play perfectly in tune, but you might also make the song about yourself and what makes you feel safest. This makes life more comfortable, more close to what you want and like, but then… is comfort truly life?

Jesus saw His life extended through a Kingdom of followers who would be His body. He did not consider all the work to be done by His physical hands but through His Church. We often think of what we can accomplish, but what if we saw ourselves as part of a Kingdom, one part of a larger family, striving to obey God and see His works accomplished in the world? Are we called to be soloists who the song is about? Or are we called to understand the Composer’s intentions and learn to play our role for our section of the song?

TAKEAWAYS:

1. Life is not about us and it’s not merely playing in tune (even if that’s very important). In Christian circles, we often focus on the right theologies, but that is only necessary, not sufficient. The philosopher Kierkegaard once wrote the opposite of sin was not virtue, but faith. Do we play in tune for our own glory or comfort, or for God’s glory? The song is not about us. Do we merely play for ourselves?

PRACTICE:
Here, we want to introduce you to an article written by our intern, Hannah He. This is an article around a controversial topic, Israel and Palestine. Before you start reading it, please ask God to give you ears to hear and minds to understand and above all, to use what you read to strengthen your love and walk with Christ. How can you see your response in light of walking in faith and as part of a larger body? How can you play music in tune with God but also in collaboration and partnership with your brothers and sisters in Christ?

Are You a Soloist? A tool to help you see your part

At the end of the article, you saw three circles, a circle of control, a circle of influence, and a circle of concern. These circles can help determine what part you’re called to play versus trying to play as a soloist.

In this day and age, we often think everything is in our circle of control. What we see is what we must act on, right? Doesn’t John write, “But whoever has worldly goods and sees his brother or sister in need, and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God remain in him” (1 John 3:17)? So what happens in an age of information where so much is available online? We are now aware of infinite needs in the world. How can we open our hearts to everyone?!

Well, when things are hard, we should learn from the apostle Peter’s lesson when he walked on water, and that is, to look to Jesus.

When we look at Jesus, we see an interesting picture. Jesus went only to the Jews and helped the Gentiles on very rare occasions. On those occasions, he also made it very clear He was only called to the lost sheep of Israel (see Matthew 15:24). We read in John 3:16 that God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son. This verse clearly implies that God’s Son was sent not only for the Jews but for the whole world. We believe Jesus is God’s only begotten Son, but then why did Jesus only go to the Jews? Because He was obedient to the Father. Jesus did what He was called to do. Did Jesus not know about everything else going on in the world?

If He was God (and that’s what we believe) then He knew even more than we know from the internet. And yet, as a man, He kept to His calling, even choosing to limit His powers in order to obey His call. (for example, not forcing everyone to just bow down to Him, refusing Satan’s temptation to jump from the top of the Temple and refusing to call down legions of angels to save Himself). This is in contrast to Adam and Eve, who sought to know everything and did things in the ways they wanted to live. They sought to play their own music for their own benefit and in their own way while Jesus played His part for the Father’s glory.

Are you walking in what you were called to do? Or are you trying to step outside of that? We don’t see Jesus thinking, well, Egypt isn’t too far and I lived there for a bit, why don’t I go there and preach to them? or, why don’t I just force everyone to worship me now? The closest we get to seeing into Jesus’s mind is when He tells Satan to get behind Him when Peter suggests He should not die (see Matthew 16:23). Truly living was to obey God’s call and die for our sins, it was not to avoid death and do what was easiest or safest for Him.

THINGS TO PONDER:
What has God called you to? If you’re not sure, then try changing the question a little - how does God call you to live in what you’re doing already? Where is there kindness and patience in how you interact with your family and those you see each day? Do you ask our Heavenly Father to give you His Spirit for strength to walk in Christ in all your endeavors? Or do you just try to live better on your own?

What are the things within your control? Think of how you respond to others, what thoughts you allow to linger in your mind, and how you choose to live your life. What are things you can influence? Think of people who listen to you and those around you who might see how you choose to live. What are things that concern you but are outside of your control and influence? Think of global events or major problems in the world.

What did Jesus do in relation to each of these areas of control, influence, and concern? How did what Jesus did in each of these areas affect you? For example, Jesus had a specific mission, did not step outside of it, and still took actions addressing those outside of His mission at the time. How does what He did affect you today?

What does it mean to you that Jesus didn’t force you to follow Him? What did Jesus do to His enemies? What does this look like as you seek to love others?

Conscience - How you play music, how others play music, and how you play music together

With Adam and Eve’s decision to disobey God, sin entered the world and we are affected by it, including our minds. Some call this a noetic effect of sin, an effect on our thinking. This effect includes our conscience, which according to writers Andrew Naselli and J.D. Crowley, “your consciousness of what you believe is right and wrong” (Naselli & Crowley 2016: 42).

In our music analogy, conscience might be related to how you define “good” music. Classical musicians might value the original composer’s intent while jazz musicians might value how they feel the music flowing. Different styles, training, experience, and more can affect how people see music and how to play it. In the same way, our consciences can be affected by our upbringings, culture, Scripture, experiences, and more. So then, how do we best play music together to see Christ glorified in the world?

First, we’ll want to ensure our consciences are properly calibrated. Do we put a proper weight on what we value and how we relate with one another?

In Scripture, we read of weak consciences, especially in 1 Corinthians 8, where Paul describes those with weak consciences as those who felt eating food offered to idols was wrong even though the truth would indicate there is only God so food being offered to idols can be okay to eat (since those idols aren’t really actual gods). Those with weak consciences feel something is wrong when in Christ, theologically, it technically isn’t.

In music, there’s something called a “swing rhythm”, where there’s a syncopated counting, an offbeat rhythm that gives liveliness to the beat. When reading music, you might see two eighth notes (notes to be played with equal length), but when playing with swing, you’d play the first note longer than the second. In classical music, an eighth note is to be played with the same amount of time as the next eighth note. Does that mean that swing music counts the wrong way? No, but someone with a “weak conscience” might say that you must always play eighth notes equally. The opposite would be a strong conscience that knows what is wrong with correct theological understanding. They know that swing is another way of playing music, so it doesn’t bother them to play swing if that’s the music they’re playing. In this context, Paul was telling those with strong consciences not to cause their brothers and sisters with weak consciences to stumble. Someone who knows that it’s ok to play with swing rhythm should not force their brothers and sisters to play with swing rhythm, even if they know swing rhythm is a valid way of playing music.

Both strong and weak consciences have their dangers.

As Naselli and Crowley describe it, a strong conscience can lead to arrogance, causing someone to look down on those who give themselves rules they don’t need to follow, while a weak conscience can lead someone to judgmentalism, judging those who walk in freedoms we have in Christ.

In both cases, Paul calls us to love. Do not judge those who are walking in their consciences but adapt to them in love. As Naselli and Crowley note, Paul could have commanded those with weak consciences to just go with what is technically okay, but he doesn’t. He calls those with strong consciences to not look down on those with weak consciences and to not test them to go against their conscience. He tells those with weak consciences that God’s Kingdom is about joy, righteousness, and peace, not eating and drinking (Naselli & Crowley 2016: 95). In other words, it’s not about judging people but pursuing joy, righteousness, and peace (see Romans 14:17). The Kingdom of God is about playing God’s music to His glory, not about just playing in tune or playing in a certain style.

What we don’t want to do is to cause someone to stumble, to act against what their conscience tells them is true about God and what is right and wrong. At the same time, we are not to impose the rules of our consciences on others.

When Paul wrote to believers in Rome, he was writing to likely two groups within this one group: Gentile and Jewish believers. Jewish believers who grew up with a strict adherence to the Law naturally would seek to hold certain holidays and rules around eating meat, while Gentile believers would likely come in with different holidays and rules (or maybe no rules). Paul called both sides to love one another and to act patiently towards one another.

THINGS TO PONDER:
What are areas we can be flexible in? What are areas where we can’t be flexible?

Some like to describe different beliefs in the chart below. Where do you think each of the following fits?

Can our convictions, persuasions, and opinions be miscategorized? If so, how would we know?

Naselli and Crowley describe how our consciences and the conscience of someone else may overlap, but they may also not. They describe how this is also true of certain blind spots we have with what God calls us to. They illustrate this with a chart (Naselli & Crowley 2016: 146) we’re paraphrasing here with circles instead of triangles:

1 = God’s will outside of our conscience
2 = God’s will within our conscience but not the other’s
3 = God’s will that both of our consciences are aware of
4 = God’s will within the other’s conscience but not ours
5 = Our conscience but not technically wrong in God’s will (Naselli and Crowley call these scrples)
6 = Scruples that are shared by us and someone else but not technically wrong in God’s will
7 = The other’s conscience but not technically wrong in God’s will

Naselli and Crowley use these to describe how we interact with cultures different from our own, which reflects how Paul wrote to Jewish and Gentile believers.

How does God call us to act if we see someone doing something in region 4? What about region 7? What should we do if someone isn’t doing what we value (in region 5)? What if they’re doing something that we don’t value (in region 7)?

What if someone believes God calls us to have compassion on Palestinians by raising funds to supply them with food? What region in the chart above would that fit? And what if someone believes Israel the nation state is specifically called out as unique and in privileged status before God?. What region would these beliefs fall under and how do you believe God calls us to act in these situations where you think it’s region 2 but they think it’s region 5 (or if you think it’s region 7 but they think it’s region 4)?

What is an example of a scruple that you can think of?

How can we determine what God’s will is and where our consciences are?

In their book, Naselli and Crowley give two major principles of conscience (Naselli & Crowley 2016: 30):

1. God is the only Lord of Conscience
2. Obey your Conscience

What do you think of these principles Naselli and Crowley give? Why do you think they give these two principles? Do you agree with them?

For more information, we highly recommend reading Conscience: What It Is, How to Train It, and Loving Those Who Differ by Andrew Naselli and J.D. Crowley.

Music: A Beautiful Sound so the World Might Believe

In the end, we must remember that we were ransomed for a price, that Jesus came to save us and destroy the works of the enemy. He did so by loving us and showing us what love is. With His death and resurrection, we find a new hope: communion with God (being in tune), connection with one another (a new way to play music together), and a call to faith (creating new music together).

As the Israelites were called to obey after God rescued them, so we are called to walk in love, not to prove ourselves or to achieve what we think best, but out of gratefulness and joy, not living for ourselves but for God, not seeking our own wills, but His will, not seeking our own glory, but the glory of the Father. We play music not for ourselves and not from ourselves, but out of gratefulness that Jesus has shown us the true purpose and heart of music.

Do we live our lives for ourselves and obey God only for our own good? Or do we suffer through the difficulties of obeying God in loving and sacrificing for others in how we live? Do we seek to be faithful stewards of our role in the song, even if there is no solo, or do we seek to play how we want and when we want to?

Do we think our own definition of music is the best and force others to play the same way? Assuming we’re all playing “in tune”, do we think our way of following God is the only way to follow Him? Or do we lovingly join others to play as they play, while living our lives faithfully to play the song in the way God calls us to, potentially opening up even more creativity and beauty in our music?

Do we focus so much on being in tune that we fail to play music together?

In music, the ordering, the texture, length and strength of the sounds of each note helps create a song. May we learn to not only be in tune with God to calibrate what our “note” is, but also, may the Holy Spirit empower us to learn how to interrelate and interact with one another, as notes forming music together, to show Christ to the world.

As we venture into the world during this time of great polarization, may God help us to remember that life in Christ in this world means to serve and suffer, but that if we persevere, we will see His glory, whether in this life or in the life to come. May we humbly and patiently submit to God and play His music despite temptations to rush results for our own benefit or praise, and may we dwell in His illumined Word that we may be in tune with God. May He teach us what it is we are to work towards, what to pray for and how to pray, and what to give up and entrust to Him.

And may He teach us how to love one another well, not to coerce towards external rules and external expressions but towards cultivating the heart. May we hold to what is good while loving as Christ loved us. And may the music we create together, be both in tune and beautifully interwoven, that the world may believe that the Father sent Jesus to save us and to make us new.

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