Whenever we sing hymns or worship songs through corporate worship to our Lord. I often find myself examining the lyrics for gospel content or not-gospel content. Does that make me a
hymnal lyrics curmudgeon? Maybe, or maybe not.I have provided a bit of a contrast in lyrics here. Let’s examine the lyrics to the old hymn “Jesus Paid It All” in reference to the gospel of scripture, and what the gospel is not, “Jesus Paid It Some“, even though we tend to live the way of the former, it is not the gospel.
In John 4:23-24, Jesus is engaging a woman at Jacob’s well in Samaria, and she references the worship her fathers had done on the mountain where they were, and Jesus says to her:
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
I’d like to emphasize the word truth in the context for this posting. You see, we sing many songs of, so called worship, but are they really songs expressing the truth as we know it to be through scripture? Some might think of you as a “curmudgeon” but just remember John 4:24 and go worship in the truth as well as the spirit.
I’ll leave this post with one more real example. What is the object of our affection here?
(Acknowledgements go to Stephen Altrogge for his “not gospel” lyrics.)
Upon This Rawk 