Christian singing is countercultural. Outside of church we don’t formally sing with others. I’m not talking here about football match singing (which is spontaneous or in the moment), but deliberate corporate singing, such as joining a community choir or musical theatre society. These are opt-in singing experiences. If you think about it, in Church we actually impose singing on our congregations! Sure, it’s not compulsory, but it is nonetheless expected of those who attend. I can’t really think of an equivalent experience in our culture, apart from the occasional expectation to join in with the national anthem. Corporate singing is countercultural.
Christian singing is culturally distinctive in other ways too. We call for active engagement with music, rather than passive consumerism; we see our church musicians as accompanists not performers; congregations sing for the good of one another rather than for self-expression. Christian singing is countercultural! There is, however, another aspect of singing in contemporary culture that we give less thought to: the question of where truth is found.
The Truth from God
There is only one place to find divine truth: ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth’ (Jn 1:14). Jesus doesn’t just speak the truth, he embodies it. He said to those who had believed in him: ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’ (Jn 8:31–32). If there is an ultimate source of truth, it is found in Christ alone.
This has important implications for our singing. One of the most helpful New Testament verses on singing is Colossians 3:16, which makes the point that our singing is foremost a ministry of the word of Christ. God uses the singing of his people to plant the truth of the gospel in our hearts; to teach these truths to one another; and to fuel our praise and thanksgiving.
The human heart cannot be trusted to lead us towards the gospel. Instead, the truth of God’s word stirs the affections of our hearts towards him. The truth is not found within us but outside of us. The gospel is not an idea or a feeling we find or create, but something God plants in us. This is countercultural, because society often claims that real truth, even divine truth, is found within us, as something we must discover for ourselves.
The Truth Within
Historically, the idea of finding the truth within, or ‘knowing thyself’ is not entirely new to modern culture. It was a philosophical maxim of the ancient Greeks. Christians have played around with this idea as well. The Reformer John Calvin endorsed the value of knowing oneself:
Knowledge of ourselves lies first in considering what we were given at creation and how generously God continues his favour toward us…
Secondly, to call to mind our miserable condition after Adam’s fall; the awareness of which, when all our boasting and self-assurance are laid low, should truly humble us and overwhelm us with shame … and thence is kindled a new zeal to seek God, in whom each of us may recover those good things which we have utterly and completely lost.[1]
Romans 1:18, of course, claims that humanity in its unrighteousness suppresses the truth of God. Calvin warns of the vain results of sinful people trying to find the divine within: ‘because all of us are inclined by nature to hypocrisy, a kind of empty image of righteousness in place of righteousness itself abundantly satisfies us.’[2] In other words, we instinctively know that there should be an inner righteousness in our hearts, but when we don’t find it there, we create idols in its place and hope that these idols will satisfy.[3]
What was true five hundred years ago is just as much (if not more) the spirit of this age, and reflected in our songs:
Open your eyes.
Your heart can tell you no lies.
And when you’re true to your heart
I know it’s gonna lead you straight to me. (‘True to Your Heart’ from Mulan)
Like your oldest friend,
just trust the voice within.
Then you’ll find the strength
that will guide your way.
You’ll learn to begin
to trust the voice within. (Christina Aguilera, ‘The Voice Within)
I am brave, I am bruised
I am who I’m meant to be, this is me.
Look out ’cause here I come
and I’m marching on to the beat I drum.
I’m not scared to be seen,
I make no apologies, this is me. (‘This Is Me’ from The Greatest Showman)
How many musicals use the formula of the unsatisfied protagonist trapped in their world, seeking life and adventure elsewhere, only to find that the adventure does not live up to expectations and that the true self is found in discovering the prince within the beast, the diamond in the rough, or the mermaid shedding her tail?
Songs are most powerful when operating at the intersection of our thoughts and feelings. Secularism takes advantage of this, preaching its word of truth on issues of identity, sexuality, spirituality, and self-expression through music, planting a different view of ourselves and the world deep within us.
Finding God Within?
It’s not hard to find Christian songs that ask our hearts to do similar things—to discern our own truth, to offer up earthly sacrifices of personal devotion, or to satisfy our lonely inner ache with a musical liturgical euphoria.
The New Testament encourages us to have different goals and expectations for Christian singing. But those expectations still very much involve our inner being. Paul prays for the Ephesians:
[that God] may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16–19)
The work of the Spirit is that Christ would dwell in our hearts, that the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge will infiltrate every part of our thoughts, will, and emotions.
We should be excited and expectant that our singing will contribute to this spiritual work. In Ephesians chapter 5 the Spirit-filled Church is heard addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody to the Lord with their hearts (Eph 5:18–19). In Colossians chapter 3 the peace of Christ rules the heart and the heart in response sings truth to one another and thankfulness to God (Col 3:15–17). This is what our singing should be all about.
In a sense, the world is completely correct in looking for the truth within, for that is where God longs for his people to be filled with his Son. Singing that is founded on the word of Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit is a life-changing blessing to the Church, because it helps us to look to this truth within with confidence and assurance in the gospel, as we live and experience life in every way—in joy, in grief, in the big or the small.
There is a truth within—it just comes from without!
[1] J. Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Relgion, II.1.1.
[2] Calvin, Institutes, I.1.2.
[3] While this was not Calvin’s point, there is nonetheless a warning here against singing vacuous songs that promise a lot to the heart but deliver very little in the way of gospel assurance. Rather they encourage a trust in emotional experience or personal devotion.
