Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it (Heb. 2.1 ESV).

Sure, I like to listen to some of the better contemporary music by Christian artists, but most offerings are along the lines of only one theme. A few songs of praise aren’t too bad, but, overall, really insightful, melodious songs are scarce. More often than not my old car’s CD player features the bible. In my ’22 Camry rental, while my car is getting fixed, I switch between oldies, Contemporary Christian, and Public Radio’s Classical Music, whichever is the least offensive. Eph. 5.19 does not address Church music, but private and personal interaction of Christians: . . .addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart (ESV).

“Songs,” in 1Cor. 14.26, are psalms which were recited. There was no “music” among churches of the Apostles or Early Church Fathers. Today, we label singing in church as “worship,” whereas The Lord’s Supper should be the primary worship (see Acts 20.7). The Apostolic Church had no song service that I can detect. Chanting arrived in about the sixth century and even that caused a scandal, since Christians had been following Paul’s instruction in 1Tim. 4.13: Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching (ESV). Prayer, sharing meals and goods, encouragement, fellowship, along with The Supper constituted “church” (Acts 2.42). They might have sung a hymn at the end of the service, like the Jews at the end of the Pascal Supper (Mt. 26.30, Mk. 14.26), but sources are meager to what exactly went on during a typical church service. Evidently, they followed closely what they did at Jewish synagogues, which 1Tim. 4.13 describes. We know more what practices synagogues followed than what the early Christians did. Of course, sacrificial love towards others, along with faith, hope, and joy in the Spirit, were personal features of believer gatherings, at least Paul encourages these things.

Modern Christian ‘Music’ Is Just Garbage | Zwinglius Redivivus