If Christians sing worship songs in church or listen on the radio, and the songs have been written by people who are worship leaders in churches that have been shown not to be a true Bible teaching church, isn’t that wrong?
My dear friend, you are quite correct. As members of the body of Christ on this earth, we represent Christ, our head, and as well, we represent one another. Thus, our associations become very important. Now, I believe much depends upon whether the song accurately reflects Biblical truth. I would guess that a worship leader who writes songs in a non-Bible believing local assembly might not be a saved person. Unless the song writer is saved, he would not have the spiritual discernment to write songs that would edify the body of Christ, nor be true praise of our Lord. And certainly, if worship songs are not scriptural, I do not believe that Christians should be singing or even listening to them. The Lord Jesus said to the woman at the well in John 4:23-24: “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” To honor the Lord, I do believe the words of our worship songs must be consistent with the truth of the Bible.
Now, there is another situation of which I have only recently been made aware, and that regards churches or organizations which are not based on scriptural truth, but which write and release more modern “worship” songs, many of which are becoming quite popular with Christian gatherings today. Perhaps a Christian gathering may feel that they would like to “modernize” their songs, so they decide to use some of these newer songs. Now, the songs themselves might appear to be sound doctrinally at first blush, but the closer inspection of the song itself or of the group generating the songs reveals an association with false doctrine. The problem arises if a church wants to use these songs, they pay a fee to the non-Bible believing organization, and then they would be in a position of financially supporting a non-Bible based group. As true believers, we do not want in any way to ally ourselves with darkness. And, even if a song leader himself might be a saved person, if that person continues in fellowship with people who do not hold the truth of God’s Word, I think that we as Christians would want to separate ourselves from them (2 Timothy 2:19-21).
Worldly people will invariably base their songs on their own world view, false doctrine, or that which seems right to them, whether or not they maintain fidelity to the truth of God’s Word. Therefore, I believe it to be very important to find out about the church or organization distributing such music. However the song appears to read, we would never want to be associated with ungodliness, whether that would be by supporting the nonbiblical group financially, or whether it would be by making the songs a common part of our worship. Proverbs 14:12 tells us: “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Hymns and spiritual songs should always and ever be consistent with the Word of God, otherwise we would be associating ourselves with the sinful ways of the world. We read in Hebrews 13:15: “By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.”
In summary, my dear friend, I would not think that it would be honoring to the Lord to sing or listen to worldly “worship” songs, especially those that are lacking in scriptural truth; similarly, even if the song lyrics appear to be okay, but the song(s)are sold or distributed by a non-Bible believing group, this association could be very wrong indeed. . As true believers, we never want to be a part of worldliness or partakers of false doctrine for reason of our testimony, and indeed, we do tend to become like what we associate with. Thus, the effects of such a thing are harmful to our witness and to our Christian walk. (SF) (565.2)