Thank you for reading, brother. The connection between instrumental music and possible idolatry is new to me, I had never thought of it until studying 1 Corinthians 5 a little closer. I plan to give it some more prayer, thought and study as soon as possible.

Keep in touch!

Matt

Thank you for the review. Your point regarding musical instruments being idolatry has got me thinking. You make a good point that it is greed that covets man-made worship, and idolatry is also man-made worship. Mechanical worship is just as much an attempt for proxy worship too.

Fellowshiping with sin is certainly the issue. “And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.” By my conscience, I have to observe these words.

Grace and peace to you in our Lord.

Hi, hope you are doing well.

There are some factors to consider. The God I worship tells us in scripture what is acceptable to Him in worship. If a man worships differently from what God has revealed, it is possible that he is worshiping what he does not know. Also, Paul says in Col. 3:5 that covetousness is idolatry. D.A. Carson well says,

“The danger of greed is especially emphasized as a ‘gross sin’ for it is equated with idolatry. Such a person, instead of focusing his or her whole life on the things above, where Christ rules as King, is seeking the things below, and therefore worships and serves the creature rather than the Creator (Rom. 1:25). Paul knew the special deadliness of this sin (Rom. 7:7–8; cf. Mt. 6:24). Perhaps it is so dangerous because it may assume so many respectable forms. After all, are not those things we do not have but earnestly desire simply ‘necessities’? We deceive ourselves into making idols of our own demands.”

Carson, D. A.: New Bible Commentary : 21st Century Edition. 4th ed. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill., USA : Inter-Varsity Press, 1994, S. Col 3:5

I think this concept has potential to be applied to anything we add to worship because of our own desires, and thus gets between God and us. IM could be considered idolatry when a person knows it is not commanded, but wants it anyway for selfish purposes.

More about this in a later part of the study. I am not “married” to the concept yet. My final report will be published after examining the pertinent passages. In that article I will pull together the findings of my study, discard what is incorrect or doubtful about fellowship, and stay only with what the scriptures confirm as positively commanded. Have patience with me until my “thinking out loud” is complete, please.

God bless you,

Matt

Would not practicing a form of worship that is unauthorized by God in effect make one an idolater?

That’s a puzzling statement. Assume for the moment that instrumental music is unauthorized, and that authorization is required for every act of worship. Even so, a person worshipping God with an instrument is still worshipping the true God and not an idol. They give praise to God who created the heavens and the earth, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who sent his Son Jesus to die on the cross. They give praises to the only true God (although, based on the assumptions stated above, they would be praising God in an unauthorized way). How is that idolatry?