two turn tables and a microphone

Galatians 5:13-15- For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

When I went to college music was a big issue for Christians. There weren’t really many solid Christians that were making good music that was getting radio time… guys like Mat Kearney, Switchfoot, Owl City (Christian guys that just make good music) were really rare. So there was a huge divide between “Christian Music” and “Secular Music”. At my Christian college probably 90% of us students went through a “Purge my music collection” phase of life where we just threw out all of our “Secular” music (that’s anything that is not overtly Christian music). We would actually sit and take songs by guys that love God and we would judge if the song was “Christian enough”, it’s really embarrassing to think about it now… Imagine: Kyle Davis’ company is a “Christian owned” construction company (General Contractor actually) but imagine we sat around and looked at the work they did last year and judged “well, this church they built over here works for me, but that bank they built over there is just not Christian enough”. Eventually, I began to realize that Jesus does not require me only to listen to music that quotes Bible verses… Jesus has made me free to listen to what I want to listen to … however, the Bible reminds us that even though something is “lawful” (OK to do) it might not be “profitable” (the best thing for us)…  so, I opened up my music collection and kept my Christian stuff and then brought in one or two regular albums (“Secular” is the buzz word from back then), but soon I went from reading the lyrics and deciding if it was “profitable” for me, to a spot where I was just forgetting about the lyrics and just picking any music that sounded good to me…  One day I’m driving around with a friend in my car and a Madonna song comes on (hey, don’t judge me!) and I’m singing along (seriously, quit judging me!) and the girl I’m with in the car just says “Hey can we change this song, I’m not a fan of this song, I was listening to it the night I lost my virginity - not a good memory.” and the lyrics of the song then became so alive to me and they were so very inappropriate. Jesus gave me the freedom to listen to music, my music didn’t have to have Bible verses in it… but I took that freedom and kept going so that it now was actually hurting other people… even though I didn’t mean it - I still hurt my friend that was listening.

DJ Ben Berry

I think music gets a bad rap though…  most illustrations about music end up like my story here. “I was given a freedom and I misused it”… but that’s not always the case - don’t run away from music. God uses music to stir emotions in people and we are all very emotional beings. My friend Ben Berry was big into music as a teenager, then he went to Liberty University and still had a passion for music. Some people at that time were saying that Christians shouldn't get involved in Hip Hop or rap music… but Ben knew that he had freedom given by God to engage with music and see how it can be used to stir souls.  Eventually Ben was DJ’ing radio shows and traveling across the country to DJ for top quality artists that were using music to fire people up about Jesus. Don’t be afraid of music we are free to use it to glorify God… in fact we are free to pursue whatever God has gifted you in, find your gifts and use them to glorify God! 

Answer This:

1.   What freedom have you been guilty of abusing? What have you taken advantage of in the name of “freedom”?

2. What “freedom” will I choose not to engage just because I know it will hurt someone else around me.

3. “Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”

4. Take a minute and journal about this passage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Written by Jeff Harkins