Christians and Secular Music

Should Christians listen to Secular Music?

This question is as old as Noah's days, the controversial subject had been on my mind for years, long before I became rooted and grounded in Christ. I never really understood why some Christians found it wrong  listening to secular music whilst others didn't. I always thought, music was just music, right? wrong! As I grew more in Christ, I began to understand why I was created and for what purpose. We were created for the glory of God.( Isaiah 43:7) To live for and glorify Him in everything that we do and are. But secular music doesn't allow us to do so.


Secular Music is defined as non-religious music. Not written for the glory of God or for the church. Secular music does not bring us closer to God in anywhere, in fact, Most secular songs opposes God and His word(the bible) and even blasphemes the Holy Spirit, which is the ONLY unforgivable sin. (Mark 3:29).  Anything that doesn't give glory to God, is sin. The scriptures tells us that, in whatever we do, we must do it all for the glory of God, 1 Corinthians 10:31 and Colossians 3:17.

True that, there is no particular verse that talks about secular music or declaring it to be ungodly. But I want you to understand this, what makes a song ungodly is not a genre but it is the purpose and lyrics behind the song. In the book of Colossians, the Apostle Paul wrote letters addressing Christians at Colossae saying in chapter 3:2 "Set your mind on things above, not on things on earth." Paul tells us to think about Godly things, to think about things that glorifies God and not ourselves also to have a heavenly mindset. When we listen to secular music, we set our minds on secular things, we set our hopes in ourselves and not on the LORD. Does secular music encourage us to set our mind on things above? Does secular music encourages us to have a heavenly mindset or glorify God? Does it? Let your sense of thinking answer that. 

Is it really Just a song? An average listener would not understand what the singer is singing about or the purpose behind the song nor the lyrics. The songs we listen to and music videos that we watch stay with us long after the music has stopped playing, it lingers in our mind. The term is called "Earworm." The lyrics start forming parts of our thoughts, language or action(s) and sometimes we start imagining ourselves in the situation. The unusual research conducted by UC business professor James Kellaris states that, 98% of individuals experience earworms. Both male and female experience it equally. While one is  listening to secular music, God is blocked from her/his mind.The songs secular musicians sing  about consist of every possible sin in the bible, for an example, sexual immorality, fornication, adultery, lust, smoking, violence, homosexuality, drinking, curse words, love of money, fighting, getting drunk, disobedience and all sorts of bad things.  All these things contribute to the devil leading us astray from God by causing us to sin and not follow His commandments. But what about songs that does not consist of the above mentioned sins? It has no swear words, doesn't encourage one to sin and it doesn't in anywhere blasphemy the Holy Spirit,can one listen to such? If it is just a song, then why don't we sing it in church, youth gatherings or conferences? I mean it doesn't encourage us to disobey God. We don't do that because we know deep down that it doesn't glorify God. Whether it's a sinful song or not.

 As cliche as it might sound, you actually are what you listen to.We become what we think about. Some songs tells us to sin a fashionable way, by saying, "Do you, do what makes you happy, don't care about what anyone say,as long as your happy." How about the songs that tells us that, we are our own heroes, we should listen to our own hearts or we are our own creators and we can rule our lives? Is that sin, too? yes, of course it is. There is  no scriptures that tells us to do any the above mentioned. In fact, the bible tells us not to listen to our hearts( Jeremiah 17:9). Above anything else, God wants us to be happy but that doesn't mean we should do what makes us happy, we should do the will of God not ours. Remember the heart is deceitful, it doesn't always know what it wants. True happiness lies in God alone. Our heavenly Father, tells us that we are not of this world and therefore we should never cherish things of this world as they are made to satisfy the flesh.

In the book of Romans, Paul tells that; "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit". Romans 8:5 Living according to the flesh separates us from God. Society lies to us by saying, "You only live once." that's the lie of the devil, the ones who are in Christ shall live forever( 1 John2:17), ( 1 John5:11). When you accept God as your personal Savior, it means you are no longer in control of your own life but He is. His Holy Spirit starts to live in you and therefore your body becomes a holy temple. So if you listening to secular music is like defiling the Holy spirit. Even in heaven, we will sing a holy song to our God ( Isaiah 6:3) not secular or songs that doesn't have swear words but Holy song, the kind that glorifies God.


We are called to walk in the footsteps of Christ but when we listen to secular songs that tells us we can rule our own lives, we fail to do so. In other words, we take the place of God in our lives. We become our own gods. If you belong to God then you will follow His standards, not your own. If gospel music makes us worship God then what does secular makes us worship?

Think about it...