Learning through worship

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

⁶ who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death –
        even death on a cross!

⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:5-11

It is through worshipping God that we learn more about who God is, who Jesus is, and how we should respond. In Paul’s letter to the Philippians he shares an older hymn which speaks of Christ’s humility and exaltation. Paul over 2000 years ago knew that the best way for people to learn essential facts about the Christian faith was through song. For many people it is easier to remember a song than to remember ordinary plain text. In the English translations this passage does not really look all that much like a song but in the Greek it does.

Songs are things which stick with us from worship. I admit that often the thing I remember from a service is not the words of the sermon but a line or two of a hymn. That is why it is so important that hymns are chosen with care and consideration for the messages they convey. Despite all my theology degrees I still think that the hymn “I am the church” is one of the best explanations of what church should be.

This is why I love songs which set important texts of the church to music like Keith and Kristyn Getty’s We believe and Hillsong’s This I believe. Both these texts set the Apostles Creed to music. The hymn in Philippians is seen by many as an early formulation of a creed which explains Christ’s life, death, resurrection and exaltation as well as calling us to worship him.