If you watch television broadcasts of a few worship services, you are liable to see a lot of hand clapping. In fact, clapping in religious services is so common nowadays that those who visit Avenue T services may be surprised that there is no clapping. Every member of the Lord’s church, as well as everyone non-member who is interested in learning more about the body of Christ, deserves a biblical answer about why we don’t clap.
- Music in church is not a performance, it’s worship. What is the purpose of music in a worship service? Music in worship is a form of worship. It is not, and I repeat, NOT a performance for your entertainment. If the singers did an aesthetically pleasing job, the glory goes to God and God alone and should provoke an appropriate response of worship.
- Music should provoke thought, not just emotion. Music appeals to the emotion, but music in worship should most importantly provoke thought, specifically thought about God. Clapping has a penchant toward being a man-centered emotional response, but an “Amen” is a God-centered response that comes from an engaged mind. You’re basically saying, “I agree with what you just said through song.”
- Worship in any form should be God-centered, not man-centered. Worship is God-centered; a performance is man-centered. You clap for a performance. Clapping after a special music number in church blurs the lines between performance and worship. Clapping gives man glory instead of God, and that’s serious business.
There are two reasons why someone might clap: (1) To clap “along” with music, i.e., to add percussion to the rhythm of songs; (2) To applaud. Consider why we do not use clapping for either of these purposes:
- Why we do not add percussion to music in worship: Rhythmic hand clapping accompanying the singing where it can be heard is making the unauthorized sound of a percussion instrument. New Testament singing is always acapella without the use of mechanical instruments of music. Jesus said, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). Consequently, God always has viewed man as guilty if man offered to God something that God did not authorize (e.g., Leviticus 10:1-2; cf. Matthew 15:9). The specific application of this principle to the issue of clapping is this: God has been specific about what kind of music He wants us to use in New Testament worship—He wants vocal music. God tells us where to play and does not have to tell us all the places where not to play (organ, piano, guitar, bongos, etc.). The human instrument is played in the heart with the mouth through singing words. Using an instrument, or the hands like one, is an unauthorized addition to singing.
- Ephesians 5:19. Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. . . .
- Colossians 3:16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
- Why we do not applaud in worship: Applause is one way in which humans show approval to other humans. But mere humans must not be the objects of worship at all (Acts 10:25-26; Revelation 22:8-9), and so we do not applaud humans in worship. It is logically possible that man could applaud God, and yet God never asked man to applaud Him. (It makes sense that God would not ask us to show appreciation to Him in the same way in which we would show appreciation to a baseball player or a musician.) So, there is no legitimate object of applause in worship.
- Praise: All New Testament praise is vocal. Not one time in the New Testament did anyone praise God in any other way. It was always “out of the mouth” that God was praised (Matt. 21:16; Luke 1:64; 2:13-14; 19:37-38; Acts 16:25; Heb. 2:12). There are biblically no such things as “praise dancers” or “praise teams” in the New Testament. Neither is God praised by running, jumping, stomping, clapping and waving. Praise is always articulated with the mouth by magnifying God for his goodness. “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” (Heb. 13:15).
God did not accept unauthorized worship from Cain (Genesis 4). He did not accept unauthorized worship from Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10:1-2). He will not accept it from us. We always will be careful to worship the living God according to His prescriptions in the New Testament.