Unbound: Freedom in a Digital WorldSample

One of my favorite apps on my phone is my music app. I love to listen to music throughout the day, whether I’m getting ready for work, taking a walk at lunch, driving home, or mellowing out for the evening. In the history of the world, it has never been as easy as it is now to access any song at any time. Truly, our phones have allowed us to fill our lives with music on demand and sing with joy whenever we want!

Singing is nothing new to Christians. As the first generation of Jesus' followers met together in celebration of new life, they continued the Jewish pattern of singing the Psalms together, but they also began to develop new songs about, well, who else? Jesus! Our reading today has one of these songs.

Nearly every scholar regards Philippians 2:6-11 as an early Christian song about Jesus. There are four main reasons scholarship has regarded Phil. 2:6–11 as an early Christian hymn. First, this passage has a distinct tone and rhythm. Though this might just be exalted prose, it seems plausible that this is a hymn based on the rhythm and “sound” of this passage. Second, as in other recognized hymns in the NT (Col 1:15-20; 1 Tim 3:16), this hymn starts by being marked off with “who” (Gk. os). Third, this text carries a style of poetry called parallelism that was widely used in the Psalms and other Semitic poetry/hymns. Parallelism is a poetic style in which the second line repeats the first line except with different wording. Finally, if these verses were set apart from the full letter, they would still make a coherent and independent thought. They seem capable of standing alone without the rest of the letter to the Philippians.

Now remember, Paul's letters weren’t read individually or printed out for each member of the church. They were read aloud to the whole church. You can almost imagine the church as they reach this point in the letter, all joining together in song when they begin to hear the opening lines.

What is so amazing to me about this song is how theologically rich it is. These aren't some pithy phrases repeated forty times. It is a deeply rich, theologically loaded hymn about Christ. It describes him giving himself over for the redemption of humanity and the glory of God. It describes the emptying of his divine status in the incarnation and his forthcoming eternal reign over all things. Can you imagine people both old and young learning about the Messiah through this song? Worshiping Jesus in song not only brings glory to God, but it teaches us at the same time.

So practice singing today by playing some of your favorite Christian hymns, old or new, on your phone. Try and find a song that is theologically rich. Sing along with them and think about the words as you sing them.