THE ISSUE OF CHRISTIANS WITH SECULAR MUSIC -Emmanuel Ariyo

        Firstly, I wanna say that the word SECULAR does not mean sinful or evil.  It simply means NOT RELIGIOUS or EARTHLY. We can divide the activities of man into physical/non religious and spiritual/religious. God does not expect us to only focus on spiritual activities alone, he wants us to engage in social, business and other SECULAR activities too. Talking about music,  it is a means of conveying informations in tunes and rhythm. The information passed may be spiritual, psychological, educational, cultural or romantic. It is important to understand that even if the information conveyed in a particular song is not spiritual, it could still be useful for our everyday life. If you as a Christian can listen to a seminar on culture, why can't u listen to a song on culture as well? If you can listen to lectures or read books on love and relationships, why can't you listen to songs of love too? We must understand that singing is also talking but with tune and rhythm.
     REASONS WHY CHRISTIANS CONDEMN SECULAR SONGS
1) If the singer is an unbeliever: The fact that a man is an unbeliever doesn't mean that he has nothing to offer, the world has benefited from some people who are unbelievers. Many of the scientific & psychological theories we learn today were postulated by people who do not even believe God exists. They may not be able to teach spiritual principles but they explained physical laws. If you as a Christian can learn & apply scientific laws proposed by an unbeliever to get some things done, Why will you condemn a song just because an unbeliever sang it? That's hatred,  which is even against God's will. I see different books on business strategies, culture, education, health etc. Many of these books are written by unbelievers and no one is condemning them, in fact Christians read the books and they add to their knowledge, but why is music different?
           let me quickly say this, it is possible for God to speak through an unbeliever.  Looking at the scriptures, Ezra 1:1-4.  Cyrus was an unbeliever king, an Idol worshiper see Ezra 1:7. But yet his spirit was stired by God and he made proclamations according to God's will.  What I am saying is, sometimes people loose the message just because of d sender.
2) If the lyrics of the song is not religious(spiritual) : As I have said earlier, we are not in this world only for religious activities. God placed Adam in the garden to govern over every creature and even to dress the garden(In other words, to manage the garden) not just to be worshiping every seconds. That assignment of governing and managing the earth given to man was not a religious activity but a SECULAR activity. So if a Christian engage in a SECULAR activity,  or teach it, or SING it, it should not be a problem except if that activity has taken the place of God in his life.
             But on the other hand, some songs have SINFUL lyrics. I have heard a song like that full of abuse and curses, I have also heard a song that was just flaunting female private parts and sexual experiences. Some songs have photographic videos. I agree that these songs can corrupt the mind and are against God's will. But all secular songs are not like that, some secular songs are informative,  educative, historical and encouraging.
            In conclusion, I wanna say that you can commit yourself to listening to gospel songs only, which is very good. But don't condemn others because they listen to it. There are lots of people out there who love God and would have been effective in the things of God, but due to too much Condemnation over unnecessary things,  they feel unqualified to fellowship with God. And since they are not matured enough to refrain from what they love & enjoy,  they remain in that state. We need to learn to tell people to come to God as they are, God changes people to his taste, we can't force people to God by Condemnation but we turn people to God by love.