My wife and I recently took a 7-day Caribbean cruise with family and friends. There were six of us in our group, all followers of Christ. We gathered together on the second day of the cruise, Sunday, to worship the Lord together. We prayed, shared some Scriptures, participated in communion together and sang some songs to the Lord. We didn’t make any announcements, and we chose not to take up a collection, but other than that, it was a regular church service.

We tried to choose songs that most of us would know, and, for the most part, we did a pretty good job. Almost everybody was able to join in on almost every song.

That made me think about how our songs of faith can unite us. The six of us had grown up in five different churches, yet we could sing many, many songs together.

It is a shame that music has caused so much divisiveness in the kingdom, especially when our songs have such potential to bind us together.

“Speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”—Ephesians 5:19-20