Music is a demanding art. To achieve excellence in it requires hard discipline and unremitting work. Yet with all his devotion to it a Christian musician must keep his priorities clear.

God is the source of all talent. When God gives talent, including musical talent, God gives it, not to be made an idol, but to be used to God’s glory.

You may remember how humbly Haydn summed up his musical life. “I know,” he said, “that God appointed me a task, I acknowledge it with thanks and hope and believe I have done my duty and have been useful to the world.”

Music is indeed a great gift; but it is the Giver, not the gift, who must have the first place in the teaching and practice of music.

…So the Christian musician must take care that the art to which he is devoted does not usurp the place that belongs to the Lord alone.

from The Christian, The Arts, and Truth

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Gender-inclusive version:

Music is a demanding art. To achieve excellence in it requires hard discipline and unremitting work. Yet with all his or her devotion to it a Christian musician must keep his or her priorities clear.

God is the source of all talent. When God gives talent, including musical talent, God gives it, not to be made an idol, but to be used to God’s glory.

You may remember how humbly Haydn summed up his musical life. “I know,” he said, “that God appointed me a task, I acknowledge it with thanks and hope and believe I have done my duty and have been useful to the world.”

Music is indeed a great gift; but it is the Giver, not the gift, who must have the first place in the teaching and practice of music.

…So the Christian musician must take care that the art to which he or she is devoted does not usurp the place that belongs to the Lord alone.

from The Christian, The Arts, and Truth