Ephesians 5.19b-Believers Singing and Making Music with Their Hearts for the Lord
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday September 3, 2026
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 5:19b-Believers Singing and Making Music with Their Hearts for the Lord
Lesson # 365
Ephesians 5:15 Therefore, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of paying careful attention to the manner in which each and every one of you make it your habit of conducting your lives. Each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to not make it your habit of conducting your lives in an unwise manner. On the contrary, each and every one of you must continue to make it your habit of conducting your lives in a wise manner 16 by continuing to make it your habit of taking full advantage of your opportunity for your own benefit because these days are characterized by evil. 17 For this reason, each and every one of must continue to make it your habit of not conducting your lives as foolish individuals. On the contrary, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of conducting your lives as wise individuals by comprehending for the purpose of personal application what constitutes the Lord’s will (for the manner in which each one of you as a corporate unit are to continue making it your habit of conducting your life). 18 Consequently, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of not permitting yourselves to be drunk by means of the excessive intake of wine because this is non-sensical behavior. On the contrary, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of permitting yourselves to be influenced by means of the Spirit’s teaching 19 with result that each and every one of you as a corporate unit continue to make it your habit of communicating with one another by means of psalms, hymns as well as spiritual songs so that each and every one of you as a corporate unit continue to make it your habit of singing and specifically continuing to make it your habit of making music with your hearts for the benefit of the Lord. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 5:19 is composed of the following:
(1) Participial result clause: lalountes heautois psalmois kai hymnois kai ōdais pneumatikais (λαλοῦντες ἑαυτοῖς ψαλμοῖς καὶ ὕμνοις καὶ ᾠδαῖς πνευματικαῖς), “with result that each and every one of you as a corporate unit continue to make it your habit of communicating with one another by means of psalms, hymns as well as spiritual songs” (Lecturer’s translation).
(2) Participle result clause: adontes kai psallontes tē kardia⸃ hymōn tō kyriō (ᾄδοντες καὶ ψάλλοντες τῇ καρδίᾳ⸃ ὑμῶν τῷ κυρίῳ), “so that each and every one of you as a corporate unit continue to make it your habit of singing and specifically continuing to make it your habit of making music with your hearts for the benefit of the Lord” (Lecturer’s translation).
Now, the second participial result clause in this verse contains the verb adō (ᾄδω), which pertains to producing musical tones by means of the voice and it speaks of uttering words in musical tones and with musical inflections and modulations.
The referent of the masculine plural form of the participle conjugation of this verb adō (ᾄδω) is also the recipients of this epistle.
The masculine plural form of this verb adō (ᾄδω) not only refers to them as a corporate unit but also as individuals because it is also used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions.
The participle conjugation of the verb adō (ᾄδω) functions as a nominative in simple apposition, which identifies the recipients of this epistle singing in their hearts to the Lord as being a result of obeying the command in Ephesians 5:18 to permit themselves to be influenced by Paul’s Spirit inspired apostolic teaching.
The present tense of the verb adō (ᾄδω) is customary present tense, which expresses not only the idea of the recipients of this letter “making it their habit of” singing in their hearts to the Lord but also “continuing” to do so.
This indicated by the contents of Ephesians 1:15 and 4:30-24, which affirm that the recipients of this epistle were already making it their habit of speaking to each other by means of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
The participle conjugation of this verb adō (ᾄδω) is a participle of result, which expresses the idea of the recipients of this letter continuing to make it their habit of permitting themselves to be influenced by the means of Paul’s Spirit inspired apostolic teaching “with the result that” they continue to make it their habit of singing with their hearts to the Lord.
The noun kardia (καρδία) here in Ephesians 5:19 means “hearts,” which is that aspect of the soul, which circulates thought or mental activity and is where one’s frame of reference and memory center resides.
It is also the place where one’s vocabulary and the classification of thoughts reside as well as the conscience where the norms and standards reside.
A person’s entire mental attitude circulates in the kardia (καρδία) as well as the subconscious where various categories of things that shock or impress from adversity, sin, failure or disappointment are located and also, it contains volition, which enables a person to make decisions.
Therefore, this word refers to a person’s mentality, volition, conscience, sub-conscience and emotions.
It functions as a locative dative of place, which means it identifies the hearts of the recipients of letter as the “location” of their making music to the Lord.
The dative case of the noun kardia (καρδία) could be interpreted as a locative dative of place, which means it identifies the hearts of the recipients of letter as the “location” of their making music to the Lord.
However, I interpret the word as functioning as a dative of means, which takes place when the dative substantive is used to indicate the means or instrument by which the verbal action is accomplished and so therefore, this would express the idea of the believer making music “with” their hearts.
This interpretation is supported by the fact that this music must come from the Spirit inspired teaching of the Word of God residing in the hearts of those who compose and perform music which honors the Lord Jesus Christ.
We noted that the heart contains the person’s mentality, volition, conscience, sub-conscience and emotions.
Thus, this music must originate from the Spirit inspired teaching in the Word of God residing in the composer/performer’s mentality where the believer thinks in their soul.
It also must originate from their conscience, which contains a person’s norms and standards, which must originate from the Spirit inspired teaching in the Word of God.
It also must originate from their emotions, which will be affected by what is in the mentality of the soul.
Lastly, this music must originate from the believer’s volition in that they must choose of their own volition words, which originate from the Spirit inspired teaching in the Word of God residing in the mentality of their soul as well as conscience.
Therefore, Paul wants this music composed and performed by believers as being accomplished “by means of” their hearts, i.e., by means of their volition, mentality, conscience and emotions.
As was the case in Ephesians 1:2, 3, 15, 17, 2:21, 3:11, 4:1, 5, 17, 5:8, 10, and 17, the referent of the dative masculine singular form of the noun kurios (κύριος) here in Ephesians 5:19 is Jesus Christ.
It functions as dative of advantage of interest or advantage, which takes place when the dative substantive indicates the person interested in the verbal action or is “benefitting” from the action.
Therefore, this expresses the idea that the Lord Jesus Christ “benefits” from the believer making music in their hearts.
The verb psallō (ψάλλω) means “to sing praises” of someone with the implication of instrumental accompaniment.
The participle conjugation of the verb psallō (ψάλλω) functions as a nominative in simple apposition meaning it serves to identify the recipients of this letter making music in their hearts to the Lord as the result of continuing to make it their habit of permitting themselves to be influenced by means of Paul’s Spirit inspired apostolic teaching.
The present tense of the verb psallō (ψάλλω) is a customary present tense, which expresses not only the idea of the recipients of this letter “making it their habit of” making music in their hearts to the Lord but also “continuing” to do so.
This indicated by the contents of Ephesians 1:15 and 4:30-24, which affirm that the recipients of this epistle were already making it their habit of communicating with one another by means of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs because they affirm that they were already obeying Paul’s Spirit inspired apostolic teaching in this letter.
The participle conjugation of the verb psallō (ψάλλω) is a participle of result, which expresses the idea that the recipients of this letter were to continue to make it their habit of permitting themselves to be influenced by the means of Paul’s Spirit inspired apostolic teaching “with the result that” they continue to make it their habit of making music in their hearts to the Lord.
The apostle Paul employs the figure of hendiadys, which indicates that the verb psallō (ψάλλω) is intensifying or advancing upon the idea expressed by adō (ᾄδω) in the sense that the former is defining the meaning of the latter.
Therefore, the former indicates that the recipients of this letter making music in their hearts to the Lord is what Paul means by singing with their hearts to the Lord.
The fact that participle conjugation of the verbs laleō (λαλέω) and adō (ᾄδω), and psallō (ψάλλω) all function as a participle of result indicates that each expresses the result of the believer permitting themselves to be influenced by the means of Paul’s Spirit inspired apostolic teaching.
This clearly indicates that music written and performed by Christians should be in accordance with the teaching of the Spirit inspired Scriptures.
