“More Love, More Power” and the Gospel
“More love, more power, more of you in my life.” What should Christians be thinking when they sing the song “More Love, More Power”? What light might the gospel shed on this particular song text? It seems to me that too often Christians tend to sing songs like this utterly disconnected from the truth of the gospel. What do I mean? Is it wrong to long for more of God’s love and power at work in our lives? Is it improper for us to thirst for God? Absolutely not. Consider these verses:
Philippians 3:10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection…
Ephesians 3:19 [Paul prays that the Ephesians might] know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Psalm 63:1 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
The desire for God’s love and power and Person is a very good desire. But a problem arises when this good desire is disconnected from the gospel in our thinking. Let me explain. What might we be thinking when our request to know more of God’s love is disconnected from the gospel? Might we be hoping that God will somehow mysteriously inject more of His love into our spiritual veins? Do we hope that somehow we will wake up one morning with a deeper sense of His transforming love? “Wow, God has answered my prayer! He’s given me more of His love!”
Consider the desire for God’s love in light of Romans 5:8. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Paul does not say that God showed His love for us at the cross. He says that God shows His love for us at the cross. The tense of the verb is utterly important. If it is true that God continuously demonstrates His love for us through something that happened in the distant past, some 2000 years ago, what should we do if we desire to know and experience more of His love?
Just a few verses earlier in Romans 5:5, Paul says that “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” What I find interesting is that the verses immediately preceding and following that statement are filled with gospel content.
Romans 5:1-2 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. [2] Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Romans 5:6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
I think what is indicated by these verses is that the Holy Spirit does not pour God’s love into our hearts in isolation from the gospel. After all, we’ve already seen in verse 8 that God’s love is being demonstrated to us at the cross. The Holy Spirit poured God’s love into our hearts by bringing us to the cross where we saw that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). And I believe that the Holy Spirit continues to pour God’s love into our hearts as we sit at the foot of the cross beholding its wondrous glory.
So, when you find yourself asking God for more love, more power, more of Him in your life, make sure you ask Him at the foot of the cross. It is there that we find all the love and power we could ever want. After all, the gospel is the very power of God unto everything we need in this life and the life to come (Romans 1:16).
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"What light might the gospel shed on this particular song text? It seems to me that too often Christians tend to sing songs like this utterly disconnected from the truth of the gospel."
I agree. We do compartmentalize the Gospel truth as separate from the lyrics of our psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs all too often. Guilty as charged, and thankful for your reminder.
But as a fellow-striving-lyricist and someone who listens to and appreciates a wide spectrum of music in different genres, I would have to admit that some songs more than others lend themselves to a more ready connection with the Gospel and our hearts. And because of that, I believe that some songs more than others do have more or less inherent value for believers.
There are songs that, because of their sensational renderings or hyperbolic lyrics or even the presentation style, just require a whole lot more work on our part to be able to overcome what can turn out to be hindrances rather than helps in undistracted exultation in the Gospel.
If I write a hymn text, I try to avoid esoteric words that singers (especially those who are unfamiliar with a seminary education as yet) might not as readily recognize and be able to translate into genuine, heartfelt praise or meditative truth-agreement while they sing. I strongly believe that hymns and psalms and spiritual songs should reinforce what's in the written and preached Word, and to some extent teach it, but music isn't designed to stand alone -- certainly not to stand in FOR the Gospel itself. Therefore, the message of our songs should be as clear as possible. The allusions to solid doctrine should be obvious. The call to recollect Gospel truth should be a clear call. I believe it's wrong for Christians to sing or worship in any way if they do so bereft of genuine heart motivation, so I don't want to, as a writer, create obstacles to those ready mental, genuine heart connections.
You know how I feel about the variety of music that's out there, Dan; you and I agree on a lot of favorites. But I do think that our stylistic choices as music-/lyrics-writers can seriously contribute to or harm the ability of people to immediately see and understand the songs' motivation and content. If people can't readily recognize a Gospel-centric message, then they can't genuinely echo it. And while I agree that it is our responsibility to TRY to recognize Gospel truth, and to TRY to genuinely echo it, I also think that we should also TRY to write songs that point more clearly and unmistakably to the Gospel in the first place.
I assume (deliberately, yet sometimes with degrees of difficulty) that the writers of certain CCM songs (AND of certain universally-accepted older hymns and spiritual songs) that they probably had/have the purest of intentions. But I'm not sure a song like "More Love, More Power" really COMMUNICATES the Gospel as well as it could/should. Gospel truth such as that expressed in this song ought to be a continual non-vain-repetition prayer and cry of our hearts. The desire for more love and more power cannot be reduced to or reinforced by a style that better suits a stadium pep block, a mindless military jody or rallying chant, or a frenzied riot crowd in some vast plaza. I know this is my impression, opinion only, but that song's style says (to me) more of "chaos," "desperation," and "external sensationalism" than it does "genuine desire," "clear articulation," or "Gospel."
Desperation is probably the most justifiable of those possible messages. This desire for more love and more power and more of God in my life is, rather, a personal heartcry from one person to God, an exultation in the Gospel as it affects our everyday lives. I'm just not so sure that listeners ought to have to work that hard to decode such a song to decipher its inherent value for the Gospel's sake. There are other songs, including the psalms, that -- even in their stylistic and lyrical choices -- help to mold our heartsets TOWARD authentic worship.
I'd rather be singing and writing those kinds of songs than spending time trying to rationalize this kind and trying to shed Gospel light on it. It should be the other way around! A good Gospel-centered song is more than an earworm or a rally chant. A truly Gospel-centered song will cultivate within me a longing to know and love and "have more of" God, genuinely and clearly and constantly.
Rambing thoughts stirred up by your good thoughts...
Are we really supposed to pray for power? I'm not sure. Since all power has been given to Christ and Christ is our all in all (or should be), I wonder if our prayer for power is not misguided. The Epistles routinely start with a salutation of grace and peace. "Grace be multiplied to you." I haven't notice "power be multiplied to you." Paul found that grace was sufficient. He also said that he was what he was (amazing person of achievement that he was) by the grace of God. Again, he didn't attribute it to power. It is true that he said he wanted to know the Christ and the power of His resurrection, but is that really a request for power?
God empowers us to do His will. But it is channeled into us by grace. While so many plead with God for power to overcome sinful habits, for example, Paul tells us that it is grace that teaches us to deny ungodlines and to say "no" to worldly lusts (Titus 2:11ff).
I have personally known the power of God in my ministry when I became broken to the point that all I really ever wanted was grace. Then, so it seemed, God's grace to others was manifested by an empowerment of my witness and preaching.
It is a human axiom, but true. Power corrupts. But all power belongs to our beloved Captain of our Salvation. We aren't qualified for anything. Therefore, grace is the only thing we can hope for.
In the words of the Apostle Peter,
"grace be multiplied unto you."
Are we really supposed to pray for power? In the inspired Word, the apostle Paul prayed for his Christian brothers and sisters that they might increasingly know more of God's power (Ephesians 3:16 & Colossians 1:11). In context, I think it's fair to say that Paul was praying something like, "God, let your glorious power strengthen and equip them for....[and then he lists other things dependent on the operation of God's power]." I often use those God-breathed prayers of Paul to guide my own prayers for myself and for Christian family and friends, including the prayer for God's power to be at work in us.
Yes, God told Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you." But in the context of God speaking those words of instruction and encouragement, He is talking about the unmerited favor of His power. Grace has many dimensions. There are many ways in Scripture we find God bestowing favor on undeserving people. And in the context of 2 Corinthians 12:9, where those words, "My grace is sufficient for you," are found, it is shown that "grace" stands for God's unmerited power granted in spite of our weaknesses. Paul didn't get God's power because of the fantastic things he had seen and done in his life. He boasted in his weaknesses, because it was these that connected him to the sheer grace of God's power at work in him. So by saying, "My grace is sufficient for you," God is emphatically NOT saying that we don't need His power. God's power is a dimension of His grace, and when Paul opened or closed a letter with, "grace to you," he wouldn't have seen that as inconsistent with praying for God's power.
Ironically in one of the same prayers mentioned above, Paul also asked that Christians would know more of God's love in Christ (Ephesians 3:19).
Knowing that Christ demonstrated His transforming power on my behalf when I was DEAD, I should never be ashamed about asking for the continual working of His power when I am WEAK. And knowing that He extended to me His elective, redeeming love when I was His ENEMY, I should never be timid about asking that I may know it more clearly as His CHILD.
Dan,
Good to have you back in the blogging saddle again. Great post here brother. And a wonderful variation of thoughts and comments to boot! Can't wait to read more from you as the semester gets hot and heavy!