Photo by Michael Weidner
This request originally came to us under the name Misty Edwards. Though she is a writer for it, the original artist found for You Won’t Relent is Jesus Culture. Therefore, I will review it under this name.
I was quite pleased with Jesus Culture’s Rooftops when I reviewed it in late July 2018. I hope that this review goes just as smoothly as that one did.
Lyrics can be found at https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/jesusculture/youwontrelent.html.
Note to new users: This is a different kind of review site! Read About the Berean Test and Evaluation Criteria prior to reading this review. I strongly encourage you to consider the potential blessings and dangers of this artist‘s theology by visiting Resources.
1. What message does the song communicate?
Describes God’s unrelenting love for us, desiring for our hearts to align with His will, and our invitation for God to set our hearts on fire for Him. The word “Jesus” at the end of the song helps us set the context.
Side Note: To those who are sensitive to massive repetition, the first part of stanza 1 repeats ten times and the first four lines of stanza 4 an additional six.
Score: 10/10
2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?
Everything lines up with Scripture.
Since there is no formatting, I will refer to each paragraph as a stanza in numerical order.
[Stanza 1]
Lines 1 and 2: Summarized in Jesus’ greatest commandment in Matthew 22:37 and Mark 12:30, as quoted from Deuteronomy 6:5. God’s desire for us is to seek Him with all our hearts (Psalm 119:2).
Lines 3-8 – Repeats lines 1 and 2 three times.
[Stanza 2]
Lines 1-6: A paraphrase of Songs of Solomon 8:6-7 as a pointer to God.
[Stanza 3]
See Stanza 1.
[Stanza 4]
Lines 1-4 – Repeats lines 1 and 2 twice, with a few “noises” that add nothing to its meaning. The parenthesis in line 1 quotes from Songs of Solomon 8:7.
Lines 5-8 – Repeats lines 1-4.
[Stanza 5]
Lines 1-4 – A derivative of Stanza 3.
[Stanza 6]
Lines 1 and 2: A desire for Jesus Culture to avoid talking about Jesus as if He does not exist, as if say with their hearts “there is no God!”. See Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53:1.
Lines 3-4 – Though the apostles of Jesus could directly see Jesus, this line refers to our “mind’s eye”, an expressive yearning to see Jesus spiritually.
Lines 5-8 – Repeats lines 1-4.
[Stanza 7]
See Stanza 1.
[Stanza 8]
See Stanza 2.
[Stanza 9]
See commentary in Stanza 4.
[Stanza 10]
See Stanza 2.
[Stanza 11]
Line 1: A one-word description that sets the context of “You” for the entire song as Jesus.
[Stanza 12]
See Stanza 2.
[Stanza 13]
Lines 1 and 2 – Repeats the end of Stanza 2 combined with Stanza 11.
Score: 10/10
3. How would an outsider interpret the song?
I am torn. On the one hand, almost the entire song can easily be understood as a relationship with a woman rather than God. On the other hand, the word “Jesus” comes in at the end setting the context for God rather than the women; However, without other references within these lyrics to God, it makes it difficult for an unbeliever to associate this as a Christian song outside a church setting or additional research.
Score: 6/10
4. What does this song glorify?
Despite my annoyance of repetition and unbeliever’s probable misinterpretation, I have good reason to believe it glorifies Jesus.
Score: 10/10
Closing Comments
Jesus Culture’s You won’t relent is a decent song. It agrees with Scripture and has a great message that glorifies Jesus, but is highly repetitive and perhaps difficult for unbelievers to follow.
In terms of church usage, I have no recommendation. It really depends on your congregation.
Score: 9/10
Artist Info
Track: You Won’t Relent (listen to the song)
Artist: Jesus Culture
Album: Your Love Never Fails (Live)
Genre: Rock
Release Year: 2010
Duration: 13:34
Agree? Disagree? Don’t be shy or have a cow! Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.
Updates:
03/31/2022 – Per Artist Theology announcement, I expanded the red text to encourage others to study Jesus Culture’s theology.
03/24/2021 – Updated per repetition announcement. I moved my commentary to a side note and raised my score for section 1. This did not affect the overall rating.
03/27/2020 – Upon further reflection and prayer, I decided that repetition does not impact an unbeliever’s interpretation or the lyrics’ inherent glorification of God. Therefore, I changed my score in section 4, raising this review from 8.5/10 to 9/10.
05/29/2019 – In light of this post, I dramatically altered this review, shifting the overall score from 5.5/10 to 8.5/10.
Comments
D Redgrove
You glided right past the fact that Misty Edwards is a writer on this song (Jesus Culture is doing it as a “cover song”). But that fact explains the repetitiveness.
Misty Edwards is an passionate worshipper, not a creative or adept songwriter. Many of her songs seem to be taken from her personal reading of scripture, when one phrase or concept jumped out to her and gave birth to a “rhema” personal worship moment for her (which was then recorded as a “song” and distributed to the Body).
tastywallet
D Redgrove,
Thanks for your commentary! Yes, she wrote the song, but I stand by my decision to review it under Jesus Culture.
-TastyWallet
Vanja
If a worship songs’ message glorifies God and lines up with scripture, nothing else really matters…cuz it’s not about me and how I feel about the song. It’s about Him. If we have His approval and attention, though we care about and consider others, we can’t concern ourselves with pleasing them. God is our audience when we lead worship. He’s the recipient. Thanks and praise to the Lord!
Danny
Thank you for clearing that up
Matthew Sharp
Do you guys even know God or is He someone you just read about in a book? God is alive. If the writer of this article had a personal relationship with God He would know without the shadow of a doubt that the word of God is a love letter between the writer and the reader. That the word of God is infallible and it is not some story about people that existed in the past. Though these people did walk in the flesh, God does not change. In John 1:1 it says the word of God is God. So the Bible was not written by men, it was written by God through men….we have a relationship with God so we love Him. We are the bride of Christ….I don’t know that because that is what someone told me, I know God personally. If you don’t then you don’t know God.
Man, you are picking God apart with your doctrine and just look at your life. I don’t know you but I can tell you point blank you are spiritually dead. You don’t have to take my word for it just take a look at your life. The truth is the truth regardless.
What I am saying is that if you are concerned with picking apart people praising the Lord, I don’t understand how you think this is any way shape or form serving God. If the blind lead the blind they both fall into the ditch…you know when people are praising God they are praising God, and your doctrine is an abomination to God. Why do you think it was so important that Jesus pointed out about throwing rocks at folks and trying to sell stuff in his temple and that’s what you are doing, throwing rocks and trying to sell doctrine. I’m doing what God has called me to do and that is hold you accountable because I love God, I love those around me, I love the truth.
God is alive we praise him with Spirit and truth, we don’t go picking apart folks who are worshipping from their hearts. You haven’t ever read where king David was praising the Lord and exposed himself in 2 samuel 6 worship gets messy and God isn’t afraid of it. This is important to me because I love God and you are attacking folks who are anointed of God. I don’t even see how a person gets to a low point like this in their life to where this feels justifiable in the sight of God?
John 5: KJV
39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
tastywallet
Matthew,
Thank you for your commentary! After re-reading my own commentary, I discovered that I forgot to update it based on a recent area in which I changed my mind. Namely, the use of transformative historical material. That was a major sticking point for me until a friend gently and lovingly showed me the error of criticizing sermons and, of course, Christian music on that basis. When I get some free time, I’ll re-review this song and (likely) increase the score dramatically.
There is a major difference between picking apart people and critiquing their work. The first is to commit Ad Hominem. The second is what The Berean Test stands for: holding Christian artists accountable for their work.
Yes, I understand that God can use anything and I am willing to listen if you have a specific critique towards any specific article; However, thus far, what I see in your commentary is primarily an Ad Hominem attack towards me. I appreciate you holding me accountable though, but I can assure you I am not spiritually dead. My fruit bears that out (Luke 6:43-45).
-TastyWallet
Matthew Sharp
That is between you and God. My point is that we are either building or breaking, every word we say every thing we do. You don’t need to defend yourself we are all fallable. I’m sure it is your job to write these articles. I really want you, if you truly have a spiritual prayer relationship with God to ask Him as well as look within yourself. I know God, so I’m not stepping outside my identity in Him to encourage you to even pray about what I said. Ask yourself if what you are doing is building or breaking. I truly believe Misty Edwards wasn’t concerned with every word she said being word for word I believe she was worshipping God in spirit and truth. When Jesus culture redid it, I’m certain that someone was worshipping and said “Hey, let’s do this one.” It probably just happened, and they continued worshipping. The evaluation criteria states the scripture in the book of acts and you are examining to see if it is the truth. That is what I’m doing too, and I understand how the Lord works through a worship minister. They have submitted themselves to God and allow themselves to be used of God, so what they are doing is done under an anointing. So God is working through them, rather than something they wrote of themselves. You state there is something about this worship that doesn’t glorify God. Let me explain something, what doesn’t glorify God is the things that break and cause confusion…those come from the enemy. I’m confused in regard to how analyzing a worship song line by line to make sure every word lines up with your doctrine edifies God’s church rather than causing division. Someone was worshipping from their heart you are calling it as though this doesn’t glorify God. Now I am questioning your intent?
tastywallet
Matthew,
Thank you for your follow-up commentary! I follow what you are saying and, as I had stated previously, I intend to re-evaluate this song.
As for motive, have you examined my About the Berean Test or Evaluation Criteria pages? That may give you some insight about my intent.
-TastyWallet
Matthew Sharp
I’m not attacking you, we wrestle not against flesh and blood. I love everyone, I am attacking the spirits that attack folks personal relationship with God. God bless you!
tastywallet
Matthew,
How would you feel if someone said the following to you?
I have found that asking open-ended questions is a more fruitful approach to conversation. Instead of saying “you don’t know God”, you could ask “can you describe your relationship with God?” Instead of saying “you haven’t ever read 2 Samuel 6” you could ask “what is your view of 2 Samuel 6 in light of your commentary?” That way, your interlocutor is not put on the defensive and quarreling can be avoided (2 Timothy 2:24-26).
Finally, you may not realize this, but “you are spiritually dead” is a very serious accusation. It is stating that such an individual is not saved; outside the camp of Christ.
-TastyWallet
Matthew Sharp
I would feel like someone had finally told me the truth. A walk with God is not about feelings it is about exposing ourselves to the truth. We come to God for correction from our condemned nature. God is a comforter, I pray without ceasing and God says some things to me that aren’t pleasant at all. I know my identity in Christ, and it says in Isaiah 54:17 No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that rises against you in judgment thou shalt condemn, for this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is of me.
So my righteousness is of God, and I am here to break lies that is what God has anointed me to do. Isaiah 10:27 reminds us that the anointing breaks the yoke. Romans 11:29 reminds us that the gifts of God are without repentance.
So if God has anointed me to do something, I’m not being concerned about how I can be more effective. If you are not any of these things no big deal shake it off it’s not the truth and I got you wrong. Look you got your feelings hurt when I got real with you about what you are doing here. You are going through line by line ripping apart the most pure thing that exists and that is a live song between us and God. I’m not concerned about what you think about me, and I don’t care about your feelings. I’m holding you accountable like a man.
tastywallet
Matthew,
Thanks! I was just curious about your thought process.
-TastyWallet
Matthew Sharp
Sorry I said live song rather than love song above. I’m saying something to you because not only do I care about you but I care about those who are reading this. If I was being unkind, I would have just skimmed past it and said nothing. I stopped and said something instead of just watching as folks break apart the world we live in. I don’t feel like you have a bad motive or are evil, just been taught wrong. I’ve been taught wrong as well, but I pray and read my word so I know God. I’m not seeking to destroy anything but lies, I’m seeking to build God’s kingdom and in order to do that I’ve got to call a few things for what they are rather than just keep it to myself as everyone around me busts hell wide open. You think I have some evil motive?
tastywallet
Matthew,
I understand that! You are doing what you think is right. As am I.
No, I do not believe your motives are evil.
-TastyWallet
ludvig Rinkovski
Hi. So i dont understand if this song, is good or bad, or incurrectly?
Could you try to tell me that.
Thanks
Vince Wright
ludvig,
Good question! The message is excellent, albeit repetitive. It is excellent in terms of accuracy to Scripture. It has some issues when it comes to Unbeliever interpretation, so bad-ish?
Overall, it is good.
-Vince Wright