Song: “Say the
Words”
Artist: DC Talk
Album: Free at
Last (1992)
Track: 5
As we continue our trek through Free at Last, we arrive at a tune that was never really in my
favorites on the album. Oddly enough, I
always felt the music was meandering and aimless, and now that I’m examining
the theology in the song, I’m finding the lyrics to be the same way. But let’s get to it!
The Good
In general, I don’t think the call to be more willing to
tell people that we love them is a bad thing.
There are a lot of people who are just bad about saying that, and we
should be encouraging to them that we are called to love one another, and we
should tell one another that as well.
The rap part of the song is excellent. I really like how Toby here contrasts the
improper ways the word has been used to the proper expression of love we have
for one another. At the same time, he
doesn’t put the phrase “I love you” on such a high pedestal that we get nervous
about it. That’s commendable.
Neither Good nor Bad
It’s great that the quote Scripture here, but the Scripture
they quote doesn’t even apply to the song.
They say, “Solomon once wrote, ‘Better is open rebuke than hidden
love.’”
Er, well, okay. You
might as well say “The Bible states, ‘Judas hanged himself’” for all the good
that quote got you. It’s completely
irrelevant to what you’re talking about in the song.
Secondly, has anyone else noticed that this song completely
contradicts “Luv is a Verb?” I think
both are true in a way, but “Luv is a Verb’s” message is that love is only
useful when it’s active, while this song almost turns the words “I love you”
into a magical incantation that fixes everything.
The Bad
And that’s most of the bad right there. The solution to hate, the song suggests, is
saying “I love you.” Seriously! They state, “if hate can be erased with such
a simple phrase, why are we stalling?”
Wow. I didn’t realize that all
hate in the world can be blamed on people who were scared the say “I love you”
more.
I’m being a bit sarcastic here because DC Talk is going way
over the top, and in doing so, they are inadvertently (I hope) blaming the
world’s problems on people who don’t say those three little words. Well, sin is actually to blame for the
world’s problems, and sin isn’t erased because we say “I love you.” Saying it might help, and sometimes does, but
we need the Gospel for that, not someone who is in touch with his emotions.
Same with verse 2, where they point out that “There is a
world in need with hungry souls to feed.”
True enough, but is the answer to that problem going around and saying
“I love you?” What a weird sort of
theology this is, and it’s confusing this magical charm with the Gospel. In fact, I am reminded by the guy that James
scolds in his epistle: “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in
daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’
without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?”
(2:15-16)
DC Talk, in this song, responds to the same hungry brother
or sister with, “I love you!”
Loving someone may cause me to tell people the Gospel, but
my love for them is not the Gospel. I
cannot save them. God can. God’s love can save them. So when DC Talk says that “love drives them
near,” they are right, but it’s not me telling them, “I love you, man!” It’s God drawing them in love.
And here’s the odd thing about the song – it sets us a new
and unbiblical law for us to follow. They
repeat the phrase “You gotta say it” endlessly in the song while blaming the
world’s problems on us not saying it.
Goodness! The command to walk
around saying “I love you” to everyone is not in God’s Law.
Overall
The theology here is very confused, and at times almost
pagan in its suggestion that this incantation has mystical powers over the ways
of the world. The song confuses the
Gospel, its doctrine of sin, and its understanding of the problems in society. I’m not even sure that the lyrics were very
thought-out, as convoluted as they are, but we must give this one the same
grade that the day-dreaming student gets when he misses the entire point of the
essay question on the exam – F.