Justin Bieber (Feat. Chance The Rapper) – Holy

Canadian singer and songwriter Justin Bieber who began his career in 2007 and became a hit teen sensation.  Now in his 20’s, he remains popular in the secular world for his music, earning more awards and achievements than I’d care to count.

He released seven albums, including:

• My World 2.0 (2010)
• Under the Mistletoe (2011)
• Believe (2012)
• Purpose (2015)
• Changes (2020)
• Home for Christmas (2020)
• Justice (2021)

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Justin-bieber-holy-lyrics.

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.

1. What message does the song communicate?

Bieber makes many statements, some of which are great, not so good, or unclear:

Great

• Describing the sanctity of love and sex within marriage
• Distancing himself from dramatic people and others who wear masks
• Rejects Nirvana
• Not listening to foolish counsel
• Acknowledging that God turns people with hard and ugly hearts into a beautiful masterpiece
• Remaining faithful to his wife and God

Not so good

• Bieber is Christian and cannot be a saint, which is a contradiction
• Bieber may not get water baptized and remain a Christian
• Bieber taking God’s name in vain
• Communion finalizes faith in Jesus

Unclear

• How does the first step please the Father?  In section 2, I guessed that it’s talking about conversion.
• I don’t understand some of the pop culture references in Verse 3 contextualized in this song.  See section 2 for details.  Please post comments to help me out!

Score: 6/10

2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?

While some of it agrees with Scripture, other lines do not.  The latter are listed in section 1, under Not so good.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1 and 2: While Bieber may or may not be aware that sinners are people who violate God’s Laws, Commandments, or both, of which we’re all guilty (Psalm 14:1-3, Psalm 53:1-3, Job 15:14, Ecclesiastes 7:20, Jeremiah 17:9, Romans 3:10, Romans 3:23, and 1 John 1:8-10), for Bieber to say that he can’t become a saint is like saying he can never become a Christian. After all, the word “saint” comes from hagios, which means “holy” or “set apart”.  Christians are set apart from the world as His adopted children (John 1:12-13, John 14:18, Romans 8:14-17, Romans 8:23, Romans 9:1-8, Galatians 3:26, Galatians 4:5-7, Ephesians 1:3-14, Ephesians 2:11-22, Hebrews 9:15, and 1 John 3:1-3).

Line 3: Bieber might go down?  Jesus commands us to become baptized by water (Matthew 28:19).  To say he might go down indicates that he might disobey Jesus, which is a no-no for Christians.

Lines 3-5: References Matthew 3:16-17 and Luke 3:21-22, where the heavens were opened up after Jesus’ baptism.  Bieber claims to have a similar experience when interacting with his wife.

[Chorus]

Lines 1 and 2: That is, Bieber’s experience with his wife is set apart from anything else he’s experienced in life.  Love in marriage is set apart from other forms that are unholy, such as fornication, lust, and adultery, which lead to damnation (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

Line 3: Bieber blasphemes the name of God, violating Exodus 20:7.

Line 4 and 5: References Bieber’s quick marriage to his wife Hailey.

Lines 6 and 7: Essentially repeats lines 1 and 2.

[Verse 2]

Lines 1 and 2: Factions and fake people are distasteful to Bieber.  God also hates quarreling (Proverbs 21:19, 2 Timothy 2:23, and Titus 3:9-11) and fakers (1 Corinthians 15:33 and 1 John 1:8).

Lines 3 and 4: Nirvana is the Buddhist equivalent of heaven.  Bieber doesn’t believe in it.

Lines 5 and 6: That is, the consummation of marriage through sex, where the two become one flesh (Genesis 2:24, Matthew 19:5, and Ephesians 5:31).

[Bridge]

Line 1: That is, many wise people would have counseled Bieber, to date longer before marrying his wife.

Line 2: People who don’t love women like the Bible teaches advise Bieber to avoid getting married.

Line 3: See commentary on line 1.

Line 4: Bieber chooses not to take advice from the foolish and wise. The latter is unwise (Proverbs 12:15, Proverbs 14:16, and Proverbs 19:20), but not sinful in Bieber’s case.

Lines 5-8: Repeats lines 1-4.

[Verse 3]

Lines 1 and 2: Bieber doesn’t make this clear, but it sounds like the first step of becoming a Christian.  If so, then I agree with his assessment, at least, with some people.  It is difficult to deny self to follow Jesus (Matthew 10:38, Matthew 16:24-26, and Luke 14:27).

Lines 3 and 4: Water baptism signifies faith placed in Jesus.  It marks us as “Jesus’ people”, where God takes our heart of stone and converts it to flesh (Ezekiel 11:19-20, Ezekiel 36:26, and 2 Corinthians 5:17).

Line 5: References Pesci’s role as Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas, a short-tempered individual.  For Bieber, life’s too short to act that way (James 4:14).

Line 6: References Bieber’s fame.

Line 7: I don’t understand the play on words, but the public doesn’t see Bieber’s wife as he does.

Line 8: I’m not sure Bieber’s point, about bringing up a cross-over dribble in Basketball.  But, I suspect it references his past idolatry of the sport.  See commentary on lines 10-12.

Line 9: References the left-footed soccer player Lionel Messi, who did something different than everyone else.

Lines 10-12: Taking extravagant trips and smoking a joint are examples of worldly living that Bieber is attempting to avoid (1 John 2:15-17).  He wants to honor Jesus and the Father through obedience (Matthew 25:34-40, John 14:15, John 14:21-24, John 15:10-14, 1 Peter 1:14-15, 1 John 2:3-5, 1 John 4:19-20, 1 John 5:2-3, and 2 John 1:6).

Lines 13 and 14: See commentary on Verse 1, lines 1-3.

Lines 15-16: Combines Oscar Proud from Disney’s The Proud Family, who owned a snacking company, with the idiom “snack”, which means “attractive”.  This communicates the process where God makes us better people, often through trials and tribulations (Romans 5:3-5, Hebrews 12:4-11, and James 1:2-4).

Line 17: Bieber is incorrect.  Communion is about remembering what Christ did for us (Matthew 26:26-28, Mark 14:22-24, Luke 22:19-20, and 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, not about formalizing our union with Him.

Lines 18 and 19: Bieber intends to stay married and a Christian, much like how God will remain faithful to them (Numbers 23:19, Deuteronomy 7:9, Psalm 33:4, Psalm 91:4, Psalms 119:90, Lamentations 3:22-23, 1 Corinthians 1:9, 1 Corinthians 10:13, 2 Thessalonians 3:3, 2 Timothy 2:13, Hebrews 10:23, 2 Peter 3:9, and 1 John 1:9).

Score: 6/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

I doubt that many unbelievers will comprehend the Biblical meaning of holiness within the context of Christianity.  They might see the waters as baptism, sin as error but not lawbreaking, and communion as that time when Christians eat bread and drink grape juice to remember what Jesus did.  I’m not as certain about the sky opening; however, they will probably understand the pop culture references better than I do.  Finally, it won’t be hard to figure out what Bieber’s doing with his wife.

Score: 6/10

4. What does this song glorify?

While it glorifies God that Bieber will remain faithful to God and his wife, the aforementioned issues in section 1 significantly shrouds it.

Score: 6/10

Closing Comments

Justin Bieber’s Holy has potential but contains much error.  Considering that Bieber sings to an unbelieving audience, I applaud his message of faithfulness to his wife, that loving her at night while married to her is the right way to do it, magnifying its holiness, set apart from his former worldly ways of fame, vacations, and pot smoking.  These glorify God.  However, breaking the third commandment and erroneous statements about the purpose of communion, baptism, and becoming a saint makes it difficult to recommend.  Especially since unbelievers probably won’t know that these are mistakes.

Even if these are addressed, this song is not a worship song.  Thus, it should not be used for corporate worship.

Final Score: 6/10

Artist Info

Track: Holy (listen to the song)

Artist: Justin Bieber (Feat. Chance The Rapper)

Album: Home for Christmas

Genre: Pop

Release Year: 2020

Duration: 3:33

Agree?  Disagree?  Don’t be shy or have a cow!  Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.