Sidewalk Prophets – You Love Me Anyway

Forming in Anderson University, in the state of Indiana, Sidewalk Prophets receive their first break in 2003.  Without their consent, a helpful individual took their demo to a recording contest, earning them a slot to perform in front of an audience.  This, in turn, lead to exposure to record labels and radio program managers.  On one occasion, a random meeting with Audio Adrenaline’s Will McGinnis gave frontman Dave Frey an opportunity to sing his heart out to a crowd of 20,000 individuals, further exposing their name and music to many.  The rest, as they say, is history.

As of this writing, they released five albums, including their 2009 hit These Simple Truths, and a single EP: You Love Me Anyway, containing the same title as this song review.  They received a GMA Dove Award for New Artist of the Year in 2010 and were nominated for Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year  for These Simple Truths that same year, Group of the Year in 2011, and Song of the Year  for Live Like That in 2013.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Sidewalk-prophets-you-love-me-anyway-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?

Despite our worst failures and resistance to God’s will, He chose to love us, by surrendering His life to pay for our error.  That’s the entire message in a nutshell.

While I have some criticism regarding its Biblical accuracy (see section 2), these have minimal impact on Sidewalk Prophets’ message.

Score: 9/10

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

Though I find most of it Biblical, I have some concerns with Stanza 1, lines 7-9 and Stanza 3, line 3.

Since there is no Verse/Chorus/Bridge designation, I assigned stanzas to each paragraph.

[Stanza 1]

Lines 1-6: The Holy Spirit is convicting Sidewalk Prophets on their “white lie” (John 16:8).

Lines 7-9: Line 9 sets the context for lines 7 and 8.  It begs some important questions: What are my dreams?  How do I achieve them?  Are my achievements Godly or worldly?  While I believe that worldly success or chasing fantasies are unbiblical (Proverbs 12:11 and Matthew 6:1-34), part of Godly success compels us to spread the Gospel to the entire world (Matthew 28:18-20), even if we must suffer for it (Matthew 5:10, John 15:18, 1 Peter 3:8-4:19, and 1 John 3:13). Line 9 is biblical or unbiblical, depending on how one answers these questions.

Lines 10-12: Rather than attempting to achieve success (or perhaps address these questions), Sidewalk Prophets expresses their desire to become lazy, consistent with Proverbs 6:9-12, Proverbs 10:4-5, Proverbs 12:24, Proverbs 13:4, Proverbs 14:23, Proverbs 19:15, Proverbs 20:4, Proverbs 24:30-34, Proverbs 26:15, Matthew 25:24-29, 2 Thessalonians 3:10, and 1 Timothy 5:8.

[Stanza 2]

Lines 1-5: Despite Sidewalk Prophets’ laziness, God chooses to love us.  How does God love us?  The singer tells us in Stanza 5.

[Stanza 3]

Lines 1 and 2: Sidewalk Prophets acknowledge that mere effort cannot cause us to be still and wait upon God (Exodus 14:14 and Psalm 46:10).

Line 3: Grammatically, in placement to line 1, Sidewalk Prophets possibly communicates that it takes more than human effort to seek but not find.  This doesn’t make sense and may possibly run contrary to Deuteronomy 4:29, Proverbs 8:17, Jeremiah 29:13, Matthew 7:7, Luke 11:9, and Acts 17:24-28.

On the other hand, it could be that it takes more than human effort to let go of the need to know all of the reasons therein.  Sidewalk Prophets seeks answers, but may not always find them.  The important thing is that they seek.

I am uncertain which conclusion is correct.

Lines 4 and 5: Encompasses our collective changes and doubts by which, according to Stanza 2, God loves us despite these things.

Line 6: It is a natural question for anyone to ask who has lost a loved one, including me who lost a son at 19 weeks in my wife’s womb.  There are no easy answers, but I find the words of Christian apologist Michael Ramsden to be comforting.

[Stanza 4]

Repeats Stanza 2.

[Stanza 5]

Lines 1-6: Our collective sins put Christ on the cross.  Despite our lawbreaking, Christ chose to sacrifice Himself for our transgressions (Romans 5:6-8).

Lines 7 and 8 Judas’ kiss comes from Matthew 26:48-49 and Luke 22:48.  Judas Iscariot plotted with the Sanhedren to betray Jesus, using a kiss as his signal for arrest.  Used in this context, it is not a literal kiss that we betray Christ, but though sin.  See lines 1-6 for further commentary.

[Stanza 6]

Lines 1 and 2: Historically, the crowd in Matthew 27:16-26, Mark 15:13, and Luke 23:21, stirred up by the Pharisees, demanded that Pontious Pilate crucify Jesus.  Contextually, our sin causes Sidewalk prophets to ignore God, as if we want Him dead.

Lines 3 and 4: The smug looks on their faces is a mask for their internal, spiritual stuggle (Matthew 4:1-11, Romans 7:21-25, Ephesians 6:12-17, and 2 Corinthians 10:3-5).  They know that they should avoid sin, but they are resisting the conviction of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8).

Lines 5 and 6: Sidewalk Prophets finally surrenders to God (Isaiah 64:8, Matthew 10:38, Matthew 11:28-30, Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34-38, Mark 10:28, Luke 9:23, Luke 14:27, John 15:1-11, Romans 6:13, Romans 12:1-2, Galatians 2:20, Philippians 2:5-8, Hebrews 11:6, James 4:7-10, and 1 Peter 5:6).

[Stanza 7]

Lines 1-11: Essentially a repeat of Stanza 2.

Score: 8/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Anyone with a rudimentery understanding of Christianity will pick up on the cross references in Stanza’s 5 and 6, contextualizing the entire song as Christian.  With minimal usage of christianese language, unbelievers will easily understand the intended meaning described in section 1.

My critiques in section 2 will have minimal impact on unbeliever interpretation.

Score: 9/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It glorifies God’s love for us, despite our failures to obey Him and resistance to His will, only slightly veiled with a few unclear portions.

Score: 9/10

Closing Comments

Sidewalk Prophets’ You Love Me Anyway is an excellent rendition of Christ’s love for us.  Though it does have some contexual issues, its message is simple, awesome, and easy for all to comprehend.  It also brings glory to God.

If you can move past my issues describes in section 2, consider adding this to your worship set to convict the hearts of your congregation and reminding them of God’s love for them.

Final Score: 8.5/10

Artist Info

Track: You Love Me Anyway (listen to the song)

Artist: Sidewalk Prophets

Album: You Love Me Anyway (EP) and These Simple Truths

Genre: Rock

Release Year: 2007 and 2009

Duration: 4:20

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

Updates:

03/25/2021 – Updated per repetition announcement.

06/20/2020 – Neal Cruco pointed out an error to my overall summary in section 2, that my critique applies to Stanza 1, not stanza 2.  Also, I added Neal’s commentary on my criticism contained in Stanza 3.  Finally, I felt that perfect scores were unjustified in the other sections, slightly lowering its overall score from 9/10 to 8.5/10.