OK, so I really hope I do not step on any toes when I say this but, the new song "H.O.L.Y." by Florida Georgia Line is very controversial in my eyes. The duo released the song in late April and it has been quite the trend among a lot of folks. When I heard the song for the first time, I will admit, it was a catchy sound, but after I listened to it a second time, I noticed some lyrics that I was not fond of. I searched for the lyrics online and began reading them and they just struck me in the wrong way. Some of the lyrics were phrases or sayings that are in the Bible and should only be used toward God, not a woman. I wanted to take a few of these lines from the song and look at them in a different sense.
First, I want to talk about the chorus since that is the main part of the song. The song is supposed to be a heartfelt song about their wives, but the chorus says, "You're holy, holy, holy." When I say that someone is "holy," I am referring to Jesus and Him alone. There are a couple times in the Bible that Jesus is referred to as Holy. In Revelation 4:8, it says, "and they rest not day and night, saying, holy holy holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." In Isaiah 6:3, it says, "and they were calling to one another: "holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." God is the most highest of high and He is the only one that is "holy." It is also proven in the Bible that God is a jealous God and when you are saying that someone other than Him is Holy, it is basically a false god, which we will look at later. They next part about the chorus that I found was the actual tune of it. If you actually listen to the old hymn, "Holy Holy Holy! Lord God Almighty!" and "Holy Holy Holy" by Matt Redman, the tune is eerily similar to that of FGL's song.
The next verse is "but somehow baby, you broke through and saved me." Psalm 20:6 says, "Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand." Matthew 19:25-26 says, "When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, 'who then can be saved?' Jesus looked at them and said, 'with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.'" In Acts 4:12, it says, "and there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." To me, it is very clear that we can never be saved by anything other than through Jesus and His shed blood for us. I know saying that our significant other "saved" us is OK and I would not have thought of it anymore if that was the only Christian-like saying in the song. Jesus paid a hefty price for us to be forgiven of our sins and to hopefully be saved; it was definitely not a price that a girl would pay to "save" you.
Next, we have a line that says, "You made the brightest days from the darkest nights." In John 8:12, it states: "Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world, he who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but have the light of life." As I stated in the previous paragraph, Jesus paid it all, and He is the light of every Christian's life. God is the one that rescues us from the darkness and brings us to the light, no one else.
Another few lines in the song are, "You're the river bank where I was baptized," "You're the healing hands where it used to hurt," "You're my saving grace," "You're my kinda church." Again, God is the highest of high. He is the healer and great physician. God is our saving grace. God is the one that helps us in every situation. There are several verses in the Bible that prove all of these things and it is very deceiving to God when we put other things in his place.
When we put other people or things in the place of God, it is creating false gods and that is the biggest thing that sticks out to me in this song. When I hear this song, I sense that they are worshiping their girlfriend/wife. The biggest problem in our world today is false gods. You may think I am crazy, but there are so many different things that could become a false god for even you or me. When we are constantly checking on the latest baseball scores, checking Facebook, checking Instagram, playing video games, or any other thing that takes time, we are using our extra time to do these things instead of using that time to dig into the Word or simply pray. In Psalm 4:2, it says, "how long will you people turn my glory into shame? How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?"
Our generation needs to stop putting relationships, sports, and games in front of God and start seeking His face in everything we do.
Like I said in the beginning, I agree that this song is very catchy and all of this is simply my opinion. The thing that scares me is the fact that no one notices it when they hear it. The main thing everyone is worried about is, "Oh my goodness, Florida Georgia Line has a new song," but no one will dare stand up against the song for what they believe in. Little sneaky verses like the ones I have showed you are being put into a lot of songs now and it is encouraging the fans to create these false gods without even realizing it, eventually pulling us further and further away from God.
