Bubblegum Love
author: Matt Ott
As I continue to search for a place in this world for my music, I invariably turn to Christian music outlets, scan Christian radio stations, and look for similar genres online. The phrase “painfully obvious” is turning into one of my catch phrases, as it is becoming painfully obvious that I cannot go that route either.
I would probably face a worse backlash from what I now call the ‘Bubblegum love’ sector, than from your mainstream rock outlets! And not necessarily because my music style doesn’t seem to match ‘typical’ Christian music (and it doesn’t, lol), but because the biblical truth of my lyrics completely contradicts what seems to be in nearly all contemporary Christian music content: bubblegum love.
Bubblegum love is the phrase I use to describe the completely fallacious contemporary concept that ‘love’ is just an emotion, this funny feeling in your nether regions when you think you ‘connect’ with someone…or something.
The worst part about it is, this kind of love is how God’s love, and our love for Him, is defined by these pansy ass churches and supported by these pansy ass ‘Christian’ artists. I am going to quote Christ himself to remind everyone EXACTLY what love is:
“If you love me, keep my commandments.” Plain and simple. The keeping of His commandment IS love.
There is no room for exceptions here. There is nothing here concerning feelings of butterflies, or sexual arousal, or selfish desires.
TRUE LOVE IS FOLLOWING THE LAWS OF GOD. Not some of them, and not when you feel like, or when it suits you or your situation, but ALL COMMANDMENTS, ALL THE TIME.
Now, let’s only briefly examine the 10 Commandments (which is a concise summation of the spirit of all of God’s laws, and which can be summed up even more in the two great commandments uttered by Christ; Love God, then love your brother:
1) I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Pretty simple. His children are to worship no one else but Him.
2) Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
A prime example of this is the screaming one-eyed rabbi in everyone’s livingroom…
3) Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
This has nothing to do with saying ‘goddammit!’, but everything to do with minimizing the omnipotence of the Almighty Creator. A good example would be Friedrich Neitzsche and his satanic philosophy, “God is dead”. God’s answer: “Neitzsche is dead.”
4) Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Obviously, the ‘days’ in which God created are metaphorical, especially when one of those ‘days’ was spent creating time. The sabbath is the reminder of the eternal rest that is promised us if we follow His commandments. It is also a physical necessity for the proper maintenance of God’s holy temple (the bodies of His children).
5) Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
This can be as simple as minding your parents, as they should be teaching and passing down the laws of God to you. Breaking any of the commandments is dishonoring them.
6) Thou shalt not murder.
Self explanatory. Notice it does not say “kill”. That is an improper rendering and makes many actions in scripture seem completely contradictory to the mandates of God to men in history.
7) Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Adultery is NOT simply cheating on your spouse. To adulterate something means to debase or make impure by adding inferior materials or elements. It is synonymous with fornication, and fornication, to quote Jude, is “the pursuit of strange flesh”. So if you haven’t grasped it yet, this commandment concerns RACE MIXING!
8) Thou shalt not steal.
Do we need an explanation? If it’s not yours…it’s not yours!
9) Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
This is not simply “Do not lie”. Bringing false accusations against your neighbor (who could only be one of your kinsmen) is a heinous crime. The Hebrew word ‘satan’ means ‘false accuser’…
10) Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.
Envy, lust, greed, avarice, etc. all fall into this category. This is the commandment that covers ‘cheating’ on your spouse, NOT #7…
In Conclusion
If you are not making the effort to follow these simple rules, YOU DO NOT LOVE GOD AND YOUR BRETHREN, BUT HATE THEM, AND DESPISE EVERYTHING THAT THEY STAND FOR! THERE IS NO ROOM FOR BUBBLEGUM LOVE IN CHRISTIANITY!