Hillsong United:
“All I need is You
All I need is You Lord
Is You Lord”
Heritage Singers:
“Jesus is all I need
Jesus is all I need
I need no other friend
I need no other one
Jesus is all I need”
I am well aware of the poetic use of hyperbole, exaggerating in order to make a point. We see Jesus using this in the Bible when he declares we must hate our parents (Luke 14:26), or cutting off ones hands to prevent sinning (Matt 5:30). These can be explained better elsewhere. So, a song such as “He is everything to me” can make sense, in the spirit of that ‘bigger than life’ saying.
However, it is not necessarily true that God is everything. That is another worldview, not Christianity. Hindu, I believe, sees God or god as all encompassing. In Christianity, God is Creator of all creation, but He is not created but is self existing, and set apart - holy.
A. J. Swoboda, in his book, The Dusty Ones, is quite outspoken about the use of the phrase.
“Only a perverted form of Christianity would say that all one needs is God and nothing else. Nobody actually believes that nor is it even close to being true. I could have God but no food and I would die. Such a theology departs entirely from the life of Jesus, God in the flesh. Jesus himself modeled the life of needing. As Christians, in this time and place we have been provided a kind of script. The script, whether we are aware of it or not, is one of complete self-completion and needlessness. Again we may or may not be conscious of it but we all need but we all read from this script.
“This conception of faith - of being people without needs - raises a bunch a perfectly legitimate questions. Is faith really about self-fulfillment? Is Christianity about making people who don’t need others? If so, isn’t this different from the way Jesus lived his own life?
“A disciple must learn the lesson that God isn’t primarily in the wants business. Hopefully, reexamining the life of Jesus - a life marked by real needs - will help the age old belief that all we need is God retreat into the obscurity it so deserves”.
from The Dusty Ones, A. J. Swoboda, Baker Books, 2016, pp 116-117
As an amateur songwriter, I am concerned about the words I use, and whether they are biblically true. I look to other Songwriters and their songs for examples. Gloria Gaither is one of the top Christian Songwriters. Here is how she explains what she thinks about this familiar phrase.
“When I was young we would sing “Jesus is All I Need.” I never really like that song much. I argued In my mind whenever we sang it, Well, I, for one, need a lot more. I need someone to love me. I need a warm body, a friendly face, someone to talk to at breakfast, and, more than that, someone who will talk back. I need quiet walks on the beach and a good cup of coffee with a friend to whom I don’t have to explain myself.
“How shallow I was. Over the years I have come to notice that in the Gospel accounts, whenever someone had a need, Jesus answered with the ancient God words: “I AM.” And life is teaching me why Jesus answered with the words “I AM”.
“I can hear his disciples. Around the campfire on the Sea of Galilee, they’re singing the chorus, “Jesus Is All That I Need,” and Peter says—-in his typical blurt-it-out fashion—-“Well, that’s all well and good, but I for one need some supper!” And Jesus answers simply but with a certain finality, “I AM the bread.”
“There is the woman at the well. As she lifts to the surface the heavy bucket brimming with sweet water, she thinks, How lovely to have this deep well that has survived all the generations. I may be an outcast, but it least I have this well. I need this water. Suddenly the stranger who has just Asked for a drink says, “If only you knew, you’d ask Me for a drink. This well is temporary, but I AM the Water that never runs dry, and I quench thirsts that no water can satisfy.”
from page 55 and 56 of Something Beautiful by Gloria Gaither, FaithWords, 2007
Not only is Jesus the Bread of Life to Peter, or is He giving Living Water to that woman at the well, but Gloria also mentions that He is the Resurrection and the Life to Martha, “I AM” the Way to Thomas, and “I AM” the King and the Truth to Pilate.
However, if given enough thought, I believe that Jesus is saying that the need for Him and God, in general, is paramount but not the only needs we have. It’s like the diagrams for evangelism that show a circle with God’s throne in the center, and all the other needs within the circle, but to the sides. I think the “I AM” statements referred by Gloria Gaither mean instead that God is the LORD of our needs. While our need for God is big, we also have other needs. God does supply our needs, as He promised, but these are in addition to our basic need for Him.
In certain areas of the world, it might not be as needy as in other areas. We must not diminish people, whose needs seem to be more, by dismissing their physical needs by saying, ‘God is all you need’. Yes, we are His hands and feet, and He can use us to meet others needs. The incarnate Jesus had real needs, and He also supplied His disciples with fried fish for example. Jesus never said He was our only need. But those who know Him, know Him as Lord.
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