"Nothing you confess
Could make me love you less.
I’ll stand by you."
That lyric really grabbed me the very first time I heard Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders sing “I'll Stand By You.” The full lyrics speak to something deep within me. My soul responds to them.
“I'll Stand By You” is about someone struggling with life’s most difficult challenges: experiencing deep sadness, suppressing anger, encountering the darkness of this world—and finding some of that darkness on the inside. That’s hard stuff, stuff most of us at least recognize, stuff we may even have experienced ourselves. If that were the whole song, it would be very sad, indeed. But there’s more.
The lyrics pair each hard thing with a response.
The song is sung by a person who loves the one facing all those problems. The singer’s responses? When you’re sad, don’t be ashamed to cry. Let me into your sadness with you. When you’re angry, don’t hold it all inside. Come talk to me about it: I get angry, too. And when that darkness falls on you? I’m not afraid to go into your darkest place. And, most important, I will stay in there with you. I will never desert you.
Over and over, the singer declares: No matter what you suffer, no matter what you’ve done, “Nothing you confess could make me love you less. I’ll stand by you.” If that sounds like loving your neighbor the way Jesus taught, you’re getting to the heart of the matter.
This week's Exodus passage is, on one level, all about the Ten Commandments. But you can’t rightly divide those few verses from the entire story of God’s involvement with the Children of Israel. Until Jesus, God’s commandments were viewed as restrictions—a long, long list of “don'ts.” But when we view them through the lens of Jesus defining the greatest commandments, we see that all of them are, one way or the other, about love: loving God and loving our neighbors.
Kurt Kaiser, one of the cornerstones of modern Christian music, once told me: “You can live your entire life by a wonderful lyric.” Can the lyrics of “I’ll Stand By You” be that for me? Maybe. It seems to me that it comes down to whether I can love God, willingly receive love from God, and then love others with the love poured into me by God. That process will likely continue to be a challenge for me. But, while I’m growing in that direction, there is one thing I can do:
If you need me, I’ll stand by you.
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GRAPHIC: Adobe Express filtered through Photoshop Express
Hear Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders sing “I’ll Stand By You” (video with lyrics):
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Friday morning is DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast! Join us at 8:00 for an amazing hour of scripture, fellowship, prayer, and food. We're still on Zoom* and in Waco at Our Breakfast Place.
The food costs, but the laughter is free.
Blessings,
Steve
*Zoom link (Zoom allows you to mute the camera and the microphone if you don’t wish to be seen or heard):
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89947678414
SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK
Find them here:
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?y=17134&z=p&d=78
Print them from here:
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Ax_Proper22.pdf
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
Psalm 19
Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm 80:7-15
Philippians 3:4b-14
Matthew 21:33-46
Proper 22 (27) (October 4, 2026)
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