248. Extreme - "More Then Words"

"More Than Words" is a ballad written and originally performed by American rock band Extreme. It is built around acoustic guitar work by Nuno Bettencourt and the vocals of Gary Cherone (with harmony vocals from Bettencourt). Released in 1990 on the album Extreme II: Pornograffiti, the song is a detour from the funk metal style that permeates the band's records. As such, it has been often described as "a blessing and a curse" due to its overwhelming success and repercussion worldwide, but the band ultimately embraces it and plays it on every show. This song appears in the 1999 album Monster Ballads. The song was described by Bettencourt as a song warning that the phrase "I love you" was becoming meaningless: "People use it so easily and so lightly that they think you can say that and fix everything, or you can say that and everything's OK. Sometimes you have to do more and you have to show it—there's other ways to say 'I love you.'"

Saying "I love you"
Is not the words
I want to hear from you
It's not that I want you
Not to say
But if you only knew

How easy
It would be to
Show me how you feel
More than words
Is all you have to do
To make it real
Then you wouldn't
Have to say
That you love me
Cause I'd already know

What would you do?
If my heart
Was torn in two
More than words
To show you feel
That your love
For me is real
What would you say
If I took
Those words away
Then you couldn't
Make things new,
Just by saying
"I love you"
More than words,
More than words

Now that I've tried to
Talk to you
And make you understand
All you have to do
Is close your eyes
And just reach out your hands

And touch me
Hold me close
Don't ever let me go
More than words
Is all I ever
Needed you to show
Then you wouldn't
Have to say
That you love me
Cause I'd already know

What would you do if my heart was torn in two
More than words to show you feel
That your love for me is real
What would you say if I took those words away
Then you couldn't make things new
Just by saying I love you

La di da, da di da, di dai dai da
More than words

La di da, da di da, di dai dai da
More than words

La di dai, dai dai, di dai dai da
La la di da da da

La di dai dai da
La la da da
More than words

Oooh uuuuh uuuh
Uuh

More than words

This song "More Then Words" does what it says on the tin. Essentialy it's a song about actions. In the lyrics we find sentence structures like "All you have to do, Is close your eyes, And just reach out your hands" The songs pushes forward the theme of love in action. In other words "Selfless love" that you can see, touch, feel. It's concrete it's not just platitudes, It's gutsy. In the reading this morning in Luke 10:25-37 Jesus explores with an expert of the law what selfless, costly love looks like.

The characteristic of Selfless Love is one of the most important traits any follower of Jesus can have. It’s so significant that Jesus said it is the second most important of all God’s commandments: “You will love your neighbour as yourself” (Mark 12:31; cf. Galatians 5:14). Jesus wasn’t creating a new law here; He was merely agreeing with and expounding on an Old Testament law (Leviticus 19:18). James calls this the “royal” law to emphasise its supreme value to God (James 2:8). Jesus had much to say about Selfless Love during His earthly ministry. In the Sermon on the Mount, He goes beyond what some may think of as Selfless Love — helping a friend, ministering to a spouse, caring for an ill child, etc. Jesus extends Selfless Love far beyond normal expectations—we are to love our enemies, even, and pray for our persecutors (Matthew 5:44). Jesus taught that it’s easy to love a friend or a spouse—even unbelievers do that (Matthew 5:47). The follower of Jesus is expected to love the unlovable, because this is how we become more like God, who gives blessings to everyone (Matthew 5:45). It’s a difficult thing to lay aside hurt feelings and wounded hearts, but that’s part of being selfless.

As in so many areas, Jesus is the ultimate example of Selfless Love. In coming into this world, “he made himself nothing” and took upon Himself “the very nature of a servant” (Philippians 2:7). Now, as followers of Christ, we are to “have the same mind-set” (Philippians 2:5). Jesus came not for His own benefit but for ours. He came to minister to us and die for us: “Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Humanly speaking, Jesus gave up His will for God’s will (Luke 22:42)—and this is another striking point: Selfless Love involves more than putting other people first; it is putting God first. As John the Baptist said concerning Jesus, “He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30). More of the Lord; less of us.

Selfless Love is illustrated well in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan In this "Jesus" story we see this Selfless Love in action. The parable of the Good Samaritan is a story about a man from Samaria who encounters a robbery victim. The Samaritan has compassion on this man, who had been stripped, beaten, and left for dead (Luke 10:30). The Samaritan immediately puts his own plans on hold and tends to the man’s wounds (Luke 10:34). Not only does the Samaritan give selflessly of his time and his sympathy, but he gives selflessly of his assets. The Samaritan places the wounded man on his own animal, takes the man to an inn, and takes care of him there (Luke 10:34–35). The next day, the Samaritan pays the innkeeper money enough for a few more days at the inn, with a promise to return and pay the balance of whatever was owed (Luke 10:35). Jesus’ story reveals the Samaritan to be a supply of Selfless Love in numerous ways as we will see. He put the needs of others ahead of his own and went out of his way to shower benevolence on a battered stranger.

Selfless Love runs counter to human nature, which is why being selfless is so much more difficult than being selfish. It’s natural to care about ourselves, and we are encouraged to think selfishly from all sides. However, as followers of Jesus we must take to heart the words of the apostle Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). No believer, young or old, can live a life of selfless Love without a constant abiding in the Jesus, for it is only through Him that our attitudes can be changed and moulded toward unselfish behaviours. If Christ indeed lives in us and we keep in step with Him, we should find ourselves identifying with, rather than marvelling at, the Good Samaritan.