By: Ian McKerracher

The mention of a Christian Worldview generally conjures up academic discussions about the existence of God, evolution vs. creation, the problem of evil, the inspiration of Scripture, and so on. Too often we fail to realise that the individual’s worldview, Christian or otherwise, is built up, bit by bit, by literally everything the person sees and hears from birth onward. This is why Jesus admonished his disciples to “let the little children come to me” (Mat. 19:14). He knew the slightest exposure to his love and grace could change the course of a life forever.

Certainly, this was my experience. My family was not religious, but even so I dimly remember a brief season when we went to church. I was about five or six at the time, but what happened way back then made all the difference. My father was a military man, and for reasons unknown to me the family's attendance at the Protestant Chapel must have been mandated. Once the required season was over, so was our attendance. 

Nevertheless, memories remain. I remember, for instance, the experience of walking a half-dozen blocks on the army base to get to the chapel. There were eight of us kids, so you can imagine the job my mother had herding the McKerracher mob down the street. But I don’t remember that part. Instead, I remember the sunshine and the warmth that enveloped me on those days. We went to the Protestant church because we were not Catholic, but that meant we had to walk past the Catholic Church to get there. I remember walking past, wishing I was Catholic. Why? I didn’t think I’d met God in the Protestant Church, so I assumed He must be at the other. 

Turns out I was wrong about not meeting God, and this is what I want to explain. We did a lot of singing at the Protestant church. First, we joined the main congregation for the singing part of the service, then we were ushered to Sunday School where we did more singing. Since we were a church of military families, you will likely assume—correctly— that our favourite hymn was “Onward Christian Soldiers.” But for us little kids, the song of choice was “Jesus Loves Me.” To this day, whenever we sing that song at church I am transported back to that magic moment in my childhood.

“Jesus Loves Me” has been around a long time. The words were written by Anna Bartlett Warner in 1860, with William Batchelder Bradbury adding the tune and chorus a couple of years later. It quickly became one of the world’s most popular hymns, and was especially popular in China! The song’s attachment to children’s ministries happened organically over the next century-and-a-half, probably because of the simplicity of the message.

Simple, yes, but also profound. When the celebrated theologian Karl Barth was asked if he could summarise his life’s work in theology, he said, “Yes, I can. In the words of a song, learned at my mother’s knee: ‘Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.’” The words may be simple, but the hymn’s theology is deep and Christ-centred.  Consider just the first verse.

Jesus loves me—this I know,

For the Bible tells me so:

Little ones to him belong—

They are weak, but he is strong.

“Jesus loves me,” a phrase so familiar that to adult ears it almost sounds tautological, like water is wet. During the Jesus People’s Movement in the 60s and 70s of last century, it was a common sentiment found on lapel buttons, Bible covers, and Christian graffiti. (We didn’t have social media to satisfy the itch for public expression, so what else could we do?) But what does this simple phrase actually say?

First, it assumes that Jesus actively loves me, not just in His incarnation, but right now, in real-time in the twenty-first century. But for Him to love me now, He must be alive in the present, even though history points to a moment two thousand years ago when He died on a Roman cross. Surely, you can see how the simple truth that Jesus loves me also encourages me to believe that his love led Him to die for me, and that God’s grace raised Him from the dead! All that from three little words.

But there’s more! That Jesus loves me is GOOD NEWS! He is not my enemy. He is not against me. But He should be. He is holy—perfectly holy. But I am not holy, not even close, and that puts us at odds in significant ways. If God is perfect, then he is perfectly just, and perfect justice demands that I be punished for failing to honour His perfection, or obey His perfect commands. And if that was the whole story, then I would be DOOMED!  Thankfully, God loves me enough to provide a solution for my lack of holiness. He sent His Son to satisfy His justice by suffering in my place, and then He clothed me in Jesus’ perfect righteousness, so that I can be declared legally righteous (Rom. 3:26; Isaiah 53:11) and fraternally holy (Eph. 1:5-6; Col. 1:13)! And then, believe it or not, He worked in me the miracle of new life. He caused me to be born again, no longer an heir to Adam’s sin, but to His Son’s heavenly life (Tit. 3:3-6). He really, really loves me!

How do I know all this? Well, as I’ve just demonstrated, the Bible tells me so! A major aspect of saving faith means I trust God’s word to tell me God’s truth. This interplay between the Word of God and the work of God means that the Bible alone gives us the building materials for a genuine worldview i.e., the world as God sees it. These things are real because I am saved. But not merely saved to go to heaven when I die. God, in His three-Person fullness, continues to create a heavenward change in my human nature through my engagement with the Scriptures. The “Jesus loves me” part is the evident motivation in God to ensure that I do not remain in the sinful state in which I began my walk with Him. That sure makes me thankful.

The “Little ones to Him belong” line in the song is a reminder that we are His special possession. Belonging to Him is a privilege of untold blessing. Yes, it comes with a cost, the cost of being “little,” little in self-aggrandizing, little in assumptions of personal importance, little in comparison to His eternal glory. Still, a life of humility is eternally worthwhile. The Bible comes into play again to remind us that “we are not our own. We were bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:19). The fiction that we belong to ourselves is usually dissipated with some honest introspection. 

In our littleness, we must accept that we are weak, weak against sin, powerless in ourselves against the sin nature, and ineffective in serving the needs of those around us. Left to ourselves, none of these circumstances would ever change. “But He is strong!”  Jesus is strong on our behalf. He is “able to keep our feet from stumbling” (Psalm 116:8) as by His grace we walk away from the limitations of our human nature. Christ in me is the hope of Glory! (Colossians 1:27)

So, that is the story, and the significance, of this children’s hymn. The theology is profound and life-changing, and will remain a challenge to us throughout our adult lives. “Jesus Loves Me,” is often relegated to the kids’ ministries, but close inspection reveals it has been wearing big-boy pants all along. The next time you hear its familiar strains wafting from the hall that leads to the children’s Sunday School, I hope you give a thought to its hidden maturity—and its lessons for adults. That’s how you build your Christian Worldview.

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