I know very little about Jelly Roll though I have read that he has confessed the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord. I just did a Google Search on him and one link from 4/24/2024 says, “Singer Jelly Roll explains how he turned his life around when he came to faith in Jesus and called it his ‘road to Damascus’ moment. Great testimony.” In reading testimonies like this I always want to hope they are true. We are told in 1 Corinthians 13:7 that love “believes all things, hopes all things” which means love is always ready to “put the best possible construction on what we hear” and “hope they are true.”

Having said that, I know that Jelly Roll, like many “country music singers,” may have lyrics in his songs that have “crude language” (some form of profanity or worldliness). But I do consider his very rough background and thus when I hear such things that are not becoming for a Christian, I take into consideration that if he is saved, he is a “newborn babe in Christ” and has “a lot of (spiritual) growing ahead of him.” One look at him with all his facial tattoos tells you he is very “rough around the edges.” He does have some tattoos that seem to have been done AFTER he confessed Christ as his Savior.  I have never been to one of his concerts (or seen them online or on tv) so I can’t speak as to what he’s like when he performs and I know nothing of what his life is like “off the stage.”

Regarding your family and friends who like him and attend his concerts, I would encourage you to be careful in how you speak of Jelly Roll and their obvious fondness for him and his music. If they are Christians, they may use various verses to justify going to his concerts, verses that teach us how we are “not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14) and because of this we have LIBERTY to go to musical concerts. They may take you to Romans chapter 14 which speaks of Christian liberty and then quote verses 10 & 12-13, “Buy why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ…So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way.”

You, on the other hand, could show them (in a LOVING way) verses like 1 Corinthians 6:12 which says, “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.” When the Apostle Paul uses the word “lawful” he is speaking of Christian liberty, and how there are many things we are “permitted to do” that aren’t sinful (in and of themselves). They may be quite innocent, yet Paul knew they may not be “profitable,” for they may not be “helping us grow in our spiritual life.” Paul then goes on to say he didn’t want to be “brought under the power of any” which means there are things that can “enslave us” (cause us to be “addicted to them”). When this happens, we can become so obsessed with them that they become the focus of our life. I have known Christians who are so taken up with SPORTS (football, baseball, soccer, etc.) that they think nothing of forsaking the fellowship of Christians meeting for worship and Bible study so they can attend games that take place on Sunday. In those cases, their “Christian liberty” is being used to justify “forsaking the assembling of ourselves together” (see Hebrews 10:25). We are told in Galatians 5:13, “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE FLESH, but through love serve one another.”

In closing, we do not want to judge our brother where it is a case of true Christian liberty that is harmless yet if we see our brother using their liberty “as an opportunity for the flesh,” we need to ask the Lord for grace to approach them in love with our concerns. Our desire should be to see the Lord glorified and our brother edified and God’s LOVE will lead us to achieve that goal.  (DO)  (664.1)