Jason DeFord, known to family, friends, and the world as “Jelly Roll,” shook up the monotonous succession of politicized Grammy speeches by beginning: “First of all, Jesus, I hear you, and I’m listening, Lord. I am listening, Lord.” Going on to credit his wife and Jesus for saving his life, he concluded dynamically by saying, “I believe that music had the power to change my life, and God had the power to change my life. And I want to tell y’all right now: Jesus is for everybody. Jesus is not owned by one political party. Jesus is not owned by no [sic] music label. Jesus is Jesus, and anybody can have a relationship with him.”
Note: This video contains brief imagery of revealing attire
Even more shocking than the speech itself, the crowd—known more for degrading Jesus rather than their dedication to him—erupted in electric cheering. Jelly Roll himself has had a dissonant relationship with the church, the law, women, drugs, and alcohol. Raised in a home fractured by addiction, he ended up in prison by the age of fifteen. After years of cycling through jail cells, his life took a trajectory shift when he became a parent. Determined to provide a better future for his daughter, he earned his GED while incarcerated, refusing to rely on drug dealing to support her. In his Grammy acceptance speech he shared, “There was a moment in my life when all I had was a Bible this big and a radio the same size and a six-by-eight-foot cell, and I believed that those two things could change my life.”
You Will Know Them by Their Fruit
While Jelly Roll’s journey has clearly taken a turn for the better, he remains rough around the edges. He rarely completes an interview or speech without peppering it with profanity. Though he has left hard drugs behind, his conversations and music include positive references regarding marijuana use. In interviews, he demonstrates familiarity with Scripture, yet interprets it through a cultural lens that says Jesus spent time with sinners; therefore it’s okay to be a sinner.
However, Scripture clearly says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Jesus talks about knowing a person by their harvest, saying that good trees produce choice crops and bad trees bear diseased fruit (Matthew 7:16-20). Just as a moth is not made in a moment—it first undergoes metamorphosis—and trees can be pruned and fed over time to bear good fruit in season, the same is true for human beings. Genuine change and growth are progressions—they require nurture and patience.
So far, Jelly Roll’s fruit is mixed—or immature—and only time will tell if he’s willing to be pruned of his cultural understanding of Biblical interpretation in order to bear admirable fruit. His raw honesty regarding life offers a glimmer of hope that he is seeking the right path, needing godly mentors and the Holy Spirit to guide him into all truth (John 16:13-14).
Examine Yourself
Jelly Roll’s Grammy speech offers us an opportunity to pray for him to be discipled in God’s Word and to bear good fruit for this spiritually starving culture. It also opens the door for conversations with others, giving us a chance to talk about Jesus without forcing a segue. Perhaps more immediately, it gives us a reason to pause and examine ourselves. While we may not know exactly where Jelly Roll stands with the Lord, we can review our recent conversations and actions. Are we meditating on Scripture regularly to stay rooted in truth? Are we adopting the world’s view of Jesus—that he came simply to befriend sinners—rather than seeing Jesus as Scripture shows him: both man and God, loving sinners by calling them to true repentance, a turning away from sin and toward God?
The Apostle Paul tells us to “walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). He then goes on to list evident works of the flesh: Eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry (trusting in anyone or anything other than God first), spiritism (encouraging the activity of demons), hatred and fighting, jealousy and anger, constant effort to get the best for yourself, complaints and criticisms, the feeling that everyone else is wrong except those in your own little group, envy, murder, and drunkenness (from Galatians 5:19–21 TLB).
It may be easy to use those verses to say, “See, this or that celebrity is not a Christian.” And indeed, the above outworkings are ways to assess whether someone is Spirit-led or walking in their flesh. But before we can discern whether another person is walking according to the Spirit or the flesh, we ought to consider whether any of the above applies to us. Jealousy, anger, envy, wanting the best for ourselves, thinking only our little group is right, complaining, criticising—these are things most of us have practised openly or have succumbed to in our deepest hearts. For this, let us repent. And let us ask the Holy Spirit for help to bear his fruit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
“I Am Listening, Lord”
Jelly Roll is right on the money about one thing: “Jesus is for everybody . . . Jesus is Jesus, and anybody can have a relationship with him.” Jesus is who he says he is: God incarnate (John 17:11) and the Son of Man (Luke 22:69). He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one can know God the Father without coming through him (John 14:6). As Christians, we should be quick to both live out and say, “Jesus, I hear you, and I’m listening, Lord. I am listening, Lord.”