Every now and again, we change the words to a song before singing it as a church family. “Holding Nothing Back”, by Tim Hughes, is one of them.

Sometimes it’s downright heresy that needs to be cut out of a song. Sometimes it’s changing tenses - changing “I” to “we”, or “me” to “us” - to better reflect the fellowship aspect of singing together as a church family - as opposed to the unhealthy ‘me and God’ attitude that detracts from encouraging each other.

But most often, it’s changing something that’s pretty much true, but potentially misleading. Christian lyrics can be (and often are!) incredibly vague, leaving room for you to inject whatever meaning ‘feels right’.

Here’s the original Pre-Chorus to the song:

Nothing’s gonna hold me back,
Nothing’s gonna hold me back,
Nothing’s gonna hold me back…

In the context of the song, there’s nothing wrong with these words at all: Christ died for our sins once for all! In Him we’re forgiven and washed clean - nothing this world can throw at us will hold us back from the eternal salvation He’s won for us! Singing “Nothing’s gonna hold me back!” is biblical - just read over Hebrews 10:19-23, or Romans 8:28-39!

But what if you were singing it with something else in mind? What if all you could see on the screen were those three lines in a row - what might you be thinking? “Nothing’s gonna stop me getting my way - ’cause my way’s right…”? “Nothing’s gonna keep me from being happy all the time - I don’t have to suffer, I deserve better…”? “Nothing’s gonna hold me back from being the best I can… from reaching my potential… from achieving my goals… from getting ahead… I’ve earned it… I deserve it… Nothing’s gonna hold me back!” The possibilities are endless - and it leaves room for us to inject our ugly pride into the mix. That’s definitely not what this part of God’s word is about.

So, we changed the words:

In Christ you held nothing back,
Now nothing’s gonna change things back,
So nothing’s gonna hold me back…

See the difference? The word’s mightn’t ‘roll of your tongue’ quite as smoothly, but they leave no room for misinterpretation. They keep the focus squarely on what Christ has done as the reason “Nothing’s gonna hold me back” - and that’s worth singing about.