The Commodores – Jesus Is Love – 1980

Happy Easter.

I chose this song for Easter because the second I heard it again, it took me straight back to Sunday mornings as a kid.
My mother used to have a local religious radio program on every single Sunday while we got dressed for church. That was part of the ritual.
No debate, no escape, no fake sick day magic.
Just church clothes, Sunday energy, gospel music in the room, and news about churches from around our area.
And if my memory is serving me right, that program seemed to close with “Jesus Is Love” almost every week.

That song got in me early.

It was one of the first songs I learned as a pre teen, and to this day I still know it inside and out.
Some songs do not just remind you of a time.
They remind you of who you were in that time.
This is one of those songs for me.
It carries that soft, sacred Sunday morning feeling.
You can hear the comfort in it.
You can hear the teaching in it.
You can hear the kind of love a lot of us were raised on.

And let’s be real, this was The Commodores showing just how deep their range really was.
People talk about the funk, the slow jams, the hits, and rightly so.
But “Jesus Is Love” was something else.
It was written by Lionel Richie and appeared on the group’s 1980 Heroes album.
It was produced by the Commodores with James Anthony Carmichael, and it even crossed onto the Billboard R&B chart, which says a lot for a record this rooted in faith and testimony.

What always gets me is that this song does not sound performative.
It sounds sincere.
It sounds like a belief.
It sounds like somebody trying to reach people with tenderness instead of noise.
That opening line still lands the way it is supposed to.
No tricks.
No gimmicks.
Just truth.

For me, Easter has always been about reflection, memory, and the kind of love that holds people together when life gets heavy.
So this pick felt right.
Some songs entertain you.
Some songs live with you.
This one has been walking with me since childhood.

Happy Easter.
djz7

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