Morgan Wallen’s “Don’t Think Jesus” Lyrics Meaning

It’s safe to say that most of us are raised to be more pious than we actually turn out as adults. In other words, it is while we’re young and malleable that our parents go about trying to instill religious ideologies in us. Also some people, such as Morgan Wallen, come from small-town settings. And such localities often tend to be that residents take spirituality more seriously than those in the outside, larger world.

Lyrics of “Don’t Think Jesus”

So in this song (“Don’t Think Jesus”), we are initially met with a boy aspiring to be a big-time musician. And as depicted in the first verse, he goes about achieving this goal.

Along way, quite early on actually, he also goes about adopting the quintessential male-celebrity lifestyle of “whiskey… women and getting too stoned”. But, he’s the type of individual who was raised as detailed above. So on top of the subject’s own conscience lambasting him for such behavior, his people back home are also reminding him that Jesus himself didn’t get down like that, i.e. living a life of promiscuous sex and drugs. The insinuation of course is that said subject was raised as a Christian.

So then in the second verse, which is set sometime after the first, now it is being implied that the subject’s career has faltered. Or something has happened along that he’s currently “all alone” and obviously depressed. And amidst his melancholy, he resorts to prayer. While doing so, he does something like criticizing God for not intervening earlier, i.e. showing him he was on the wrong path. But based on his religious upbringing, he understands that that’s not how Jesus operates either. That is to imply that by and large, individuals are tasked with initiating their own repentance as opposed to waiting for some calamity to compel them to do so.

And in keeping it real, the vocalist puts forth that if he was Jesus, he wouldn’t even forgive himself, i.e. someone who blatantly and regularly did bad things even though he knew better. But he is also knowledgeable of the fact that the Big J doesn’t roll like that either. Instead, true Biblical teaching dictates that Heaven is ever-ready to receive a penitent sinner.

The Outro

And with that in mind the outro, as with the chorus, reads as if it speaks to more directly Morgan Wallen’s experience, i.e. him singing from the first- as opposed to third-person perspective (as in the verses). 

Wallen has developed a reputation as one of the badder boys in country music and accordingly has had to contend with cancel culture. And he admits that sometimes when people get to criticizing him like that, he’s the type to criticize back. But yet again, he understands that such a modus operandi is not ideal in the eyes of the Lord. And all of this divine knowledge he has attained as implied throughout this piece are based on his comprehension of the ways of Jesus.

Did Morgan Wallen write “Don’t Think Jesus”?

This song was written by “some… friends” of Morgan’s. The said friends are:

• Jessi Alexander
• Mark Holman
• Chase McGill

The track’s producer is Joey Moi.

When did Morgan release this song?

Morgan Wallen is a country musician from Tennessee.  In 2021 his second studio LP, “Dangerous: The Double Album”, proved to be a Billboard 200 chart topper. 

Morgan and his team released “Don’t Think Jesus” on 15 April 2022.

The labels behind this track are Big Loud Records and Republic Records.