What this song does in a room
There is a quiet in "What Love Is This" that is hard to manufacture in modern worship. Kari Jobe writes songs that sit on the breath. This one does not build, it dwells. The chorus is essentially a single question repeated with different inflections, and that repetition is the point. The room does not need a new revelation by the third chorus. It needs to feel the same revelation more deeply. When you lead it well, the congregation moves from singing the question to actually asking it. That shift is the work the song does. It is not a celebration song. It is a wonder song. Place it in communion services, Good Friday gatherings, reflective Sunday sets, or any moment when the church needs to slow down and look at the cross without performing a feeling. The song will not carry a room that is in a hurry. Give it space. Let the chorus repeat. The slowness is the message.
What this song is saying about God
The song lives in Romans 5:8, "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." That verse is the answer to the song's question. What love is this? The love that did not wait for us to clean ourselves up first. The love that moved toward us when we were furthest from worthy. The song refuses to flatten that into sentiment. The repetition of the question is meant to make the wonder real, not poetic. 1 John 4:9-10 deepens the theology. "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." The word "propitiation" is the load-bearing word in that verse. It means the wrath we earned was absorbed by the One we wronged. The song is built on that reality. The cross is not just a sad story of a good man dying. It is the moment when the love of God and the justice of God met in the same body. Ephesians 2:4-5 finishes the frame. "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ." The song's chorus is meditating on that "even when." Even when we were dead. Even when we were enemies. Even when we wanted nothing to do with Him. That is the love the song refuses to stop wondering at. By the end of the song, the question is not asking for an answer. It is asking the room to live inside the wonder long enough to be changed by it.
Where to place this song in your set
This song is a response song, a communion song, or a Good Friday song. Place it after the sermon as a response, before the table at communion, or at the close of a Good Friday service. It does not work as an opener. The tempo at 70 and the contemplative lyric require a room that is already in the right posture. If you use it as a response song, the song before it should be something that moves the room toward the cross theologically. A song like "Lord I Need You" or "Behold the Lamb" works well as the lead-in. After "What Love Is This," the natural move is into silence, communion, or a quiet hymn like "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." Do not place it next to another slow ballad of the same emotional shape. The room will fatigue. Build dynamic contrast around it. A mid-tempo song before it and a hymn or silence after it will let the song carry its weight without competing.
Practical notes for leading this song
The song sits in D for male voices and F for female. Both keys work. D is friendly for guitar. F is keyboard-friendly but needs capo 3 in D for acoustic. Tempo at 70 is patient. Do not let drums push it. In fact, consider leaving drums out entirely for the first two passes through the chorus. For the production side. Lighting: warm and dim. A single front wash in warm amber, a back-light wash for color on the chorus, and nothing moving. Pull all chase and beam effects. Audio: piano and pad only on verse one. Add acoustic with light fingerpicking on verse two. If you bring in drums, use mallets or brushes only, and only on the bridge. Hold the kick out until the bridge. ProPresenter: the chorus repeats with subtle variations. Check the lead sheet against the artist version because some live versions add additional repeats. Vocals: lead it tenderly. The verses should sit just above a whisper and the chorus should open without pushing. If you have BGVs, hold them out until the bridge so the bridge becomes the swell moment. End the song with a quiet tag or a held final chord and leave room for the congregation to sit in the silence.
Songs that pair well
Pairs in: "Lord I Need You," "Behold the Lamb," "How Deep the Father's Love For Us," "Jesus Paid It All," "O the Deep Deep Love of Jesus."
Pairs out: "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," "Nothing But the Blood," "King of Kings," "Christ Is Risen," "Goodness of God."
The pairing principle is move toward the cross, then respond from the cross. "What Love Is This" sits at the moment of beholding. Before it, use songs that draw the room to the cross. After it, use songs that respond to the cross with surrender or with the resurrection that follows.
Before you lead this song
You are about to ask a room to wonder at love they may have stopped wondering at. Sit with Romans 5:8 before you walk on stage. Read it like you have never read it. If the cross still costs you something, the congregation will feel it in your voice. If it does not, the song will become a performance.