I Love to Tell the Story

The Story behind "I Love to Tell the Story"

When Katherine wrote "I Love to Tell the Story," she was in her thirties, like the young people rolling their eyes at church and the young women balking at evangelism at my event. Katherine lived in England, the daughter of a wealthy banker, and these were different times, for certain. But rather than enjoy the quiet life of a wealthy socialite, Katherine, whose father was a devout believer, dedicated herself to serving others.

With all her social services and evangelistic work, Katherine appears to have been a woman who enjoyed being active and involved with others. At one point, she traveled to Africa as a nurse to assist her invalid missionary brother. Along with hymn lyrics, she wrote and handed out tracts explaining the gospel to all who would hear.

The words to "I Love to Tell the Story" were reportedly written during a time when Katherine was bedridden with a serious illness for over nine months. She wrote a poem in two parts. According to an article published on the website for Crabtree Valley Baptist Church, “The first part called 'The Story Wanted' had 50 verses and was dated January 29, 1866. The Second part entitled 'The Story Told' was dated November 18, 1866.” Most hymnals do not contain all fifty verses but just the ones listed above.

Scriptural Inspiration for the Lyrics

Many hymns are criticized for being impersonal, but Hankey speaks from a heart of personal experience in this hymn. “I love to tell the story!” resonates from the soul of a young woman who wasn’t simply raised in a Christian home but who has also been transformed herself by a relationship with Jesus.

I was only a child when I asked Jesus into my life and received His forgiveness for my sins, but my relationship with Him carried me through years of growing up in a home full of conflict and drama. When people ask how I managed to emerge still able to love others, function in life, and raise my own healthy family, I love to tell them what a difference Jesus made.

We don’t know for certain, but it’s not hard to imagine that having fought an illness for nine months, the opening verse of this hymn may have come to Hankey from reading 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (ESV).

In that opening, she revels in Jesus’s glory, His love, the truth of His story, and the satisfying nature of the gospel for all who believe.

Verse two is no great speech for apologetic defense but the simple words of a person whose life has been changed by Jesus, telling another person what they’ve experienced. This is reminiscent of the testimony given in John 9 by the man who had been blind since birth but who Jesus healed. “So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, ‘Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.’ He answered, ‘Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see’” (John 9:24-25 ESV).

Verses three and four speak to the joy of telling Jesus’s story, not only to those who have never heard of Him but just as much to those who have but who still find joy in hearing it. And, like the refrain, it echoes the idea that we will continue to love this story into eternity. Sign me up for that.

The gospel of Jesus is an old story, for certain, but it is also as fresh and new as every soul hearing it for the first time and every saint revived by it after a week of serving in a lost world.

Popular Hymn Lyrics with Story and Meaning

Day by Day and With Each Passing Moment
Jesus Loves Me
What a Friend We Have in Jesus
Blessed Assurance
Nearer My God to Thee
Abide with Me
His Eye Is On the Sparrow
Be Thou My Vision
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty
Amazing Grace
And more!